“Perdurance is the most difficult album you’ll hear until Jute Gyte releases its follow up. Toiling for years with little recognition and no label support, the one man black metal/ electronic/ lowercase/ ambient/ etc. band of Adam Kalmbach has produced vast quantities of what is hands down the most forward-thinking and complex music metal has to offer.” Here at AMG, we like difficult people and difficult music.
“Once upon a time there was a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Today we get Wings of Chains by Bat, and they too bring the sound and fury, but in their case it definitely signifies something. That something being rowdy, sloppy and ill-tempered speed metal guaranteed to make old timers grin in gruesomely gap-toothed glee.” Break these chains of…wings?
“Ghoulgotha make their death metal intentionally unsettling and uber-ugly to the point that even a seasoned crusty fucker like my brothers in arms, Grymm and Dr. Fisting, couldn’t wrap their iron-laden arms around their debut, The Deathmass Cloak. I started to listen to it out of morbid curiosity and found that it sank into my brain like a cancerous strain to the point that it wound up in my year end top ten list.” There really is no accounting for taste.
“Oh, Kvelertak. Five years ago and hot on the heels of their 2010 self-titled debut, it seemed the Norwegian sextet were the subject of every third MetalSucks post, and their wild live shows were the stuff of legend. In a metal scene curdling from years of cvlter-than-thou extremity, the group’s insanely catchy combination of blistering black metal, hooky arena rock, and party-hard attitude not only appeased metalheads with a repressed desire to let loose and rock out, but also broke through to listeners who seldom dipped their toes in the insular metal blogosphere.”
“Despite picking up plenty of positive press for their debut Produces Reason a couple of years ago (including a glowing review from yours truly), Sleep of Monsters don’t seem to have penetrated far into the metal public’s collective consciousness. Comprising former members of underrated Finnish goth rockers Babylon Whores, overrated Finnish goth rockers HIM, and a host of other decorated musicians, Sleep of Monsters go beyond the narrow confines inhabited by the aforementioned acts, incorporating all manner of different musical ideas into their remarkably coherent overall sound.” Don’t sleep on these monsters.
“It’s tough to avoid feeling one’s age when all the wild, crazy bands you listened to in your youth are approaching 30 year anniversaries. This is particularly true with Death Angel. I remember seeing them open for Overkill and Slayer back in 86 and they looked like little kids on stage. I was a kid myself but they really looked like little kids. 2016 sees them dropping their 8th album after three decades in the business and while they’re older, wiser and much more grizzled, you’d hardly know it from the razor-sharp thrash contained on The Evil Divide.” With age comes anger (and back hair).
As a dumb 16 year-old I turned away from bands when the glass-shattering high notes that were a trademark of many vocalists went the way of the dinosaur, either by design or age inducing the testicles to drop. As a dumb 35 year-old, Alan Tecchio raved to me about Flotsam and Jetsam’s then new album, 2010’s The Cold. As one of my favorite metal vocalists (Hades, Non-Fiction), Alan’s word was bond, James Bond, so I picked it up. At first listen it made me turn my Fruit of the Looms into a fudge factory.” Enter the Age of Incontinence!
“I would be a goddamned liar if I said I were a longtime fan of Canadian thrashers, Mortillery—and those who commented on last year’s Unleash the Archers review can contest to this. However, after diving deep into the band’s back catalog, I can wholeheartedly admit that, in a single week’s time, I am a diehard fan of this band. And for the first time in awhile, I will not be sent to the AMG basement for my poor taste in metal or forced outside to scrape the dead armadillo carcasses hanging from the grilles of the staff’s Prius’.” We’ve actually moved your desk down there.
“The Order of Israfel’s 2014 debut Wisdom became a bit of a sleeper for yours truly. I gave it a positive review and saw the potential, but didn’t expect to return to it quite as much as I have. The combination of classic doom with tough biker rock proved hard to ignore and though it missed my year end lists, it’s become a regular part of my “free range” listening time.” Free Steel Druhm!
“Remember when Tom Cruise got cast as The Last Samurai in 2003? Some people on the Internet really do, and take time out of what must be a rich and fulfilling life to vomit up prose so salty it gives Dutch licorice a run for its money. Naturally it’s made into a sociopolitical issue, but I’m going to leave that alone because I’m not a fifth-rate hack who feels compelled to use the metal blog I write for as a soapbox to spew typo-laden opinions on contemporary politics and the like. Anyway, Mr. Cruise remained The Last Samurai for about a year, because in 2004 Finnish Samurai metal band Whispered came into existence.” Eat it, Tommy!
