![The King is Blind – Our Father [Things You Might Have Missed 2016]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/The-King-Is-Blind-Our-Father-Album-Cover-768x768.jpg)
“Apart from a few staples and hidden gems, most of the music I absorb tends to originate from America or Central Europe, so as a British native, I make sure to actively keep an ear to the ground for new and unheard greatness emanating from my own fair isle. Enter: The King is Blind.” God save the Queen and all that.
![Wardrum – Awakening [Things You Might Have Missed 2016]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Wardrum-Awakening-768x768.jpg)
“With few exceptions, last year sucked for power metal. Sabaton made their first real whiff, Rage dropped their worst album in ages, and Twilight Force tarnished an otherwise solid record with dreadful production. And then came Wardrum.” Bang on the Wardrum all day.
![Schammasch – Triangle [Things You Might Have Missed 2016]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Schammasch-Triangle-768x768.jpg)
“Based on vocalist and guitarist Chris S.R.’s amalgamation of a number of religions and philosophies, Triangle is a sprawling, grandiose effort that bridges progressive black metal, progressive rock, post-rock, and ambient music, while hinting towards a deeply personal struggle.” A triple album again? Why do we do this to AMG?
![Gojira – Magma [Things You Might Have Missed 2016]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/gojira-magma-1-768x752.jpg)
“Gojira’s Magma was a pretty major release this year, and while it didn’t get any Angry Metal Guy love it got plenty of Huck N Roll love. So much so, in fact, that it landed in my comprehensive, well thought out, Best of 2016 list.” Feel the Huck love.
![Plateau Sigma – Rituals [Things You Might Have Missed 2016]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/plateausigmarituals2.jpg)
“Italy’s Plateau Sigma have been on my radar for a couple of years: they always edged something quite interesting with their emotive doom metal but they lacked consistency and the song-writing was choppy at best. Yet it was with eagerness that I encountered their second full length, given the chinks of excellence evident previously. Rather than continuing the trend of slow but steady improvement, Rituals enveloped me entirely in its sheets of atmospheric doom and calming beauty, upheld by a strong, mid-paced core.” Doom in your stocking.
“‘Tis the tide of Yule and if you’re anything like me, you might find yourself wondering just what might be malingering under the tree in those sinister rhomboidal shapes… If you’re exactly like me, then you too must be hoping for some filthy Swedeath to furnish the festive season. Now if your partner hasn’t taken it upon themselves to wrap up a platter of Scandinavian malignancy, then fear not because Sentient Horror are the D-Beasts for you, arriving just in time to plunder Christmas with that smooth Stockholm sound.” You know Santa’s on his way. He’s loaded lots of horrors in his sleigh.
![Eternal Champion – The Armor of Ire [Things You Might Have Missed 2016]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Eternal-Champion_The-Armor-or-Ire-768x768.jpg)
“How did I miss an album with that cover, you ask? We didn’t get the damn promo, that’s how. If we did, I’d have seen the title (the same as a much beloved Sega Genesis brawler from my youth), taken notice of the art and the rest would be history. Now that I’m way late to the raiding party, I’m finding this thing the near-perfect companion piece to the awesome Sumerlands debut of earlier this year.” Obtain the Sword of Groupon and come with us!
![Wormrot – Voices [Things You Might Have Missed 2016]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/cover-1-768x768.jpg)
“There’s no trophy for being the world’s best grindcore band. No cash prize, no formal congratulation. The closest things Wormrot ever got were an unsolicited record contract from Earache and fleeting love of a deaf goat. Wormrot don’t care.” Just grind, baby.
![Arcade Messiah – III [Things You Might Have Missed 2016]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Arcade-Messiah-III-768x768.jpg)
“As I sit here on a snow-covered porch, watching the snow dissipate below the rising sun, it dawns on me just how much I dislike the term “post.” I hate Post-It notes, post holes, fence posts, and (the worst offender of them all) post-hole diggers. I hate the terms “post” (position), “flagposts” (they’re fucking “flagpoles”), and “man-posts” (penises). But, for how much I hate all these terms, I hate post-black, post-rock, post-hardcore, and post-metal the most.” Post no bills (or man-posts).
“We all know December is the Great Dumpster Fire of Destiny for promos, and one does not simply sort through it without being stunned by the world-class dreck the labels unleash upon us poor, defenseless reviewers like so much coal in our stockings. Even in dead-end December though, you can sometimes trip over an industrial grade gem – the kind that will never shine like a pricey diamond, but may just win your affection anyway with its durable, utilitarian badassery. The Great Void of Mystery by Heavens Decay is one such stone of note.” December dumpster diving is risky business.
