GardensTale

Will be destroying crappy nu-metal and praising crappy prog until the sky dies.

Zohamah – Spread My Ashes Review

By GardensTale on February 1, 2019 in 2019, Black Metal, Death Metal, Doom Metal, Israeli Metal, Redefining Darkness Records, Reviews, Black Metal, Death Metal, Doom Metal, 155 comments

“Of all the myriad concoctions of subgenre blends present in metal, few have the potential to be as heinous and vile as black and doom metal. The ominous gloom of the latter mixed with the foul malevolence of the former can make for some horrifyingly ugly textures, something I discovered when reviewing Vile Creature last year. Though I tend to stay away from black metal if I can, this particular cocktail has shaken and stirred something in me, and thus I had no qualm fetching Zohamah from the promo bin, a one-man Israeli band whose debut combines black, doom, and death metal into an unholy platter of terror. Or that’s the idea, anyway.” Burnt offerings.

Hollow Leg – Civilizations Review

By GardensTale on January 24, 2019 in 2019, American Metal, Argonauta Records, Doom Metal, Reviews, Sludge, Doom Metal, Sludge, 64 comments

“The most widely known motto by the late legendary movie reviewer Roger Ebert is probably “It’s not about what [it’s] about, it’s how it’s about it.” It’s an elegant way to say that a self-effacing B-movie may be just as (or more) successful as a grandiose historical epic at doing what it set out to do. Similarly, metal albums can be intended as highfalutin, genre-defining epics and fail miserably, or be highly entertaining and successful at simple and straightforward goals. The curiously named Floridian outfit Hollow Leg is among the latter category.” Head up, leg empty.

Aver – Orbis Majora Review

By GardensTale on January 17, 2019 in 2019, Australian Metal, Progressive Metal, Reviews, Ripple Music, Stoner Metal, Progressive Rock, Stoner Rock, 128 comments

“There’s something special in the water, air, or spider-venom in Australia. More and more, the Land Down Under is becoming a hotbed for top class progressive metal, and I’m getting to a point where I’ll blindly leap onto anything labeled Aussie prog, even if it has a cover as baffling as Aver’s Orbis Majora. Who thought ‘now all these naked space ladies need is having their arms melted together, getting them stuck to a giant bile-green orb, and replacing their heads with purple planets?'” Orbs of reckoning.

Lost in Grey – The Waste Land Review

By GardensTale on January 9, 2019 in 2019, Finnish Metal, Reaper Entertainment, Reviews, Symphonic Metal, Folk Metal, Power Metal, Symphonic Metal, 61 comments

“Another year, another Nightwishcore, one is tempted to think at the sight of Lost in Grey. At this point, I’d be mighty tempted to make a template review and merely swap names and album titles out for the most homogeneous sound in the business. Efficient reviewing for 2019! Or it would be, if Lost in Grey had not unleashed the first major musical upset in my worldview of the year with their sophomore album The Waste Land: it attempts something different with the style!” Bombast in the borderlands.

Ice War – Manifest Destiny Review

By GardensTale on January 7, 2019 in 2018, Canadian Metal, Dying Victims Productions, Heavy Metal, Reviews, Heavy Metal, 55 comments

“Unless your band is Galneryus or Sulphur Aeon, a release date within a week of Christmas is about as suspect as it gets. Ice War, the moniker under which the Canadian solo artist Jo Capitalcide operates, doesn’t dodge the dregs of December either. Ice War’s new platter drops on the cusp of Christmas eve and is about as lousy as you’d expect a one-man traditional metal band to be at this point in the year. I don’t know whether that constitutes a spoiler, but if so, here’s another spoiler for you: the next Adam Sandler movie will be an unfunny comedy in an exotic locale. Some things are just foregone conclusions.” Fabulous disasters.

Yatra – Death Ritual Review

By GardensTale on January 4, 2019 in 2019, American Metal, Doom Metal, Grimoire Records, Reviews, Stoner Metal, Doom Metal, Stoner Metal, 45 comments

“The size of the role vocals play in genre categorization is a funny thing. At least superficially, harsh screams may be enough to earn a ‘blackened’ tag, and there’s more than one melodic death metal album that would be labelled power metal if it weren’t for the harsh vocals. This can cause a conundrum when a band wants to shake up the status quo with an unusual vocal approach. Enter Yatra, a new band formed after the dissolution of Blood Raven. This fuzzy stoner doom might not draw a second glance if it weren’t for its oddball application of harsh snarls. Is it gonna be enough to set themselves apart from the usual stoner-doom hullabaloo?” Voices carry.

GardensTale’s Top Ten(ish) Album Art of 2018

By GardensTale on December 23, 2018 in 2018, Blog Posts, Lists, 128 comments

We write about music all the time, so why shouldn’t we comment on the album art too? And so we proudly present GardensTale‘s Top Ten Album Covers of 2018! Bask in the high culture.

Emma Ruth Rundle – On Dark Horses [Things You Might Have Missed 2018]

By GardensTale on December 8, 2018 in 2018, American Metal, Non-Metal Metal Things, Post-Rock, Reviews, Sargent House, Things You Might Have Missed 2018, Non-metal Metal Things, 71 comments

“Fervent reader Strawman McDuke is outraged. “A singer-songwriter tag,” he sputters. “On a TYMHM article? On my beloved AMG?! It’s an outrage!” Well, McDuke may say that, but first I should mention her involvement with post-rock/metal outfit Red Sparowes, but more importantly, mention her kindred spirit Chelsea Wolfe. Like Chelsea’s older work, Emma Ruth Rundle uses structures from folk and singer-songwriter music with a post-rock filling to create something beautiful, interminably dark, and as fragile as a frozen bubble. But while Chelsea has since fully embraced grand industrodoom metal, Emma’s music has remained small, intimate, and deeply personal on her 2018 release On Dark Horses.” Dark horses and Chelsea Wolfepacks.

Rolo Tomassi – Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It [Things You Might Have Missed 2018]

By GardensTale on December 4, 2018 in 2018, Avante Garde, British Metal, Ipecac Records, Mathcore, Things You Might Have Missed 2018, Avante Garde, Mathcore, 60 comments

“Rolo Tomassi is an enigma. It’s a band that feels like it shouldn’t be metal, yet it undeniably is. Frontwoman Eva Spence, with her petite stature, sharp fashion sense and pixie haircut, seems more at home in an eco-friendly coffee bar than a metal venue. They seem to hang more around the indie scene than denim-filled dive bars. Hell, they’ve been favorably reviewed by NME, and if that’s not a condemnation of metal cred I don’t know what is.” Cred is for posers.

Nature Morte – NM1 Review

By GardensTale on November 21, 2018 in 2018, Argonauta Records, Black Metal, French Metal, Post-metal, Reviews, 44 comments

“Ladies and gentleman, today is a milestone. Since joining AMG, I have reviewed everything from stoner to Gothic, thrash to black and back. I’ve dabbled in death metal, slithered through sludge and appraised the avant-garde. But the one genre I never picked up was post-black. My experience with the style starts at A and ends at lcest, and even with them I haven’t paid much attention since Eçailles des Lunes. The genre simply had little allure to me, even though I do enjoy some post-other type of bands, and I figured other writers would be better suited to place those records in the proper context. But as I still enjoy spinning the promo roulette, the little silver ball had to bounce to post-black one day.” Always bet on post-black.