Jun16

Record(s) o’ the Month – June 2016

Record(s) o’ the Month – June 2016

“It’s a blast from the past! That’s right, the Record(s) o’ the Month for June are finally here. And boy howdy, I gotta say that it was tough to get to these. There was plenty of infighting, accusations of me being a distant and cold tyrant. A psychoanalyst was called in. Then the police. Turns out that Steel Druhm may have lots of daddy issues, but he also hates talking about them and has a massive gun collection. We managed to get through this whole thing only slightly injured and now that I’m out of the hospital I’m posting this. So here you have it, Ye Olde Recordes o’ the Monthe for June.”

Wolverine – Machina Viva Review

Wolverine – Machina Viva Review

“I could spend all 700 words of this review talking about why Wolverine is a horrible name for this band. As most of us northerners are aware, wolverines are vicious beasts capable of bringing down prey far larger than themselves. They have a gluttonous reputation, and almost no other creatures want to mess with them. Wolverines certainly wouldn’t be in a band that featured keyboards, or harmony backing vocals, or heaven forbid a fretless bass solo.” What’s in a name, you ask?

C.B. Murdoc – Here Be Dragons Review

C.B. Murdoc – Here Be Dragons Review

C.B. Murdoc’s claim to fame, as anyone who has heard of them will tell you, is that Tomas Haake called them cool once. And they’re cool in a groovy, idiosyncratic way, as telegraphed by their grungy ’50s bop album artwork both here and on their Spinefarm-released debut, The Green. But cool doesn’t get you very far with a guy who cares not for Deafheaven and ignored the mirrored-aviators-wearing shenanigans of the last Shining album. Kronos may not be cool, but he is more brutal than you.” Brutal is as brutal does.

The Browning – Isolation Review

The Browning – Isolation Review

“In all honesty, I grabbed Isolation – the Kansas City quartet’s third full length since forming in 2005 – fully expecting to hate it. After all the great albums that landed in my lap recently, low-brow electronica/metalcore seemed like an interesting change of pace, and while I get 95% of our readership probably despises this music, I did my best to go into Isolation with an open mind.” Masochism is alive at AMG.

Sheidim – Shrines of the Void Review

Sheidim – Shrines of the Void Review

“One of the little rituals this modern world has created around music is the five-second Google “research” for whatever relevant info we can find on a new or unknown act. Doing this for Spanish black/death metallers Sheidim pointed me to a wiki-page about the shedim, demons from Jewish tradition that follow death and fly around graves. It also gave me a bunch of names that were as unknown to me as this young group. But there were two repeatedly referenced names that I knew. The first was Watain.” That’s funny, I never knew Watain was Jewish.

Airbag – Disconnected Review

Airbag – Disconnected Review

Airbag is a great name for a band. I’d never heard of them until a week ago. Comparisons to Pink Floyd and Porcupine Tree are enough to get this prog geek’s ears up, and here we are, listening to their fourth album, Disconnected. Giving your album the same name as the classic Fates Warning record is cheeky indeed, but my hopes are high that this band can pull it off.” He’s got high hopes, he’s got high hopes.

Internal Suffering – Cyclonic Void of Power Review

Internal Suffering – Cyclonic Void of Power Review

“Don’t be surprised if this is the first you’ve seen of an album from Internal Suffering. The long-running Colombian brutal death metal band has been silent for the past ten years, shuffling from city to city without releasing so much as an EP. And I’m fine with that, seeing as much of their previous output was not to my liking. 2006’s Awakening of the Rebel was naught but a smear of blast beats to me, and the continuous aggression of their music largely defeated itself. Cyclonic Void of Power, however, is a step in the right direction.” Is this the dawn of Vagabond metal?

Countless Skies – New Dawn Review

Countless Skies – New Dawn Review

“Cheekily dubbed “Be’lacore” on the promo spreadsheet and with my esteemed colleague El Cuervo dissecting the upcoming Be’lakor album, I felt it my duty to ride the coattails of that anticipated release by examining the debut full length from UK melodic death outfit Countless Skies, named after a song from the Australian melodeath kingpins.” Death is getting really mellow of late.

Anderson/Stolt – Invention of Knowledge Review

Anderson/Stolt – Invention of Knowledge Review

“For some fickle mechanisms of the human mind and various other lunacies, first wave progressive rock acts as my personal, pesky Madeleine; a trigger of sickly sweet involuntary memories. Because of that I’m cursed: each riff by Gentle Giant, Camel or other bands that I encountered when first discovering everything progressive, now inundates me with inescapable, banal yet pleasurable nostalgia meshed with a remembrance of ages that I could have never lived through.” Welcome back to the Age of the Noodle.