“It’s a new year, and with it comes a sense of determination to make 2023 our best and most awesomest year to date. Part of that goal involves digging deep and cleaning out the Filter of the last dregs from the final months of 2022. We caught most of the notable gems in our promo sump, but as always there were those few that fell into the wrong chute. This, the first Stuck in the Filter of 2023, is a register of our semi-precious finds!” Who finds “precious finds” in the filter?
“Extinction Six is the full-length debut of the symphonic power metal band Dialith. Hailing from Connecticut, I took interest in Dialith because good symphonic power metal is rare. And, frankly, good unsigned symphonic power metal is even rarer. Symphonic power has a high bar to reach a “passable” grade; one of the highest in metal. Symphonic bands putting out mediocre albums are filled with musicians who are orders of magnitude more talented than many of their counterparts. But in order to create great symphonic power record, everything must fit.” Does it all fit? Well, we’re debuting the thing, so I guess there’s not a lot of tension.
“We are getting dangerously close to being 9 years old. I started AngryMetalGuy.com at a time when I was a different person, and 2017 proved that more than any year of my life. I loved metal, I loved to write, I was looking for work and studying Swedish, and I was still in my 20s, and Enslaved was producing albums I worshiped. Now I’m older, busier, crankier, Enslaved mostly makes me yawn, and I’m dedicating my life to different kinds of things. But while AMG isn’t quite as ‘personal’ of a blog as it once it was, I still love it very much and it is still a reflection of my values on the Internetz.” Herein, Angry Metal Guy waxes nostalgic, bitches about stuff, and makes a big list that you will all hate because you’re objective.
Six years have passed since I wrote, “my guess is that […] the follow up [to Writ of Sword] in a couple years will be even better.” Was I right?
In 2009 Angry Metal Guy started. Since then we’ve produced hundreds of reviews, and Angry Metal Guy has cranked at the world for free. Check out what he takes away from the whole experience.
For every Velvet Darkness They Fear or Something Wicked This Way Comes or Blackwater Park or Nightfall in Middle-Earth there is a Theatre of Tragedy or Iced Earth or Orchid or Blind Guardian – records mediocre compared to the things that would come (or even just straight up mediocre). I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and I wanted to put together some of my personal favorite debut albums. Records that kicked ass out of the gates, and in some cases were really the best material that the band ever even produced. So here, filling up the July lull in releases, is another Top 5 list. Now it’s true that I’ve left off some records that I thought of adding (it would probably be a Top 10[ish] list that’s needed), so don’t get your panties in a bunch when you don’t see Cynic or Entombed on here. ‘Cause those are great records, but they’re not my favorites.
For a few years now, the proverbial white whale of the heavy metal scene has been a new Wintersun record. After the band’s initial, highly acclaimed (some would say overrated), self-titled debut from 2004 former Ensiferum frontman Jari Mäenpää essentially fell off the face of the earth. Now, I’m not a die-hard fan, so I have not kept up with the ridiculous, neurotic, Axl Rose-like kabuki theater that apparently drove fans nuts, but the fact that 8 years later we’re getting record number two should probably tell you the torture that Jari put his fans through. Teaming up with Kai Hanto of Swallow the Sun on drums, Jukka Koskinen of Amberian Dawn and Cain’s Offering on bass and Teemu Mäntysaari of the short-lived Imperanon on guitar, Jari’s new record, what we now know to be 2012’s Time I, has teased fans for years and has ruffled some feathers. So the question is at it always is: can this record possibly live up to the sky-high expectations that the fans have.
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!
One of the things that one can never take into account when one is a music reviewer is the fact that one receives records and must render judgment in a short amount of time. Especially as a “soulless blog,” production of material sometimes happens in a week. In a sense, every review you read from a label who doesn’t trust this Angry Metal Guy is being done “split second” as opposed to having time to let a record ripen. Such was definitely the case with Crimfall’s first record As the Path Unfolds… which, while I enjoyed it, didn’t strike me as anything more than just an enjoyable record. However, here I am two years later listening to it regularly and really loving it. If I would score the record today I would give it a 4.5 and I would encourage you all to buy it (buy it, seriously, it’s great).
Life has been busy for this Angry Metal Guy lately, and therefore not as much music listening has been happening as I would like. However, I’ve been rockin’ out to some stuff and some of the stuff on here will also show what I’ll be reviewing in the upcoming weeks. I just want to say […]
