Akerblogger

Antichrist Siege Machine – Purifying Blade Review

Antichrist Siege Machine – Purifying Blade Review

Antichrist Siege Machine paints the gates of metal with the blood of Christendom. Subtlety is not their strongest trait. Berserk and bludgeoning attacks, void of humanity, are at the core of this Virginian duo’s battering ram. Antichrist Siege Machine’s debut full-length, 2019’s Schism Perpetration, kick-started their brainless siege against nuance. The record is 28-minutes of celestial warfare fetishization. Blazing chariots rip through flesh, worshipers are disemboweled on altars, Satan opens up his fiery pit wherever he pleases, and a general state of empyrean slaughter is captured through deep, churning metal. The war against Christendom is unrelenting and Antichrist Siege Machine has spotted another chance for carnage.” Blade in full.

Bloodstock Open Air 2021 Review: Pandemic Festival Pandemonium

Bloodstock Open Air 2021 Review: Pandemic Festival Pandemonium

“In the words of Rob Halford during Judas Priest’s two-hour headline slot: “Britain’s premier heavy metal festival is back.” Yes, cranky Covid’s delta wave dangerously hovered over the pit like clouded sweat but after a few strong ciders and a crunching riff – experienced live for the first time in over 18 months – the external world became a distant memory.” Metal never dies.

Wormwood – Arkivet Review

Wormwood – Arkivet Review

“Sweden’s Wormwood received a lot of love after the release of their debut Ghostlands: Wounds from a Bleeding Earth. In my 2017 review, I described it as moving “with a ghostly smoothness that ebbs, flows, rises and falls with a mixture of beauty and malice that only impresses.” It is still in frequent rotation on the Akerblogger music machine. In 2019, the melodic folk-black wonders released Nattarvet. Hopes were high and the record didn’t hit quite as hard. It was solid but safe, less wild and fizzing and more restrained and balanced. It’s 2021 and Wormwood is back.” Wood fatigue.

Fyrnask – VII-Kenoma Review

Fyrnask – VII-Kenoma Review

“When I think of the sprawling extreme metal bands that I admire the most – The Ruins of Beverast, Urfaust, Spectral Lore, Blut Aus Nord and Darkspace a handful – I picture their music as labyrinthine cathedrals: their domes, spires and towers encrusted in shadowy depth; their facades etched in malicious secrets, crafted meticulously over hundreds of years; a visitor’s footsteps echoing minutely against the leering iconography of the interior walls. Using rough raw material, the best bands craft cathedrals of splendor that loom over the scene with menacing authority. Many bands, too many bands, attempt to recreate the fine detail of the best. They try, but the foundation of their place of worship is fractured and cheap to begin with. The finished product stands tall for a brief moment in time, but as the wind changes the structure falls – they lack the intricacy, the balance, the transitions. Another band on the rubble heap. On a plot of land somewhere in the East of Germany another architect lays the first stones of a new creation. Fyrnask has experience.” Building toward destruction.

Bongzilla – Weedsconsin Review

Bongzilla – Weedsconsin Review

“It’s high noon. Sweet Mary Jane is at the wheel. Her best bud Bongzilla is in the passenger seat. Master of Reality is rattling through the truck’s rusty speakers. The sun is setting. They’ve hit the jackpot. After sixteen years in a distant haze, Bongzilla is back. Muleboy (bass/vocals), Spanky (guitar) and Magma (drums) have awoken from their dazed slumber. Sixteen years is like sixty years in stoner time and a lot has changed. For one, the recreational use of cannabis has been legalized in many more states. Bongzilla is still on a mission for fweedom, however.” Weed the children.

Cambion – Conflagrate the Celestial Refugium Review

Cambion – Conflagrate the Celestial Refugium Review

“There’s a lot going on in death metal: there’s the swampy, smelly, drag-your-corpse through the mire old school sort; there’s the cosmic, existential, ponder-the-time-signatures-of-the-universe sort; there’s the thrown down, bro town, drag-your-grandma-through-the-pit sort; there’s the corpse riding, shriek gliding, casual-blasphemy-on-a-weekday kind. Then, there’s also death metal – the angry sort that starts angry and stays angry. Cambion’s gimmick is angriness and speed.” Spree-Cambion era.