Angry Metal Guy

The Man-Eating Tree // Harvest
Rating: 4.0/5.0 — The tree doesn’t fall far from the leafe
Label: Century Media
Websites: themaneatingtree.com/ myspace.com/officialthemaneatingtree
Release Dates: Out now!

I’m part of a small minority of metal fans that heard of Finland’s Fall of the Leafe and loved what they did. Although they began life as a black metal band, they eventually morphed into a unique type of progressive gothic metal and their 2005 Vantage album is one of my all time favorites. It had a special, moody atmosphere that I return to often (largely due to the strange but brilliant vocal work of Toumas Tuominen). Sadly, the Leafe called it a day in 2007 and their compelling style was silenced. However, from the acorn of the great Leafe arose The Man-Eating Tree, another interesting forest-themed entity with Tuominen on vocals and many of the same winning characteristics and flavor. Their 2010 album Vine was a pleasantly moody, typically Finnish exercise in melancholy gothic rock/metal and their sophomore followup Harvest is more of the same but even better. The songwriting is tighter, more focused and immediate, the moods are more pronounced and honest and the whole album clicks in a way that recalls the finer moments of Fall of the Leafe without plagiarizing their sound completely. Although most similar to Fall of the Leafe, there are also flashes of Sentenced (same drummer), lighter Opeth and late-period Katatonia. This is not a very heavy album and at times, the material barely has anything to do with metal. Even the most aggressive material here won’t rattle teeth or inspire a raised fist. The sound is more about darkened, somber moods, not exactly doom but clearly not happy either. Regardless, this is a great album and deserves to be heard by anyone who likes dark rock overflowing with mood and emotion.  Continue reading

Black Sun Aeon // Blacklight Deliverance
Rating: 4.0/5.0 — Three releases a year? Never fear.
Label: Cyclone Empire Records
Websites: blacksunaeon.com | myspace.com/aeonoftheblacksun
Release Dates: Out now!

Tuomas Saukkonen is clearly a man concerned with the dangers of idle hands. To stave them off, he’s forever toiling in various musical projects (Before the Dawn, Dawn of Solace, RoutaSielu) and his highly underrated Black Sun Aeon project. While primarily known for his work in  the excellent Before the Dawn, Tuomas has always used this project to explore more morose, gothic-tinged doomscapes while taking cues from fellow countrymen Insomnium and especially Rapture. As with the previous two Black Sun Aeon releases, Blacklight Deliverance is a compelling mix of death, doom and goth, with hauntingly beautiful melodies, ample heaviness and razor-sharp songwriting. It doesn’t break any new ground and at times veers very close to the aforementioned influences, but its a highly enjoyable journey nonetheless and has a few moments of absolute brilliance. It’s also a much more tightly focused work than 2010′s double album Routa and as a result, feels more immediate and accessible. Continue reading

Insomnium // One for Sorrow
Rating: 4.0/5.0 —Finland = Winland
Label: Century Media Records
Websites: insomnium.net/  myspace.com/insomniumband
Release Dates: EU: 17.10.2011 US: 10.18.2011

Once considered the ”other Amorphis“ due to the style and sound of their well regarded debut In the Halls of Awaiting, Insomnium have since evolved into one of the premier melo-death units in operation. Along with fellow Fins Omnium Gatherum, they’ve been steadfastly keeping the melo-death banner flying and the style alive and viable. In fact, no one is doing this style better, as One for Sorrow and Omnium Gatherum‘s ginormous New World Shadows  amply demonstrate. Both albums employ hyper-melodic guitar-work alongside sub-woofer blowing death vocals and both shroud everything with the melancholy and sadness that seems to seep from the very ground of Finland. Over the course of four albums, Insomnium has churned out consistently high quality melo-death of this nature with very few stylistic shifts or changes. This has, at times, made their material feel a bit samey and can give the impression of roaming over well worn ground. While this was never a big issue for me personally, those concerns are still present here as they continue to hone their tried-and-true sound to a razor edge. Insomnium gives you ten new tracks of excellently melodic death that incorporates doom and elements of old Amorphis, classic In Flames, Brave Murder Day era Katatonia and Noumena. While there are no surprises, this is some great, emotionally powerful music and exactly the kind of listening material to stockpile as we head into the cold gloom of winter.  Continue reading

In my opinion this is one of the more painfully overlooked records of 2010. In fact, I’ve seen pretty much no press on this album at all, and yet somehow it has just been rockin’ my world since I got my hands on it. Released in September via Horror, Pain, Gore, Death Prod-uctions, Thanatopsis is largely reminiscent of the mighty The Chasm—but has plenty of originality to throw around. The riffs are sometimes blistering and blackened, laden with trem picking and melodic passages—and sometimes the band breaks it down to harmonious doomy, atmospheric parts. In both cases, everything feels in its place and the record flows expertly making for a fantastic listening experience that is both heavy and emotionally evocative.

With good production and more streamlined songwriting, this album is infinitely more “digestible” than some of The Chasm‘s more epic pieces. Clocking in at a vinyl safe (and highly encouraged) 45 minutes Thanatopsis is one of the most enjoyable underground offerings that this Angry Metal Guy has heard all year. So, if you’re a fan of more melodic death metal—but don’t think Insomnium or In Flames—then this is a record that should fill out your record collection from 2010.

Highlights: There isn’t a bad song on this record, but the riffing on “Era of Delusion” in the beginning really stood out for me.

Winterhorde // Underwatermoon
Rating: 4.5/5.0 — Forward thinking symphonic black metal?
Label: Twilight-Vertrieb
Websites: winterhorde.com | myspace.com/winterhorde
Release Dates: Out Now! (July, 2010)

It isn’t often these days that I review something that I found on my own. In fact, given that the amount of time that we here at Angry Metal Guy for reviews has gone down immensely compared to the huge numbers of promos we receive, it’s probably irresponsible for me to do so. But this Angry Metal Guy is always worried that we’re still not getting every CD of golden worth and highest quality. Once again this fear has been vindicated—but fortunately for you guys, I still love metal enough that I actually go looking for shit that we haven’t received here. And because of that, I stumbled upon Winterhorde a melodic or orchestral black metal band from… Israel? Yeah, turns out, even Israel which lacks for snowy winters has black metal guys who think that snow is the ultimate eviiiil. But don’t let the silly name fool you, because Winterhorde is not just your average melodic black metal band and Underwatermoon, while excitingly ESL in name, is anything but lackluster. Continue reading

October Falls // A Collapse of Faith
Rating: 3.0/5.0 — Dark, bleak and beautiful
Label: Debemur Morti Productions
Websites: … huh, son of a bitch… I got nothin’! (That’s a first..)
Release Dates: EU: 24.05.2010

Depressed Finns are really no surprise in metal these days. It seems like Finns are a pretty morose bunch in general. A country famous for bands like Poisonblack, H.I.M., Sentenced, Insomnium, Black Sun Aeon and Swallow the Sun, it shouldn’t be terribly surprising that some pretty bleak and depressing stuff comes out of Finland. And let me be clear, that’s not even naming huge groups of bands that I’m sure others could probably come up with. But October Falls isn’t your standard “depressed metal” band from Finland. There are no silly ESL lyrics about being buried in a plastic bag or any of that jazz. Instead, October Falls is a “depressive” black metal band with folk sensibilities.

A Collapse of Faith is one 40 minute track, which quite frankly doesn’t lend itself to an easy review. It’s difficult to sit down and describe the entire album, when its basically a series of different movements of one track. You try reviewing a symphony some time and see how well it goes. However, this one track is best illustrated by the cover of the album—a little to your left, yup there you go!—and the first minute or so: the sound of a campfire and birds in the woods gently laying under an acoustic guitar, which sets the atmosphere for the album without being cheesy or ridiculous. At about 2 minutes, the real theme for the album comes in on the guitar and for the most part you’re in “metal” territory after that. What stood out for me about this record was that the melody was gorgeous and strong, lending itself towards the melodies of Vintersorg or Borknagar (early), it had a melancholy to it that is not really present in those earlier folk and black metal records. But while I would probably still call this “black metal”, this is not Darkthrone black metal, but Petrychor black metal or maybe something more akin to Ulver‘s epic and classic album Bergtatt. Continue reading

Be’lakor // Stone’s Reach
Rating: 4.5/5.0 – Excellent melodic death.. after all these years?
Label: Kolony Records (Europe)
Website(s): myspace.com/belakor
Release Date: EU: 30.11.2009 | World: Out on iTunes

Be’lakor is an Australian melodic death metal band that has been getting some serious attention in the underground despite the fact that much melodic death metal has pretty much been declared by the scene to be dead on arrival. I’d been reading about them for some time so I just wrote them a message on MySpace and the guys were cool enough to send me a copy to review. And I can see why they’re so eager to get their music out to the masses—it’s a bit like ear heroin.

Quite the opposite of the many bands who have initially appealing music that after a while you never take out and listen to again (here’s looking at you Sonata Arctica‘s Silence), Stone’s Reach grew on me very slowly over the weeks that I’ve had it. The initial listens were definitely a “OK, sounds a bit like Opeth, Insomnium, and In Flames‘ lovechild, but I don’t get the hype.” Which was shortly followed by a stage where I realized that as I was listening to it I knew every riff and was singing along with them. This final stage was followed by me having the opening riff of “From Scythe to Sceptre” stuck in my head for two days and that was it—I was totally hooked.

Stone’s Reach has everything you want from good melodic death metal in this the late stages of the 00s.. it’s fast and catchy with solid melodies, great harmonies that aren’t too predictable and yet everything is just familiar enough (despite sounding unique) that you’re able to slip into it and enjoy it without having to spend too much time thinking about it. That’s not to say that there aren’t things to think about—I particularly enjoy the way that the rhythm section works together very well, reminiscent of Morningrise-era Opeth—it’s just that the music is catchy enough that you don’t have to think about it if you don’t want to.

Every track on here has something worth remembering and this record never falls into a rhythm that allows you to get lost in the songs as though they weren’t all separate entities. Instead, the band is very adept at writing and arranging and are able to create unique soundscapes and songs that you will remember and that you long to hear again. And with a clear, smooth production that doesn’t suffer from any of the downsides of modern production tricks and techniques (i.e., it sounds nothing like a record that you would expect to hear from a major label which seems to be enforcing a regimen of triggering on all of their bands these days), Stone’s Reach gives everything you want from a melodic death metal album without sounding rehashed or like a rip-off.

If you’re like me and suckled at the teat of melodic death metal as a young music fan, you probably also feel like the genre has lost its interest over time. Be’lakor lacks nothing and has everything except worldwide distro from a major label—so feel free to buy their record on iTunes or send check out their MySpace for info on where to buy it: you won’t regret it.

Insomnium – Across the Dark
Rating: 3.0/5.0 – Enjoyable and well done, but doesn’t quite stick
Label: Candlelight
Websites: myspace.com/insomniumband | insomnium.com
Release Date(s): FI: 9.9.2009 | EU: 26.09.2009 | USA: 09.15.2009 (apparently this album was delayed)

Insomnium is one of those bands that rides on the border of melodic death metal and progressive rock, straddling the fence between good, solid heavy music and the proggy stuff that all the sadboy metal guys listen to.  Those guys who secretly love The Cure and Depeche Mode and end up making stuff that sounds like newer Katatonia, Anathema or Amorphis.  This isn’t really a critique, but it lets you know right off the bat where these Finnish melodic metallers are standing in reference to the never ending “is melody metal” war that seems to be going on these days.

And these guys are very good at what they’re doing.  Across the Dark is a highly polished, excellently produced record.  The music is melodic and fairly interesting, and sounds like an expert blend of Whoracle/Colony-era In Flames, Opeth and modern Amorphis (though, admittedly these guys use a lot more death metal vocals).  While it starts a bit slowly, these Finns have you in the grip of their darkest dreams and melancholy aspirations in no-time, transferring smoothly between the heavy and the progressive with the ease that very few bands possess.

There are issues with this record, however.  The first is the vague feeling that I’ve heard this all before.  It’s not like I consider Insomnium‘s sound to be a direct rip off of any one band, but instead these guys are a bit like the stranger who you meet that you swear you recognize from somewhere.  They consistently tell you that they’ve never been to that specific bar, and they don’t know that person you know from college, but you’re still fucking positive that you know the guy.  I spent this whole album thinking to myself, “man, have I listened to these guys before?”

The second thing that I’m not terribly keen on is that the clean vocals and chorus parts seem a bit formulaic, wandering a little too close to the Killswitch Engage territory for my own tastes.  Clean vocals are fine for me, but the way that they’re built into big catchy choruses, when the rest is heavy melodic death metal just rubs me the wrong way after being inundated with metalcore bands jumping on the KSE bandwagon.  Those parts sound too polished, too clean, too commercial for me to really feel like there’s anything dangerous about this band.  Instead, it sounds like they’ve got a producer sitting in the room going “and now, my friends, you need a catchy chorus!  I know just the guy to write one for you!”

However, that isn’t the whole album and that certainly isn’t the feeling that I get from it all.  There is a good deal of excellent melodic death metal riffs on here that I really dig, the clean vocals on “Lay of Autumn” stand out for me, and the album has a flow that it is really important for me and that speaks to talented writers with a feel for detail.  All-in-all Across the Dark is not the strongest record I’ve heard this year, but if you’re a fan of melodic death metal, progressive death metal or stuff in that vein you probably won’t go wrong buying it.

These last couple weeks have been pretty crazy for this Angry Metal Guy.  I’ve moved south from the fair city of Umeå, to the much bigger (and arguably fairer) city of Uppsala.  While I miss Norrland, I do have to say that I’m quite enjoying certain aspects of the student culture in the city of Uppsala.   I haven’t had a lot of music time, but here’s some of what I’ve been listening to in the last week.

Weekly suggestion: Guilt Machine – On This Perfect Day — Yeah, this record was seriously solid and I strongly suggest you pick it up.

The Black Dahlia Murder – Deflorate — Oh, this is good.  I wasn’t super impressed with Nocturnal, so I’m pleased.  Watch for a review coming soon.
Gwyllion – The Edge of All I Know — Definitely heard better, but a pretty alright record.  Good vocals.
Insomnium - Across the Dark — Watch for this review.  Out on the 7th of September in Europe.
Isis – Wavering Radiant — These guys are ridiculously overrated.
Havok – Burn — See the review.  Great fucking riffs.
Amorphis – Skyforger — Best album of 2009?  So far.
Anaal Nathrakh – The Constellation of the Black Widow — \m/
Propagandhi – Supporting Caste — It ain’t the glory days, but these guys are still the smartest political band around.
Marduk – Rom 5:12 — I’m getting psyched for the new record, are you?
Falkenbach – Ok Nefna Tysvar Ty — Excellent viking/folk metal record.. addictive melodies.
The Dear Hunter – Act III: Life and Death — Excellent.
Amon Amarth – Live in Bochum 30/12/08 — Seriously, worth buying the reissue for this live record.