Blackened Thrash Metal

The Infernal Sea – Hellfenlic Review

By Dear Hollow on February 6, 2024 in Reviews, Black Metal, 24 comments

“Black metal is a finnicky beast. While it’s cohesively devoted to the barbed-wire sonic abuse of the darkest variety, and themes range from the occult, misanthropy, and our old pal Satan, The Infernal Sea dwells in history’s halls. While prior full-lengths Negotium Crucis and The Great Mortality respectively deal with themes such as the medieval church’s exploitation and the Black Death, 2024 finds the Brits exploring a distinct figure: the “Witchfinder General” Matthew Hopkins.” Witch hammering on the coast.

Wandering Oak – Resilience Review

By Mystikus Hugebeard on February 5, 2024 in Reviews, Folk Metal, Progressive Metal, 34 comments

“Come, weary wanderer, join us around the fire here in the Folk Metal Corner of AMG. Look upon Resilience by Wandering Oak; does it not look at home here? Such indicators as the band’s name and logo, Resilience’s album art, and the big “folk metal” tag attached to the promo could only suggest the folksiest of metal. But wait, put down those lutes, I say, before you stumble into Wandering Oak’s trap!” Trapped and folked.

Bulletbelt – Burn It Up Review

By Mystikus Hugebeard on September 20, 2023 in Reviews, Black Metal, Power Metal, Thrash Metal, 35 comments

“When the inscrutable beings who rule over the promo sump shackled me to New Zealand’s Bulletbelt, I approached with caution. Formed in 2009, Bulletbelt has operated on a (mostly) biennial release schedule of bog-standard black/thrash albums a la Skeletonwitch. Their line-up has been in a constant state of flux, regularly churning through both vocalists and guitarists, a fact that didn’t exactly inspire much hope for my latest ball and chain.” Bulletbelts to spare.

Systemik Viølence – Negative Mangel Attitude Review

By Dolphin Whisperer on June 30, 2023 in Reviews, Crust Punk, Hardcore, Thrash Metal, 19 comments

“Punk and metal have a complicated relationship, or at least we treat them like they do. As fans, we like to be something—a metalhead, a punk, a dissobro. As music seekers, we like to have genre guides—punk-born tags like crust, mathcore, grindcore, metal-born tags like doom, death, black, kissing cousins like sludge, thrash, deathcore. And the bands we value tend to play to or play with these expectations. Others eschew the norms of where they’re placed or even fight the idea of being the guitar music we’ve all come to love—but not Systemik Viølence. These Portuguese knuckleheads just wanna play screeching chords, overdriven bass, and venomous vocal lashings loud, fast, and loud.” Feel the wiølence.

Necropanther – Betrayal Review

By Eldritch Elitist on March 1, 2023 in Reviews, Melodic Death Metal, 50 comments

“Bands like Necropanther are the cornerstone of a healthy musical diet. Everyone has that handful of bands in rotation that are guaranteed to release incredible, year-end list-making music on a regular basis, and with Betrayal, Necropanther has further solidified their tenure within this hallowed pantheon.” Panther power.

Sarcator – Alkahest Review

By Maddog on November 20, 2022 in Reviews, Black Metal, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Thrash Metal, 14 comments

“I was hoping that Sarcator would be short for something cool like “Sarcastic Alligator” or “Sarcophagus Emasculator.” Sadly, it’s just an unforgivable portmanteau of Sarcófago and Kreator. I trudged on undeterred, enticed by the description of Sarcator’s Alkahest. These Swedes bill themselves as blackened thrashers inspired by ’80s German thrash, a shortcut to my listening queue. And it’s exciting to review albums by teenagers; they may be hit-or-miss, but nothing warms my shriveled heart like hearing youngsters trying to drive metal onward.” Young, dumb, full of Sodom.

AMG’s Unsigned Band Rodeö: Autonoesis – Moon of Foul Magics

By Dolphin Whisperer on October 7, 2022 in Angry Metal Guy's Unsigned Band Rodeo, Black Metal, Melodic Black Metal, Progressive Metal, Thrash Metal, 54 comments

“Back in the primordial days of this here blog, we attempted something called “AMG’s Unsigned Band Rodeö.” The basic idea was to select a bunch of unsigned bands and give them the collective review treatment to find the most worthy buried gems. It was our humble effort to remind folks that the metal underground is still an important part of the world of metal.” Autonoesis vs the Foul Magics.

Sadistic Ritual – The Enigma, Boundless Review

By Dolphin Whisperer on June 2, 2022 in Reviews, Thrash Metal, 37 comments

“Thrash that brings something new? So much has happened in this year of 2022 that I’ll believe about anything. Alas, my hopes remain high despite our resident shusher, Dr. A.N. Grier, willfully relinquishing the right to this curiously spiked morsel of raucous riffs. Though neither a fan of hugs nor happiness, D.A.N.G. found himself mildly enthused with the last output from these Atlanta-based thrashers, even if they sounded a lot like Kreator. Well, I’m here to say that these guys still sound like Kreator, but blackened a degree further and doused graciously with echo-inducing, signal-tripping pedal-work—psychedelic thrash.” Coma of bowls.

Bloodgate – Solace in Mourning Review

By Eldritch Elitist on April 12, 2022 in Reviews, 17 comments

“Blood. Gate. BLOOD. GATE. BLOOD! GATE! If that isn’t a band name perfectly tuned for chanting at live shows, I don’t know what is. Yet in the online world, Cincinnati, Ohio’s Bloodgate, now two LPs into their career, is a virtually non-hyped entity. Perhaps a reformulation of their blackened thrash approach will help in that respect. While 2018’s Ambush and Destroy was a tantalizingly melodic slab of Skeletonwitch worship, Solace in Mourning, despite its more contemplative title, adds a heap of death metal to the mix and feels decidedly more aggressive and unhinged for it.” Open the gates!

1000 Bone Cylinder Explosion – Bind Review

By Eldritch Elitist on November 25, 2021 in Reviews, Black Metal, Power Metal, Progressive Metal, Thrash Metal, 25 comments

“Solo projects are somewhat fascinating to me. They offer a fresh perspective into what makes an artist tick yet, for whatever reason, are seldom ever as good as the musician’s root project. The obvious takeaway here is that a band is only as good as the sum of its parts, and isolating one of those parts is bound to result in a lesser product. What makes 1000 Bone Cylinder Explosion an interesting case, then, is that the founder is already the primary compositional voice behind his greatest claim to fame. We are already acquainted with Peter Hraur’s vision; we have Lör. So what new wonders, then, can 1000 Bone Cylinder Explosion offer.” Bone collector.