Avant Garde

Dronte – Quelque Part Entre La Guerre Et La Lâcheté Review

By GardensTale on March 1, 2019 in 2019, Apathia Records, Avante Garde, Experimental Metal, French Metal, Reviews, Noise Rock, 114 comments

“We take the electric guitar for granted. Where would metal be without its deliciously distorted tones? Dronte asked themselves the same thing, and they interpreted it as a challenge. And while they were at it, they got rid of all electrical feeds to their instruments. Yes indeed, we are dealing with a self-proclaimed acoustic metal band. Can there even be such a thing? Are electric instruments not an absolute necessity for metal? And would anyone besides the French be insane enough to even attempt it?” The other Tenacious D.

Altarage – The Approaching Roar Review

By Kronos on January 25, 2019 in 2019, Avante Garde, Death Metal, Reviews, Season of Mist Underground Activists, Spanish Metal, Death Metal, 142 comments

“In their first two albums, Altarage began a career—and a successful one at that—by walking just a few steps behind Portal. Sure, Portal’s most avant-garde ideas never made it into Nihl or Endinghent, but the Australians’ influence on Altarage has always been as clear as either band’s music was murky.” Now THIS is Portal racing!

Baring Teeth – Transitive Savagery

By Kronos on November 20, 2018 in 2018, American Metal, Avante Garde, Death Metal, Reviews, Translation Loss, 58 comments

“I’m continuously anticipating new material from Baring Teeth. The Texan trio’s avant-garde and combative exercises in dissonance and unsettling atmosphere make up some of the most thought provoking material in the world of death metal, steadfastly refusing the accessible and the predictable. Few other bands can match the density and sheer shock of their experiments, and three albums in they’re still surprising me.” What bare teeth you have!

Sigh – Heir to Despair Review

By Kronos on November 13, 2018 in 2018, Avante Garde, Black Metal, Candlelight Records, Japanese Metal, Progressive Metal, Reviews, Black Metal, 76 comments

“Some of the band’s previously bagged waterfowl are among the rarest and colorful to ever take flight, flashing their lavish plumage in iridescent hues and streaming with fanciful feathers. After the modern classic of In Somniphobia and Graveward’s acceptable, if not always exciting, follow-up, the band needed something different to end this quartet with something more powerful than mere exhalation.” Where the Heir is thin.

To End It All – Scourge of Woman Review

By Lokasenna on October 5, 2018 in 2018, American Metal, Avante Garde, Noise, Non-Metal Metal Things, Reviews, Scry Recordings, Noise, Non-metal Metal Things, 87 comments

“To End It All’s debut, Scourge of Woman, is a monument to noise, anguish and righteous, burning rage; abrasive and chaotic, yet subtle and restrained, defiantly refusing to coddle the listener.” Noise and art.

Madder Mortem – Marrow Review

By GardensTale on September 20, 2018 in 2018, Avante Garde, Dark Essence Records, Norwegian Metal, Progressive Metal, Reviews, Progressive Metal, 99 comments

“Rare is the band that truly sounds like no one else. Either standing on the shoulders of giants, or innovating their way to hundreds of copycats, few have no comparable peers, followers, or ancestors. Madder Mortem, also known as Norway’s best-kept secret, are one of those bands.” Post-Madder Mortem.

Manes – Slow Motion Death Sequence Review

By Dr. A.N. Grier on August 23, 2018 in 2018, Avante Garde, Debemur Morti, Electronica Metal, Non-Metal Metal Things, Norwegian Metal, Reviews, Electronica Metal, Non-metal Metal Things, 70 comments

“The first time I heard the Norwegian oddity known as Manes, I was in grad school. That fateful day, I was grading organic chemistry exams, locked away in that windowless closet of a grading room. With hours of work ahead of me, I took the time to find some new music to ease the pain. After getting caught in the rabbit’s hole of ‘similar artists’ and the ‘who-played-with-who’ links of Metal Archives, I emerged with Manes. And, I figured, this oughta do.” Music for destroying futures.

Yer Metal is Olde: Gorguts – Obscura

By Kronos on June 17, 2018 in Avante Garde, Canadian Metal, Death Metal, Olympic Recordings, Yer Metal Is Olde, Death Metal, Technical Death Metal, 104 comments

“Obscura is flat out the most influential technical death metal album ever written. Steeve Hurdle and Luc Lemay’s paradigm-establishing use of dissonance and deliberate composition drew up an instant classic almost de novo. If ever a death metal album was divinely inspired, Obscura was, and once this box was opened, there was never a chance of resealing its contents.” The birth of evolution.

Zeal and Ardor – Stranger Fruit Review

By Kronos on June 11, 2018 in 2018, Avante Garde, Black Metal, MVKA, Reviews, Swiss Metal, Black Metal, Blues, 165 comments

“It takes a lot to excite and intrigue jaded metalheads like me. As our recent expose demonstrated, we here at Angry Metal Guy Hype-Deflating Industries LTD. have become harder and harder to impress over the years, to the point where we keep our superlatives locked in a gun safe which requires written permission to be opened. Nevertheless, Zeal and Ardor’s debut, Devil is Fine piqued quite a few of us with its bizarre split personality and penchant for hooks. The follow-up to that Bandcamp smash-hit, Stranger Fruit has been anxiously anticipated here, where in our best hopes we imagined an album just as catchy and eclectic but more focused and complex.” Fruits and regrets.

Thy Catafalque – Geometria Review

By Dr. Wvrm on May 4, 2018 in 2018, Avante Garde, Black Metal, Reviews, Season of Mist, Black Metal, 60 comments

“I can’t speak for everyone, but this year hasn’t exactly crushed it for me. I don’t know what it is. A case of the heard-it-all-befores? The inescapable drain of attempting to keep up with everything but feeling like you’re keeping up with nothing? Whatever it is, I circled Thy Catafalque’s Geometria early, hoping it would wrench me from my malaise. With Tamás Kátai, you’re never getting the same thing twice.” Malaise forever.