“If there’s one thing Dyscarnate have taught me, it’s that other modern death metal needs to step up its collective shit. Formed in 2004, this British trio first caught my attention in 2012 with sophomore full-length And So It Came to Pass, a record which may as well have invented the term “chunky riff.”” Hammer time.
“Why tech-death insists on being an exercise in as many bands as possible doing the exact same thing as each other, is something that baffles. On that note, and with Beuller-approved levels of irony, let’s talk about some dudes from Dubai and what they’ve done with the genre on their third full-length, Past, Present… Torture.” Dial N for Nile, oh, and Nervecell.
“As an armchair linguist and general language nerd, I love listening to material in a language I don’t know. A sextet of Finnish Satanists and black metal veterans, Ajattara have a platter that fits that bill, and because of my total unfamiliarity with them, I approached the record with totally open ears. Lupaus, the band’s ninth full-length following a six-year hiatus, is a bit of a genre puzzle, as it’s hard for me to call it straight black metal.” Blackness, death and declension.
“Scientists all agree that 2016 is the worst year of anyone’s life who has ever lived, including mine. We lost a lot of musical heroes this year (both metal and otherwise), and the current political climate has brought unprecedented levels of stupidity to my doorstep. Worse yet, I am often surrounded by terrible music made by dickheads.” Read this and don’t be a dickhead.
“Ingar Amlien is a persistent fellow. Having formed Crest of Darkness in 1993 to pursue darker fare than his progressive main band Conception would allow, Amlien weathered line-up changes and several fine-tunings of their blackened thrash formula. Their last album, 2013’s In The Presence of Death, impressed our very own Madam X with their rifftastic blasphemy, goofy cover notwithstanding. Now it’s my turn to enjoy deep of Norwegian black-thrash with their seventh album, Welcome the Dead.” Welcome…to your grave!
“Because the chances of getting another release worth a damn from Immortal are about as likely as my Writer o’ the Year award, I have no other choice but to look elsewhere for my Immortal Thirst Quencher. But where can I find that iciness that somehow defines Immortal but no one else? From whence shall I procure melodic black metal that taps into my heart and freezes my veins into blood Popsicles?” These are the kind of hard questions that get you a doctorate!
“Norway’s Vredehammer started off as a solo-project for mainman Per Valla in-between work with his other bands, Elite and Allfader, as a way to branch out of the traditional sound of his country’s musical export of choice. Until most recently, Valla was hired on as a live second guitarist for Abbath’s band, but quit to concentrate on completing Vredehammer’s second full-length, Violator. I bring this point up because Violator isn’t dissimilar in style and approach to the lovable crab-walking ex-mainman for Immortal.” We like crabs, and Abbath.
“It’s the new year! And that means new starts. What’s going to be new with the Record(s) o’ the Month in 2016? Well, pretty much nothing. I plan to be just as opinionated, stubborn, and unreliable as I can be. Because now I have Unimpeachable Scientific Proof™ that my choices are pretty much fucking representative of the choices of the entire staff at Angry Metal Guy. Yeah, sure, some people might not agree with me all the time, but in aggregate—which as we know from the rise of Big Data and the Technocratic Rule is the only data that matters—my opinion is still trend-setting and all-important. Put that in your pipe and smoke it I Give a 4.0 to Everything That Reeks of Nostalgia and Desperation Druhm. So my wimpy prog choices? Yeah, they’re gonna keep coming. My not caring about the newest super true Demilich clone? Oh, it will continue. My total disinterest in anyone’s opinion but my own? Yup, that’s the whole point of this blog.”
“As the old saying goes, you can legally coerce Abbath out of Immortal, but you can’t stop Abbath from up and taking Immortal with him in spirit. So instead of taking the ball and going home, Abbath proceeded to take the ball and dunk on the fools who think that Immortal can survive without him.” Abbath is back with Abbath. Hail Abbath!
“Let’s be honest; I’m as excited for Abbath as my son is about his new Optimus Prime Halloween costume. Ever since hearing about Abbath’s new venture, my fellow scalpel wielder (Dr. Fisting) and I have yet to cease our musings of grand times spent with Immortal and the one-hit-wonder that is I. It’s bad enough that I’s Between Two Worlds already gets a shitload of playtime on the Grier IPod, but lately it has been even worse [I worship that damn album. – Steel Druhm]. So, what the hell does this have to do with anything? Paint yourself like a black & white cookie and follow us to the mountains!
