“Cometh the year, cometh the man. Rogga Johansson is once more pillaging our pages with yet another death metal project (1 of the 73,832,799 death metal or death metal-adjacent albums to which he has contributed), this time with a band called Reek.” Smell the Rogga.
“I’m sitting here watching the sun illuminate the leaves of the many trees in my gigantic new backyard, and I’m finally allowing myself to entertain a glimmer of hope that this all might work out. Ask Mrs. Holdeneye and she will tell you that I can become quite despondent and Eeyore-like when exposed to even mild amounts of stress, so moving twice this year has affected my baseline mood significantly. Perhaps this explains why I’ve been listening to far more death metal during the last few months than is my norm — I’ve been unconsciously trying to vent the frustration that comes from uncertainty and constant change, things I love just about as much as Ron Swanson does.”Stressball deathball.
“In the 1980s and ‘90s, death metal greats like Asphyx, Grave, Bolt Thrower, and Entombed established the template for what the genre would be. And it’s tough to be a death metal band 20 or 30 years later competing with the iconic albums released by these giants of the scene. Italy’s Organic lists these greats as the influences for their debut outing Carved in Flesh.” The first rule of writing is to never overstate your case. Who here is worried that Organic is maybe a little out of their depths?
“‘Tis the tide of Yule and if you’re anything like me, you might find yourself wondering just what might be malingering under the tree in those sinister rhomboidal shapes… If you’re exactly like me, then you too must be hoping for some filthy Swedeath to furnish the festive season. Now if your partner hasn’t taken it upon themselves to wrap up a platter of Scandinavian malignancy, then fear not because Sentient Horror are the D-Beasts for you, arriving just in time to plunder Christmas with that smooth Stockholm sound.” You know Santa’s on his way. He’s loaded lots of horrors in his sleigh.
