Angry Metal Guy

As we’ve done the last two years, it behooves us to point out all the shit that we’ve missed in the last year. And 2011 has been mighty full of oversights from our side. This has been a pretty crazy year, but let me just say that I apologize and hope we can really make it up to you by throwing out a few awesome or pretty awesome records that we’ve managed to overlook due to time constraints or limited attention spans.

Andorra is not a large country. But a couple of years ago Persefone blew progressive metal fans away with Shin-Ken and now in 2011 fellow countrymen Nami have released a record that has been inexcusably overlooked by this Angry Metal Guy. Fusing together melodic death metal, progressive and acoustic tendencies à la Opeth and adding in a layer of Meshuggahesque riffing and polyrhythm Fragile Alignments is a truly interesting and pretty damn unique melodic/progressive death metal record. There is plenty to love here, but there are also a few things that don’t sit as well with me. Let me explain.  Continue reading

Opeth // Heritage
Rating: 2.0/5.0 — A genuine disappointment.
Label: Roadrunner
Websites: opeth.com | myspace.com/opeth | facebook.com/opeth
Release Dates: US: 09.20.2011 | EU: 21.09.2011

Disclaimer: Knowing how to review this record has been very difficult for me because I’m a big fan of the band and I have no desire to try make my opinion seem bigger than the band’s work. I understand my subjective position as a reviewer very well. But this record suffers from pretty major issues that it make it very difficult for me to enjoy and that show off the weakness of the band in its current incarnation. I am aware that there will be a good amount of whining and gnashing of teeth over this review, and you’re welcome to it. Just remember that I 1) am not invested in Opeth playing death metal; 2) like plenty of bands that have changed their sounds; and 3) enjoy progressive and abstract music of all stripes very much.

It’s hard to believe that we’re actually looking at Opeth‘s 10th full length studio record now in 2011. It’s amazing how the little progressive death metal band that could is a global powerhouse of extreme and progressive music that is signed to one of the biggest labels in the metal world. Heritage was billed as a bit of a ‘look backwards,’ in a sense, with main man Åkerfeldt saying that he thought extreme metal was boring and that he has thought that for a while and so this was going to be something else. As a long time fan (who has regularly been called a fanboy), I think it’s obvious to me that Opeth was outgrowing their roots. While I think that Ghost Reveries is a genius album, Watershed was definitely not. It felt uninspired and rushed. So the big question for me coming into all of this was: would having more time and freedom make Heritage feel fresh? Would it be a record that would change Opeth for good—and also for the better? Continue reading

Camel // Music Inspired by The Snow Goose
Released: 1975

So, during this time of burnout, one thing doesn’t seem to be changing: the will to critique things and to tell people how important my opinion is how cool some music just really is. One of the things that happens to me when I get burned out on metal is that I go back and start researching other shit like, for example, the guy who wrote Meat Loaf‘s music (Jim Steinman) or in this case, 70s prog. The ’70s were an era when music was musical and the production didn’t suck fucking ass and there was no douchebag screaming about how tough he was into a microphone to try to make you realize just how extreme his music is (unless of course you count KISS, but I don’t, ’cause they suck and they weren’t screaming, they were just douching it up).  Continue reading

So the question is whether or not I should be excited or worried… To be totally frank I’m not the biggest Porcupine Tree fan and I really have strong distaste for Dream Theater, so the only guy in the band that I really seem to enjoy consistently is Åkerfeldt. But, this could be really good because they’re all great at what they do. Or, it could be really, really bad. In case you’re wondering what I’m talking about, Steve Wilson just said in an interview that was posted on the 3rd of May from Chordstruck Magazine that he’s started writing with Åkerfeldt and Portnoy.

If he’s not touring with Porcupine Tree, he’s off working on solo material, producing other bands or doing one of his side projects like Blackfield, Bass Communion and No-Man. Recently, Wilson has collaborated with Mikael Åkerfeldt from Opeth and Mike Portnoy from Dream Theater.

“I started writing with Mikael [Åkerfeldt] last month, finally. It’s still in the very early days. We wrote about 15 minutes of music last month in my studio near London and we’re very excited about it. I think people are going to be very surprised by the direction. If they’re expecting some kind of death-metal-progressive rock, they’re going to be surprised [because] it’s not like that,” Wilson continues.

So, is this good? Bad? Are we worried? Happy? I really, really don’t know. What I do know is that I’ve decided to call the project ÅWP (pronounced OHWP for you English speakers out there.. but add a little bit more w like in the word “row” as in “row, row, row your boat”.) because it sounds like a fun made up word. It’s fun to say. You’ll impress your friends with your knowledgeness and it’ll be generally awesome. It also kinda sounds like the sound an alien in a cartoon would make when it owped along. Åwp. Åwp. Åwp. … *cough*

What I can say is this: usually, supergroups are bad (though Barren Earth certainly kicks a lot of ass). They’re just not consistent. There are too many strong wills pulling in every direction. I could maybe see something working between Wilson and Åkerfeldt because of their history together, but Portnoy? I dunno. He seems like the odd man out in that group and the one who’ll make it suck (this might be part of my anti-Dream Theater bias). However, anyone who gets word of this in one direction or another should let me know so I can keep the fans updated. And worried.

So according to Mikael Åkerfeldt’s (Opeth/Bloodbath frontman) blog on MySpace someone apparently crashed into the tour bus (which he, Fredrik and Axe weren’t on because they had flown home early), in an apparent suicide attempt.  It was somewhere on the road between Dublin and Brussels, but it doesn’t say where.

The first post (entitled “No fun!”) was from last night (October 15th) at 7:45 pm:

Myself, Axe, Fredrik and our soundman, Pontus Norgren decided to fly home to our families for a few days as the option would have been 3 days off in Brussels.

Now I hear that our bus apparently crashed into this other car making a unexpected U-turn in the middle of the highway. Mendez and Per were on the bus together with the rest of our crew but nobody got hurt. They are however shocked and very shaken of course. The driver in the other car was critically injured. I’ve not heard back from anyone yet regarding his progress but apparently it’s not looking very good. Hoping for the best however.

I don’t know where or when this happened but I know the bus was heading from Dublin to Brussels.

I’ll let you know more as soon as I get some information, but as for now everyone in the band are safe and same with our crew. As far as I know the only injured person was the driver of the other car, which obviously is horrible enough!

To be honest, I rarely think about things, accidents like this, but fuck man, it happens! My mind’s all over the place and right now I don’t want to go back out.

But…the show in Brussels on the 17th and the remaining part of the tour will go ahead as planned.

Mike

The second (entitled “More non-uplifting news!”) was from this morning at about 9:45:

I just got a text from Mendez who saying that the driver of the other car (who made the U-turn) that our bus crashed into, sadly passed away from his injuries. On top of that it seems as if it was a deliberate death-stunt from his side as the police had found a suicide-letter in the car-wreck.

This is just getting more odd and scary I tell ya.

I’ve no idea who he was but I have to say our condoleances goes out to his family and loved ones anyways either though we don’t have a name at this point.

I’m kinda lost for words here.

Mike

Oi.  So yeah, I guess condolences go out to the family of the dude who committed suicide on the Opeth tourbus.  How weird is that?