Epic Metal

Sumerlands – Sumerlands Review

By Steel Druhm on September 9, 2016 in 2016, American Metal, Epic Metal, Heavy Metal, Progressive Metal, Relapse, Reviews, Epic Metal, Heavy Metal, 39 comments

“As always, I’m dating myself with my taste in music, but so be it. Sumerlands is an unheralded act set to explode on the nostalgia-core scene with their self-titled release and let’s just say, I’m fully on board. Featuring Phil Swanson (Hour of 13, Briton Rites, et al) on vocals, Sumerlands plays exactly the kind of music I couldn’t get enough of in the late 80s/early 90s. It’s dark, brooding, traditional American metal with traces of prog and doom around the edges.” The boys of summer never sounded so olde!

Grand Magus – Sword Songs Review

By Steel Druhm on May 5, 2016 in 2016, Epic Metal, Heavy Metal, Nuclear Blast, Reviews, Swedish Metal, Epic Metal, Heavy Metal, 38 comments

“When you see an album adorned with a mighty eagle bearing a sword as drawn by a Venice Beach tattoo artist, you know you’re messin’ with one epic son of a bitch. Though they started life as a traditional doom act, over time Grand Magus transitioned into a kind of trve, Manowar-inspired unit, with said transition most obvious on 2014’s Triumph and Power.” Sword breaker, bird shaker, I’ve been told about you!

King Goat – Conduit Review

By Angry Metal Guy on March 23, 2016 in 2016, Doom Metal, English Metal, Epic Metal, Reviews, Unsigned Bands, Doom Metal, 44 comments

“King Goat hails from the mid-sized English city Brighton, the embodied karmic inverse of the Great Storm of 1703. Conduit, the band’s debut album, is a self-released album that they call “progressive doom metal.” The record consists of 5 long songs, is 42 minutes long and marks the band’s first release since two EPs from 2013. Most readers here are aware that I am not an epic consumer of doom metal, but Conduit spoke to me immediately. This band of Britons have crafted an album which successfully blends dark atmosphere, soaring vocals, ponderous builds, and an epic feel that compels a listener forward.” Candlemass-core no more!

Danimal Cannon – Lunaria Review

By Angry Metal Guy on March 15, 2016 in 2016, Epic Metal, Industrial Metal, Instrumental Metal, Progressive Metal, Symphonic Metal, 57 comments

There is some absurd and crazy shit going on in the world of music. I must admit that, despite being a pretty eclectic guy, my dedication to Angry Metal Guy has made me a little myopic. I focus on a lot of what lands in my promo box and don’t get a lot of output from the outside. Therefore, I’d missed that there is a growing 8-bit music scene developing. Back in the day I thought it was awesome that my buddy made a Nintendocore band called Totally Radd! and we all had a great time with it (including his ridiculously epic cover of “Hallowed Be Thy Name” which works a hell of a lot better than you’d expect as an 8-bit track). But that was 2003 and this is 2016. I have been trapped listening to metal’s own versions of Nostalgiacore™—re-thrash, retro-doom, the Nostalgia Wave of British Heavy Metal™, old school death metal, old school black metal, old school old school metal. But there’s a whole other world out there, folks! Filled with other nostalgia that I also like. Enter Danimal Cannon.

Things You Might Have Missed 2015: Macabre Omen – Gods of War – At War

By Mark Z. on December 1, 2015 in 2015, Black Metal, Epic Metal, Greek Metal, Things You Might Have Missed 2015, Van Records, Black Metal, Epic Metal, 31 comments

“I love combining metal with long-distance running. I find that reducing myself to a wheezing heap is a surprisingly effective way to evaluate new music: if an album makes me say “fuck this!” and throw my iPod into the nearest drainage ditch, it probably isn’t worth revisiting. With Macabre Omen’s sophomore effort Gods of War – At War, the effect was quite the opposite.” You missed the battle of the year!

Númenor – Sword & Sorcery Review

By Madam X on October 18, 2015 in 2015, Black Metal, Epic Metal, Power Metal, Reviews, Serbian Metal, Stormspell Records, Symphonic Metal, Black Metal, Epic Metal, Power Metal, Symphonic Metal, 41 comments

“Tolkien metal is actually a thing. For those that haven’t come across it prior to now, it’s a subgenre of black metal that’s supposedly more atmospheric and ambient with lyrics entirely based around Tolkien’s works. Summoning are the forerunners of the genre, but it looks like they have a little competition in the shape of Serbian band Númenor.” Nerds. Be. Raging (and LARPING).

Ironsword – None But the Brave Review

By Steel Druhm on May 15, 2015 in 2015, Epic Metal, Heavy Metal, Portuguese Metal, Reviews, Shadow Kingdom Records, Heavy Metal, 36 comments

“It’s hard to remain trve in such false times. Wear a broadsword into the local supermarket and you’ll get many a suspicious glance. Build an enormous stone monument to Ye Old Gods on your front lawn and you’ll invariably run into trouble with the town Zoning Board. Sacking weaker neighbors and carrying off their daughters? Forget all about it. Such are the cursed times we live in. But when the going gets tough, the trve get going, and that’s why Ironsword is so damn important.” It’s time to hold those war hammers high. Higher! HIGHER!

Sirenia – The Seventh Life Path Review

By Al Kikuras on May 7, 2015 in 2015, Doom Metal, Epic Metal, Gothic Metal, Napalm Records, Norwegian Metal, Reviews, Symphonic Metal, 49 comments

“Pizza is a sacred thing. When it’s good, it’s damn good. When it sucks, it’s an affront to humanity. An atrocity on a level with the Biafran revolt, just about every Adam Sandler movie, some genocides, and Illud Divinum Insanus. If you’ve read more than one of my reviews here on AMG you will know that I often equate music to food, not just because it is an analogy I think most people relate to, but I love these two things more than even my family members who aren’t reading this right now. The Seventh Life Path may not be my pie of choice, but during my tenure as a music critic, I’ve heard enough from the formative years on to be able to approach an album with at least relative objectivity.” In food, as in music, too much sugar wrecks the palate.

Ereb Altor – Nattramn Review

By Steel Druhm on April 20, 2015 in 2015, Black Metal, Cyclone Empire, Doom Metal, Epic Metal, Reviews, Swedish Metal, Black Metal, Doom Metal, Epic Metal, Viking Metal, 11 comments

“Ereb Altor, the other project by the men behind Isole, are back to wage the next phase of the battle for my favoritism. I enjoy both acts and it seems with each new release my loyalty shifts, with Isole’s recent The Calm Hunter putting me back in their camp, at least temporarily. Is it moving day again? I feel so temporary.

Barren Earth – On Lonely Towers Review

By Angry Metal Guy on March 23, 2015 in 2015, Century Media, Death Metal, Doom Metal, Epic Metal, Finnish Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Progressive Death, Progressive Metal, Reviews, Doom Metal, Progressive Death, Progressive Metal, 56 comments

“Barren Earth may be the only band I ever forgive for not giving me an audition to be their vocalist. After it was announced that Mikko Kotamäki (Swallow the Sun) was leaving the band and that they were publicly searching for a singer, I screwed up my courage and dropped them an email with some songs. Being that I am “the standard by which all should be judged” (which is why I started a blog), I was duly shocked, dismayed and offended that they never even sent me a kind rejection letter.” Bitter and jilted, can Angry Metal Guy ever forgive this Finnish super group their taste in singers!?