“The first Metallica song I heard was “Enter Sandman,” although it wasn’t Metallica’s version. I’d become familiar with the song via one of Weird Al’s polka medleys, and one day, when I was around 10 or 11 years old.” Blackened nostalgia.
1991
Yer Metal is Olde: Corrosion of Conformity – Blind
“Blind, Corrosion of Conformity’s third album, was an odd duckling for various reasons when it dropped in 1991. It remains the only album to not feature longtime bassist/vocalist Mike Dean in any capacity, but also the only album to feature his replacements, vocalist Karl Agell and bassist Phil Swisher. It also debuted guitarist/vocalist Pepper Keenan, who only sang lead on the album’s hit single, “Vote With a Bullet.” Above all else, Blind saw the band at a crossroads of sorts, with one foot planted in the band’s seminal punk/hardcore history, while planting the other foot into Sabbath-drenched doom/sludge territory. The end result captured lightning in a bottle and today, Blind joins the ranks of the Hallowed and the Olde.” Blind but farseeing.
Yer Metal is Olde: Carcass – Necroticism – Descanting the Insalubrious
“Few bands in extreme metal history are as respected and revered as Liverpool’s legendary Carcass. The trailblazing innovators and genre pioneers began their career in humble fashion as a scraggly trio of youths hell-bent on creating the most disgusting and reviled music the world had ever experienced.” Carcass nostalgia.
Yer Metal Is Olde: Morbid Angel – Blessed Are the Sick
“Let’s go ahead and acknowledge this up front: of all the big-name old school death metal bands, Morbid Angel has arguably fared the worst. Sure, they had a few stumbles over the years – 1995’s Domination had some serious clunkers, and 2003’s Heretic was supposedly singlehandedly responsible for getting the group dropped from Earache – but the real deathblow came in 2011, with a little record called Illud Divinum Insanus.” Are you still morbid?
Yer Metal Is Olde! Voivod – Angel Rat
“Released just a few months after Metallica’s self-titled record, Angel Rat finds Voivod among the earliest adopters of the slower, stripped-down approach that most thrash bands took in the 1990s. The album could almost qualify for our ’90s Metal Weirdness column, except for the fact that Voivod have always been weird (and would get even weirder as the decade continued).” Let that freak flag fly!
Retro-spective Review: Hall Aflame – Guaranteed Forever
“I’ve been meaning to write a retro-review of this bad boy for a long time since it’s the very definition of “buried treasure.” Sadly, it’s an equally good example of a winning release that slipped through the cracks and fell into oblivion. Hall Aflame was a project launched by Metal Church founder/guitarist/main writer Kurdt Vanderhoof after quitting the band due to tour burnout. While there are trace elements of his main band in the sound. Guaranteed Forever is a weird amalgam of southern hard rock, blues and metal that borrows heavily from acts like The Cult, Jackyl, Tesla and The Four Horsemen.” Steel Druhm dives back into the vault of metal and finds yet another forgotten or overlooked album that should get a second look. Look at it!!!!
Unleashed – As Yggdrasil Trembles Review
Unleashed is not without their appeal. They’ve been around for a couple decades now, putting out their first record Where No Life Dwells in 1991, and they’ve been pretty consistently well-respected in the scene for being among the first to do the whole Viking Metal thing. But they’re a band that this Angry Metal Guy has never been able to get into on the basis of one thing: Unleashed is the Manowar of death metal. Now, some people are going to say “But Manowar are the Kings of Metal! Should we not be praising Unleashed for translating such kinglyness into the Death Metal genre?” To which there can only be one response: “Absofuckinglutely not.”
