Holdeneye

When you wield the 4hammer, every album looks like a nail.

Yer Metal Is Olde: Nevermore – Dreaming Neon Black

By Holdeneye on July 10, 2019 in Yer Metal Is Olde, Groove Metal, Power Metal, Progressive Metal, Thrash Metal, 100 comments

“If a wise old man were to ask me Conan-style “What is best in metal?” I would without hesitation respond by glorifying the work of my favorite band of all time, Seattle’s Nevermore. While often lumped into the prog/power bin, their music reaches far beyond the boundaries of such a tag. By downtuning, adding elements of groove, thrash, and death metal, and coloring the whole affair with an intensely hopeless and bleak outlook, the band created a nearly unclassifiable sound that encapsulates nearly every great thing that metal has to offer.”

Brand of Sacrifice – God Hand Review

By Holdeneye on July 2, 2019 in 2019, American Metal, Canadian Metal, Death Metal, Deathcore, Electronica Metal, Reviews, Unique Leader, Death Metal, Deathcore, Electronic Metal, 16 comments

“If you’ve read any of my reviews, you know that my taste in music is highly suspect, so it should come as no surprise by now that a deathcore album has a decent chance to impress me. In fact, when I heard “Divinity,” the first single from God Hand, I initially thought that I might have stumbled upon a gem.” God smacked.

Video Premiere and Interviews with Stevie Boiser and Trevor Portz of Ashen Horde

By Holdeneye on July 1, 2019 in 2019, American Metal, Blog Posts, Interviews, 40 comments

“Back in March, I reviewed Ashen Horde’s latest opus of black metal fury, Fallen Cathedrals. I heaped an unhealthy amount of praise its way back then, and I’m still spinning it a ton now. In fact, I would be very surprised if it were to fall outside of my top 5 albums come year’s end. My review may have been riddled with factual errors, but founder, songwriter, instrumentalist, and clean vocalist Trevor Portz showed up in the comments and revealed himself to be a gracious and enormously cool guy. So, when the opportunity to do an interview presented itself, I couldn’t resist.” We’re already off to a better start than last time.

Bloodred Hourglass – Godsend Review

By Holdeneye on June 25, 2019 in 2019, Finnish Metal, Groove Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Out of Line Music, Reviews, Thrash Metal, Groove Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Thrash Metal, 45 comments

“Last year, no fewer than eight AMG staff members placed Queen of Time by Amorphis somewhere on their year end list. If you’re reading this and happen to be one of the eight people whose names are written in bolded burnt orange in support of that album on this page — especially if your name starts with Angry and ends in Guy — please stop reading now and go about your business elsewhere. I’ll be honest with you, I never once made it all the way through that album in one sitting despite trying in earnest six times. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot to love on Queen of Time, but that’s just it — there’s a lot of it. The sugary melodies are great, but the album and most of its songs are far too long and there is not enough heaviness to balance out the pop. I was content to remain silent in my dissent until I began spinning Godsend, the fourth record from a different Finnish band, Bloodred Hourglass.” Hourglass houses and stones.

Skelator – Cyber Metal Review

By Holdeneye on June 13, 2019 in Reviews, Heavy Metal, Power Metal, Speed Metal, Thrash Metal, 88 comments

“I stand before you today to confess two great sins. First, I was not allowed to watch He-man growing up, so you will not be treated to the appropriate level of jokes that this band name demands. Alas, I’m neither the writer that you want nor the one that you deserve. Secondly, despite living in the Seattle area for my entire life, I had never heard of local band Skelator until stumbling upon them in the promo bin the other day. I was far too busy with real life circumstances to take on a review for this week, but the combination of the band’s location and my physiological response to hearing the advance track required me to reprioritize my life.” Cause you had to be a He-Man, dincha?

Winterwolf – Lycanthropic Metal of Death Review

By Holdeneye on June 11, 2019 in 2019, Death Metal, Finnish Metal, Reviews, Svart Records, Death Metal, 17 comments

“Today we take a trip back to 1993 when, while I was in 2nd grade listening exclusively to oldies music and getting my video games taken away for uttering vile profanities like “butt” and “fart,” old school death metal was death ‘n’ rolling along in Scandinavia. It’s a year that saw important releases from Dismember and Entombed, as well as one of OSDM’s more unique offerings, Demilich’s Nesphite. The latter retains a legendary cvlt status among death metal fans as it was the band’s only full-length release and it featured a bizarre unique musical style and unbelievably low belching vocals.” The monster is now a wolf in winter.

Savage Messiah – Demons Review

By Holdeneye on May 27, 2019 in 2019, Century Media, English Metal, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Reviews, Thrash Metal, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, 85 comments

“During high school, I loved our local hard rock station, Funky Monkey, and it was integral in the development of my bad musical taste. The best feature was the tough guy voice that gave you the name of the band and the song title after each track had played, allowing me to quickly categorize which bands I did and didn’t like. But when I got my first iPod, all of that changed. Sure, I had a giant book of CDs that I had kept hidden in my car for when the radio wasn’t cutting it, but being able to load a tiny device with tons of songs was a game changer. Before long, I’d left most mainstream rock and metal behind and was listening to all things cheesy and trve.” The more things change….

Amulet – The Inevitable War Review

By Holdeneye on May 21, 2019 in 2019, British Metal, Dissonance Productions, Heavy Metal, NWOBHM, Reviews, Heavy Metal, NWOBHM, 94 comments

“A few weeks back, I received a cube-shaped item from Madam X. After spending the requisite time aligning the mirrors in my chamber of decoding, the sun’s light finally shone upon said box which opened to reveal a promo and the following message: “Steel thought you might enjoy this one.” With enormous shame do I remember the arrogance and ungratefulness I exhibited upon that day when I dispatched the coif-clad courier back to AMG HQ with said promo and some form of “Thanks, but I’m good.” While I thought I had moved on and gone about my business, over the following days an almost imperceptible sound began to grow into a still, small voice and finally erupted into a siren’s wail, drawing me to the edge of the promo bin upon my hands and knees. With all of my might, I screamed my repentance towards the sky — “I must have the Amulet!”” Don’t sass the Steel.

Bewitcher – Under the Witching Cross Review

By Holdeneye on May 10, 2019 in 2019, American Metal, Black Metal, Heavy Metal, Reviews, Shadow Kingdom Records, Speed Metal, Black Metal, Heavy Metal, Speed Metal, 76 comments

“If you’re a stereotypical stereotyper like myself, Portland, Oregon is a city that brings to mind images of rain-soaked, tattoo-covered hipsters sipping pot-infused craft beer and cold brew coffee while they dodge cavalcades of Subarus, Priuses (Prii?), and bicycles on the march towards the many nearby hiking trails. Having visited the city several times, I can confirm that almost all of these are 100% true, but I’m beginning to think that the whole “Keep Portland Weird” idea is a coverup to distract from Portland’s true identity as a stronghold of — gasp! — SATAN! Hometown speed metallers Bewitcher are here with their second full length to set the record straight, and on Under the Witching Cross they boldly fly the Sign of the Goat above the City of Roses while uttering diabolical incantations in an attempt to transform the grounds below into the “Savage Lands of Satan!” The Devil is in the dark roast.

Tanagra – Meridiem Review

By Holdeneye on May 5, 2019 in 2019, American Metal, Power Metal, Progressive Metal, Reviews, Self-released, Symphonic Metal, Power Metal, Progressive Metal, Symphonic Metal, 50 comments

“”Bloat.” It’s a nasty word, and it’s hard to come up with situations in which bloating occurs in an enjoyable way. I’ve experienced severe abdominal bloating, the kind where you’d gladly trade your kingdom for a pressure-relieving fart. My mighty tire and hammer have been in storage since we moved several weeks back, so I’ve been dealing with the gradual bloating of my waistline and the subsequent struggles to squeeze my fat ass into pants that used to fit. I can even attest to the unpleasantness of having to move a bloated human corpse after it has baked in a sealed apartment for over a week in the summer heat. Yep, bloating seems to universally suck, but I’ll try to keep an open mind as my ears travel a couple of hours down Interstate 5 to review the bloated hour-plus sophomore album Meridiem from Portland, Oregon’s Tanagra.” If the pants fit….