Madam X is a dedicated reviewer. In preparation for her thoughtful analysis of Melencolia Estatica’s black metal concept album Hel, she watched the really really old movie that provided the source material, then she did some deep thinking about the music itself. In contrast, Steel Druhm posted sexy pics of the female band member. He’s a slacker pig.
Madam X learns the hard way that reviewing isn’t always a happy picnic. Nay, indeed, sometimes reviewing is a miserable picnic, full of bees, rain and miserably long songs that don’t ever end. Norway’s Kraków is a hard, but fair teacher.
I feel like I spend a lot of time discussing and reviewing musical projects helmed by Tuomas Saukkonen. Not that I’m complaining mind you, since I love the guy’s work.
Here’s an obscure but intriguing new release that’s been getting a great deal of playtime on the Steel Druhm turntables of late. Landforge is the musical project of one Stephan Carter. As the sole member and performer, he’s created a strange experimental journey, which he refers to as “post-rock/post-metal, with doom influences.” While I don’t quite know what “post-metal” means, Servitude to Earth is an interesting merger of black metal, doom and minimalist post-rock, borrowing elements from bands like Black Sun Aeon, Agalloch and Altar of Plagues.
We made it through another year here in Angry Metal World. We overcame Terminal Reviewer Burnout Syndrome, careers and personal lives, just to bring you more of our self-righteous, ego-driven babbling and blathering. Why did we do it? Because we care so damn much! Now, as the year grinds us all towards inevitable doom, it falls to me to get the metal wheel a rollin and name my picks for the best albums of 2011. This was a pretty solid year, so it was tough to figure out which albums belonged where, but you demanded it, so I’m delivering the goods, Yeah!
It’s a week-long reflection on the year in metal music here at Angry Metal Guy and we’re getting all sorts of nostalgic and sentimental. We’ve already covered the worsts, so now let’s get to the firsts! For the very first time, we’ve decided (by that I mean AMG decided) to name our top ten best songs of the year. Though it sounded like an easy task, once I tried to create said list, it proved quite difficult. There were so many potential candidates, it became an arduous culling process to find the ten metal gems to rule them all. While the list seems final, I’m sure I forgot some amazing stuff and I’m also sure you bastards will point it out to me. Steel Druhm awaits your scorn, disapprobation and silent judgment.
So, it’s actually a little weird that I would even be reviewing this disc since it seems to hardly be receiving an international release at this point, but it’s got some points of interest. First, it’s the band of Before The Dawn and Black Sun Aeon mastermind Tuomas Saukkonen, so it’s not like something one wants to actually ignore. Saukkonen produces a lot of material, he probably has 4 bands I don’t know of even, but the man has a heart of metal and his material is always solid, heavy, groovy and laden with great choruses. RoutaSielu isn’t a whole lot different; only this time the whole record is in Finnish and it causes some accessibility issues.
Depressed Finns are really no surprise in metal these days. It seems like Finns are a pretty morose bunch in general. A country famous for bands like Poisonblack, H.I.M., Sentenced, Insomnium, Black Sun Aeon and Swallow the Sun, it shouldn’t be terribly surprising that some pretty bleak and depressing stuff comes out of Finland. And let me be clear, that’s not even naming huge groups of bands that I’m sure others could probably come up with. But October Falls isn’t your standard “depressed metal” band from Finland. There are no silly ESL lyrics about being buried in a plastic bag or any of that jazz. Instead, October Falls is a “depressive” black metal band with folk sensibilities.
Black Sun Aeon uploaded their new video for the track “Frozen”, which is probably one of the best on the new record Routa that came out 3 days ago in the US. Check it out!
One of 2009’s most pleasant surprises for this Angry Metal Guy was Black Sun Aeon’s Darkness Walks Beside Me. To say that I was slightly addicted to the album would be an understatement: I was totally addicted to that record. It’s like there’s something in the water (Koskenkorva?) in Finland that leads to the ability of these Finnish bands to build some of the most incredible melancholy into their already heavy, beautiful music. Black Sun Aeon’s debut full length was definitely on the same level as many of the other excellent Finnish doom and melodic death bands out there. While maybe not as melodic as some, or maybe a little bit more simplistic than others, Darkness Walks Beside Me was a tremendous success.
