Angry Metal Guy

Things You Might Have Missed 2013: Masters of Disguise – Back With a Vengeance

By Steel Druhm on December 13, 2013 in 2013, German Metal, Heavy Metal, Limb Music, Things You Might Have Missed 2013, Heavy Metal, 7 comments

“As a wise man named Mr. Fisting Himself once observed, the latest trend in metal is finding the most obscure acts from the past and repackaging them as underground, cult and cool, or to quote the man Himself, embarking on “the slow journey up it’s own ass.” Taking part in this mining mission to Uranus, Masters of Disguise is a band wholly created to pay homage to the extremely under known mid 80s speed metal act Savage Grace. Whom, you ask? Exactly.” Talk about wallowing in obscurity! These guys are so far up metal’s ass they may never be seen again, but I thought the same thing about their progenitor too.

Thrall – Aokigahara Jukai Review

By Madam X on December 12, 2013 in 2013, Australian Metal, Black Metal, Moribund Records, Reviews, Black Metal, 2 comments

“Aussie black metal is unchartered territory for me, but if not, why not, right! From my early judgments, it doesn’t appear that black metal dominates or has the Aussie metal scene on its knees cowering in fear of the Dark Lord’s return, but certainly a few names lit a fire and I suppose you could say, spiked my interest. Ruin’s Place Of No Pity kicked off my grim journey of discovery, delivering mighty appealing song structures and evolvingly doomy interludes. Gospel Of The Horns followed suit with ex members of Bestial Warlust making up their dank mix and finally, Deströyer 666’s Phoenix Rising hit all kinds of home. Their brand of blackened death-thrash can only be described as packed to to the hilt with truly bestial riffing and it set the bar and my expectations sky high for Thrall.” Join Madam X as she throws another blackened band on the barbie in her analysis of Australia’s own Thrall.

Things You Might Have Missed 2013: Bolzer – Aura

By JF Williams on December 11, 2013 in Black Metal, Death Metal, Iron Bonehead Productions, Swiss Metal, Things You Might Have Missed 2013, Black Metal, Death Metal, 4 comments

“This year produced a great deal of excellent EP releases, but the Swiss duo Bölzer’s mini-LP Aura managed not only to be the best of the bunch, but also beat out most full-lengths with three tracks and 23 minutes of some truly next-level occult black/death metal. The record features perhaps one of the best riffs of 2013 in “Entranced by the Wolfshook,” which marries a Blut Aus Nord-ian guitar tone with pseudo-Wagnerian orchestral synths and an absolutely bangin’ main riff that you can’t help but meet with a shit-eating grin and grimace. Seriously – it’s the kind of metal-as-all-hell lick that an appreciation of which should serve as a litmus test to expose the false amongst our ranks.” JF Williams draws your attention to an EP you might have missed which may or may not feature the Riff of the Year! I like riffs. Do you?

Things You Might have Missed 2013: Kuolemanlaakso – Musta Aurinko Nousee

By Steel Druhm on December 10, 2013 in 2013, Death Metal, Doom Metal, Finnish Metal, Svart Records, Things You Might Have Missed 2013, Death Metal, Doom Metal, 3 comments

“Since all my “Things You Might Have Missed” this year came from the doom genre, I thought I’d shake things up with… some doom/death! Yes I know, not a very big shake up, but worthwhile metal is worthwhile. Anywho, Kuolemanlaakso is a Finnish doom/death act with an insanely complicated name, composed of members from Swallow the Sun and Chaosweaver and they rock a rather simple, but very effective style of death/doom that somehow remains accessible.” This is a release Steel Druhm was supposed to review last month, but he was too overworked (he’s essentially an indentured servant with an iPod and a keyboard). Since he liked this quite a bit, he wanted to be sure you didn’t miss it and feel remorse later. You can thank him with beer.

Cynic Drops “The Lion’s Roar” Lyric Vid

By Angry Metal Guy on December 10, 2013 in Blog Posts, 14 comments

I don’t know about you, but Cynic’s 2008 record Traced in Air is one of my favorite records of the decade. I love Focus and think it’s one of the best records in the history of technical and progressive metal. However, I have previously expressed some skepticism as to the motives of this band. While the Re-Traced EP was an experimental take on the Traced in Air tracks and worked really, really well, I was less enthused with the band’s Carbon Based Lifeforms EP. During that one, I expressed some sentiments that have been floating around the underground in terms of quoting an acquaintance of mine:

Things You Might Have Missed 2013: Procession – To Reap Heavens Apart

By Steel Druhm on December 9, 2013 in 2013, Chilean Metal, Doom Metal, High Roller Records, Things You Might Have Missed 2013, Doom Metal, 8 comments

“Following along with Avatarium, little know Chilean act Procession released a high quality slab of doom in 2013 that you may have missed. In fact, I probably would have missed it were it not for a tip from a loyal reader. Their sophomore opus To Reap Heavens Apart is right in line with early Candlemass (think debut and Nightfall), While Heaven Wept and Solstice and as such, it’s weighted down with weighty, glum and downtrodden riffs and despairing, yet epic vocals that call to mind the styling of Messiah Marcolin, albeit a more restrained version.” Steel Druhm missed his share of good doom this year and it has him rather perplexed an confuzzled.

Things You Might Have Missed 2013: Trials – In the Shadow of Swords

By Angry Metal Guy on December 8, 2013 in 2013, Melodic Death Metal, Reviews, Things You Might Have Missed 2013, Thrash Metal, Unsigned Bands, 12 comments

Thrash ain’t doin’ well in 2013. I mean, if you’re really into retro-thrash, there are a bevy of bands that have been producing records that will make your tight pants and oversized shoes excited, but that’s getting pretty stale For the most part, modern thrash metal has basically gone the way of the dodo—serious attempts at thrashing our socks off with groove and cranky screams have fallen deep underground. I blame metalcore. One of the things that’s started happening is that every time someone hears a thrash band that has a slightly screamy vocalist, they say “wow, that’s pretty corey,” which leads to bands that probably don’t deserve it getting called core, especially if there are clean vocals. There are major examples of this (God Forbid) and minor ones, too. Some might be fair, but many are not.

Angry Metal-Fi: Hearing Is Believing

By Angry Metal Guy on December 7, 2013 in Angry Metal-Fi, Blog Posts, 84 comments

In our first Angry Metal-Fi article, Alex pointed out exactly what’s wrong with Fleshgod Apocalypse’s Labyrinth — it’s compressed to within an inch of its life, ruining the music that the band worked so hard to create. It’s easy for us to sit and point fingers though and tell you how everyone is doing it wrong, (which they are). To really get a sense of what you’ve been missing, you need to hear some examples of bands and engineers that are doing it right. Once you’ve heard how good fully dynamic metal can sound, and how much better your favorite albums could have sounded had they been mastered with full dynamics, we hope that it will make you angry. You might even shed a tear for everything that’s been lost over the last 20 years, so many great albums ruined because of the insanity that is the Loudness War.

Boston – Life, Love & Hope Review

By Dr. Fisting on December 6, 2013 in 2013, Frontier Records, Not Metal, Releases, Reviews, 11 comments

“As someone who grew up in the Midwestern U.S., I am more than familiar with the music of Boston. Ever since the late-’70s, FM radio has played almost every track from the band’s 1976 debut album on a daily basis. I’ve never been a huge fan of the band, but some of those songs are pretty badass, if cheesy. More recently, the band was dealt a tragic blow when founding singer Brad Delp committed suicide in 2007. A brief tour followed with Michael Sweet (Stryper) taking Delp’s place, but when Sweet returned to his main band, it was assumed that Boston would be laid to rest. So I was intrigued by the news of a new record, Life, Love & Hope, recorded by mainman Tom Scholz and a mostly new lineup.” The lead singer on their “new” album has been dead since 2007. And it gets worse.

Things You Might Have Missed 2013: Týr – Valkyrja

By Angry Metal Guy on December 5, 2013 in 2013, Metal Blade, Reviews, Things You Might Have Missed 2013, Power Metal, 32 comments

As an Angry Metal Guy, I have truly been off my game this year. In fact, having become an Angry Sociology PhD Student™ has taken away precious time from my blogging gig. As the one is—and will hopefully lead to—gainful employment, and the other is an avocation, you can probably understand that I have been working hard at the former. But, unfortunately, this means that some big records I stepped up to review never got reviewed. Possibly the greatest of these oversights this year was Týr’s Valkyrja, which was so good that I made it a Record o’ the Month for September. “Watch this space,” I said. Well, those of you who watched are going to finally get your review.