As I write this, it’s 15 degrees Celsius outside. The sun rises, but does not provide any warmth. Everything in my world is covered in a thin layer of ice, and things seem to be moving very slowly. In other words: it’s cold as shit out here. This is the perfect weather for some gloomy, atmospheric, slow-ass metal. And it just so happens that I have At Every Door, the new album by Finnish sextet Hanging Garden.
Wow. This thing sure as hell kicked my ass. Converge, veterans in the hardcore scene for over 20 years now, are flourishing in their most experimental period yet. All We Love We Leave Behind showcases a seriously deadly and potent mix of sludge, post-hardcore and punk, and its a contender for album of 2012 for sure.
I started listening to Cult of Luna with The Beyond. The year was 2003, the city was quiet and the light had been swallowed by the sound of an unspecified frequency – an electric wall of sound that made everything glow. And it burned so bright that I remained silent for the following, painful 67 minutes. I stopped listening to Cult Of Luna a year later. It was 2004, the album was Salvation and I couldn’t help but think that everything that had to be told had already been told. I resumed listening to Cult of Luna in 2013. Resistance became futile. And, yes, giving in was the right thing to do.
Holy Grail is one of these new-wave, big-named bands that got picked up by Nuclear Blast in the last couple of years that I had never really bothered to check out. Mostly my apathy can be blamed on crankiness ’cause I’m old. But their specific brand of nod-to-the-old-school power metal with a modern edge seems to perfectly encapsulate a lot of what’s going on in the metal scene these days, and their 2010 release Crisis in Utopia was met with generally positive responses. Still, I somehow managed to ignore these guys when they dropped their first record and given all the chatter I figured I’d make up for that by giving Ride the Void a go.
I can’t help thinking that parts of Dustwalker would make a half-way decent soundtrack to Dante’s journey through the underworld.
The prospect of a new Voivod record is something I approached with a fair amount of dread, mostly due to the minor detail that guitarist/bandleader Denis “Piggy” D’Amour passed away back in 2005. A lot of ’80s/’90s bands have buried their dead and moved on, occasionally with decent results (see: Alice In Chains). But Piggy seemed irreplaceable. He was the band’s main songwriter by most accounts, and more importantly, he possessed one of the weirdest, most eccentric guitar styles in all of metal. It seemed that no one could possibly take his place.
More Swedish death?? When Rogga Johansson, Dan Swano and Paul Speckman are involved, you’re damn right its time for more Swedish death! A veritable Who’s Who of death metal rallied to turn out the debut by Megascavenger, and it shows.
Members of Enslaved and Sahg don’t always do hard rock side projects, but when they do, it fucking kills! Norwegian rock hasn’t sounded this good since….well, ever. Audrey Horne is the real deal and Steel Druhm is here to give you the spiel.
Noctus loves sludgy stuff and according to him, Void of Sleep fits the bill nicely. Who can argue with doomy but catchy music from Italy anyway?
What’s this world coming to? Good, old-fashioned black metal incorporating experimental elements and color… being the color-phobe I am, I’m tempted to say blegh!
