Angry Metal Guy

For me 2011 was a year devoid of a death metal record that really knocked it out of the park. While Vomitory produced a pretty damn solid album, and Diocletian and Ulcerate were really good, but they didn’t exactly get me writhing around on the ground in ecstasy like a lot of other people seemed to have experienced it. So when I was digging through my unopened promos, I stumbled upon Nader Sadek‘s debut record which came out in 2011 from Season of Mist Records. And let me just say that I wasn’t even mildly prepared for what I was going to get. I’ll give you a hint though: it was 100% win. Continue reading

Dim Mak // The Emergence of Reptilian Altars
Rating: 3.0/5.0 — Good fighting, but never applied the vaunted “Death Touch.”
Label: WillowTip | Hammerheart
Websites: facebook.com/dimmak.deathmetal
Release Dates: US: 11.22.2011 | EU: 2012.01.10

Dim Mak arose from cult heroes Ripping Corpse in 1996 (after Erik Rutan ran off to join Morbid Angel) and they decided to do something entirely different. And yes, I believe that Dim Mak definitely qualifies as that. A thrashy, techy death metal band with martial arts themes almost exclusively (yes, their first record was called Enter the Fist), The Emergence of Reptilian Altars is the band’s fourth full length and first since 2006. Five years (well, six if you’re looking at the Euro release date) is a long time to wait between albums, so you’d like to think that they were preparing something super special (like the Touch of Death!) for their return. But during that five years down, original vocalist (and Ripping Corpse member) Scott Ruth left the band and was replaced by newcomer Joe Capizzi, whose style is markedly different than his predecessor. Continue reading

Vile // Metamorphosis
Rating: 3.0/5.0  — Could have used an actual metamorphosis
Label: Willowtip Records
Website: vilestench.com
Release dates: US: 11.15.2011 | EU: 2012.01.10

How far from reality would it be to argue that death metal has become a saturated genre with no room for improvement? I suddenly imagine a short chubby skinhead with a 50 cm long goatee screaming at my invalid premise which makes my argument seem quite farfetched. So we have now at our hands Metamorphosis which is the fourth full-length album by California’s Vile and it comes six years after 2005’s well received The New Age of Chaos, and that my fellow metal heads is a long time to put out a death metal album. Makes you wonder how the new one sounds like, doesn’t it? Well if you are familiar with their older works and the current worldwide vitals of death metal, you wouldn’t be really surprised by this record. This is an album that sounds quite contemporary as far as death metal goes and carries some obvious influences than can be traced to Deicide, Suffocation and 20^th century Morbid Angel. Another thing I realized as soon as I saw the artwork is how much it reminded me of Atheist’s Jupiter, but I guess it would be impossible to scan the entire metal spectrum for cover art just to make sure what the artist you’re paying may or may not have copied.

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2011 had some really great records, some great songs and some just generally fantastic moments—despite burnout, European crisis and it being our last year on earth. It also had the musical equivalents of burnout, European crisis and the end of the world. In this new annual feature, we will highlight the most horrendous shit we had to listen to this year as a price for being reviewers. Some of these things may be disappointments, whereas others might just be rehashing the painful. There are some records that you might expect to be here (like Lulu) that some of us just were smart enough to avoid, so they can’t be unheard because they were never heard in the first place. But there’s still a pretty good showing of shit going on over here. But just so you know, we’ll be working hard to make you all feel better for the rest of the week after reading this list. Continue reading

Entrails // The Tomb Awaits
Rating: 4.0/5.0 — Quality barbarism from beyond the grave
Label: F.D.A. Rekotz
Release Dates: Out Worldwide!
Author: Nemesis

This has been the year of death metal. Evidence is very much apparent if you look at the bulk of releases so far. Try to forget Morbid Angel and Decapitated for a moment. Quality albums from the likes of Hate Eternal, Vomitory, Supreme Pain, and Vader… even Autopsy – have made the genre stronger than ever in 2011. Sophomore album The Tomb Awaits is an attempt from these Swedish veterans of gritty old-school death metal to join those hallowed ranks. Continue reading

You know, maybe the idea for this column wasn’t one of my best. It certainly isn’t self serving to continually call ourselves out for what we missed. It Kind of makes us look like jackasses and dullards. Be that as it may, our international staff of two just can’t know all or hear all. So, as unflattering as this is, here is yet another release we missed! Supreme Pain is a brutal death metal act hailing from Holland and Divine Incarnation is their third full length (available via Massacre Records). This is my first experience hearing them and I am quite impressed. They certainly live up to their name and bring you some serious pain. Their approach is in line with the classic Florida death style pioneered (and subsequently abandoned) by Morbid Angel and this sounds a lot like the classic albums of the formerly Morbid ones. There are also hints of Deicide and the occasional flash of Immolation to be found slithering around here and there. With a list of influences like that, you pretty much know you’ll be hammered into pancaked shit over the course of the nine tracks herein and they do it with flare, style and technical finesse. Continue reading

Vader // Welcome to the Morbid Reich
Rating: 4.0/5.0 — They’ve got the reich stuff!
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Websites: www.vader.pl | myspace.com/vader
Release Dates:  EU: 13.08.2011 | US: 09.13.2011

When one thinks of Polish death metal, the names Vader and Behemoth immediately spring to mind as the standard bearers. Both gained enormous exposure and both have been pretty consistent in output over the years. While I admit that not every Vader release has blown me away, more often than not they delivered heavy, satisfying death to the unhinged masses. 2009′s Necropolis was a one of their better albums and found them sounding hungry and hostile. Now, along comes Welcome to the Morbid Reich to steamroll it in short order. Featuring an overhauled, revamped lineup including a new guitarist and bassist, Vader seems to have a large chip on their collective shoulder and aim to prove they’re the one true lord of Pol-death. This is a WAY faster, heavier album than Necropolis, with way more blasting and pummeling. Its almost uniformly played at blistering speeds and aggressive to the point of exhaustion. In fact, its pretty much a companion piece to the new Hate Eternal album with a lot of similarities in style. There’s also some stylistic nods to countrymen Behemoth and even some throwbacks to old Deicide and Malevolent Creation. Its real nasty business from start to finish and its gives out way more of a ferocious beating than I expected. Continue reading

Disma // Towards the Megalith
Rating: 4.0/5.0 — Birthed in the land of garbage and swamps
Label: Profound Lore Records
Websites: myspace.com/dismadeathmetal
Release Dates: Out now!

At last, an album that’s the musical equivalent to falling face first into a cesspool. Crusty, endlessly filthy, unspeakably nasty and no amount of  showering will ever get you truly clean. That’s what you can expect when you press play on the debut by New Jersey’s toxic swamp denizens Disma. Towards the Megalith is eight grueling sojourns through the terrifying underbelly of old school death metal a la Autospy, Grave and Entombed. Featuring several members of the brutal death act Funebrarum, this is not the least bit “modern,” nor does it bear the slightest trace of “melo-death.” If you’re familiar with the level of corpse grinding heaviness Funebrarum delivers, then you have an idea where this is going, but this is even murkier and more corrosive. Yes, these songs are the dregs stuck to the bottom of the musical septic tank. Appealing to the current lust for old school Swedish and American death and joining acts like Entrails and Blood Mortized in the crusty scab sweepstakes, Disma shows just how raw and ugly things can get while still being thouroughly enjoyable, though this will be too much for many to digest (ewww). If you haven’t already gotten up to find this, kindly wait until you finish reading this stellar piece of prose. Continue reading

Ulcerate // The Destroyers of All
Rating: 4.0/5.0 — Tons of potential here
Label: Willowtip Records | Hammerheart Records (EU)
Websites: ulcerate-official.com
Release Dates: Out for a long damn time

Being a well on the way to aging angry metal nerd, I have a stomach that is not quite as leadbellied as it used to be, and many of my friends and acquaintances are under similar circumstances. There’s only so much beer and whiskey a stomach can handle before it gets a little acidic (although I continually go back to testing the limits every now and then). Hence I’ve been quite amused by the band name Ulcerate since they stormed the realm of heavy music with 2009′s Everything is Fire, which was one of my favorite albums of that year. The title track of that album was very impressive (one of my favorite metal songs of recent memory), as well as the rest of it (that album is nasty!). Continue reading

Some records are so monumental that you need more than one opinion on them, particularly if those records have created this kind of feedback. In this case, we will be reviewing Morbid Angel‘s newest record. This is monumental, there is no other way to put it.

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