“If thrash was an actual school, Slayer would sit off in the corner glaring at everyone and carving pentagrams in the desks, while Anthrax cracked jokes and drew penises on their textbooks (dick jokes, man). In this delicate metal ecosystem, there’s little doubt Overkill would play the role of school bully, gleefully dealing out wedgies, swirlies and the dreaded Rear Admiral with pugnacious glee.” Lunch money. Give it!
“Seven Kingdoms came out of nowhere in 2012 and caught nuclear laser lightning in a bottle on the unheralded The Fire is Mine, blowing me away with their righteously irresistible take on classic Euro-power (the Game of Thrones concept didn’t hurt either). That album is one of the best pure power metal platters in recent memory and one I still go back to with alarming frequency. It’s been an uncomfortably long wait for a follow-up, but now they’re finally back with Decennium and my expectations could scarcely be higher.” Winter finally came.
“Being at the bridge between traditional and more extreme forms of metal, death-thrash isn’t a style with a lot of clout. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the sub-genre, but its middle ground status means that most peoples’ preferences fall to one side of the genre or the other. While there’s no denying the beauty of heavy metal, readers will recognize that I fall on the brutal side of the scale.” Brutality is a deathstyle choice.
“Have you ever gone camping, and that one friend brings his guitar to play songs around the fire? But the thing is, he can’t really play, he’s a shitty singer, and he only knows Bob Seger songs. You sit there saying to yourself, ‘I wish I was actually camping with rock legend John Garcia. That would be the best camping trip ever.’” Cold breeze, clean air….
“What’s black and white and re(a)d all over? A war metal cover made out of newspapers! Stupid joke, but I bet you smiled anyway. Good news for all of you goat/Satan fans out there, Crurifragium are here to ensure you never smile again. Born of an unholy union between members of Demoncy, Astraes Pestis, and Warpvomit, these Seattleites bear all the triple-6 markings of a devil-worshiping crew looking to hail Lucifer in the best(ial) of ways.” Satan.
“With a basic internet connection offering an up-to-the-minute cornucopia of quality metal releases, snap judgments have become an unfortunate way of life. On my first listen, Undrask came off as middling melodeath in the vain of acts emulating Clayman—In Flames and peak Children of Bodom. Packaged in a blue-and-orange visage that could leave Michael Bay weak in the knees, debut Battle Through Time initially left me stifling a yawn. Sorry, better luck next time. NEXT!” A funny thing happened on the way to the review.
“Black Anvil is one of those bands you always expect to break through on their next record. Formed in 2007 by members of New York hardcore act Kill Your Idols, the black metal quartet’s 2009 debut Time Insults the Mind and 2010 follow-up Triumvirate initially seemed poised to break the group out of the underground with their infusion of Watain-style riffing into a sweaty hardcore aesthetic.” Is this when the Anvil cracks through?
“Collaborations between metal artists are quite common. The amount of “supergroups,” like Phil Anselmo’s own Down, can attest to that. Less common are collaborations between metal artists and people outside of metal. Sometimes these are successful, like when Anthrax teamed up with Public Enemy for “Bring the Noise.” Other times you get Lulu.” The South will writhe again.
![Vale of Pnath – II [Things You Might Have Missed 2016]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/cover-4-768x756.jpg)
“I never thought of myself as a tech death fan. Coming from a thrash background, I never needed insane drum machine combos or faster-than-light scales to get my dander up. But after penning one tech death TYMHM this winter, I was struck by the notable divide between Dormant Ordeal and current beau Vale of Pnath.” Kronos laughs at your newbiehood.
“Given how great 2016 was for me personally, my resolution for the New Year, if I was forced to make one, would be to keep doing what I was doing but do even more of it. The more things stay the same, the more things keep coming up Milhouse Diabolus. With that in mind, 2017 is off to a great start! Case in point: just like 2016, my first review of the year’s subject is Raleigh’s Suppressive Fire.” Thrashy deja vu.
