“Four mighty contributors shaped Heavy Moves Heavy 2022. Ferox, Thus Spoke, Holdeneye, and Steel Druhm each chose the ten songs released this year that dominated our respective workouts. The resulting playlist is appended to this article. Play it straight through or set it to shuffle; HMH is designed to work either way.” Go heavy because there is no going home.
“Swedeath. I keep ending up with Swedeath. There are worse problems to have to be sure, but there is ultimately a limit to how much of that very specific sound I need in my life in any given year not falling between 1990 and 1995. I reviewed Sweden’s Demonical way back in 2011 on their Death Infernal outing, finding it a mostly enjoyable blend of Entombed and Amon Amarth influences performed by members of Grave, Centinex, and Julie Laughs Nomore. I didn’t review their last few releases, but we gave them solid marks for covering the very same ground as they did back in 2011. Now we come to 7th album Mass Destroyer and not a lot has changed.” Demons in the details.
“Demonical is a reliably good band from that everflowing stream of Swe-death. I got into them on the fun Death Infernal and kept with them ever since. I know when I want some cool modern Swe-death that merges Dismember, Entombed, and Amon Amarth pretty effectively, I can turn to Demonical.” Demonical inwasion!
“Genre-defining records are are lodestars, influences, fertile grounds for inspiration, and more, but not something to be pressed into warm wax and fed again to the audience. Nonetheless, blatant mimicry and an endless army of clones persists; rather humorously, the largely Godless metal scene has an idolatry problem.” Entombed idols.
“The extreme genres of metal are utterly obsessed with war, death, and violence, suggesting the view that the human experience is one of cruelty largely restrained, with all of us united by the cold embrace of death. Extreme metal seems to explore these ideas intently, attempting to find a certain beauty or, at the very least, excitement in the worst impulses of man. Art, at its core, seems to try and explore and express a particular facet of the human experience and imbue it with some sort of message or worldview. We’re naturally repulsed by death and destruction, but, like the story of Leonitus looking at corpses in Plato’s Republic, we’re also fascinated by it: ‘Look for yourselves, you evil wretches! Take your fill of the beautiful sight!'” Man Unkind.
“Which brings us to Chile’s Soulrot and their debut Nameless Hideous Manifestations. The honeymoon phase of Swe-death, in its prime with Left Hand Path and Like an Everflowing Stream, still brings back those memories of the excitement we long for and want to rekindle. So, like asking her to wear that red dress from that party a few years ago to give you the same gut-punch feeling, we seem to ask little more of our Swe-death than that it remind us of what it once was.” Swe-don’t bring me flowers anymore.
“Workmanlike is an adjective we can use to describe a whole host of things, some good and some bad. On the flip side Cut Up represent its positive usage well. When I say that Wherever They May Rot, the follow-up to their well-received debut Forensic Nightmares, is a very workmanlike record, then, it’s most assuredly a compliment.” Death is a dirty job.
“War…war certainly changes. Whether it was the Crusader’s use of the crossbow against their enemies’ inferior longbows, the subversive tactics of the Cold War, the intellectual dispute between the thought of Martin Luther and Francisco de Vitoria on the justness of combat (the latter was right, by the way), or the modern West taking Plato’s Republic one step further and treating everyone as the great philosopher did Greeks in our international war laws.” What’s it good for?
“As many of us learned from magnets or, for an elite few, Paula Abdul and her weird rapping cartoon cat companion, opposites have the ability to attract if they’re strong enough. As we learned from making friends, joining any voluntary association, or reading Plato’s Timaeus, like knows and seeks out like at a high rate too. And Czech Swedeath merchants Brutally Deceased are going for this principle with their third record, Satanic Corpse.” Oh Paula, you came and you found us some Swede-death….
“Press releases are normally a bit dull. Trying to find a middle ground between eye-catching and safe, they generally say little of value. Such is the case with German melo-death maestros Dawn of Disease and their third full-length Worship the Grave. Apparently Swedish death metal is “a huge influence” on the band, but they bring their own sound to the proceedings. Their own sound is, apparently, at once melodic and abrasive with catchy riffs and plenty of extreme drumming.” Promo releases are a strange beast.
