Record reviews
“Crack a beer and get comfy folks, it’s storytime. Our tale is about a brave group of Swedes who decided to storm the castle of greatness, knowing full well the dangers and hardships they’d face. The lofty standards of age-old records loved worldwide would need to be breached. Our protagonists would need to deftly maneuver within clear and defined stylistic boundaries. These Swedes go by the name Hyperion, and the tome of their triumph is called Seraphical Euphony. Storytime!
“Protector first hit the scene with 1988’s Golem; a crushing mix of Kreator and Possessed sound that straddled the line between thrash and death. This approach continued with 1989’s Urm the Mad until founder Martin Missy left the band. Missy was replaced with guitarist/vocalist Olly Wiebel, whose contributions brought a more thrash-focused sound to A Shedding of Skin and The Heritage. But after The Heritage, the band pretty much fell off the face of the earth.” And now they’re back!
“Germanic power metal has really become its own little thing over the years, making it a reliably punchy alternative to the overly pompous, fancy-pantsy, chaos wizardy sounds of traditional Euro-power. One of the better purveyors of this muscular brand of Teutonic terror is Sinbreed.” Manly power metal for manly men (and women).
“Entombed A.D. suggests a great return to glory for the Swe-death greats: Entombed is dead, long live Entombed A.D.! When it came out two years ago, Back to the Front was more like Back to the Middle, a good if not workmanlike record that wasn’t offensive but wasn’t the grand comeback the band and record name seemed to imply. Now L.G. Petrov and his A.D. crew are back with Dead Dawn, and only the most naïve of optimists could have possibly expected Left Hand Path II: HM-2 Boogaloo.” Why can’t we just have our little dreams?
![Opeth – Deliverance [Bruce Soord Vinyl Remix] – Review](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Opeth-DnD-768x768.jpg)
Deliverance has the honor of being my least favorite Opeth album prior to the release of Watershed. At the time, I was still seeing the band frequently on the road and enjoyed the records well enough, but I have to admit that I was much more a fan of Damnation than Deliverance. Early on I suggested that this may be due to the fact that the majority of the band’s best acoustic material was saved for the acoustic record. But as the years went on, I think realized that I always felt like the songwriting was choppier on Deliverance, a critique I later made of both Watershed and Heritage. After buying the remixes of Damnation and Deliverance released at the end of 2015 and reading Mikael Åkerfeldt’s liner notes, I have to say that I feel mollified.
“As you may have noticed, we’re prog wusses at AMG. We look favorably on innovation, strong atmosphere and where progressive isn’t a synonym for purely technical. Enter Headspace. Comprising high profile musicians such as vocalist Damian Wilson of Threshold, keyboardist Adam Wakeman of Ozzy’s band (and son of the Yes legend) and Lee Pomeroy, of note for his work with almost everyone ever (including Steve Hackett), the line-up is experienced and successful. ‘Supergroups’ are, however, plagued as strong personalities pull the music in various directions, often devolving into vain wankfests.” The curse of the supergroup continues.
“Todtgelichter set off on a pretty steep upward trajectory since their underwhelming debut back in 2005. Beginning life as just another black metal band, by the time of their third record Angst in 2010 they had transformed into one of the more exciting prospects in post-black metal.” We like exciting prospects here at AMG.
“It doesn’t take an encyclopedic knowledge of heavy metal to figure out where Foul Body Autopsy draw their name from. Which is good, because I certainly don’t have one. In fact, I didn’t even remember “Foul Body Autopsy” was a Necrophagist song until conducting research for this review, and the first time I actually sat down and listened to Muhammed Suicmez’s legendary tech death project was a few days ago when I found myself stuck in an airport terminal for five hours with a dead Kindle. Still, it only took a cursory listen of Onset of Putrefaction to reveal that FBA is far from mere Suicmez worship.” Does the apple fall far from the rotten tree?
“Oranssi Pazuzu narrowly missed out on Captain Ricard’s Best Black Metal Album of 2013 award (that went to Teethed Glory and Injury) with the magnificent Vaonielu. An instantly accessible yet bizarre and musically deep record, Vaonielu kept me away from my Toto loop for weeks with its sublime blend of catchy, aggressive riffs, trippy grooves, psychedelic synths, and menacing atmosphere.” Fear the wrath of Pazuzu’s schlong!
“It’s been a while since I’ve reached into the Grymm Grab Bag™ to review my next band, and this review doesn’t change that. Y’see, sometimes, like with Tom of… err, TOMB of Finland, the name alone just screams to be reviewed. This case, though, it was AMG himself saying, “Hey, Mr. Dan Swanö produced this.” Dan is a very talented mult-instrumentalist, a gifted songwriter, and the producer of some of my favorite records. So, I like Dan. And Dan produced Malevolence, the second album by German death metal machine, Rogash. When the Boss asks you to check something out, then damnit, you listen!” Grymm is working for the Man.
