“Something wicked this way comes. What is that thing? It’s Germany’s Blackevil — and their sophomore record Forever Baptised in Eternal Fire follows with them. These maniacal monsters play a potent mixture of blackened thrash, speed metal, and pure heavy metal — the kind that Iron Maiden would have played if they’d been nearly as satanic and evil as the PMRC thought they were back in the 80s.” Z-evil never dies.
“Plague Years dole out Slayer grooves with hardcore vocals just like every other modern crossover band, but the beef levels have been turned up to 11 by down-tuning the guitars and adding some death metal elements. If Power Trip is the classic, lean and mean Greek god physique of crossover, Plague Years is the modern-day, steroid-saturated Mr. Olympia.” Circle of power.
“Today marks not only my 100th full review here at AMG, but also the first time that I will be covering a band for the second time. Double milestone! Just over a year ago, I wrote about Trinity of Deception, the debut full-length from Dutch band Burial Remains. It was thoroughly enjoyable, if somewhat unremarkable in the songwriting department, but its primary victory was in achieving the quintessential Swedish death metal sound. Recent re-listening reminded me just how potent the band’s HM-2 attack can be, so I’ve been mixing and stockpiling two-stroke gasoline to prepare for all of the chainsawing I expect to hear on follow-up Spawn of Chaos.” The saw is the law.
“There’s no question that the latest Cytotoxin absolutely destroys. Its powerful and vicious approach touches me right in my technical sweet spot, and as the year goes on, Nuklearth’s bleak, post-apocalyptic world begins to seem more and more familiar as the coronavirus continues its assault upon our very cells. It’s getting easier everyday to believe Freddy’s old maxim, “God is dead.” But what has led to our having to walk alone down the open road of this godless endeavor? The answer escaped me until, during one of my daily swims through the promo sump, I happened upon an empty prescription bottle. “Theotoxin 5mg” the label read, and the patient’s name upon it? “God.” Prescription proscription.
“Of course Sepultura comes to mind when discussing thrash metal that originates in the giantest country in the Down Under of the Americas. But besides a general affinity for the creation of pleasing riffs, there are not a whole lot of similarities between Vãlvera and their famous countrymates.” Vicious Cycle.
“We interrupt the regularly scheduled program to bring you something much better. I am the mighty Kronos, Master of Br00tality, and I listen to things that most metalheads wouldn’t even calI music. I can alliterally alliterate alliteration all day long and I know everything there is to know about the feeding and breeding tendencies of every fucking kind of animal that has ever or will ever live. I eat power metal loving weenies like Holdeneye for breakfast, and I fucking did it — I ate him for breakfast.” Chain of foods.
“If you build it, they will come. Oh wait. That’s Field of Dreams. Either way, that was really the intent that Season of Dreams founder Jean-Michel Volz had for his new project. The Frenchman wanted to take his compositional experience and use it to form a band that channeled the greatest aspects from both heavy and power metals.” Bombed shelter.
“Thanks entirely to Eldritch Elitist‘s coverage of Judicator’s last album, The Last Emperor, I discovered one of my favorite new-to-me bands in recent memory. After an initial good impression, The Last Emperor eventually completely won me over, and it landed in my top 10 of 2018. There’s something so pure and magical about the way Judicator combines the influences of Blind Guardian and Iced Earth into a prog/power beast that stands its own. It reminds me of what Demons & Wizards might sound like if their music was actually good.” Nothing is more.
“When I selected the promo for Onslaught’s Generation Antichrist, I initially thought that I was grabbing the latest platter from a relatively modern thrash outfit. But there was something about the British band’s logo that gave me the nagging feeling that I had seen it before. And then it came to me: Onslaught is a band that I’ve often seen listed on those “Best Thrash Albums of All Time” lists. No, not the “Top 10 Thrash Albums of All Time” lists, but the “Top 50 or Top 100 Thrash Albums of All Time” lists.” Generations clash.
“I’m not sure how many times I’ve referenced Death in my reviews this year — and I’m too lazy to go back and check — but I feel like it’s been more often than would usually be expected. It seems like more and more bands are embracing the unique musical and vocal stylings that Chuck unleashed upon the world during his tragically short life, and I see this growing tribute movement as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it shows that Schuldiner’s legacy is alive and well, his genius living on as intellectual stardust in the body of work created by his imitators. On the other, it’s hard not to be disappointed when you listen to something that sounds like Death and have it not actually be fucking Death.” Death be not gone.
