“Back in 2019, I raved about Vimur’s sophomore album, Triumphant Master of Fates. It was a magnificent expulsion of incendiary black metal fueled by venom and vitriol. Three years later, the Atlanta quartet readies their next salvo, entitled Transcendental Violence. Lucifer only knows what the hell that means, but there’s no doubt that destruction awaits.” Violence as currency.
“News broke this week that conspiracy theorists were correct and popular metal blogspot Angry Metal Guy is written entirely by one man, despite Herculean efforts to make it appear the work of several dozen writers.” You can’t fool everybody all the time.
“When you mention epic storytelling, your brain will zero in on the usual suspects: novels (The Lord of the Rings), movies (Star Wars), and video games (Mass Effect). Music normally doesn’t spring to mind unless you’re aware of the work of Alex CF. The former Fall of Efrafa vocalist crafted an epic tale of post-apocalyptic tribalism that has spanned not only eight releases so far, but across three separate bands: the sludgy futuristic Archivist, the overdriven doom of Anopheli, and today’s band, the downtrodden-yet-defiantly hopeful Morrow.” Unquiet epics.
“Wolf have been a reliably entertaining throwback metal act since they first hit the scene back in 1999. Led by vocalist/guitarist Niklas Stålvind, the band successfully integrated NWoBHM basics with elements of Euro-power, giving them a wealth of excitable elements to throw at the wall and make stick. And albums like Evil Star, The Black Flame, and Legions of Bastards found them getting very sticky indeed, making those platters especially fun to rock out with. That said, 2020s Feeding the Machine saw them attempt a style shift that didn’t completely work, resulting in my least favorite outing from them. It seems the band didn’t love the results either, as ninth album Shadowlands is a shift back to what’s always worked for them.” Good doggy!
“The year trundles on, and the world only gets angrier. As above, so below, and we below are very, very angry. So angry, in fact, that we decided to makeshift some spiked Louisville Sluggers and demolish our filtration system entirely. Fuck the system! And wouldn’t you know it? There was a ton of shiny nuggets strewn amongst the rubble that once was our only means of cleaning the “air” we breathe down here. Ah well, who needs it!” Rage against the dying of the Filter.
“Achelous play fantasy-inspired power metal. While many of their contemporaries keep their tattered volumes of J.R.R. Tolkein close to their breastplates, Achelous use their second full-length album to create a soundtrack for R.A. Salvatore’s Icewind Dale trilogy. I’ve never read Salvatore’s work, but The Icewind Chronicles gives me a pretty good sense of the epic battles that take place within its pages. The record contains their characteristic folk, power, and operatic metal leanings and like Blind Guardian or Manowar, Achelous packs a lot of high adventure into a five-minute song. They’ve been sharpening their axes, but is the battlefield too crowded for another album of dwarves, crystals, and flaming warfare?” Roll the ice dice.
“Meshuggah is often accused of failing to evolve or change. That accusation is misplaced. While it’s certainly true that their unique style means it requires just one guitar line from Fredrik Thordendal or a single snarl from Kidman to know it’s Meshuggah, exactly how they’ve deployed that has changed subtly from record to record. Immutable picks up where The Violent Sleep of Reason left off, feeling freer than Meshuggah’s precise technicality has sounded in many a year.” Immutable, inflexible, inshuggahable.
“Heltekvad is a Danish three-piece fronted by Ole Luk of Afsky and Solbrud fame, flanked by two Afsky live musicians with a resume spanning Sunken and Morild. (Do I have your attention?) The band members’ atmospheric black metal repertoire has received its share of praise around these parts. But in contrast with the icy and evocative atmosphere of their past work, Heltekvad promises “heroic-sounding melodies” and “truly medieval soundscapes” on their debut Morgenrødens Helvedesherre.” Fevdal fvkk.
“There’s something about blackened vocals over trad stylings that just feels right. Whether it’s Midnight, Demiser, or Bewitcher, the juxtaposition of filthy vocals and NWoBHM leads never fails to shake me out of my stupor in the skull pit. So I was thrilled when our great ape overlord bestowed this formerly nameless n00b with Nite’s sophomore album, Voices of the Kronian Moon. Darkness Silence Mirror Flame piqued Steel Druhm’s wizened and jaded ears, but the album’s length hard-capped its ceiling. During the pandemic, have these Californians been taking Nite courses at the Steel School of Editing for Wayward Bands?” Moon Nites.
“Satan is the original Benjamin Button band. By this I mean the older they get, the better and more youthful sounding their output becomes. Part of the original NWoBHM phenomenon, their 1983 debut Court in the Act made the rounds at Casa Druhm back in the days of denim and high tops, but I was never especially taken with their sound, which felt like a less catchy version of Diamond Head or Angel Witch. I didn’t bother with their 1987 follow-up, Suspended Sentence, and I all but forgot about them as I got deeper into thrash and more extreme styles. Fast-forward 26 years to 2013 and they made a comeback with Life Sentence, and virtually nothing about them sounded the same.” Satan is real.
