Record reviews
“If an outbreak of evil’s what you’re after, raise your iron fist to this slab of sleazy, down and dirty Sodom worship! Not only is Slutvomit’s homage to mid-80’s era metal a throwback to the blackened speed metal served up by early Sodom and a few other bands of the era, but their band name could almost have been poached direct from Obsessed by Cruelty.” It’s easy to love shameless Sodom worship, because Sodom is so damn loveable! But can it charm the fickle Mistress known as Madam X?
“I don’t know what’s more unusual — the fact Satyricon are still around or the fact that one of the most pivotal Norwegian black metal bands are signed to Roadrunner. It’s probably fairer to judge the band by their merits instead of their label, and their laurels are notable. With such 90s classics as Dark Medieval Times and Nemesis Divina still held as black metal masterpieces even now, it’s hard to question their relevancy to black metal history. They’ve also had some arguably decent albums in the past decade too, but what about now and how does their self-titled LP stand up to its forbearers?” Noctus delves into one of the most anticpated albums of the year and let’s us all know if these evil wood trolls still have the dark magic of olden days.
The worst thing that ever happened to London’s Haken was that someone once compared them to Dream Theater. In fact, enough reviewers compared the band to Dream Theater that on Metal Archives the only “associated act” is the unfortunate Berklee Music School graduating class of nineteen eighty-boring. “Why,” you ask, “is it a problem to be compared to DT? They have a long and storied career!” Because I am not alone in finding the band’s music to be void of creativity. It is insipid, lacking in feel, and often only an exercise in form. So when someone says to me, “Yeah, man! They’re like Dream Theater!” that’s an instant cue for me (and many others I’ve met) to shut down; to tune out; to back out of the room slowly and look for a shotgun. Still, being the daring man I am, I couldn’t help but listen to Haken’s new album The Mountain when it landed in my box a few weeks back. Honestly, the band has such a fantastic loyalty from its fans, that I felt like I had to at least give them a chance. In general, InsideOut is a trustworthy label and they put out good material [With a few notable exceptions, of course — F.t.A.G]—so what choice did I have?
“As a fanboy extraordinaire of classy, epic doom, I’m clearly the target demographic for larger-than-life regressive metallers Atlantean Kodex. Their massive debut The Golden Bough was an intoxicating mixture of While Heaven Wept, Solstice and Solitude Aeturnus with a healthy dose of Bathory’s Hammerheart added for Viking flair.” Steel Druhm has been chomping at the bit for this release and nobody likes being chomped. Does The White Goddess live up to his unreasonable expectations or will the remainder of 2013 be a rabid chomp-fest?
“When does a song become high art instead of mere music? Every once in a while you come across an album that makes you question what you define as music. The tracks hit you like a wrecking ball (think the depravity of Nattefrost or the savagery of Romania’s Satanochio), they’re emotional and express an idea, but instead of rhythm and harmony, they’re far more experimental. They’re more noise than melody, bleeding rebellion and one could even say they’re anti-music. German experimental black metal band Vom Fetisch der Unbeirrtheit (V.F.d.U) have left me pondering the above questions with their new release Vertilger.” Unpalatable anti-music passing as fine art? Only at AMG! Follow along as Madam X explores some funky, experimental blackness.
“Argus is one of the leaders in the “trve,” “cvlt” metal wave ov late. They specialize in the kind of muscular battle metal that makes you long for the days of swords, sandals and institutionally approved beer wenching and you can almost feel the hair on your back growing as you spin their odes to brotherhood and bravado. Long have they toiled to perfect their blend of Iron Maiden riffs, the doom-based power of Candlemass, Grand Magus and Doomsword and the oiled pectoral charm of Manowar.” Ready for some no nonsense, old school metal from the days of High Adventure? You better be because Argus is back to kick ass and chew bubble gum and they’re ALL outta bubble gum.
‘“Why did you start making music?” I asked, while pretending to sip the amazingly cheap red wine in my half-broken glass, scouting for what was left of my dignity while lying on the cold floor. I don’t think he ever gave me an answer, but there are times when Daniel O’Sullivan does not even bother formulating a reply. He breathed out another puff, I turned my head and gave an intoxicated nod to the ceiling while looking nowhere ahead of me. Grumbling Fur’s music is exactly like that whiff. It is not an answer because nobody has ever posed the right question.” If we ever needed someone to decipher that whiff of smoke, you know we’d call Alex to do so. He speaks smoke and obscurity, after all.
“Windhand is like the next door neighbor who walks around his front yard in tidy whities whilst swigging from a can of Rheingold ®. You want to like him, but he makes it really tough. As purveyors of super fuzzed-out, monolithic stoner doom, they’re often mentioned in the same breath as Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats; likely due to the groovy, 60s/70s style vocals they utilize. However, where Uncle Acid writes relatively short, hooky doom-rock anthems, Windhand opts for huge, laboriously slow, long-winded odes to mammoth distortion similar to Electric Wizard and Dopesmoker-era Sleep.” Windhand, the cult heroes of ginormous stoner doom/drone are back to oppress the masses with the power of THE RIFF! Will Steel Druhm be oppressed? He’s always so damn anti-authority, so who knows?
“Not only do lesser known Dublin based Mael Mórdha have some serious Primordial-worship going on, but members of the Mael Mórdha horde also act as session musicians for their touring big brothers. At any rate, knowing their close affiliation to Primordial (whom I hold in pretty high regard) and that Mael Mórdha boast a recent signing to Candlelight Records offering them a wider distribution base, I was a tad keen to hear their fourth full-length release. Damned When Dead is an infusion of traditional Irish laments and dirges on a sturdy back-bone of folk metal with some doom and gloom for added good measure, much like that on offer by Primordial and in part by Waylander. ” Join Madam X as she takes you on a guided tour of Irish folklore, piles of bodies stacked high to the sky and her own barbaric bloodlust. Be afraid.
“Ulcerate’s emergence was rather inauspicious. Their first work, The Coming of Genocide, didn’t hold much promise. It was pretty standard for mid-aughts uber-blast brutality, assaultive to the point of redundancy. But there were some gnarly guitar squalls nestled in their amateurish blastfuckery, and on their first true album, Of Fracture and Failure, things started to get wild. Then, Everything is Fire happened, and things got real.” First Carcass and now this? It’s all big releases, all the time and and Jordan Campbell is on the job with his always insightful musings.
