Angry Metal Guy

The Human Abstract // Digital Veil
Rating: 4.5/5.0 — Excellent, experimental and worthy of your time
Label: E1 Music
Websites: Myspace | Full Album Stream
Release Dates: US: 03.08.2011 | EU: Unknown

One of the things that I consistently tell people when they give me shit (which they inevitably do) about my taste in music is that you should call a spade a spade and like what you like without apologies. That doesn’t mean that I don’t have biases, however, and one of those biases that I have is against things that can be labelled as “metalcore” or “deathcore.” Since the early aughts we’ve been plagued by shitty record after shitty record from post-hardcore entities that have been passed off on us as the next big thing and that have ultimately felt sad and tired and not good. I recently ripped into Architects, for example, for being billed as ‘reinventing metalcore and themselves,’ only to produce an epic fail of a record. Continue reading

The Bridal Procession // Astronomical Dimensions
Rating: 2.5/5.0 — Behemoth 2.0 [3]
Label: Siege of Amida Records
Websites: myspace.com/thebridalprocession
Release Dates: World: February 7th, 2011

The Bridal Procession are a death metal band with orchestral stylings from Paris, France. If you go to their Last.fm page, the first thing you see on there is someone writing “Behemoth 2.0.” What’s funny about this was exactly my response when I heard the introduction of this album, which has an Egyptian sounding orchestral introduction followed up with a vocal introduction that was ripped straight off from “Slaves Shall Serve” (a track from Behemoth‘s Demigod, if you’re not familiar). This did not raise my expectations very high, to be totally honest. And, because of that I never had time to get disappointed by the mediocrity, and more frankly, unoriginality that followed. Continue reading

Against the Flood // Against the Flood
Rating: 1.0/5.0 — Form Above Function
Label: Siege of Amida Records
Websites: againsttheflood.co.uk
Release Dates: January 3rd, 2011

So apparently the UK has a lively metalcore and deathcore scene that is being picked up and flown around the world right now. Against the Flood is one of those bands that sits right on the border between the two genres (which are basically just one genre if you look at their girl jeans and stupid hair cuts) and who have taken from me nearly 60 minutes of my life that I will never, ever, ever, ever get back. As a punishment, I will pee on them publicly—from my blog (and wait for their stupid oaf fans—and buddies—to come here and insult me). Continue reading

The Acacia Strain // Wormwood
Rating: 1.0/5.0 — Puts me to sleep
Label: Prosthetic Records
Websites: myspace.com/theacaciastrain
Release Dates: Out Now Worldwide (I think)

I seem to remember The Acacia Strain being an In Flames copy, but I think I must be thinking of another band entirely. Which means that I have no reference for these guys as I’ve never heard them before and I thought they were a metalcore band. Turns out, I’m wrong. Instead, they’re a deathcore band. Now, I try to not generalize about genre conventions while reviewing a band (I mean, it’s unfair to review an entire genre every time you review a band’s record), but I think that I’m starting to figure out what it is about endless breakdowns that I hate. And I’ll tell you. Oh yes, I’ll tell you. Continue reading

And Hell Followed With // Proprioception
Rating: 1.5/5.0 – Painfully medio-core
Label: Earache
Websites: myspace.com/andhellfollowedwith
Release Dates: US: Out Now | EU: 26.07.2010

Steel Druhm likes NOT this whole “deathcore thing.” There, I said it! Now, all you deathcore teen weenies can pull your collective jaws off the floor and prepare to dismiss the following review as biased, or perhaps, “reviewed in bad faith,” whatever the fuck that means. However, before you do so, kindly consider that the reason for my dislike of Proprioception, the second album by Michigan’s And Hell Followed With is way more because of how bland and average the material is and less because of its regrettable deathcore style. Sadly, this material isn’t good regardless of the genre.

Continue reading

Whitechapel // A New Era of Corruption
Rating: 3.5/5.0 — Deathcore bad. Whitechapel … good!?
Label: Metal Blade
Websites: whitechapel.com | myspace.com/whitechapel
Release Dates: EU: 04.06.2010 | US: 06.08.2010

At the center of every shitty, irritating trend made up of forgettable, annoying bands is usually a core (no pun intended) of interesting bands that aren’t shitty and that do the music with conviction and may have even been on the front end of the whole trend. The Gothenburg sound had At The Gates and In Flames which have been imitated thousands of times. Metalcore (incidentally which is ripping off At The Gates and In Flames) had Unearth (who had one really great album before they got signed to Metal Blade). As far as I can tell Whitechapel is one such band. I have never listened to them, having been pretty much turned off of any band labeled deathcore because of a slough of shitty fucking bands that have been passed off in my direction (see the “related reviews”, I’m sure you’ll see how I feel about the genre/trend).

Continue reading

Those Who Lie Beneath // An Awakening
Rating: 2.0/5.0 — Lacking substance and direction
Label: Metalblade / Rise
Websites: myspace.com/ThoseWhoLieBeneath
Release Dates: US: Out | EU: 29.03.2010

A wise man once told me that you should never, ever refuse to do something just because someone else has done it before you and done it poorly. I think that this is very good advice. It’s advice that really counts when it comes to breakdowns, for example, which have been considered to be the death knell for deathcore and metalcore since they became irritating and out of fashion in the underground. An Awakening is the debut record from the Portland, Oregon based Those Who Lie Beneath and they have certainly not shied away from the standards of the deathcore scene—something that has been has done very badly before them..

I’ve done a lot of thinking about the genre (and ripped on it quite a bit), but I think I know partially what’s going on here. See, fundamentally, whether death metal guys want to admit or not, deathcore is heavy as hell. It is just as heavy as many of the heaviest death metal bands you can name. Those short haired kids and Luke Skywalkers have out death metaled death metal at its own game with the use of riffy as hell guitar, blasty drums, inaudible bass and borderline pukey cookie monster growls. Those Who Lie Beneath shares all of the elements that really make me as a death metal fan excited, but yet somehow it rubs me the wrong way.

The problem occurred to me as I was listening to An Awakening and it became clear. Aside from the production issues that I don’t like: the songwriting on An Awakening is just sub-par. Not only does it lack direction, but it lacks other dimensions. 95% of the time it is either amelodic grind style riffs with lots of trem picking and widdly widdly on the high strings in order to be technical, but rarely is a theme ever given time to gestate in a song. Riffs are rarely repeated, but neither are they given the attention that they deserved in the first place. The sporadic riffing doesn’t lead to something that is mentally engaging, but instead it’s just a big turn off. The chug chug scream scream chug chug breakdowns are boring (with the exception of the breakdown in “Frozen Feastings” which was righteous) and there are scarcely good hooks. Break it all down to its bare bones: and there is very little substance here, just style.

Those Who Lie Beneath actually do shine at moments, however, when they let their melodic side shine and get more dynamic in their writing style. The track “Through His Eyes” has some amazing guitar work in the beginning and has a real sense of a semblance of structured songwriting, instead of being a vehicle for a breakdown (which you do eventually get—and may I add is boring as fuck.) The musicianship is great, and the band shows this off on the final couple of tracks on the album (“As the Vultures Circle” and “Still Breathing”) which flow nicely into each other, the former probably being one of the more dynamic tracks on the album and the latter being a 7 minute guitar solo that closes out the album with some beautiful melodies that were missing throughout the whole thing.

It is not the throwaway breakdowns that ruin this record for me, it is the rock hard dedication to conforming to the standards of a scene. These guys are obviously talented and good songwriters when it actually shows through, but instead of using that talent to create interesting, progressive and fascinating metal, which they are capable, they play to the lowest common denominator. This band has all the makings of excellent metal that could push death metal in a different direction—but it falls short because it is unfocused and cliché. Better luck next time, dudes.

Anima // Enter the Killzone
Rating: 1.5/5.0 — So much wrong here..
Label: Metal Blade
Website: myspace.com/animamusic666
Release Dates: EU: 26.02.2010/01.03.2010 | US: Unknown

I am not a trend hater. While the whole world has been hating on Deathcore for its tight pants and swoopy hair, I’ve been defending the fact that bands don’t have to “look like metal dudes” to make good metal. While jackass elitists are purging the genre from Encyclopaedia Metallum because they don’t like the trend, bands like Suicide Silence and Job for a Cowboy have shown that these bands can write killer riffs and produce solid records—even if they’re not stylistically something I’m a big fan of. Anima, unfortunately, is not so easy to defend.

Enter the Killzone is an illustrious example of what one observer referred to as “paint by numbers Deathcore”. From the obligatory horror movie clip introduction, to the Suicide Silence ripoff “Black Night”, which is the band writing a “metal” soundtrack to a B horror movie killing. From the “dynamic” vocals (i.e., high harsh vocals and brutal death growls a la Trevor Strnad), and the At The Gates worship riffs offset by the stupid breakdowns, to the hyper-replaced drums that sound like complete fucking shit. Enter the Killzone has it all.

There are high points. The track “Welcome to Our Killzone” has a superb breakdown and some very cool staccato riffing. The final track on the record “XXXIII” has some cool keyboards towards the end that definitely stand out from the rest of the album. But while the whole album is filled with riffs that could be ripped off from any number of brutal death metal bands, the songwriting never ranges beyond the conventional. One can hardly breathe without encountering an  ill-conceived breakdown or Deathcore cliché.

Where this album really lost me, however, is the production. I am not a producer, but I do know some things about production and if the only way you can think to make the drums stand out from the music is to make them sound this tinny and fake, then I think you need a new career. Every time the drums ever stood out I shuddered with grim realization that this may be simply the worst drum production I have ever heard in my entire life. This is not an exaggeration. Notice how I bolded, italicized AND underlined it up above in the second paragraph? That’s because these drums sound like robotic, drum machine ass. But it’s not just that, everything is weirdly muffled and just sort of lacks any kind of dynamic width.

In a way, I feel bad for Anima. I’m sure that they didn’t decide how their drums were going to sound or really had much say in the final mix, either. My guess is they went to a dude who decided all of that. These guys are fundamentally sound players who write some alright riffs but got super hosed on production. Unfortunately, if I’m not the only guy who has this kind of visceral reaction to the drum sound and banal song writing, my guess is that they’ll be “entering the killzone” of the Metal Blade drop pool in no time.

See how I brought that around there? See that? Awwww, shit.

Through the Eyes of the Dead // Skepsis
Rating: 2.5/5.0 — Solid parts offset by core…
Label: Prosthetic Records
Websites: myspace.com/tteotd
Release Dates: US: Out Now | EU: 12.02.2010

I have been admittedly absent when it comes to much of the deathcore & metalcore trend that has moved into metal in the last decade. Honestly, it’s just been a style that I never really understood and that oftentimes felt like it wasn’t as straight-up metal as I wanted from my extreme metal. I had some major issues with it partially just because labels started flooding their rosters with it, despite it not being that interesting. Also, there are some production styles that were brought into the genre by “core” bands, particularly the drum sounds, that I really don’t like. And partially this is due to my deep distaste for the breakdown as an institution in metal. I don’t listen to hardcore for several reasons and one of them is the breakdown. I don’t think breakdowns are interesting or heavy and their usage in metal has long been of serious frustration to me. So let me say in all honesty, I wasn’t expecting much of the record Skepsis, the third album from deathcore pioneers Through the Eyes of the Dead.

And, I’m not going to make any bones about it, Skepsis sounds like I expected it to. Basically, it’s basically a blend of The Black Dahlia Murder and breakdowns. The tracks are littered with sweet melodies, trem-picked guitars and some pretty brutal riffs. The band apparently acquired a new vocalist over the recent years, who does a good death metal/black metal approach to the vocals, but also ends up really sounding like Trevor from The Black Dahlia Murder as well. The approach is pitch perfect for the fan of the core, really: breakdown happy melodic death metal.

So that should mean that Angry Metal Guy rips this record apart, right? Actually, I have some complaints, but in general this is a solid record. The songwriting is smooth, with an eye towards melody and heaviness simultaneously, which leads to sickly sweet hooks and riffs without losing any of the brutality. The band is also technically proficient and the listener is keenly aware of the talent of the musicians involved. And there are some stand out tracks on here: I was especially impressed with the track “Inherit Obscurity”, which almost has a bit of Nile in it at times and is super well-paced. And the riffing in “Defaced Reality” is certainly worthy of mention, despite the boring-as-fuck breakdown it’s followed up by. Plus, the record clocks in at about 40 minutes, making one actually want more, a technique that bands should never underestimate. And let me say, during the parts that I have no complaints about, I love this record. There are some awesome riffs on here, seriously addictive moments and they make me as excited as any melodic death record I’ve heard in a long, long time.

Of course, I have some pretty major complaints about this record, too. While good, I still honestly can’t tell that I’m not listening to The Black Dahlia Murder sometimes, until there’s a breakdown. I don’t know which band came first, or whatever, but I can’t separate their sounds in my mind. Secondly, I still hate breakdowns. I think they’re trite, they often sound forced and I just can’t stand them interrupting the excellent melodic death metal that is contained herein. But not only are they sort of trite, but they’re boring. If I, as a reviewer, were to consistently write the same word for an entire paragraph, that would have pretty much the same effect as breakdowns in every song. A well placed breakdown can be really effective—a breakdown in every song (or sometimes two) means that they are not well-placed. Finally, the drums are so replaced (at least the bass drum is) that it sounds like these guys have a drum machine instead of a drummer. There are certain times where everything drops out except for the drums and it sounds ridiculous. Who decided that hyper-replaced drums should be the standard? Whoever it was needs a punch in the fucking face.

Traditional death metal fans should probably not check out this album. But if you’ve ever enjoyed a metalcore or deathcore band, you should check these guys out. They’re obviously masters of their genre, and shit, they even produced a record that I think is pretty good despite not being a fan of the genre or ever having heard of the band before. That should say something.

Annotations of an Autopsy // The Reign of Darkness
Rating: 2.5/5.0 – It’s death metal
Label: Nuclear Blast (EU | US)
Website: myspace.com/annotationsofanautopsy
Release Dates: EU: 22.01.2010 | US: 02.09.2010

Every once in a while a record just jumps out at you and kicks your ass every which way. The originality, the brutality, everything that you want from death metal just hits you right in the face and leaves you dazed, but pleased. The Reign of Darkness, the sophomore release of UK death metallers (or deathcorers if you read the interwebs—though I’m inclined to just call this death metal) is not one of those records. And while it can be very difficult to write about just how good a band is or how bad a band is, I find the most difficult reviews to write the ones where you have to say “I don’t like it, but you might if this is your thing.”

The name Annotations of an Autopsy is a pretty good signal of what you should be expecting as far as death metal goes. Pretty brutal, pretty modern and pretty tight. The band does its best to reproduce the sounds that we’re all familiar with when it comes to death metal—particularly death metal of the Hate Eternal or Suffocation variety—a mix of mid-paced or slow death metal riffing with solid double bass underneath and more technical riffs with the band operating in unison to make it as heavy as possible. And, honestly, they’re not bad at what they’re doing. The groove in a lot of areas is solid and I find myself enjoying, particularly, the mid-paced stuff or the stuff that probably gets called “core” because it’s a little bit more stoppy or even nearing breakdowns. They do it well, they put a good spin on it and it’s fun to listen to.

The vocals are solid as hell, actually. Despite being pretty much just standard death metal growls, dude has great growls and they sound crushingly heavy and awesome. The production is good and thick and not marred by any of the modern production trick problems that a lot of these modern deathcore/death metal bands are suffering from (though, the bass drum triggers are pretty annoying at times). Hell, the band even uses dynamics to their advantage so that the music doesn’t get hyper-repetitive, as is often the case with modern death metal bands. Instead, Annotations of an Autopsy suffers from a bigger problem: novelty—or more specifically, lack thereof. Go back 10 years, or longer really, and you’ve heard all of these riffs before, you’ve grooved to bands like this and it’s instantly recognizable and comfortable—but the question comes down to “will it stick?”

And that’s where I come back to my initial statement: it might stick for you, even if it doesn’t for me. While it’s nice to see bands like this—heavy, brutal and uncompromising death metal—on the major label stage again, it’s just lacking the kind of staying power that one would hope to see from a band of this caliber. However, for fans of more traditional death metal Annotations of an Autopsy is a band that I would recommend checking out. They might be right up your alley, with the kind of groove and heavy riffs that you like.