Life (and death) can certainly be strange. How else do you explain one of 2011’s most unfortunate events giving rise to 2012’s most unusual listening experience.
2012
Earth – Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II Review
To those in the know, the arrival of a new Earth record comes with a lot of baggage, mostly due to bandleader Dylan Carlson’s well-known personal struggles and his infamous role in Kurt Cobain’s untimely demise. More significantly, there’s the fact that Earth’s recent output is surprisingly laid back, and bears almost no resemblance to their pioneering doom-drone works of the ’90s. Old-school Earth fans can forgive Carlson for giving Kurt that shotgun, but they cannot abide by this mellow hippie shit, man. So with the release of Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II, the question becomes: will Carlson a) give the people what they want, or b) continue with the current musical direction, unencumbered by giving a fuck about what people think?
Aborted – Global Flatline Review
I’d been holding off on writing this review because, well, to be frank I’m no grind expert. While I have a working knowledge of most genres and pretty deep knowledge in a several, grind is not one of them. In full disclosure, I’ve not listened to the classics (except Carcass and Napalm Death and Nasum), and I’m probably even fucking up genres when I have discussions about what I think the classics are. So, to pretend to be authoritative on the subject would be disingenuous at best. Against my better judgement, when I got Aborted’s Global Flatline I decided that I should review it anyway. But after listening to it about 10 times I realized I wasn’t quite sure how to put what I thought of it, which is kind of my.. job. So, that’s kind of awkward. I went back and listened to the band’s older material
Eluveite- Helvetios Review
So this is a review of an album by a Swiss band being written by an Egyptian guy living in Egypt and published on a website run by a guy living in Sweden. Don’t you just love the Internet? Anyway, Eluveitie is indeed a very Swiss band that draws its influences from the roots of the land; medieval Helvetian and Celtic history. Since I did not study European history or Anthropology at any level, I can’t verify the accuracy, relevance or truthfulness of the stories being told on Helvetios. What I can verify, though, is that the music is quite interesting; especially if you haven’t heard Eluveitie before. They use the standard metal gear of distorted guitars, drums and bass and they’ve added a multitude of native folk instruments to complement and emphasize that snapshot of medieval Europe they’re creating with their music.
Dodecahedron – Dodecahedron Review
“When I was first cutting my teeth as a reviewer over at the long defunct Unchain the Underground, I had the distinct honor of reviewing Blut Aus Nord’s 2003 opus The Work which Transforms God. I recall it distinctly being one of the most difficult reviews I ever had to write. The music the band created was new, extreme, pummeling, challenging and ultimately difficult on a level which few records I’d ever heard before were. It offered up an extremity for which I was not prepared. I could tell, though, that it was a revolutionary record. It was something special; incredibly special… extreme, abstract, brilliant, innovative and done in a way that I was not ready for. I really, really hated it.” Nearly one decade later, what the hell will AMG do with Dodecahedron?
Wolfen – Chapter IV Review
Wolfen. Never did I hear of them. As the album title suggests, they have three prior releases, yet the mighty Eye of Steel Druhm (like Sauron’s but more bloodshot) never spied them as they skulked through the Germanic underground. I don’t like that, since stealth wolfens are my least favorite kind of wolfen.
Psycroptic – The Inherited Repression Review
Psycroptic may be one of the best known technical death metal bands out there today. Their high profile is largely the result of the fact that they make a type of technical death metal that moves about a mile a second, but while managing to not be too abstract. The band has historically had catchy hooks and great melodic parts, while never backing down on the guitar gymnastics and with vocals that have been just as diverse and unique as the music behind it. Psycroptic is the real deal, so there was never any hesitation on my part when I got a hold of the Tazmanian band’s 5th full-length The Inherited Repression.
Soen – Cognitive Review
I guarantee you the guys from Soen have to brace themselves for every review they’re going to read for two reasons. The first of these is that this band contains Steve DiGiorgio, heavy metal’s best bassist and best fretless for hire and oh, right, Martin Lopez who we last saw as a member of Opeth. I have to say that I’m partial to these two guys as musicians (nothing against Ax, but Lopez is a special drummer) and so when I heard that this record was coming out I did some begging and got me a copy for review. Apparently there are other musicians in this band, but we don’t actually care The rest of the band is made up of by two Swedish guys, the vocalist and Platsbarzdis, the guitarist, for what is a four piece of alternative or kind of groovy progressive metal. Not progressive like Opeth or Vintersorg or Porcupine Tree but progressive like Tool. And by that I mean, they sound exactly like fucking Tool (that’s the second reason).
Wildernessking – The Writing of Gods in the Sand Review
Time and time again, I have berated black metal as an institution. Partially because it is so institutionalized that it seems to have lost its teeth and inventiveness, and partially ’cause where it does seem to be advancing is into areas that I think are boring. So, I’m not exactly the guy who you should be looking to for your black metal needs (my flash in the pan status among the young and hip is evidence enough of that). I require things to not suck move a little faster, have a little more action and not be generally cliche and irritating. Wildernessking (formerly known as Heathens and hailing from South Africa) is all of these things, while not falling into the cliches of a scene past its prime. While the band has moved on a bit from the black n’ roll origins of their first demo Oh, Mock the Heavens and Let the Heathens Sing, they offer up with their new full length The Writing of Gods in the Sand, a remarkable slab of inventive black metal, whatever way you want to slice it.
Iron Fire – Voyage of the Damned Review
Historically speaking, I think the main reason our esteemed AMG hired me, the ever humble Steel Druhm, as a reviewer/minion [I prefer the term “bitch,” actually – AMG] was to make me the resident power and traditional metal nerd (my amazing prose and rugged good looks didn’t hurt none either). While I’m predisposed to drool over most old school stuff (cause I’m old), I’m actually quite the elitist snob when it comes to power metal. There’s some good in that genre, but there are way more generic, bad and monumentally awful things lurking in the ether. Case in point, I’ve had a love/hate/meh relationship with Iron Fire over the years. Their Thunderstorm debut was decent and moderately rabble rousing, but things have been inconsistent since then and their discography reads like the good, the bad and the WTF? After being unmoved by their past few releases, I hoped for more from their seventh release, Voyage of the Damned. Turns out, I heartily appreciate the new lyrical slant toward outer space themes, as it’s a nice diversion from the usual “dragon ate my wizard’s maiden” schtick. It’s also safe to say, this is much better than expected and it slowly won me over, despite initial doubts. Roping in elements of Gamma Ray, Stratovarius, Grave Digger and Metalium, this features some highly enjoyable Euro-power with some surprisingly heavy moments. It also delivers far less generic freight than past Iron Fire shipments. While not exactly a “must hear” album, Voyage ends up being a solid release from a band with a spotty track record.
