A Swarm of the Sun

Swallow the Sun – Moonflowers Review

By Steel Druhm on November 19, 2021 in Reviews, Death Metal, Doom Metal, 36 comments

“There hasn’t been much positivity coming from the Swallow the Sun camp these last few years. The tragic passing of guitarist Juha Raivio’s partner and Trees of Eternity collaborator Aleah Stanbridge led to a grief-driven release from Raivio’s Hallatar project as well as the unrelentingly depressive When a Shadow is Forced Into the Light from this group. Years pass and pain diminishes, but based on what we get on Moonflowers, it seems Mr. Raivio is still struggling to get back to the light.” Aphotic hypnotic.

Steel Druhm’s Top Ten(ish) of 2019

By Steel Druhm on January 2, 2020 in 2019, Blog Posts, 171 comments

Steel Druhm‘s word is law, as is his Top Ten(ish) of 2019. This is the Way.

Grymm’s and Kronos’ Top Ten(ish) of 2019

By Dr. Wvrm on December 30, 2019 in 2019, Blog Posts, Lists, 136 comments

Grymm and Kronos serve up a rich helping of metal opinions with their Top Ten(ish) of 2019.

Daxma – Ruins upon Ruins [Things You Might Have Missed 2019]

By Carcharodon on December 7, 2019 in 2019, American Metal, Blues Funeral Recordings, Doom Metal, Post-metal, Post-Rock, Things You Might Have Missed 2019, Post-Metal, 16 comments

“I felt a certain pressure when choosing something, particularly my first thing, to write up as a TYMHM. When I write reviews, ok, I choose them from the promo pit but I’m choosing from the limited pickings left for me by the faster, more nimble AMG scribes. When picking a TYMHM, it’s all on me to pick from the shit ton of music not covered on this most veritable of blogs. So, it may perhaps strike some of you as odd that I have chosen to cover an endearingly small album with only 2 tracks and clocking in at just over 25 minutes.” Everything’s ruined.

Driving Slow Motion – Arda Review

By Carcharodon on June 23, 2019 in 2019, Ambient Metal, American Metal, Experimental Metal, Fail Safe Audio Recordings, Instrumental Metal, Post-metal, Post-Rock, Reviews, Ambient Metal, Experimental Metal, Post-Metal, 12 comments

“Gauging by the comments section on a recent post-metal review that I penned, it would seem that a lot of people are over anything post-y. What better way to win new fans and friends than to write up an experimental, instrumental, post-rock collective? Hmm, on reflection, this could be a hard sell.” Coffee is for closers.

Record(s) o’ the Month – January 2019

By Angry Metal Guy on February 4, 2019 in 2019, Blog Posts, Record o' the Month, 273 comments

One month down in 2019 and we’re off to the races. January was by most accounts—excepting the eventual contrarians in the comments section, a relatively disappointing month. After an almost overwhelming and backloaded 2018, the first month of 2019 felt like a pretty tepid start to the year. Fortunately, there were still some diamonds in the rough. So here’s three albums—two which received the reviews they deserved and one which was unfairly maligned—that I think that you should give your consideration from January of 2019.

A Swarm of the Sun – The Woods Review

By Steel Druhm on January 9, 2019 in 2019, Doom Metal, Drone, Post-metal, Post-Rock, Reviews, Swedish Metal, Version Studio Records, Doom Metal, 83 comments

Isolation, misery and despair. These are the grey building blocks A Swarm of the Sun use to craft their unique soundscapes of depression and suffering. The work of Erik Nilsson and Jakob Berglund, this project has explored the human experience in harrowing ways, most notably on 2015s masterpiece of pain, The Rifts. That album cut a hole in my soul like no other album ever did, even though I was in a good place in life at the time with no particular reason to bask in the suffocating despair the band so effortlessly conjures. Their sparse brand of post-rock/metal and quasi-doom is unlike anything else out there, possessed of a grim power that drains all the light and joy from the world, consigning you to endless cancer wards and funeral parlors to witness the grace and desperation that comes at the end of life. The Woods sees the dour duo return with another dose of downer post-rock, and it’s predictably bleak and unsettling.” The hearts of darkness.

Eneferens – The Bleakness of Our Constant Review

By Steel Druhm on October 23, 2018 in 2018, American Metal, Bindrune Recordings, Black Metal, Doom Metal, Nordvis Produktion, Reviews, Black Metal, Doom Metal, 124 comments

“Steel Druhm reviewing a one-man atmospheric black metal album? How can this be happening? Does Vardan have him by the short back hairs? Did he get triple ape dared by that trickster, Muppet? No siree, Bob. Steel is reviewing the new Eneferens album because of what it is and what it is not. It is the product of one man named Jori Apedaileman, and it is an absolutely beautiful work of art spanning black, death, folk, post-metal and doom as effortlessly as I skip over metalcore in the promo slump.” This is the Winter of our sadboy content.

Arkuum – Die Letzte Agonie Review

By Master of Muppets on August 16, 2018 in 2018, Black Metal, Doom Metal, German Metal, Reviews, Self-released, Black Metal, Doom Metal, 59 comments

“There are some truths which we all hold to be self-evident no matter who we are. Examples of such universal certainties include that you will breathe oxygen under a blue sky, fire will be hot eleven times out of ten, and that, one day, you will die. Most do their damnedest to disarm that last trvth bomb, but it’s the only thing Germany’s Arkuum are thinking about on their sophomore effort, Die Letzte Agonie. With a fittingly foreboding production and a staunch refusal to smile, one man fatalist army Arkas cradles that aforementioned bombshell like a kvlt and cvddly baby, singing life itself to sleep with a 50-minute blackened lullaby.”Hvsh little baby.

Esben and the Witch – Older Terrors Review

By Steel Druhm on November 4, 2016 in 2016, English Metal, Gothic Metal, Non-Metal Metal Things, Reviews, Season of Mist, 31 comments

“I’m not alone among the AMG staff in having fallen hard for The Gathering‘s career defining Mandylion release back in 95. That platter combined elements of doom and goth rock in a way that had never been done before and created something haunting, sad and achingly beautiful. The band quickly drifted toward more commercial waters, and many (myself included) were left hungering for more of what Mandylion delivered. Perhaps that’s why my ears pricked up when I heard a snippet of the Older Terrors promo from hitherto unknown by me English three-piece, Esben and the Witch.” Oh, Mandy, you came and you found me an Esben….