“We all have our dirty metal secrets that we selfishly keep to ourselves, only sharing with a select few close to us. Or alternatively, we incessantly talk up underground gems and spread the gospel to anyone that will listen, as we cherish our slice of underground cred. Into the Obscure aims to right the wrongs and unearth the artists/albums that for whatever unjust reason didn’t get the exposure, appreciation or credit they sorely deserved the first time round.” Be Defiant.
“There’s something special about South American death metal. I don’t know what it is, but the continent seems to have no shortage of bands that pair a raw, uncompromising, and wholly sincere approach with a strange and otherworldly mystique. Peru’s Mortem and Chile’s Atomic Aggressor, for instance, both excel at infusing the sound of old Morbid Angel with a sense of ancient and mysterious horror, while Chile’s Death Yell use less discernible influences to craft equally dark and aggressive material. Thus, I was quite excited when AMG Himself recommended I cover Draconis, an Argentinian death metal band who I’ve never heard of before.” Eternal muddle.
“In the late 90s and early 00s, yours truly bombarded himself with an unhealthy amount of melodic death metal. Basically, anything and everything that came from Gothenburg, Sweden was feverishly devoured at an alarming rate. All blame goes to At The Gates, of course, but quite a few great albums came from there. Sadly, so did some absolute dreck. But there’s no denying that the groundwork that they, Dark Tranquillity, and In Flames laid for bands to come, because no matter what, it just keeps coming, much to our joy and/or dismay.” Fever and syndrome.
“Come on, groove metal. I know you can do it. Elitists tend to treat you as the secondary antagonist of metal’s story, behind only to nu-metal, but between genre founders Pantera and the best bits of Machine Head’s discography, there’s still a lot of potential in this particular sound. Hell, I’ve even enjoyed the occasional DevilDriver when craving musical fast-food, which seems to be considered a heinous crime amongst some.” Groove you wrong.
“2020 seems to be the year of bands returning from the wastes. I’ve reviewed at least three bands so far this year that haven’t released an album for eight plus years. Næstved, Denmark’s original melo-death export Withering Surface dropped their last album, Force the Pace, way back in 2004.” Withering still.
“Hello everyone! As I cannot pay the rent in the skulls of newbies, I work during the daytime for a traveling company. As such, I know that right after Christmas, people booking holidays surges. Now before you spend money on some dumbass idyllic location like the Canary Islands or Iceland, why not sweat it up with a bunch of strangers in black for a week on a field of grass in Slovenia? That’s right, bitches, it’s time for the first Angry Metal Days update!” Metal Avengers Assemble!
“With a one-sheet that closed with “FFO: Behemoth, Marduk, Watain, and My Dying Bride,” I expected competently played blackened death metal… with weepy violins, morose lyrics, or whatever else that could possibly be associated with My Dying Bride that would potentially throw a huge monkey wrench into the classic blackened death metal formula.” If you can dodge a wrench….
![Dawn of Disease – Procession of Ghosts [Things You Might Have Missed 2019]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/a1242624081_10-768x768.jpg)
“My first “real” metal band was Iron Maiden. The second was Children of Bodom, and through them, I found other melodic death metal bands like Norther and Kalmah. These last three bands were all listed on Metal Archives as “power metal with harsh vocals,” as a kind of elitist bid to disassociate melodic death metal that was too melodic from the “death” part of the label. While it was kind of a ridiculous strategy, it is true that there’s a major subsection of melodic death metal that has little in common with death metal aside from growls or screams.” Death’s revenge.
“It’s been 36 years since an upstart British band called Grim Reaper released See You in Hell. It wasn’t the greatest album, but there was a certain charm about the band that made that album, and the follow-up Fear no Evil, stick in many playlists back in the day. That charm was due in no small part to singer Steve Grimmett. Steve’s been through hell and back over the last couple of years, first losing part of his leg a couple years ago and then having his brother pass away. But he’s back now, with Steve Grimmett’s Grim Reaper.” Reapers gonna reap.
“In my mind, there are two strains of melodic death metal. There is the kind that focuses on beauty (like the recent Eternal Storm) and the kind that focuses on raw energy (I would argue Brymir fit in this category). Both strive to infect the masses with sing-along-worthy tunes, but they take different approaches to the goal. Shade of Hatred, a melodic death quintet from the Netherlands, aim for the latter category on their debut full-length Reflection on Ruin.” The melodeath resistance grows.
