“How does one sit down and write a followup album when your discography includes not only Eater of Birds but Gin? The former regarded as “2007’s landmark album” and the latter acclaimed as “a pillar in American extreme metal.” Colorado’s Cobalt put themselves in that very position, and I suspect the process saw them battered and bruised in places they never thought possible.” It’s tough to be a trendsetter.
![Morality Crisis – MASH [Things You Might Have Missed 2015]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Morality-Crisis-MASH-768x768.jpg)
I really hope that you, dear readers, are as alarmed as me that we are deep into February 2016. What’s that? It’s March? Bloody hell. Well that explains why it’s still light during the drive home from work already. My perennial quest Sophia sluggishness means I’m nowhere near keeping up with the 2016 release schedule […]
“There are one-man bands and there are one-man bands. Via Vengeance is the latter. Shane Ocell is not only the sole-instrumentalist of this Arizona-based doom band, but also performs guitar, drums, and vocals simultaneously. Yep, you heard me. The Via Vengeance live experience consists of Ocell sitting behind a kit, chugging away on a guitar, and belting out vicious incantations through his monitors. For this reason, Ocell’s songwriting is simplistic, proving that doom can be done well without over-the-top epicness.” One man, big doom.
“You’ve witnessed the scene. It’s a part of the furniture in many contemporary neo-neo-noir, ominously foreboding, condemningly pseudofuturist movies. Our heroic but morally ambiguous protagonist visits some sort of underground nightclub. People, presumably the filth of the city, dance spastically (yet provocatively) under stroboscopes, adorned by black leather and fetishized clothing. A mixture of disgust and temptation lingers while a red haze surrounds the entangled mess of bodies. It’s Hollywood’s typical portrayal of Hell on Earth, a mise-en-scène imbued with cheap symbolism. Imagine now a worthy metal accompaniment to such a spectacle in real life, deprived of all the fabricated fanciness, something that would eclipse phony visual cues and provide a truly infernal setting.” Or just recall the club scene in Blade II.
“We’re familiar with Austin Lunn’s home-grown, folk metal Panopticon around these parts. His bluegrass-infused black metal has garnered justifiable (though some say excessive) acclaim, especially as his work has progressively become more melodic and accessible. But this time around he’s sharing album space with German folk-meisters Waldgeflüster, with whom I am less familiar. The split apparently had its roots in the bottom of many beers – as many of the best ideas do – shared between Lunn and Winterherz (of Waldgeflüster) and I was eager to hear what they’d produced.” Split the album, don’t split the beers.
“Destined to be one of the weirdest releases of the year, the obscure but fascinating New York act Wicked Maraya resurfaces after 18 years in the ground. Flash back to 1994: The upstart band drops their Cycles debut at a critical time for metal. The Seattle grunge revolution was well underway and metal had lost the limelight – forcing a slow, inexorable retreat back to the rancid underground. Cycles was very much the product of that tenuous era as the band tried to synthesize these opposing musical approaches into something new and exciting.” Metal history class is now in session!
“Over my life as a metal fan I’ve had my share of issues with proggy musical endeavors. Though there was a time when I loved everything Dream Theater did, they eventually drifted into a grey purgatory of wanking and showboatery which left those of us who appreciated actual songs out in the cold. I loved early Fates Warning even more dearly, but they too took their progressive tendencies too far afield for my liking, losing their traditional metal charm entirely. Somehow, Redemption managed to avoid alienating my affections over their career though they embody the exact same tendencies as the aforementioned acts.” Don’t put the W in wank and everything will be just fine.
“In 2015 I had the pleasure of opening up the New Year with a review of Volahn’s Aq’ab’al; a black metal album filled with so much cultural content (Mayan in this case) that it would have made Quorton’s head spin. Just over a year later I am presented with another opportunity to review a new release from Volahn’s small record label, Crepúsculo Negro—aka Black Twilight Circle.” Cultural diversity is the mission statement here at AMG.
“If I had my druthers – and by Jorn’s undershorts, they will be had – I’d be reviewing a lot more good slam. The paucity of good slam to review occurs for two reasons. Number one; we don’t get a whole lot of promo for slam bands, I suspect because so few of them speak English, and number two; good slam is hard to find. Sturgeon’s rule says that 90 percent of everything is crap, but for certain genres of metal, that’s a conservative estimate, and brutal death metal seems to produce stinkers at an alarming pace.” Watch as Kronos pines longingly for slam.
“Simply put, Obscurations (To Feast on the Seraphim), the début by one-man band Ritual Chamber, is easily an archetype of how “evil” music should sound. Guitar riffs and growled vocals rise from a gutter filled with tortured souls, putrid bile drips from drum kicks and rumbling bass lines, and a general atmosphere of rot and despair fills each and every song. Cliché as it may seem, it’s dread incarnated.” Ready for some dread and breakfast?
