Record reviews
“I loved the Cascadian/post-black metal craze, but let’s be honest: that bubble burst at least two years ago. After the umpteenth Wolves worshipper appeared (Addaura, Alda, Ash Borer – need I move past the ‘A’s?’), the mystique wore off and the music turned predictable.” Spring has sprung, and in case the snow hansn’t cooled your outlook, here’s some black metal to further harsh your mellow.
“When it comes to selecting albums to review, I rely on a tried-and-mostly-tr00 method of meticulous selection that’s been proven to garner conversations around water bubblers and soda machines the world over: I sometimes randomly just pick shit from a list and think, “Okay, that’s cool. Let’s give that a shot.” Behold, today’s selection is Iceland’s Dynfari.” In the game of chance, you win some and you lose some. Are the odds in Grymm’s favor this time around?
“Earlier this year, a band hailing somehow not from Japan, but from Kraków, released an appropriately enigmatically-named EP that by all rights should have shat all over Angra’s RoTM position, had anybody on the planet told us about it. But they didn’t. And for that you’ll burn.” We are aggrieved.
“Doom. Doom is done right when the word is no longer a mere genre, but an onomatopoeic descriptor of what you are hearing. Suffice to say, Finland’s Oceanwake understands this.” Prepare to meet your new doom flavor of the week. Mmmm doom.
“When guitarist Christian Muenzner (Spawn of Possession, ex-Necrophagist) and drummer Hannes Grossman (Blotted Science, ex-Necrophagist) departed Obscura last year, needless to say I was pretty bummed. The duo was an integral part of the band’s sparkling technical and progressive death metal formula that yielded back-to-back masterworks in Cosmogenesis and Omnivium. So while Obscura’s future looks uncertain, the gifted pair have forged ahead with a brand spankin’ new outfit called Alkaloid featuring an all-star line-up….” Dudes from the big names in tech-death coming together in a new super project? Are your slide rulers in a tangled knot of anticipation yet?
“Oh, how things have changed. Back in the Unchain the Underground days we used to get physical copies of releases. When I first started it as a print ‘zine in 1988, before some of my fellow staphers here at AMG were alive, it was a cassette and onesheet, then CDs. The digital copies just started to creep in towards the end of UtU existing as a web site.” Some things change, some don’t. Like the smell of a good angel corpse, for instance.
“I seem to have a knack for grabbing consecutive promos by two-piece bands. Last year, it was the one-two punch of Brits Godflesh and Anaal Nathrakh. This week, it’s Dynfari and the subject of this review’s intense scrutinizing observation, Minnesota’s Dissident Clone.” Here’s something short and nasty to start off your week.
“Crimson Swan is a German atmospheric funeral doom band from Hamburg, Germany. With one EP under their belt from 2012, Unlit marks the band’s full-length debut. Readers of this site are likely aware that funeral doom and I rarely see eye-to-eye. My case of Angry Metal Attention Deficit Disorder™ is well-documented and as a general rule records that don’t pop out speedy tracks littered with engaging virtuoso performances or progressive wankery send me out to do what Steel Druhm calls kindly ‘moss gazing.'” Can these novice German doom metallers strike that special chord in Angry Metal Guy’s heart? Or is he doomed to hours worth of moss gazing and boredom?
“I fucking love black-thrash, and if you don’t then I’m sorry about your inferior taste. My latest sample of the genre comes from Frosthelm, hailing from Minot, North Dakota of all places (coincidentally the same town as Ghost Bath – in case anyone still thought they were Chinese). Frosthelm are a quartet of self-confessed Dungeons & Dragons nerds who claim influences as broad as Metallica, Naglfar, and Dissection.” Put some Dakota in your dungeon and see how that suits ya!
“After ten albums (nine for those that don’t count Under Satanæ as an original release), each new Moonspell album leaves me in a state of “ummmm,” “hmmmm,” and “interesting.”” Things that make you go hmmmm, now including Moonspell!
