![Vale of Pnath – II [Things You Might Have Missed 2016]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/cover-4-768x756.jpg)
“I never thought of myself as a tech death fan. Coming from a thrash background, I never needed insane drum machine combos or faster-than-light scales to get my dander up. But after penning one tech death TYMHM this winter, I was struck by the notable divide between Dormant Ordeal and current beau Vale of Pnath.” Kronos laughs at your newbiehood.
“France has become quite the hub for memorable extreme music in recent times: Deathspell Omega front a dissonant black metal current; Blut Aus Nord fluctuate between various avant-garde stylings but have been a driving force in modern black metal; Cowards fiercely object to perceived façades of beauty and political correctness in their hardcore-influenced anger. Now Antropofago has stepped up to the mark, attempting to wrestle the tech-death reins from their compatriots Gorod, new material from which has been notably absent.” France wants to be the new Sweden.
“For the past two years, my “Album of the Year” honor has gone to albums that clawed at the seams of extreme metal; while imperfect, they represented a rare glimpse at the technicolor darkness trapped perpetually beyond the horizon of the genre. It’s too early to call 2015, which I must say has piddled forth only a dilute stream of quality metal; but I can say without doubt that this album is a contender.” Color Kronos impressed…and burnt sienna.
For those who don’t know Hannes Grossmann, you probably do know the bands he’s been involved in. He’s got Obscura, Necrophagist, and Blotted Science on his “list of things that make me cooler than you,” and one can only guess that The Radical Covenant is the Obscura record we would have gotten if Grossmann hadn’t decided to quit. And while I’m a fan of Obscura, I felt the band nailed it with Cosmogenesis and I’m not a huge fan of 2011’s Omnivium (anymore). Ironically, Grossmann said in his parting message from the band that the musical difference between he and founder Steffen Kummerer was the reason that he left the band. Apparently Kummerer was more invested in a Cosmogenesis sound, which could leave one expecting, then, I shouldn’t like this record as much…
“If you’ve never heard Beyond Creation’s début The Aura, honestly, what are you doing with your life? Are you happy with who you are? Because you damn well shouldn’t be. The Aura is, and I have no reservations in saying this, the best death metal début since Onset of Putrefaction. It also might be the best technical/progressive death metal album this decade has yet to offer. Out of complete fucking nowhere, a bunch of flaxen-locked French-Canadians self-released what might just be the pinnacle of modern tech-death. It’s brutal, it’s heavy, it’s overpowering, astonishing, and inventive, yet there also exists nuance, care, and maturity in the writing and performances that is completely unparalleled. The album is damn near perfect. This means, sadly, that Earthborn Evolution is doomed from the start.” Well, that seems pretty darn unfair!
“Just about every day, Angry Metal Guy pushes out a review of an upcoming or recently released album, producing press for the album whether we love it or hate it. It exposes readers to a lot of material, but disadvantages artists who aren’t putting out music at any given time. Given a small temporal window, this creates a very biased sample of the music scene. I love reviewing albums, but a lot of great and criminally overlooked bands are in between releases right now, and it kills me to see their hard work go unseen. So in order to rectify their invisibility, they’re being talked about here, where my shitty opinions have the outsized soapbox needed to fling themselves out onto the populace like fetid water from a fire sprinkler.”
In 2009 Angry Metal Guy started. Since then we’ve produced hundreds of reviews, and Angry Metal Guy has cranked at the world for free. Check out what he takes away from the whole experience.
There’s a band called Fallujah which put out a record called The Harvest Wounds. It’s awesome and you missed it. Shame on you.
I made comments earlier to the effect of that I’d not heard the 2011 death metal record of the year. Nader Sadek definitely fills in that gap deftly, but Beyond Creation’s 2011 release The Aura from some obscure Canadian Label that is going on a 6 month vacation so you can’t actually order records from […]
