Amon Amarth – The Crusher (Reissue) Rating: 4.0/5.0 (Record) – 3.0/5.0 (Reissue) 4.5/5.0 (Live Record) Label: Metal Blade (EU | USA) Website(s): myspace.com/amonamarth | amonamarth.com Release Date(s): USA: 09.01.2009 | EU: 28.08.2009 Amon Amarth is on top of the fucking world right now. The Thor’s Hammer is the new pentagram and every kid is hailing […]
Angry Metal Guy
Marduk Posts a New Song on MySpace!
This post has been removed because it promoted Nazi or Nazi-adjacent metal bands or musicians. We apologize.
Havok – Burn Review
How could Havok be anything but thrash? One doesn’t even have to listen to the band to get an idea of what they sound like when one looks at the coloration and logo of the band’s debut album: Burn. And Havok truly lives up to their predecessors, need I name them? Kill ‘Em All era Metallica, Testament, and so forth.. actually, these guys sound like a re-birth of America’s most famous metal scene of all time: the bay area thrash scene.
Threat Signal – Vigilance
Three years after their initial release, after being a true Internet success story, Threat Signal is back with a new album called Vigilance. I never got to review the first album, and I must admit that this style is a little bit too sugary sweet for my tastes, but I was pleasantly surprised with what I heard contained within the borders of Vigilance: a band comfortable in their own shell, producing music that skates the fine line between pop metal, metalcore and thrash. This record is sure to bring delight to those among us who aren’t fans of the more heavy hitting, brutal or technical things that are flooding the market these days.
Guilt Machine – On This Perfect Day
The modern hero of the progressive rock concept album (that’d be Arjen Lucassen for those not aware) is back with a new project called Guilt Machine and this time, it doesn’t take place in space! I think he’s making steps forward, frankly, because I’ve had some previous experience with Arjen Lucassen. I was never a fan of Star One or Ayreon, despite the fact that many fans of both seem to have objected to many of my critiques. I’m a fan of concept albums, but I’m also a fan of consistent vocals, good melodies and non-embarrassing lyrics: things that do not describe Mr. Lucassen’s past work, in my opinion. Fortunately for the progressive rock/metal world, he’s made up for this with the highly excellent Guilt Machine.
Hackneyed – Burn After Reaping Review
Hackneyed is a bunch of kids. That, apparently, is the selling point for this band. Do not be fooled, you should not buy an album because it’s 16 year-olds who made that record. That’s retarded and should be avoided. That said, Hackneyed should probably be checked out by you for another reason: while the record starts out slowly, Burn After Reaping turns out to be a very good.
Ravage – The End of Tomorrow Review
Certain styles are, and should remain, dead. There was a breed of melodic thrash metal, primarily propagated by Germans (a la Helloween) that should now be left to die. Now, I want to be fair, much of that music has transformed into Europower, which has some great bands in it. The style isn’t entire lost or dead, but one thing should be made clear: the bands that kept it alive are bands that did something new with it, that made it their own and that could be distinguished from the masses. None of these things actually describe Ravage or their new album The End of Tomorrow.
Shroud of Despondency
Frankly, I’m surprised that I hadn’t heard much more of this stuff earlier. Back in the day when I was in my old band, we played a show up in the UP (a link, for those who don’t know) where we came in contact with a really great band (whose name I cannot remember for the life of me) which contained a very great guitarist (whose name I can remember, Rory Heikkila). Long story short, said band doesn’t exist anymore, but that guitar player has relocated from the boonies to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he currently is producing some pretty fucking amazing black metal. If you’re into depressive black metal, you should definitely check out the first full length from this project For Eternity Brings No Hope (be prepared for some pretty low-fi recording, but there’s some seriously good shit on this album, the album was sold out, but is now available via mp3 here).
Vintersorg Update
A short note from Vintersorg was posted on his official forum on the 13th of August, so three days ago. In his very cunning Internet style, Mr. V let us all know that they’re doing some recording for the new record (I’m assuming it’s the demoing process though it’s possible they’re in the studio). We’ve […]
Ihsahn Update
OK, according to a clarification that I got from Candlelight, Ihsahn’s new record isn’t coming until January of 2010. Lame. I was really excited about the October 2009 date, but apparently the Candlelight got it wrong on their website (which I checked and which said (and still says), and I quote: Ihsahn – After CANDLE288CD […]
