American Metal

Inanimate Existence – A Never-Ending Cycle of Atonement Review

By Kronos on June 22, 2014 in 2014, American Metal, Death Metal, Reviews, Unique Leader, Technical Death Metal, 26 comments

“Hey gang, it’s time to play a game. A fun game – but also a dangerous one, so make sure you’re qualified for it. In order to play you’ll need a few things: a bucket, a glass, a strong liver, and a large amount of (ideally) a slightly less strong drink. That’s right, we’re about to engage in every tech-death nerd’s plastering procedure: the Unique Leader Records drinking game! Here are the rules; I’m going to review an upcoming album from Unique Leader, and every time a Unique Leader trope appears, you take a shot.” Everybody grab a Zima and brace yourselves!

Incantation – Dirges of Elysium Review

By Steel Druhm on June 21, 2014 in 2014, American Metal, Death Metal, Listenable Records, Reviews, Death Metal, 14 comments

“Wow, another accessible Incantation album. As you remove your jaw from your keyboard, let me make clear, the use of the word “accessible” in the same sentence as Incantation does not denote any sell out or radical style shift. Instead, these long running murk merchants continued what they started on 2012s Vanquish in Vengeance and eased back on the dismal sludge.” Folks, this is where the slime live.

Ronny Munroe – Electric Wake Review

By Steel Druhm on June 18, 2014 in 2014, American Metal, Heavy Metal, Rat Pak Records, Reviews, Heavy Metal, 8 comments

“Although not exactly a household name, Ronny Munroe is the third generation of vocalists for quasi-legendary act Metal Church. The band itself may be past it’s creative peak and none of the Munroe-era albums are what I’d consider essential listening, but he’s always been a solid and dependable vocalist blessed with above average pipes seemingly made for metal. Electric Wake is his third solo outing, and though the prior platters sported a few interesting tunes, neither fully served Mr. Munroe and his quality vocals were often wasted on underwhelming and passé numbers.” Is the third time a charm for Mr. Munroe’s solo career?

Humut Tabal – The Dark Emperor ov the Shadow Realm Review

By Madam X on June 17, 2014 in 2014, American Metal, Black Metal, Reviews, Unsigned Bands, Black Metal, 5 comments

“This week’s foray into the blackened underworld takes me via the humid subtropics of Houston Texas – perhaps their abundance of air-conditioning helps keep them kvlt? At any rate Humut Tabal are new to me, and what little I’ve heard of their Gods ov Darkness, Hate and Flame debut doesn’t get me all hot under the collar or fill me with expectation outside a few ‘wait, what?’ moments. A lengthy five years after the release of the debut, one would hope Humut Tabal pulled out their self-regenerating dark matter power core and used the time wisely to hone their craft. So does The Dark Emperor ov the Shadow Realm lambaste you with its Megatron-sized punch or is this just another example of blah meh-tal?” Can Texas produce cult black metal? Texans would say yes. Madam X is prepared to mess with Texas.

Cemetery Lust – Orgies of Abomination Review

By Steel Druhm on June 13, 2014 in 2014, American Metal, Hells Headbangers Records, Reviews, Thrash Metal, Black Metal, Thrash Metal, 4 comments

“Oh deary me, Cemetery Lust calls their style of metal “Rape Thrash.” That should tell you all you need to know about these rancid bastards. If it didn’t, this is extremely low rent, low-fi, vaguely blackened crust thrash in the vein of Inferno with copious nods to Whiplash, Autopsy and Sacrofago and it is NOT pretty or PC. At all. If such a thing as a musical cliché warehouse existed, these guys looted the Neanderthal Thrash section of everything that wasn’t nailed down and then nailed down the security guard just to be cvlt.” Well, this sure is a shit show of a listen.

Wretched – Cannibal Review

By Kronos on June 12, 2014 in 2014, American Metal, Death Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Reviews, Thrash Metal, Victory Records, Technical Death Metal, 8 comments

“Wretched’s thrash-influenced yet unmistakably modern take on death metal puts them in an interesting position between extremity and accessibility. By mixing thrashy riffing with top-notch melodic death metal in the vein of Black Dahlia Murder and Arsis and paying tribute to, though never falling victim to, metalcore tropes, their last three albums have been of a consistently high quality and the band has never failed to impress.” Tech-death with some interesting bells and whistles? Could be worth reading about….

Body Hammer- II: The Mechanism of Night Review

By Kronos on June 9, 2014 in 2014, American Metal, Avante Garde, Grind, Non-Metal Metal Things, Reviews, The Path Less Traveled Records, Avante Garde, Grind, Non-metal Metal Things, 3 comments

“I chew through a lot of mediocre music on a daily basis, washing grains of sound across the dark pan of my eardrums in search of those glistening nuggets of aural excellence. Those are few and far between, meaning that most days I return to my bed without treasure to appease my lust for gold. But every once in a while, an unexpected element drifts down into my staked out piece of streambed. That’s where things get interesting. As much as I love great finds, there’s something to be said for the merit of pure novelty. When something unprecedented washes into my hands, that makes it all worth it.” This is a weird one, folks.

Corrosion Of Conformity – IX Review

By Dr. Fisting on June 7, 2014 in 2.5, 2014, American Metal, Candlelight, Heavy Metal, Reviews, 9 comments

“Considering that the band was left for dead after 2005’s In The Arms Of God, North Carolina’s Corrosion of Conformity has been on a fucking roll these last few years. The band’s original trio reconvened in 2010 and embarked on heavy-duty touring, followed by 2012’s excellent self-titled LP and the hastily-assembled Megalodon EP for Scion A/V. Just two short years later, COC is back again with their 9th album, creatively titled IX.” Old stoner/hardcore bands never die, they just get more garage-y.

The Atlas Moth – The Old Believer Review

By JF Williams on June 6, 2014 in 2014, American Metal, Profound Lore Records, Reviews, Sludge, Stoner Rock, Sludge Metal, Stoner Metal, 3 comments

“The Atlas Moth is not your average “genre” band. More than being another entry in the long list of throwaway stoner doom acts, the Chicagoan five-piece’s sophomore LP An Ache for the Distance was a gorgeously rendered amalgam of sinewy sludge, painterly post-metal and heavy-handed psychedelia; a lushly psychedelic heavy metal record impossible to pigeonhole and just as easy to love. It’s the kind of record that screams “classic” in its first couple of seconds and could possibly reaffirm one’s faith in modern metal.” Can this release entrench The Atlas Moth as the savior of modern metal?

Pillory – Evolutionary Miscarriage Review

By Kronos on June 5, 2014 in 2014, American Metal, Death Metal, Reviews, Unique Leader, Technical Death Metal, 3 comments

“Promos come in and promos go out, and amongst the parade of CDs labelled as heavy metal, re-thrash, or ridiculously specific (read: nonexistent) black metal genres, there’s a disappointingly low number of tech-death releases. The last few years have been pretty good for tech-death, so it’s no surprise that the release schedule for the genre is in a lull right now, but that doesn’t make me any less sad. Thankfully, Pillory are breaking the silence with their sophomore effort Evolutionary Miscarriage.” Here’s some tech-death to noodle you into paste!