“An odd album crept its way onto the Angry Metal promo list in this past month, one that while plenty dark, is far removed from metal, and despite all it’s heavily worded promise, as wholly lacking in anger as I’ve come across in a while. At its most basic, it appears the band couldn’t come up with a decent band name and so took the easy way out, calling themselves Nothing…” Madam X has reviewed nothing lately and frankly, we expected more from her. That said, here goes Nothing.
“With a career spanning a near lifetime (20-years to be exact), Kampfar refuse to sit squarely in any one particular niche. They shamelessly delivered their self-titled EP, Mellom Skogkledde Aaser and Fra Underverdenen as part of their first creative wave, hitting you up with old school black metal with the typical raw traditionalism you’ve come to expect of a two-man Norwegian act. When that didn’t translate into a particularly nifty live performance, more members were added and the the band forged ahead with with their second creative wave delivering Kvass and Heimgang….” Madam X surfs the waves of black metal as brought to you by Kampfar. But is their next wave worth catching?
“For every Voivod album that teaches us not to judge a book by its (horrendously poorly made) cover, there are dozens of other albums with laughably bad artwork that also contain laughably bad music. This was somewhat the case with The Kennedy Veil’s debut disc, which hid uninteresting death metal behind a photoshop abomination. They can’t be faulted for this, seeing as the it was self-released, but it’s nice to know this time around they’ve put forth a properly constructed, though again clichéd face for themselves.” Sometimes we make note of album artwork, but Kronos really takes that to a new level of visual obsession. Fortunately, he also reviews the music… eventually.
“When I throw the label “experimental metal” out to you, what does your blastbeat-addled mind conjure for images and sounds? Does your brain picture off-the-wall time changes, weird instrumentation, musical concepts foreign to metal, or something truly out of left field? Or, like me, does it simply explain that what you’re about to listen to, well, isn’t really metal? Sadly, 9 times out of 10, most “experimental” bands fall into the latter category. Lethe is a new project featuring Anna Murphy (Eluveitie) and Tor-Helge Skei (Manes) waving the “experimental metal” flag with their debut, When Dreams Become Nightmares. Does Lethe carve a new path through the thickets, emblazoning new trails, and sending the hordes kicking and screaming, welcoming the dawn of a new day in the world of heavy metal?” Grymm answers this thorny question and weighs the relative worth of this experiment in metal and/or non-metal.
“Danish band Hexis have been torturing the masses since back in 2010. Up until now, their tales of atheism and abstract thought have been dished out via a bunch of demo’s, EP’s and splits with the likes of French post-metallers As We Draw, Russian atmospheric, post-hardcore band Euglena and Danish post-black metallers Redwood Hill. Now, as the new year kicks into full swing, Hexis have finally grabbed the demon by the horns and they’re all set to deliver their first full-length consisting of 13 stripped down abominations that bring to mind the harrowing events of an exorcism.” Demonic possession and metal go together like beer and another beer, so on paper at least, this seems like a marriage made in Hell. Madam X tells us if they need counseling.
“2014 is here and it’s time for the Metal Show to begin anew! And what better way to raise the curtain on the sixth year of AMG than with… retread thrash! Yes, yes, you’ve all had your fill of thrash, re-thrash, retro-thrash and frash, but as long as bands keep spitting this stuff out, we in the reviewing biz have a duty to review it… and it’s a BIG duty!” When the call of duty is heard, Steel Druhm jumps in the skull tank and reviews thrash metal from the Netherlands. Thank him for his service.
“Steel Druhm has for some time been riding me to finish, or, more accurately, begin this review. Squeezed in before end of the year lists, I have rather wisely decided to comply with his request [As you should ALL of my requests! — Steel “Imperious” Druhm] and reveal my thoughts on the latest release from Stockholm’s Netherbird, a relatively unknown black metal quintet with a surprising taste for melody in the vein of their countrymen in Gothenburg.” Better late than never, Kronos arrives with a review of Netherbird’s latest blast of blackened death. However, because it’s so late, Kronos will begin the new year in metal detention.
“What’s old is new again. Many new bands are ravaging old graveyards to exhume rotting corpses of bands and styles long since past their sell-by date. 70’s proto-doom, 80’s retro-thrash, and now, 90’s fuzzy Swedeath are the templates that bands are utilizing to create their own legacies. UK’s Sheol are the newest duo to bring out the rotting, zombified corpses of early Dismember and Darkthrone into the sunlight (studios) with their debut EP, Sepulchral Ruins Below The Temple.” 2013 winds down as it cranked up – with loads of old school Swedish death. Do you have room for just a little more?
“Do you like it raw? If you don’t, you should. As noted last week, extreme metal is constantly (and inadvertently) aspiring to castrate itself. The best metal wares are rooted in rebellion and danger, and the more we compress and homogenize the art form, those elements become diluted. The human element is erodes. Bones are a band comprised of humans. Dirty humans. Angry humans. And they sound like it.” Raw, dirty, angry music? Seems like a “can’t miss” kind of proposition. Jordan Campbell rolls the bones and tells you if that’s true.
It’s time for some Double Deicide!! Yes, I know that sounds like a professional high dive maneuver, but here it’s Steel Druhm and Madam X weighing in on the new opus from those infamous Floridian demon lords. Is In the Minds of Evil a return to the glory days or another safe and stale dose of by-the-numbers death? Opinions may differ, even in this here post!
