“Metal has more than its share of genres and sub-genres already, but guitar virtuoso Toby Knapp (Onward, Where Evil Follows) is intent on carving out yet another one via his one-man Waxen project. That genre would be called something like “shreddy black metal,” since third album, Weihung Auf Satan essentially answers the question – what would happen if Richie Blackmore or Yngwie Malmsteen recorded a black metal album?” Prepare to be bewildered.
“The evolution of a band can be a compelling tale, or it can be a train wreck. In the former category, we have Opeth (death metal kings to natty 70s prog worshippers) and Anathema (middling doom metal to dreamy, proggy house band at the Hallmark card factory). In the latter, Queensryche (well, Geoff Tate in particular, who went from legendary prog metal frontman to weirdo). Dark Suns has been evolving too, and they hope to fit in with the former acts.” Evolution is often overrated.
“There’s a lot of hype building up to You Will Never Be One of Us, the third full-length by Southern Californian powerviolence trio Nails. Known for being unrelenting in their seething anger, both 2010’s Unsilent Death and 2013’s cataclysmic Abandon All Life garnered the trio an army of loyal followers, and rightfully so. There’s no fluff, no compromise, and no bullshit when it comes to their militaristic approach.” Powerviolence is a real thing.
“Having been rather busy as of late doing a paper on Edmund Husserl, I should probably be able to come up with a phenomenal introduction but instead find myself facing the Crisis of Angry Metal Guy Ledes head-on. I suppose a riff on how Grave Desecrator’s fourth full-length Dust to Lust works amusingly with Coffin Dust and Coffin Lust because coffins go with graves and chronologically Dr. A.N. Grier’s typically great work on the former came before my thoughts on the latter like the album name, but that’s not how you bait the clicks.” With a click o’ the switch, she’ll bait you sky high!
“Not to be confused with skindrone dot com (a website promoting “5 Proven Home Remedies for Seborrheic Dermatitis on the Scalp”), the Skin Drone of interest here turns out to be a tech-death group from Massachusetts/Arkansas. Formed by Bluntface Records founder Otto Kinzel, Skin Drone fuses traditional tech-death with blackish avante-garde—the latter flavorings being the most interesting.” Why isn’t there a band named Seborrheic?
“After three years plagued by seemingly perpetual setbacks, The Schoenberg Automaton’s second full-length Apus has finally made the journey from a studio in Australia to my speakers in Chicago. The Brisbane-cum-Vancouver-based technical death metal outfit caught my eye with their first EP and took off in 2013 with Vela, which built on their progressive and extreme roots, expanding their unique and abstract sound quite successfully. Yet early-release tracks from Apus had me worried that the band had abandoned just what made their previous releases so interesting and vital. Had the sophomore slump stymied their songs?” Is The Schoenberg Automaton on autopilot already?
“I’m not going to lie, I have the biggest fucking headache right now. And who is to blame for this ailment? Bon-fucking-Jovi. Why in hell would I be listening to Bon Jovi, you might be asking? Because Jaded Heart’s back-catalog resurfaced my hard-helmet, classic-rock listening, construction-work nightmares. Yep, you read right. I said Jaded Heart. Why would I dare review such a thing, you may also be asking? Well, curiosity killed the cat.” Paul Baloff actually killed that cat because it was a poser!
“Poland’s been the source of some great metal over the years. Behemoth probably comes to mind first, being that Nergal’s the master of controversy and the court room. But putting that aside, there’s Vader, Decapitated, Hate and Lux Occulta, who along with many others have been delivering the goods and then some. Somewhere in the throng, the talents of one-man, black metal or dark ambient artist, Fabian Filiks (Moloch) of Zørormr became a little obscured.” One does not simply hear all the bands in Poland.
“Name the first band that comes to mind when I say Brazil. OK, now name a second one. With some countries like Sweden, the choices are endless. The two picks made are usually based on my favorite bands or bands whose albums were most recently spun. In the case of countries like Brazil, my mind goes straight to timeless classics. Old-school Sepultura and Krisiun. But this game only works once. If you ask me again to name the first two Brazilian bands that come to mind, I will give the same answers. But what if you ask me to name a third? In that case, I’d add Nervosa to the list.” This game isn’t a lot of fun.
“Before I delve into the guts of this self-titled debut from Indiana’s Skeleton Wolf, I’d like to pose a question to our loyal readers here at Angry Metal Guy. What is your favorite drunken party metal album and/or band? You know the kind of metal that just lifts a gear and thrives with the accompaniment of alcohol.” Okay, who said Men Without Hats? You leave the hall right now!
