sentynel

Clouds Collide – They Don’t Sleep Anymore

Clouds Collide – They Don’t Sleep Anymore

By sentynel on July 24, 2019 in 2.5, 2019, American Metal, Reviews, Self-released, Post-Metal, 13 comments

“The term “nominative determinism” refers to the idea that people gravitate towards jobs that fit their names. The classic example is incontinence researchers Splatt and Weedon. My high school chemistry teacher was called Mr Burns. Band names, however, are generally the other way around: the name is chosen to fit the band’s sound, not vice versa, and you can learn a lot about most bands from their name. Clouds Collide is wonderfully evocative. You probably don’t need me to tell you they play atmospheric post-metal. It’s the personal one-man project of Chris Pandolfo, and I mean personal.” Cloudy with a chance of emotion.

Gloryhammer – Legends From Beyond the Galactic Terrorvortex Review

Gloryhammer – Legends From Beyond the Galactic Terrorvortex Review

By sentynel on June 3, 2019 in 2019, British Metal, Napalm Records, Power Metal, Reviews, Power Metal, 134 comments

“If you missed the tongue-bathing AMG gave their last album, Gloryhammer are one of the best active Rhapsody-style epic power metal bands, and also a loving, self-aware parody of same. They’re founded first on quality and second on overly-amped up tropes—D-tier speculative fiction plot, non-native English speaker lyrics, etc.—to the precise point where they become obviously funny. It’s not so overdone that it becomes tiresome, and it works because of the attention to detail and cohesiveness of the whole: take a couple of elements away and you might wonder whether they were actually serious all along.” Get hammered.

New Comments System

New Comments System

By sentynel on May 26, 2019 in Blog Posts, 442 comments

As the two of you still browsing the internet without adblock in 2019 will be aware, the enforced advertising shown by our Disqus comments has been getting more and more obnoxious of late. We have officially Had Enough, so we’re moving to self-hosted comments as of this post.

Ty Morn – Istor Review

Ty Morn – Istor Review

By sentynel on March 22, 2019 in 2019, British Metal, Power Metal, Reviews, Self-released, NWOBHM, Power Metal, 113 comments

“Another day, another record palmed off generously donated to me by Steel. In this case, I was convinced to give it a shot by the gorgeous cover art. Take a moment to admire it. It’s certainly not particularly brvtal, but it is very pretty. Despite the Viking art, though, the music doesn’t particularly draw on the tropes of Viking metal. This is classic power metal in the vein of Hammerfall, Dream Evil, and the like. Yet, sole permanent band member Aron Biale describes it as an homage to golden age metal.” Ear raid.

Angry Metal Album Art Neural Networks

Angry Metal Album Art Neural Networks

By sentynel on March 11, 2019 in 2019, Blog Posts, Black Metal, Death Metal, Doom Metal, Folk Metal, Heavy Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Post-Metal, Power Metal, Progressive Metal, Thrash Metal, 150 comments

“Observant readers will have noticed that we here at Angry Metal Guy are a bunch of complete nerds. As the sysadmin, I am definitely one of the worst offenders. I’m also, like a suspicious number of the other staff, a trained research scientist (though in my case, I left academia and work in tech). On a completely unrelated note, I’ve been meaning to play with neural networks for a while, and a few months ago the idea of running some of the current generation of rather impressive image classification neural networks against album art occurred to me.” Art vs. technology.

Degraey – Reveries Review

Degraey – Reveries Review

By sentynel on March 5, 2019 in 2019, Post-metal, Reviews, Self-released, Spanish Metal, Post-Metal, 87 comments

“One of my greatest musical regrets is missing an opportunity to see Isis perform shortly before they disbanded. They were the band that got me into the heavier, harsher-vocalled side of metal, and remain one of my all-time favorite bands. Fortunately, given their position as genre-definers for post-metal, there are no shortage of imitators out there to scratch the itch. Degraey are an independent Spanish band, here with their second album following 2016’s Chrysalis, and the briefest of listens to Reveries reveals they’re card-carrying members of the “We Miss Isis” club.” Gone but not forgotten.

Hexvessel – All Tree Review

Hexvessel – All Tree Review

By sentynel on February 16, 2019 in 2019, Century Media, Finnish Metal, Progressive Rock, Reviews, Not Metal, Progressive Rock, 42 comments

“One of the big things I look for in music is a sense of being taken elsewhere, of stepping aside from the real. I work a stressful tech job, and the next best thing to ditching my desk and marching off into the woods is music that makes me feel like I’m adrift in an ancient forest. This means I’m a big fan of ethereal, folksy influences in my music. Esben and the Witch’s Older Terrors established itself as one of my favorite records ever, and I enjoyed Hexvessel’s first few releases for similar reasons.” Let treedom ring.

Jo Quail – Exsolve [Things You Might Have Missed 2018]

Jo Quail – Exsolve [Things You Might Have Missed 2018]

By sentynel on November 28, 2018 in 2018, Black Metal, British Metal, Non-Metal Metal Things, Post-Rock, Reviews, Self-released, Things You Might Have Missed 2018, Atmospheric Black Metal, Non-metal Metal Things, 66 comments

“I love the cello. I don’t think there are any other instruments which offer the tonal range and gorgeous timbre a cello can. I also think it’s criminally underused in heavy music. Apocalyptica demonstrate it can sound metal as hell, yet otherwise it’s mostly limited to a few cameo appearances. This brings me to Jo Quail, experimental cellist, loop pedal wizard, and versatile session musician. Her own back catalog is largely a post-rock/modern classical blend, and after a year in which she’s supported acts like Myrkur, Amenra, Boris, and Winterfylleth, their influence clearly shows on her new record. With her sound evolving towards post-metal and atmospheric black metal, her new album is an interesting development.” Cello, my friends.