Trevor from The Black Dahlia Murder is the first person I’ve ever interviewed more than once. Â Unfortunately, he doesn’t remember that. Â When I talked to him, the guys were a start up band from Detroit that was soon going into the studio to record Miasma a record that went over, well, remarkably well. […]
American Metal
Cormorant – Metazoa Review
Before this last week I’d never heard of Cormorant[1. Cormorant: “a large diving bird with a long neck, long hooked bill, short legs, and mainly dark plumage. It typically breeds on coastal cliffs, and is noted for its voracious appetite.” This voracious appetite has come to be used figuratively implying “an insatiably greedy person or thing.” – Thanks OAED] or of Saturnine Media. Because of this, I was able to be pleasantly surprised by what is one of the best underground albums of the year. But if you’re reading this, you don’t have to be surprised, you can go out and buy it as an informed consumer. You’re welcome.
The Atlas Moth – A Glorified Piece of Blue-Sky Review
The Atlas Moth – A Glorified Piece of Blue-Sky Rating: 3.5/5.0 – A mix of sounds that works very well, but doesn’t stand out for me.. Label: Candlelight Website: theatlasmoth.com Release Date(s): EU: 21.09.2009 | USA: 10.6.2009 Sludge, and many variations thereof, have definitely been working their way into the “mainstream” consciousness of heavy metal […]
The Black Dahlia Murder – Deflorate Review
The Black Dahlia Murder is becoming a veteran band among this new wave of melodic American death metal/metalcore or whatever the hell you want to call it. To get this out of the way right away: I think that The Black Dahlia Murder has been treated unfairly by a metal community sad to see the disappearance of the old school metal guy anywhere except brutal death metal. Modern American metal has come to be dominated by short-haired, tattooed hardcore lookin’ kids who often have super diverse taste in music and have never donned a leather jacket or a goatee in their lives. These hardcore lookin’ dudes put on shows that have an energy that often times metal dudes lack in their own live performances, and they’re gaining notoriety with their blending of brutal death metal and stupid core breakdowns. The Black Dahlia Murder has been lumped in with these guys because of tattoos and plugs, but they are certainly not akin to these bands. No, The Black Dahlia Murder is easily one of the best melodic death metal bands the United States has ever produced and despite them sounding a lot like At The Gates plus blast beats, I think they do it very, very well and very consistently.
Threat Signal – Vigilance
Three years after their initial release, after being a true Internet success story, Threat Signal is back with a new album called Vigilance. I never got to review the first album, and I must admit that this style is a little bit too sugary sweet for my tastes, but I was pleasantly surprised with what I heard contained within the borders of Vigilance: a band comfortable in their own shell, producing music that skates the fine line between pop metal, metalcore and thrash. This record is sure to bring delight to those among us who aren’t fans of the more heavy hitting, brutal or technical things that are flooding the market these days.
Shroud of Despondency
Frankly, I’m surprised that I hadn’t heard much more of this stuff earlier. Back in the day when I was in my old band, we played a show up in the UP (a link, for those who don’t know) where we came in contact with a really great band (whose name I cannot remember for the life of me) which contained a very great guitarist (whose name I can remember, Rory Heikkila). Long story short, said band doesn’t exist anymore, but that guitar player has relocated from the boonies to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he currently is producing some pretty fucking amazing black metal. If you’re into depressive black metal, you should definitely check out the first full length from this project For Eternity Brings No Hope (be prepared for some pretty low-fi recording, but there’s some seriously good shit on this album, the album was sold out, but is now available via mp3 here).
Angry Metal Guy’s Classics: #2
OK, so the first album that I did in my “classic albums” section was Type O Negative, which of course, was one of my favorite bands at the time. But they also turned me onto Roadrunner Records, which for those of you too young to remember, was kind of one of the few places even putting out metal in the US during the 1990s. Sure, in retrospect, a lot of that stuff wasn’t that great. But there were a few bands on that label that put out some good records. Sepultura had Chaos AD which I loved, and one band that stands out for me to this day, and that I really loved as an angsty teenager, was Life of Agony.
Megadeth – Head Crusher
I make no bones about it, I am not a big Megadeth fan. Remember that part of Lord of the Rings where Gandalf calls Théodin “the lesser son of great fathers?” Yeah, the way I see it: Megadeth is pretty much the same way. Overrated, not very interesting and pretty much just kind of annoying. […]
Swashbuckle – Back to the Noose Review
Swashbuckle – Back to the Noose Rating: 3.0/5.0 Label: Nuclear Blast (EU | USA) Websites: myspace.com/swashbuckle | swashbuckle.info Release date: July 24th, 2009 (EU) | August 11th, 2009 (USA) Pirates are becoming an all-too-common and all-too-silly theme in our current society—sort of a strange zeitgeist, if you will. Everything from the pirates in Somalia to […]
Between the Buried and Me Done with New Record
Tommy from Between the Buried and Me has posted a message on their MySpace page updating about their studio process. After 5 weeks of recording they have finished with their new album, The Great Misdirect. It is scheduled to be out on the 27th of October. Here’s the post: hello everyone… writing to update everyone […]
