Angry Metal Guy

Wow, how the time flies when you’re a reviewer! It seems like only yesterday we were welcoming in 2011 and looking ahead to a vast sea of new and interesting releases. But now we’ve reached that time of year when we at Angry Metal Guy Industries reflect back on the past twelve months in music. That means taking stock of what we liked and disliked, and sadly, owning up to all the shit we overlooked, ignored, missed or otherwise screwed the pooch on (oh, the SHAME!). First up on Steel Druhm’s Shame Spiral Tour is Upstate New York’s own Armor Column and their debut, Maximum Collateral Damage (available via MWA Records). Featuring a heady blend of old school thrash and traditional American power metal (Jag Panzer, Helstar), these war hawks led by fret-man Noah Carpenter (ex-Skinless) have come to batter, brutalize and bombard with their war-themed attack. At times ripping, at others catchy and always a bit rough around the edges and dirty, this was an unexpected but welcome surprise for yours truly that just didn’t get the review space it deserved (I blame Obama). Continue reading

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

Much like Angry Metal Guy, I took  issue with Gibson’s Top 50 Metal Songs of All Time. While AMG was primarily offended by the paucity of post-1980s selections and the Anglocentric focus, my biggest gripe was the inclusion of bands that weren’t/aren’t metal (that also pissed me off, I’m just not eloquent when I’m pissed. – AMG). As good as bands like KISS, Van Halen and AC/DC may be, they just aren’t heavy metal bands (Don’t even get me started on Korn). Even when Gibson managed to stick to the correct genre, some of their choices were quite baffling to me. Of course, if you put fifty metal fans in a room and told them to do their own lists, each would be unique and vastly different. That’s the wonderful subjectivity of music, it means something different to each of us and who are we to judge what others like? That being said, Gibson’s list blows moose cock so here’s mine.

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So instead of a review, today, you’re getting what is going to be a 5 piece attempt to shame the assholes over at Gibson, who apparently haven’t listened to heavy metal since 1984. While this list is bound to be controversial (trust me), it is also done with a very specific purpose in mind, which is to remind everyone that heavy metal has continued to exist since Nirvana sold a bunch of records. But, of course, the Anglocentric jackasses over at Gibson didn’t realize this. Anyway, this oughtta piss everyone right off, but hopefully someone involved in the creation of that list feels ashamed for having been such idiots. Note to old guys: shit still happens once you’ve stopped caring. Continue reading

Torture Division // Evighetens Dårar
Rating: 4.5/5.0 — Don’t read this, just buy the fucking record.
Label: Abyss Records (US)
Websites: torturedivision.net
Release Dates: Out Now [Or Downloadable Here]

Sometimes reviews are short because you don’t have anything to say about a band. I mean, something just doesn’t wake that ire in you because it sucks, but isn’t really great enough to really rant about. This is a problem when you set yourself informal word limits for every review—and this is even more of a problem when the issue with the record is that it’s too fucking good to even warrant much of a review, per se. So before the jump, even, let me say this: what are you waiting for? Buy this fucking record. Continue reading

Serenity Dies // Hacksawcracy
Rating: 2.5/5.0 — Not enough horsepower to make the long trip
Label: Unsigned
Websites: myspace.com/serenitydies
Release Date: July 15th, 2010

A metal band from the Maldives Islands? That may be a first. Serenity Dies is a four piece metal act with one album already under their belts (2006’s Murder), and now they bring us Hacksawcracy, a six track EP. Not bad for a band tucked away in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

Although Serenity Dies bill themselves as a thrash band, nearly half the material on Hacksawcracy really doesn’t qualify as thrash in my book. Continue reading

Evile – Infected Nations
Rating: 3.0/5.0 – Pretty good, but certainly nothing revolutionary
Label: Earache
Website(s): evile.co.uk | myspace.com/evileuk
Release Date(s): Out Now in the EU and US

Thrash revival has been a big deal of late.  I mean, thrash is the biggest thing since.. well, thrash, in the metal scene right now.  Bands from all over the world, particularly in the underground, are donning tight jeans, jean jackets, Kreator and Exodus patches and looking for the next big thrash prodigy.  Earache is not the only label releasing thrash revival stuff, it’s coming from everywhere (Candlelight has been particularly prolific with the thrash revival).  Evile is on that bandwagon, whether they like it or not, but they have a different take on it.  That is: they sound a lot more like the mature Bay Area.

Infected Nations is a pretty solid album, with excellent riffing in the classic thrash style that so many of us grew up.  With riffs that bring to mind …and Justice for All and The American Way (by the ever-overlooked Sacred Reich), UK metallers Evile have really brought back a sound of thrash metal that has been missing in the revival.  While bands like have been ripping it up in the old school style of Slayer, Kreator, Destruction and bands of this sort, Evile sounds a lot more like late-80s/early 90s thrash than that.   The introduction to the title track should be a dead give-away for most listeners: beautifully harmonized clean guitars that fade in and lead to a kick ass thrash triplets.

And the whole record is chock-full of kick ass riffs and headbanging monstrosities that bring a guy back to being 9 and discovering Metallica.   There is definitely a certain charm in this and many have lauded praises on the band for “carrying the revival” on their shoulders and stuff like that.   And yeah, Evile is good at what they do!  They really are.. but where’s the progress that we’re supposed to be finding in new metal bands?  Why are we always looking back instead of forward.  Bands like Evile and Havok are almost evidence for a metal scene that doesn’t have anywhere new to go and a generation of metalheads that are disappointed with the state of modern metal: so they’re imitating what’s already been done.

Of course, why stop them?  Metallica quit making good music years ago and even Megadeth has only just regained its glory with a good album: but Evile has put out its second critically acclaimed record in a row and somehow manages to keep a 20 year old sound fresh, for the most part.

Of course, there are some things I’d change about this album.  I like the faster, heavier and techy-er parts, but I find a lot of the mid-paced riffs to be a little bit mind-numbing and I tend to lose myself in them.  Another issue that I have is the vocals, which are classic thrash and also very, very monotonous.  Matt Drake (rhythm guitar / vocals) does his best classic James Hetfield/Chuck Billy impression over every track and after a while it just feels like droning.  There are way better thrash vocalists out there, and I strongly suggest that Drake work on varying his vocals a little.

Honestly, Infected Nations is a good album, but it’s not a whole lot better than that considering everything.  The production is fantastic, the song-writing is pretty good, but it’s missing out on the originality that I’m always hoping for.  Maybe it’s just me, but I like to see bands that use their thrash metal roots for new things.  Even looking at a band like Dragonforce or Luna Mortis that obviously have thrash metal influences, but are able to blend them into other styles to make them new and interesting gives a road-map to thrash influenced bands, because I have trouble imagining how a lot of these bands are going to survive the trend.