“I’m not a big lasagna guy. It’s weird, because while each of the main ingredients are great in other dishes, I just could never fully get behind that big cheesy rectangle, even though I really should enjoy it. But alas, the appeal has eluded me and if I was given a choice of what to make at home or order at a restaurant, it’s safe to say that it would never be lasagna. What does this have to do with metal and/or angry-ness?” Good question, and who the hell doesn’t like lasagna?
“Hailing from the Czech Republic, Pandemia is a bit like the death metal equivalent of Everybody Loves Raymond; it’s been around a while appeared alongside plenty of important things, but you’ve never met anyone who really knows much about it. Maybe you’ve run across it once and stuck around for a few minutes, but something else caught your attention pretty quickly.” But everybody LOVES Raymond! War metal, maybe not so much these days.
“Just a quick glance over The Sanity Days’ lineup, featuring members who have all, at different points, been part of Onslaught, will make you think you’ve got their style all figured out. It must be aggressive, speedy, killing thrash that they play! And yet, their music has got nothing to do with that.” We like a good surprise. Less so the bad surprises. Which one lurks behind the Sanity Curtain?
“Bands enshrouded in mystery have almost become a gimmick, but it’s a gimmick that really works. What we don’t know makes us wonder and look on with morbid curiosity, and as such, I landed myself this obscure number, Envoy.” Noctus loves obscure stuff, so we gave him this gem from the wilds of Russia, where wolves hunt vodka and men drink rocks.
“In recent years, very few bands have been able to prevail over my increasingly jaded and negative outlook on music and life itself. One of those bands is Miami natives Torche, who won me over with their unique combination of melodic sense and gut-pummeling heaviness.” Will Mr. Fisting still carry the Torche after this release?
“Matter As Regent. A bold statement indeed, against Platonic tradition which has dictated Western philosophy for millennia. Such a title rejects the notion that form subordinates matter, esteeming matter as the fundamental force and model around which everything revolves. My interest was immediately sparked, and it was with academic fervor that I approached this promo.” To Hume is this philosophical excess aimed, because I certainly Kant tell.
“Post-metal had something of a heyday in the last decade, with seemingly everyone on the Internet gushing over Isis’ Panopticon, Neurosis’ Given to the Rising, and whatever Cult of Luna and Pelican were up to. While there’s still quality post-metal coming out today (The Ocean’s Pelagial in 2013, Beak’s debut last year), I think it’s safe to say the genre is no longer as in vogue as it once was.” And if you don’t have vogue, what do you have?
“If there’s anything that can be gleamed about the giant web that is the world of heavy metal, it’s that you can always draw influence from outside of the genre’s comfort zone to provide a fresh flavor to the oftentimes stagnant scene. Whether it’s pulling from other sounds beyond metal, bringing in a new philosophical or religious slant, or simply injecting your culture into your sound, it’s pretty much guaranteed that, good or bad, you will be remembered.” Is Condor ready to be remembered?
“Believe it or not, we tend to research the bands we review here, even if it’s occasionally more tempting just to mash our palms against the keyboard for five hundred words, assign an arbitrary score, then knock off down to the pub. This week has, therefore, seen me listening to an unhealthy amount of the genre that discerning metalheads love to hate: djent (the ‘d’ is silent).” Djent is a challenging genre, but then again, a double album of material can make any genre challenging. We like challenges.
“In the recesses of my chrome and iron 80s heart, I have endless affection for the early Fates Warning albums like The Specter Within and Awaken the Guardian. They just don’t make classy, traditional metal like that anymore and I wish more retro noodle heads would turn their gaze back to that golden era of metal and give it a go.” What’s new, pussy cat? Quite a bit, actually.
