“It never ceases to amaze me how many metal bands can continue to release high quality material so late in their careers. This year alone has seen terrific releases from both Vulcano and Sinister, for instance, and I’ll now be adding Witches to this list as well. Admittedly, I’d never even heard of this group until AMG Himself recommended I give them a try, a decision I’ve become quite happy with over the past week.” Run for covens.
“I’m always happy to see old school death metal bands that are still around and putting out new music, especially when that music is as good as Sinister’s. Though they formed in 1988, this Dutch group’s 2017 album Syncretism was my first exposure to the band and my neck has never been the same.” Deform the neck bones.
“Sinister operates around a core of speedy, technical death metal. This tech style is tinged with streaks of melodicism and thrashy grooves such that sheer technical ability at their respective instruments is not the sole focus, as is often the case in the sub-genre. The vocals are split between slam-inflected lower pitches and higher-pitched growls so are somewhat varied. The band evoked to me is Shadow of Intent although Ominous Eclipse features far less of the faux-symphonics and core-style breakdowns.” Total eclipse of the tech-death?
“Anyone who’s seen The Wire knows Baltimore can be a rough place, but on Memorial Day weekend every year, things get especially brutal. Hundreds of rabid metal fans from all over the world descend on ‘Charm City’ to participate in Maryland Deathfest, and the result is four days of moshing, headbanging, and partying like it’s 1989.” Death to all.
“Remember that scene in Ghostbusters (the real Ghostbusters…) where Winston tells Ray, ‘If someone asks you if you are a god, you say yes!’ Well, if someone asks you if you want to write a guide for teaching organic chemistry, you say hellafuckingno. I’m serious. Do yourself, and everyone around you, a favor. So, yeah, this year’s been nuts. Thankfully, there’s Angry Metal Guy—a solace for all metalheads to come together and be verbally abused and cat-tailed in the company basement.” Cat’s got yer list.
“Well, there it went. Another year, another… blah blah blah. Let’s be honest: you’re not here to listen to me drone on about how 2017 was, you’re here to scour my list for stuff you might not have heard, confirm your own good taste by seeing how many of your favorites match up with my own, and chime in with your own take on my admittedly questionable choices.” Valid.
“As this isn’t my memoirs, nor a review of a decades-old Nuclear Blast and Relapse sampler, let’s get to what’s written on the top of this page, and what you came here for: Neocaesar’s 11:11. And what a guy with a dreadful Slayer pun as a pen name who talks about Plato too much has to say about it.” Sophistry and death.
“If there’s one thing Dyscarnate have taught me, it’s that other modern death metal needs to step up its collective shit. Formed in 2004, this British trio first caught my attention in 2012 with sophomore full-length And So It Came to Pass, a record which may as well have invented the term “chunky riff.”” Hammer time.
“Few could argue that the current Italian extreme metal scene is in poor health. Synthesizing a mixture of brutality and technicality to topple all manner of Renaissance genius, a cornucopia of bands have thundered from the woodwork in the last decade or so to propagate their brand of air-tight demolition. That said, as much as I love a good aural beating, I also require a pinch of musicality to help differentiate from the faceless hordes. Hideous Divinity, a band whose lineup includes current and former members of Aborted and Hour of Penance, have occasionally toed a fine line for me.” Tech-death from the old country.
“Entombed,progenitors of Swedish death metal, went on to create – for better or worse – death ‘n’ roll, and continued down a path of their own paving. Apparently eager to once again try his hand at a little heavy lifting, the legendary L-G Petrov gathered up contemporaries from such little known bands as Necrophobic, Unleashed, Defleshed and Dark Funeral to create the destructive Firespawn.” Super group of Swe-death.
