“Much like the Olympics, every four years Apostle of Solitude reawaken to deliver us another tasty treat of traditional doom. This isn’t hipster doom, performed by men in suits with perfectly coiffed beards lamenting in coffee shops. This is doom of the Sabbathian brand, with big guitars, bigger riffs, sometimes lumbering and ponderous and sometimes not, and (happy times!) short album lengths — and unruly beards.” Beard-core > java-core.
“Well okay, this is kind of cute. A power metal band that’s taken a skin-deep Lewis Carroll reference and run with it like the dickens. Adding to Mad Hatter’s adorability factor is its press sheet proclaiming that “The band produces high-quality power metal.” SOLD. This is all cause for some caution, but these guys are also Swedish, and Swede-power draws me like a moth to a flame — even when the bad stuff burns me (hello, Stormhold).” Mushrooms, madness and haberdashery.
“Here at the elucidation-station that is Angry Metal Guy, EPs usually slip beneath the review radar in favor of a meatier morsel. But it’s cutting season, dammit, and no tyrannical filthy ape tells me what to review. Virginia’s Affasia are preparing to release their debut EP, Adrift in Remorse, an offering full of doom-death and a beckoning melodic charm — and when the sad-boy signals, you best believe I answer the call.” Late winter feelz.
“Back in 2016, Italy’s ghoulish Demonomancy released a split EP with Finland’s Witchcraft that was one of the first releases that I tackled as a scribe for the site. While the split didn’t have me feting either act I still wrangled a fair measure of enjoyment out of it, enough at least to warrant a closer look at Demonomancy’s new album, Poisoned Atonement.” Vote Hell.
![Eye of Solitude/Marche Funèbre – Collapse/Darkness [split] Review](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eye-of-Solitude-Marche-Funebre-Collapse-Darkness-01-768x702.jpg)
Chocolate and peanut butter. Cheese and crackers. One-person black metal and January. Some things just naturally pair up beautifully together. What normally doesn’t pair up too well? Funeral doom and brevity. So imagine my shock when I got assigned a two-song, 30-minute EP featuring two of the scene’s leading exports, UK’s Eye of Solitude and Belgium’s Marche Funèbre, and finding out that the EP’s just a hair over a lunch break long!” Doom comes fast on a Monday.
“Consistency is a virtue, most of the time. Oftentimes, it is vital for a band’s recognizability, allowing only for incremental growth and change, both within an album and across several. But it can be taken too far with a sound growing stale, or eschewed completely for avant-garde whiplash effects (see Igorrr). Usurpress love mixing different genres into their Swedish death metal, risking consistency issues but aiming for the reward of diversity and unpredictability.” Overthrow the expected.
Those readers who have been following the metal scene for a few years are quite probably acquainted with French heavy/power act Nightmare; those who have been with us a bit longer are almost certainly aware that said band’s stretch from 2001 to 2005 saw a dead excellent trio of albums from a creative, traditionally-influenced powerhouse performing at the height of its skill. Today’s review, that of Öblivïon’s Resilience, will everywhere be compared to Nightmare’s “classic” era of the 00’s decade due to the involvement of Jo and David Amore and Steff Rabilloud. The former pair – brothers – were core members of that band, and Rabilloud had a brief stint as keyboardist.” Nightmare by another name.
“Now, this is a weird one for Doc Grier. Back in 2014, I had the pleasure of reviewing Provocator’s debut record, Antikristus. At the time, this one-man, black metal outfit from Slovenia sought the rhythms and execution of Norway’s ’90s scene. The approach was raw—but not too raw—and the delivery was somewhere between the aggressiveness of Gorgoroth, the minimalism of Darkthrone, and the “upbeatness” of Nattefrost/Carpathian Forest. And, after all these years, the record still has staying power for me. What’s so weird about this? What’s weird is that Antikristus was Doc Grier‘s very first review with AMG. So, as you can guess, I couldn’t pass up Hellscream’s follow-up full-length, Satan, Chaos, Blood and Terror.” So much Satan.
“Pop quiz: off the top of your head, name five Canadian bands. If you’re a geezer of some sort, Rush will take top billing, whereas the more brutal among us will have rattled off a litany of Quebecios tech death acts. Few metalheads will think to include a grind act in their list, let alone one from the flyover provinces. And yet, here Wake are, poised to release their fourth LP of brutal grindcore from their hideout in Calgary.” Wake off, you hoser!
“Global Scum is a one-man project of Manuel Harlander, hailing from Austria. If one has the talent (and Harlander certainly does), a one-man project allows for a focused vision of what metal is to an individual to be promulgated, without concessions or creative differences. Metal toGlobal Scum finds its realization in groove; that dark and punishing sound associated with Pantera and modernized with the help of death metal from Sweden.” The groove is in the heart.
