Yer Metal Is Olde

Yer Metal Is Olde: Illwill – Evilution

Yer Metal Is Olde: Illwill – Evilution

Evilution is the sole LP from quasi-supergroup Illwill. This odd band consisted of King Diamond and Mercyful Fate greats Andy LaRocque, Sharlee D’Angelo, and Snowy Shaw. While it’s common for these lads to form, join, or guest in many projects over the years, this might be one of the strangest collaborations in their storied careers.” Licensed to ill.

Yer Metal Is Olde: My Dying Bride – Turn Loose the Swans

Yer Metal Is Olde: My Dying Bride – Turn Loose the Swans

“1993 marked a brave time in the realm of heavy metal. It wasn’t unheard of to see a band do a massive about-face musically, in fact, it was oftentimes celebrated not only for the bravery of the act but also because said act blazed new trails for other bands to follow. When many death metal acts like Morbid Angel and Cannibal Corpse were pushing the envelopes in terms of speed, a select group of bands like Cathedral, Paradise Lost, and Halifax, West Yorkshire sextet My Dying Bride were going the opposite route by slowing things down to a crawl.” Olde swans and dead brides.

Yer Metal Is Olde: Morbid Angel – Covenant

Yer Metal Is Olde: Morbid Angel – Covenant

“As I’ve said before, Morbid Angel changed my life. I listened to thrash and heavy metal in my impressionable years, but never clicked with anything more extreme. Then one day over winter break in high school, I stumbled upon the music video for “Where the Slime Live.” Life was never the same. The criminally underrated Domination opened the doors to old-school death metal and shoved me through them headfirst.” Angel of brutality.

Yer Metal is Olde: Blut Aus Nord – The Work Which Transforms God

Yer Metal is Olde: Blut Aus Nord – The Work Which Transforms God

“Before we dive headfirst into today’s induction, I want to address the impressively large, off-salmon-colored pachyderm that’s currently occupying a large space in the corner of the room. Black metal, especially in the late nineties and early 2000s, wasn’t all that terrifying, despite what their chief songwriters would have you believe. Behind all the church arsons, bullshit posturing, literal back-stabbing, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, and murder, the music didn’t even come close to attaining a faint whiff of what they were trying to achieve aesthetically.” And then, transformation.

Yer Metal is Olde: Black Sabbath – Dehumanizer

Yer Metal is Olde: Black Sabbath – Dehumanizer

“To put things ever so gently, the 1990s were not a good time for heavy metal, especially not the classic triumvirate of British heavy metal. Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, both riding the winds of success of the 1980s, were struggling to stay afloat due to dips in quality of music, the change of musical tastes in people, the looming flannel-cloaked spectre of grunge, and both their vocalists leaving to pursue solo careers. Black Sabbath, though… hoo boy.” More Humanizer than a human, man.

Yer Metal Is Olde: Katatonia – Last Fair Deal Gone Down

Yer Metal Is Olde: Katatonia – Last Fair Deal Gone Down

“The year of our Angry Metal Overlord 2001 was a “very good year,” to quote the everyone who has ever spoken about wine in a movie. Indeed, the year that produced Opeth’s epic and scene-changing Blackwater Park and Propagandhi’s Today’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes, also gave us Mutter by Rammstein, Awakening the World by Lost Horizon and Laundry Service by Shakira. But is Last Fair Deal Gone Down the best album released in 2001?”