Non-Metal Metal Things

Raphael Weinroth-Browne – Worlds Within Review

Raphael Weinroth-Browne – Worlds Within Review

“And he now works with Leprous as a dedicated cellist, while he also participates in neo-folk troupe Musk Ox and classical duo Kamancello. Across these projects, he has exhibited a flair for flexible use of his instrument, the cello, and I was therefore excited to observe a release called Worlds Within under his own name, solely composed by himself. How does his music fare when divested from the creative control of others’ grubby hands?” Cello again.

Rose Tint: El Cuervo’s Discoveries of 2019

Rose Tint: El Cuervo’s Discoveries of 2019

“Following my last couple of year-end lists, it should now not come as a shock that I spent more time fleshing out my historical knowledge of music than my contemporary knowledge. In honor of my abject failure in keeping my eye on the present, I have received approval to document my ever-deeper plundering of previous decades in an article detailing my favorite older records which I first heard in 2019.” Old things, young ears.

Chelsea Wolfe – Birth of Violence [Things You Might Have Missed 2019]

Chelsea Wolfe – Birth of Violence [Things You Might Have Missed 2019]

Chelsea Wolfe’s respected and increasingly revered status within, and outside, the metal scene has steadily grown in recent years. From humble beginnings of her experimental goth-folk early works, to the enchanting Pain is Beauty, Wolfe really hit her stride on 2015’s eclectic masterwork, Abyss.” Birth is violence.

Pristine – Road Back to Ruin [Things You Might Have Missed 2019]

Pristine – Road Back to Ruin [Things You Might Have Missed 2019]

“Once again, whether due to rank neglect or prior obligation, we missed Pristine’s latest slab of bar-brawling, leather-bound, bluesy hard rock goodness. Fans of this site will remember Huck N Roll swooning over Pristine’s Ninja, which was indeed a strong record from a Norwegian band operating way under the radar punching way above their weight class. Road Back to Ruin punches even higher, swinging and swaggering hard enough to fell Sequoias like blades of grass.” Roads best taken.

Rosk – remnants Review

Rosk – remnants Review

“Have you ever listened to a band and just known that they have an incredible acoustic album in them? Since the first time I heard Swallow the Sun, I’d been waiting for their acoustic release. Winterfylleth’s The Hallowing of Heirdom was a surprise to me – and also one of my favorite albums of its year and style. When you listen to Miasma, the debut album by Polish post-atmoblack group Rosk, you can just hear the acoustic album waiting to break free. The quiet, intimate passages between songs on Miasma were deeply affecting and begging to be explored further. Only two years later, here it is: Rosk returns with remnants, a fully acoustic, stripped-down, intimate dark folk album with clear atmoblack and doom metal inspiration.” Heartstrings.

Drifting in Silence – Away Review

Drifting in Silence – Away Review

“Metal music and ambient music share a lot in common. In the same way that non-metal listeners think, ‘Gee, what is that hellish noise?’ when they hear metal music, many consider ambient music to simply be noise reserved for elevators or dentist office waiting rooms. In other words, the genres of ambient and metal both have a history of being mistakenly classified as ‘not real music.’ Of course, the genre of metal is incredibly vast and nuanced and cannot be generalized in this way. Nor can ambient.” Kindred musical spirits.

65daysofstatic – replicr, 2019 Review

65daysofstatic – replicr, 2019 Review

65daysofstatic can do no wrong. From being invited to score the first radio adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse-Five (Vonnegut fangirl here!) to soundtracking the procedurally generated open world planetary exploration game No Man’s Land, the experimental four-piece band from Sheffield, England have again and again graciously cherry-picked unique opportunities that are presented to them upon which to work their magic. 65daysofstatic meticulously piece together complex and emotional structures of sound and continually push the boundaries of what’s possible for music to convey. replicr, 2019, 65daysofstatic’s eighth studio album, is no exception.” Non-static Static.

Those Darn Gnomes – Calling Whitetails to a Tuned Bow Review

Those Darn Gnomes – Calling Whitetails to a Tuned Bow Review

“Imagine being at a party with your musician pals. They’re all very accomplished. Suddenly, they decide to put on an impromptu jam. Everybody joins in–like, a dozen people. They decide they’re going to play, oh, I don’t know, some weird number, like from Harry Partch or something. Only they all play a different Partch composition at the same time, and add some slam poetry, pound on some homemade instruments, and one guy starts growling death metal vocals. Now comes the choose your own adventure part: do you sit there mesmerized, in awe of the spectacle unfolding, or do you stand up and leave due to your churning stomach, unable to handle the confluence of disparate styles, rhythms, and sounds? Welcome to Those Darn Gnomes.” Chaos is a ladder.

Glitter Wizard – Opera Villains Review

Glitter Wizard – Opera Villains Review

“The AMG higher-ups fancy themselves benevolent despots. That’s because they allow us relative freedom to choose our own promos and surprise us with pizza and hobo wine office parties now and then. Occasionally they’ll even offer tepid praise after our reviews are published. Sure, the quarterly beatings leave marks, but they rarely break the skin. Then again, if they see us getting too comfortable, they’ll assert their authority by assigning reviews that leave us just enough rope to hang ourselves. They might make brutal boi Kronos review symphonic power metal, or give our morose Muppet a jaunty pirate metal sing-along. For reasons beyond my understanding, they saw the words Glitter Wizard in the promo sump and thought, “Now there’s a stop-bang pooper doop if we’ve ever seen one, and we know just the writer for the job.”” Feel the opera.

Deafkids – Metaprogramação Review

Deafkids – Metaprogramação Review

“As one of the resident “I like weird music” suckers in the AMG offices, it fell to me this month to take on the latest from Brazilian noisemakers Deafkids: their third album, the copy-and-paste titled Metaprogramação. These fellows create a bizarre fusion of noise rock, punk, and Brazilian polyrhythms, leaving us with something that is both disturbing and hypnotizing at the same time. Newly signed to the Neurosis label Neurot Recordings, and actually supporting (along with Bell Witch) Neurosis for their upcoming brief North American summer tour, all signs are pointing up for Deafkids. Now, how to go about reviewing something that Steve Von Till describes as “sonic Ayahuasca?”” Kids today.