Halo is Amorphis’s 14th studio album and 2022 marks the 30th anniversary since The Karelian Isthmus first graced this world, and at this point, Amorphis sounds like no one but Amorphis. After 30 years of Amorphis, will they ever bow before the might of Angry Metal Guy’s Law of Diminishing Recordings?
In honor of the release of Halo on the 11th of February (that’s this Friday), from Atomic Fire Records, we here at AngryMetalGuy.com are giving you a rock-solid grounding in the band this website has stolen all its logos from.
We’ve had the “Covid: How Can You Help?” thing up on the sidebar for ages, but we haven’t updated anything on the issue for a long time. Today, however, Soen dropped a new track. Entitled “Igniter,” the song was recorded during the early stages of the pandemic. In the wake of yet another cancelled tour and staring down the barrel of a spring where no one knows whether any tours are going to happen, Soen needs some help to stay afloat.
After having gone through a triumphant Listurnalia, where we here at AngryMetalGuy.com celebrated all the glory of the year that was 2021, everyone’s a bit tired. Unfortunately, this year we’re all a little extra tired because of an event that marred an otherwise glorious return to list-making, arguing about relevance, and playfully batting away criticisms from the peanut gallery. And these issues need to be addressed directly by me and publicly.
The list has landed. I repeat, the list has landed!
![Vindicator – Communal Decay [Things You Might Have Missed 2021]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/vindicator_communal-decay.jpg.webp)
“For my money, Vindicator was always underrated re-thrash, notwithstanding my concern about their collective understanding of monetary policy. Nearly 10 years later, the brothers Stown (Vic on guitars and vox and Jesse on drums) have reunited to bring us a new slab of post-Bay Area re-thrash called Communal Decay. What ensues is not surprising, but it’s teeming with old school riffing and features a short and sweet 31-minute runtime.” Did you miss it? We sure as hell did.
“October and November can, without a doubt, be said to have saved 2021 for me. After last month’s pile of elite records, it was hard to imagine that November could be better. But two big things happened in November: 1) I successfully defended my PhD thesis, thus finally making me Dr. Angry Metal Guy; and 2) the rest of the big releases for 2021 dropped hard, fast, and heavy.” How to choose from this bumper crop?
“If Turilli was the flighty artist constantly on the move, Staropoli was the guy who’s kept writing choruses which were an innovation in 1997. Combining these two artistic visions created something special. But the split left Rhapsody of Fire with three problems. First, Staropoli needed to become a better composer; second, he had to replace his band; and lastly, he needed to forge a path forward.” How many of these things does Glory for Salvation accomplish?
“In my review of Diluvium, I argued that the core of the band’s sound had become a super-tech melodeath band. And, as it turns out, my analysis was right on the money. Despite a (second) mass exodus that led to guitarist Christian Münzner and bassist JP Thesseling rejoining the band, A Valediction doesn’t present a more abstract and progressive Obscura. In fact, it’s the opposite.” So, is that a good thing?
October was a four-record month. And yet there’s still plenty of room to complain in the comments section because, damn, it was a good month.
