“Something wicked this way comes. What is that thing? It’s Germany’s Blackevil — and their sophomore record Forever Baptised in Eternal Fire follows with them. These maniacal monsters play a potent mixture of blackened thrash, speed metal, and pure heavy metal — the kind that Iron Maiden would have played if they’d been nearly as satanic and evil as the PMRC thought they were back in the 80s.” Z-evil never dies.
“Earlier this year Midnight showed us a Rebirth by Blasphemy, now Devastator keep the party going by showing us what it means to be Baptised in Blasphemy. Spoiler alert: there’s a lot of goats, Satan, and fukkin headbangin’ involved.” Goat show.
“2019 was a dream for me when it came to reviews: nearly 20% of the albums I covered were released by bands within 150 miles of my house, and of those several can be found in my own Puget Sound area of Western Washington. Quayde LaHüe and Mortiferum impressed me, and the now infamous “Skelator Incident” induced heretofore unseen levels of arousal and nearly resulted in my actual firing from this site. Naturally, I couldn’t resist the temptation to grab the debut of Seattle’s Sölicitör.” Criminal sölicitatiön.
“Metal Archives lists ten bands that go by this name, but the metal realm’s equivalent of The Citadel of Westeros and the rest of the interwebz together yield precious little information about Sweden’s version of Reaper.” This is the story of one of them.
El Cuervo and Diabolus in Muzaka made lists and checked them twice. But are their Top Ten(ish) of 2019 naughty or nice?
Once they were n00bs, but now they get their own Top Ten(ish) of 2019 lists. They grow up so fast!.
“I was saddened to learn that by skipping the first day of Eliminator Fest, I’d missed a performance by the band that I find myself covering today: Olympia, Washington’s Quayde LaHüe. After spending time with their debut album Love out of Darkness, I’m vowing to catch them live at some point, because these guys and gal kick some serious olde school ass.” Love in a dark place.
“This is death metal from Portland, Oregon. I could probably stop there and you would still know whether or not you’ll love this album. That city is absolutely dominating the genre this year, and we should probably just add a “Portland Metal” tag to Wordpress as that domination extends beyond the bounds of death metal. You’re probably getting tired of me blabbing about how great the Weird City’s output has been this year, but I could comfortably fill half of my year end list if forced to choose only from records released by Portland bands. And so, I will continue to drink from the fountain until it runs dry.” The weird travel on.
“I stand before you today to confess two great sins. First, I was not allowed to watch He-man growing up, so you will not be treated to the appropriate level of jokes that this band name demands. Alas, I’m neither the writer that you want nor the one that you deserve. Secondly, despite living in the Seattle area for my entire life, I had never heard of local band Skelator until stumbling upon them in the promo bin the other day. I was far too busy with real life circumstances to take on a review for this week, but the combination of the band’s location and my physiological response to hearing the advance track required me to reprioritize my life.” Cause you had to be a He-Man, dincha?
“If you’re a stereotypical stereotyper like myself, Portland, Oregon is a city that brings to mind images of rain-soaked, tattoo-covered hipsters sipping pot-infused craft beer and cold brew coffee while they dodge cavalcades of Subarus, Priuses (Prii?), and bicycles on the march towards the many nearby hiking trails. Having visited the city several times, I can confirm that almost all of these are 100% true, but I’m beginning to think that the whole “Keep Portland Weird” idea is a coverup to distract from Portland’s true identity as a stronghold of — gasp! — SATAN! Hometown speed metallers Bewitcher are here with their second full length to set the record straight, and on Under the Witching Cross they boldly fly the Sign of the Goat above the City of Roses while uttering diabolical incantations in an attempt to transform the grounds below into the “Savage Lands of Satan!” The Devil is in the dark roast.
