“Ah, an unheralded, unsigned power metal band from Finland. Experience tells me this will either be disastrously bad or shocking good. The craptacular cover art suggests the former, as does the fact that GardensTale claimed the promo then promptly hurled it back in the promo muck before running into the night like a cowardly shirker. Steel fears no power known to man nor beast, so this shall be reviewed nonetheless!” Lore-core.
“A newly formed trio from the US, these guys are fans of spaghetti Westerns. Such fans, in fact, that the band name is fashioned after Clint Eastwood’s character—“The Man with No Name”—from Sergio Leone’s “Dollars Trilogy.” The music is inspired by the “harsh and exhausting” desert summers of the wild, wild west.” High plains swifter.
“I don’t know what happened to me, but all of a sudden I started to like thrash metal sometime in the last year. Granted, the barking vocals endemic to purebred thrash still grate my senses, but when black metal or death metal is thrown in the mix I get sprung as hell. It’s for this reason that I absolutely love bands like Antiverse, whose vital combination of death metal and thrash metal kicks my ass on a regular basis. You know what else kicks my ass on a regular basis? This fucker right here.” Thrash in a blackened space.
“Hailing from Greece, Death Courier is not unlike like their many famous national ruins as their origins are rooted in antiquity. Death metal antiquity, that is.” As old as death.
“Hexenbrett is a German black metal band and relatively new to the scene, having released their only release in an independent EP in 2018, Erste Beschwörung. These Germans offer a unique take on the blackened arts.” Broken toys and evil joys.
“It never ceases to amaze me how many metal bands can continue to release high quality material so late in their careers. This year alone has seen terrific releases from both Vulcano and Sinister, for instance, and I’ll now be adding Witches to this list as well. Admittedly, I’d never even heard of this group until AMG Himself recommended I give them a try, a decision I’ve become quite happy with over the past week.” Run for covens.
“Montreal’s Blight have been around over a decade, having released a slew of EPs and demos, but never a full-length… until now! Temple of Wounds brings the quartet’s Luciferian onslaught to the masses, and in doing so, it made me feel even grimier than before.” Filthy wounds and dirty medicine.
“In the Company of Serpents’ fourth full-length is an unholy concoction of sludge, doom and cowboys, and frankly things don’t get any Cherdier than that.” Snakes deLux.
“The more time I’ve spent reviewing stuff on this here blog, the more I’ve begun to take note of record labels, to the point now that certain labels generate certain expectations for an album. With that realization, I became more interested in labels, how they work and the people behind them.” Behind the music lies the work.
“Crossover thrash certainly seems to be making an honest effort to have its day in the sun lately. While it has existed since the early 80s and has had its loyal adherents ever since, the genre is suddenly teeming with new life. Bands like Power Trip, High Command, Enforced, and Red Death are capitalizing on the resurgence of interest in the style, and the results have been quite glorious.” Mob violence.
