American Metal

Eternal Silence – The Arsonist Review

By Angry Metal Guy on March 16, 2010 in 2010, 4.0, American Metal, Death Metal, Reviews, Unsigned Bands, Death Metal, Melodic Death Metal, 0 comments

Eternal Silence is a death metal band that hails from New London, Wisconsin and has been around as long as this Angry Metal Guy has been into death metal. They started out in the late 90s, released a record in 98, an EP again in 2002 and then went silent, though they’ve been playing shows around Wisconsin and Illinois consistently. Like so many bands, they’ve suffered from issues surrounding labels, studios and band members, but somehow the core of this group has managed to stick together and stick it out. Sometimes stubbornness is really the best friend of a musician. Eternal Silence has shown that years of patience and hard work can pay off.

Formulas Fatal to the Flesh Vinyl!

By Angry Metal Guy on March 15, 2010 in Blog Posts, Death Metal, Earache Records, Death Metal, 0 comments

I normally don’t spend a lot of time pimping labels attempts to make money off of a band’s discog, but in this case I think it’s too fucking cool not to write about! Formulas Fatal to the Flesh, the David Vincentless 6th album from Morbid Angel is now being made available on vinyl for the […]

Immolation – Majesty and Decay Review

By Angry Metal Guy on March 6, 2010 in 2010, 4.0, American Metal, Death Metal, Nuclear Blast, Reviews, Death Metal, 2 comments

Immolation are one of death metal’s best known bands, rooting in the NYDM scene of the 1990s, they have produced some of the most widely worshiped death metal records of all time. Oddly enough, they’re not a band that this Angry Metal Guy was particularly familiar with, as the path to death metal went through more melodic bands. But I have heard rumors of their greatness, technical prowess and their tendency to put out excellent records. Immolation’s 2010 release has seen them living up to this reputation as being one of death metal’s greats with their Nuclear Blast debut Majesty and Decay.

Petrychor – Dryad Review

By Angry Metal Guy on February 16, 2010 in 2010, 4.0, American Metal, Avante Garde, Black Metal, Reviews, Unsigned Bands, Black Metal, 3 comments

I frequently complain about black metal these days. Partially this is because I think that a lot of post-black metal is fucking boring and partially ’cause the not-post-black metal is also fucking boring. In general, black metal is in a place where nothing really that interesting is going on. Sure, there are bands out there that are putting out good material, but for the most part the signed stuff is so-so and the classic bands are disappointing with new material and the state of the scene, in my opinion, is pretty sad. So I was pleasantly surprised to get turned onto this piece of art by the Californian do-it-yourselfer just called “T”. The project is called Petrychor and displays all of the things that I would hope to hear out of this budding scene sort of embodied in a single 3 song EP entitled Dryad.

Arsis – Starve for the Devil Review

By Angry Metal Guy on February 8, 2010 in 2010, 3.0, American Metal, Death Metal, Nuclear Blast, Reviews, Thrash Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Technical Death Metal, 1 comment

In the new wave of technical, fast, melodic death metal bands that have been coming out in the last few years Arsis has stood alone with its professional blending of melodic death, technical death and thrash. Basically an instant success story from their first CD A Celebration of Guilt, the band has gone through a lot of line-up changes and has been out there pretty much consistently since their break in 2004. Starve for the Devil follows on the heals of 2008’s We Are the Nightmare and there are a lot of expectations to be met and surpassed with this new album.

Overkill – Ironbound Review

By Angry Metal Guy on January 24, 2010 in 2010, 4.0, American Metal, Nuclear Blast, Reviews, Thrash Metal, Thrash Metal, 4 comments

“Overkill is still around?” That was my first thought when I received this promo. See, this band is definitely a part of my childhood, being a huge a fan of the record I Hear Black when I was at the tender age of 11, but they were never a band that I ever followed with any religiosity. No, Overkill never managed to make it into my early thrash pantheon, despite the fact that I remember loving that album. So it was with great interest that I put on this album, not really know what to expect at all given everything. I mean, it’s been a lot of years and bands, in general, do not age well. And, after asking around, I’d heard that Overkill hadn’t aged very well, either.

Charred Walls of the Damned – Charred Walls of the Damned Review

By Angry Metal Guy on January 23, 2010 in 2010, 3.0, American Metal, Metal Blade, Reviews, Heavy Metal, Power Metal, 0 comments

Charred Walls of the Damned has two distinct honors from the get-go: not only is it the longest band name EVER, but it’s also the first thing in which excellent drummer Richard Christy has surfaced in since going to the Howard Stern show and leaving American power metallers Iced Earth in the dust. I think everyone was wondering when he was going to jump back into metal, myself included. It’s hard to imagine that the former Death and Iced Earth drummer was just going to leave everything behind. Given his background it was only a matter of time. And not just his background: homeboy has contacts, too! He brings with him the mighty Jason Suecof, mostly known for his production (Trivium, Luna Mortis, God Forbid and so on), but who is also a fucking wicked ass guitar player (seriously, dude can shred). On bass, of course, is the mighty Steve DiGiorgio who played with Christy in Iced Earth and Death. How can this project possibly lose?

Interview with Mary Zimmer from Luna Mortis

By Angry Metal Guy on January 22, 2010 in 2009, 2010, American Metal, Century Media, Interviews, Power Metal, Progressive Death, Progressive Metal, Things You Might Have Missed 2009, Unsigned Bands, Power Metal, Progressive Metal, 1 comment

One of the most promising bands that I’ve ever encountered in my time in the underground has been Luna Mortis. Within the scene that they were surrounded by, it was basically taken for granted that if someone from the scene was going to take off it would be them (at the time called The Ottoman Empire). To no one’s surprise they got bigger, got better management, got a better band together and continued developing. To no one’s surprise they started getting good press and good reviews and making contacts. To, I think, a lot of people’s surprise they ended up getting signed by Century Media. Not that they didn’t deserve it, but just to think that a group of local kids were getting picked up by the label that had shepherded so many of us into the extreme metal scene was pretty astounding.

The Greatest Band EVER (to come from Wausau, Wisconsin that starts with a D…)

By Angry Metal Guy on January 8, 2010 in American Metal, Blog Posts, Death Metal, Unsigned Bands, WIMetal.org, 1 comment

My buddy Chris just uploaded a video from the now defunct Heathen Crusade’s first ever show. It was where his former band Dumah opened up for Moonsorrow and Primordial and it was probably one of the best shows of his, or any member of that band’s, life. Anyway, little did I know they had taped […]

The Black Dahlia Murder – Deflorate Review

By Angry Metal Guy on September 9, 2009 in 2009, 3.5, American Metal, Death Metal, Deathcore, Metal Blade, Metalcore, Reviews, Death Metal, Metalcore, 5 comments

The Black Dahlia Murder is becoming a veteran band among this new wave of melodic American death metal/metalcore or whatever the hell you want to call it. To get this out of the way right away: I think that The Black Dahlia Murder has been treated unfairly by a metal community sad to see the disappearance of the old school metal guy anywhere except brutal death metal. Modern American metal has come to be dominated by short-haired, tattooed hardcore lookin’ kids who often have super diverse taste in music and have never donned a leather jacket or a goatee in their lives. These hardcore lookin’ dudes put on shows that have an energy that often times metal dudes lack in their own live performances, and they’re gaining notoriety with their blending of brutal death metal and stupid core breakdowns. The Black Dahlia Murder has been lumped in with these guys because of tattoos and plugs, but they are certainly not akin to these bands. No, The Black Dahlia Murder is easily one of the best melodic death metal bands the United States has ever produced and despite them sounding a lot like At The Gates plus blast beats, I think they do it very, very well and very consistently.