Kronos

Trap Them – Blissfucker Review

By Kronos on June 4, 2014 in 2.0, 2014, Crust Punk, Death Metal, Grind, Prosthetic Records, Reviews, Crust Punk, Death Metal, Grind, 1 comment

“Trap Them has for years been in that beautiful sweet spot of great hardcore with a monstrous buzzsaw guitar sound. 2011’s Darker Handcraft pushed out excellent songs at high speed and sounded really good thanks to Kurt Ballou’s revered production chops, turning many a head and securing an already growing reputation for excellence. Three years later, Blissfucker readies for release, but with an entirely new rhythm section and a long silence from the band, what could have been cooking?” Let’s look in the pot, shall we?

Gluttony – Beyond the Veil of Flesh

By Kronos on May 25, 2014 in 2014, Death Metal, Reviews, Swedish Metal, Vic Records, Death Metal, 0 comments

“As impressive as sweep picking, blast beats and odd-time grooves are, there’s something to be said about death metal that doesn’t reach for the skies but digs in graves. There’s a certain charm to taking a genre and just executing it well rather than adding bells and whistles, and that’s exactly what Beyond the Veil of Flesh does.” Zombies, gore and flesh eating. It’s all here.

Embrace of Disharmony – Humanake Review

By Kronos on May 24, 2014 in 2014, Avante Garde, Italian Metal, My Kingdom Music, Reviews, 4 comments

“Unexpect’s Fables of the Sleepless Empire is hands down one of my favorite albums ever, and an excellent listen for anyone interested in avant-garde metal. It sets my personal standard for weird shit, which I guess is a bit unfortunate for any avant-garde metal bands I come across. By that admission, my recommendation for Italy’s Embrace of Dishamony means a lot.” Kronos is a harsh judge of weird music, so we always give him the weird shit.

Insense – De:Evolution Review

By Kronos on May 19, 2014 in 2014, Mas-Kina Recordings, Metalcore, Norwegian Metal, Reviews, Metalcore, 24 comments

“A few years ago, his majesty Steel Druhm reviewed Insense’s, Burn in Beautiful Fire, and hated the shit out of it, incensing many a fanboy. It was, according to him, “third-rate metalcore with all the emo/screamo pap that goes along with that craptastic style”, and by the end of the review he was ready to build a church out of copies of the album just to trick Varg Vikernes into beautifully turning them all to ash. Naturally, Steel never wants to hear a single chug out of these Norwegians again, so the task of reviewing De:Evolution has plummeted down the totem pole into my hopeful hands. “Hooray!” comes the cry of the fans, “Surely this new reviewer will bring justice to our beloved Insense, and right the wrongs of that petulant website which we shall not name.” Or will he…?” Judgment awaits!

Planet Rain – The Fundamental Principles Review

By Kronos on May 6, 2014 in 2014, Melodic Death Metal, Mighty Music, Reviews, Swedish Metal, Melodic Death Metal, 4 comments

“I like my death metal bleak and abrasive, dissonant and depressing, and full of sound and fury. Whether it signifies anything is irrelevant. But I wasn’t always like this, there were days when the young Kronos thought All That Remains was pretty damn heavy, had never heard of grindcore and had yet to utter the phrase “not brutal enough.”” Thankfully, our little Kronos has grow up…or has he?

Super Massive Black Holes – Calculations of the Ancients Review

By Kronos on April 26, 2014 in 2014, Canadian Metal, Minotauro Records, Progressive Metal, Reviews, Experimental Metal, Progressive Metal, 8 comments

“Have you ever listened to Between the Buried and Me and thought “Wow, wouldn’t it be great if there was a band just like this, but with even worse vocals?” I sure have, so it’s a good thing that Calgary’s Super Massive Black Holes are about to release their début album, Calculations of the Ancients. This experimental metal quartet has crafted a suite of tracks for the proggiest of them all, playing tuneful basslines and intricate riffs while filling the vocal skill gap between Between the Buried and Me and me.” Kronos wrestled this straight from the snapping jaws of a great white! Was it worth the fight?

Yer Metal is Olde: Cryptopsy – Blasphemy Made Flesh

By Kronos on April 9, 2014 in Yer Metal Is Olde, 3 comments

“We at AMG have a sense of history and like to think we’re in touch with metal’s ancient lore (kindly refrain from jokes about Steel Druhm’s age). With that in mind, we thought it might be fun to highlight notable albums released between twenty and thirty years ago in a new feature we call…YER METAL IS OLDE!” Kronos travels back before his time to give thanks to Cryptopsy for being awesome…and OLDE!

Pyrrhon – The Mother of Virtues Review

By Kronos on March 27, 2014 in 2014, American Metal, Death Metal, Progressive Death, Relapse, Reviews, Death Metal, 5 comments

““New York City’s PYRRHON emerge with a mind bending album of surrealistic death metal for fans of Gorguts, Ulcerate & Portal!” Brave words, promo guy, brave words. I as much as I admire your confidence, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. When you invoke Ulcerate and Gorguts in order to hawk your wares, you’ve certainly caught my attention, but lying won’t go unpunished. Besmirching the name of my favorite band of Kiwis is a cardinal sin, so either Pyrrhon has their shit really together, or an overzealous Relapse employee is going to find rat feces in his Cheerios tomorrow.” We at AMG disavow any knowledge and/or awareness of food tampering or promo vendor harassment.

Animals as Leaders – The Joy of Motion

By Kronos on March 24, 2014 in 2014, American Metal, Djent, Progressive Metal, Reviews, Sumerian Records, Progressive Metal, 15 comments

“It’s a bit early to assess the impact of the djent scene on metal overall, given that its rapid boom and bust occurred so recently, but preliminary findings are that it produced and popularized some definite keepers. One of the foremost are poised to release their third album. Tosin Abasi’s inventive instrumental ensemble took metal by an impressively subdued and nuanced storm with their eponymous début, carving out a canyon for current sweethearts like Exivious to wash into. For all of their stylistic idiosyncrasies, Animals as Leaders gets billed as a jazz-influenced prog-metal band, but I like to think of them more as a jazz group caught in an unlikely love affair with Meshuggah. Whatever you call them, and what you call them is likely to be overwhelmingly positive, you should be expecting something great out of The Joy of Motion.” Join Kronos as he delves into Djent and what wonders it has wrought in the music world.

Epistasis – Light Through Dead Glass

By Kronos on March 12, 2014 in 2014, American Metal, Avante Garde, Black Metal, Crucial Blast Records, Danish Metal, Reviews, Black Metal, Death Metal, Progressive Metal, 6 comments

“Imagine that you mated Gorguts and Dodecahedron and left their bastard progeny on the doorstep of The Ocean. By the time Light Through Dead Glass flies out the F1’s mouth, nature and nurture have taken their course in shaping their grubby offspring. Passed down from their father are incoherent shrieks and furious black metal riffs, complementing the intricate bass lines and scintillating guitar tone contributed by their mother. Both parents passed on the recessive atonality and strangeness alleles, and somewhere along the line a mutation occurred giving rise to the novel trumpet player feature. Despite Epistasis’ breeding, their adopted parents have taught them some manners, instilling upon the young band a sense of melody and introspection. With such a colorful bouquet of attributes, Epistasis is an impossible specimen to miss in a screen, even for the amateur metal geneticist.” In our ongoing quest to marry ivory tower academia with metal analysis, here’s Kronos discussing insect genetics and their relation to progressive and black metal. Huh?