Blog Posts

Angry Metal Guy Speaks: On the Consequences of Copyright Fights and Ownership

Angry Metal Guy Speaks: On the Consequences of Copyright Fights and Ownership

By Angry Metal Guy on October 5, 2012 in Blog Posts, 11 comments

Recently Steel Druhm outlined with some bittersweet memories the evolution of the music industry away from the prized formats of the CD and the LP (and cassette – but let’s not kid ourselves, liking cassettes is basically just proof that you’re trve ’cause you’re using the shittiest technology possible). But one of the things he didn’t touch on was the societal implications of the process he was talking about. Now I understand that this is a metal blog and that if I wanted to start AngrySociologyGuy.com I am free to do so; but bear with me, because I don’t feel like starting a new blog just to hash through the concept of ownership.

Angry Metal Guy Speaks: On Ratings, Subjectivity and Diversity

Angry Metal Guy Speaks: On Ratings, Subjectivity and Diversity

By Angry Metal Guy on September 8, 2012 in Blog Posts, 32 comments

Here at Angry Metal Guy, you probably have noticed some changes lately. It has been coming up most for those who have been reading for a long time and these people have been expressing concerns about certain aspects of this website’s continued expansion and change. So I’m here to give you guys some real talk about exactly what’s up around here, how things are changing and why things are changing in the way that they are changing.

Angry Metal Guy Speaks: On Genres as Pejoratives

Angry Metal Guy Speaks: On Genres as Pejoratives

By Angry Metal Guy on August 26, 2012 in Blog Posts, Alternative Metal, Deathcore, Melodic Death Metal, Metalcore, Nu Metal, Technical Death Metal, 85 comments

A really curious thing happens from time to time that I think it’s time to comment on. Because we all (that is, those of us who read and/or write AngryMetalGuy.com) love heavy metal, we all essentially draw boundaries for it. It all depends on your perspective, but largely we say that one thing is metal and another thing is not. We make fun of the things we find to be not metal and we praise (and often deify unnecessarily) that which we find to be super metal. This is not a surprise. In fact, I’d guess that it’s a natural part of the human brain: we group things and put them in their place so as to better order our world. We also use cognitive short cuts in order to reach conclusions about the vast seas of information that exist outside of our existence.

Angry Metal Guy Speaks: On Internet Popularity

Angry Metal Guy Speaks: On Internet Popularity

By Angry Metal Guy on August 13, 2012 in Blog Posts, 23 comments

I normally don’t spend a lot of time thinking about our statistics anymore. The reality is that with our “model” of doing business, we’re never going to be Metal Sucks – and nor do I think that we should be. But today we hit a teeny, tiny little milestone in that we now have 3,000+ likes on Facebook. “Ack,” you say, “Facebook!” Indeed. One can feel that way about it, but I choose to see this in a different light.

Record(s) o’ the Month – July 2012

Record(s) o’ the Month – July 2012

By Angry Metal Guy on August 6, 2012 in 2012, Blog Posts, Record o' the Month, 9 comments

July has actually been a bit of a strange month. While every other month of the year has had some really amazing releases and it’s been difficult to choose, the competition was a little weirder this month. There wasn’t really anything that destroyed anything else—instead, the highest score that we gave out during July was a 4.0. It was also weird, because we reviewed up-and-coming vest metal rockstars Castle who, at least Steel Druhm and I, agreed deserved recognition. But since the record was not released in July, it was not eligible.

Angry Metal Guy’s Indefensible Positions: Mayhem – Grand Declaration of War

Angry Metal Guy’s Indefensible Positions: Mayhem – Grand Declaration of War

By Angry Metal Guy on July 31, 2012 in Blog Posts, Indefensible Positions, Black Metal, 15 comments

Every once in a while the metal scene collectively pisses on a band or record and someone needs to step up and defend why they like it. I normally don’t spend a lot of time defending shitty records, but sometimes genuinely interesting or good records get lampooned by an overly conservative heavy metal scene. And that calls for a professional contrarian to defend it! If ever there ever a professional contrarian, it would be me. So here I am to re-hash a record from my past that I still love that everyone else seems to have soured on (or never liked in the first place).

Angry Metal Mail

Angry Metal Mail

By Angry Metal Guy on July 28, 2012 in Angry Metal Mail, Blog Posts, 37 comments

We don’t get a ton of hate mail. Because we have a good system for commenting, most of the venting, whining, and misdirected anger at childhood traumas and inability to perform in bed gets left in our comment boxes where we can respond to the person directly or where others can respond (with public shaming). But every once in a while we get hate mail, and I thought I’d post this one because the pussy who sent it to me decided to air his poor taste only privately and anonymously. Well, we here at Angry Metal Guy brook no such behavior. If you’re going to be a moron, you get to do it in public.