“I find myself greatly missing Hail of Bullets these past few years. That Dutch band of battle-hardened warriors had a truly great sound and knew how to craft devastating death metal ditties that stuck in your brain pan like a bayonet with a serrated edge. Perhaps that’s why the full-length debut by Indiana upstarts, Obscene clubbed me so brutally about the head, neck and buttocks.” Death porn.
“Angry Metal Guy’s latest n00b interrupts your regularly scheduled black metal to bring the ultimate question: is power metal metal? “It has the word metal in it, so of course it is, you babbling bumbling baboon,” you say. I get it, and it’s been proven again and again, but while various facets of the metalverse have to justify why they’re not rock, power metal is one of the only styles that must justify why it’s not pop.” Justify our love.
“Formed way back in 2006, Hammer feel less like a band that’s been honing their sound and more like one that’s been waiting for the right time to unleash it. This is primitive death metal that’s more abusive than innovative and yet still offers no easy points of comparison. It’s as if the early works of death metal and grindcore were stirred together in a bloody concoction, shoved in the furnace of black metal, and then crystallized in a raw, violent, and merciless final product that feels just as cutthroat as the band name and album title suggest.” Hammer smash!
“Their debut in 2018 was received poorly by the respective probationary writer, noting that it suffered from “conflating incomprehensible fury and aimless blasting with gripping riffs and relentless aggression.” While it was slightly underrated, and this at least demonstrates that not all of the probationary writers were overrating bastards (though all the ones who made the cut are), it was far from essential and hardly suggested that there were great things to come. Enter 2020 and Providence.” New year, new gear.
“The promo blurb had promised me that Sarpa, although rooted in the black metal aesthetic, incorporates a lot of other elements, including some Afro/Latin rhythms! Have I got a blackened Sepultura on my hands or a misguided attempt to make world-music black metal?” Kitchen sink-core.
“Now that mega-corporations have paved the internet highways with the asphalt of targeted ads and misinformation, the digital utopia has become a divisive dystopia where that same creativity grows mainly in the cracks between the concrete. But its connective power still remains unabated, and The Committee is testament to that. It was certainly possible for a band whose members live scattered across Europe to exist, but it would surely be more difficult, possibly insurmountably so.” Join the meeting.
“Back in 2018, Mountaineer’s brave concept album Passages checked all the right boxes. The captivating mix of post-metal, doom, and shoegaze was offset just so with an alluring sense of adventure, as the band threw in some odd instruments and bleak, cathartic progression in the songs. In fact, the mighty El Cuervo claimed Passages was one of the few post-metal albums he still went back to. High praise from our deliberately contrary Brit.” Mt. Buzz.
“Look at that album cover for a full minute. If that alligator doesn’t end up on Gardenstale’s end of the year round-up, I will personally ensure his redaction. You can thank prolific metal/punk photographer Teddie S. Talyor for that beauty, and you can thank Primitive Man / Vermin Womb frontman Ethan Lee McCarthy for Emanation Body.” Croc o’ gators.
“This German black metal trio is relatively new to the scene, having released a single EP, 2018’s To Abide in Ancient Abysses, which, while not particularly unique, was a solid two-track, eighteen-minute foray into cranky darkness. Now we’re greeted with their first full-length, Towards the Tomb of Times, which, while also offering an awesome and epic oomph of alliterative accomplishment, equals more of the same darkness and black metal shenanigans that we came to expect with its predecessor.” Action Naxen.
“I first heard of Ebonivory due to Caligula’s Horse. These guys were supposed to open for the Horse on their North American tour this year, but of course that was cancelled. It did prompt me to hit up Bandcamp and purchase their discography (two EPs and an LP), which turned out to be really good. References can definitely be made between these guys and other Australian prog acts such as Voyager, Karnivool, and Dead Letter Circus. Fast forward a couple of months and here we are, with a brand new release from these Aussies.” Perfect harmony?
