Blog Posts

GardensTale’s Top Ten(ish) Album Art of 2020

GardensTale’s Top Ten(ish) Album Art of 2020

“We spend every single day of the year on this blog talking about music. The highs, the lows, the marshes of the meh. Occasionally, we give a nod to an especially beautiful cover (or an especially heinous one) to buff our word count for the article, but it’s barely a condiment on the edge of the buffet plate, stacked with pretentious slop, that we throw casually in front of the voracious readership. But this one time a year, I don’t have to talk about the music at all.” Gardens variety galleries.

Yer Metal Is Olde: King Diamond – The Eye

Yer Metal Is Olde: King Diamond – The Eye

“Then there’re examples like Fast Eddie Clarke walking away from Motörhead and the canning of Ozzy Osbourne by Black Sabbath. Anthrax, Exodus, Iron Maiden, and Judas Priest lost their vocalists, who psyched everyone out and returned later anyway. In some cases, end-of-era albums are more like transition pieces—bridging the gap between the band of old and the band of new. Arguably Metallica’s …And Justice For All fits the bill. It was clear that Justice was different, but it wasn’t until Metallica arrived that everyone saw what Justice really was. King Diamond’s The Eye is also such an album.” Fading eyesight.

AMG Goes Ranking – Death

AMG Goes Ranking – Death

“The life of the unpaid, overworked metal reviewer is not an easy one. The reviewing collective at AMG lurches from one new release to the next, errors and n00bs strewn in our wake. But what if, once in a while, the collective paused to take stock and consider the discography of one of those bands that shaped many a taste? What if three aspects of the AMG collective personality shared with the slathering masses their personal rankings of that discography and what if the rest of the personality used a Google sheet some kind of dark magic to produce an official and all-round definitive aggregated ranking of that band’s entire discography? Well, if that happened, we imagine it would like something like this …” Death to all!

#BLACKOUTTUESDAY

#BLACKOUTTUESDAY

Today is #blackouttuesday when media and music industry types are blacking out as a sign of solidarity with protestors. Rather than give you a much needed lesson in the sociology of race and ethnicity in the USA, I’ll leave you with this link.

Lör – Edge of Eternity EP Reveal, Music Videö Premiere and Review!

Lör – Edge of Eternity EP Reveal, Music Videö Premiere and Review!

“I’m good at keeping secrets, but the past couple of months or so have tested my limits. After all, how does one hide the existence of a brand new record from the entire world – including their blog colleagues? In agony, that’s how! But that’s the way Lör wanted this done, and I’ll be damned if I’ll deny the creators of the best album I’ve ever reviewed the opportunity to spring an incredible surprise on their fans.” AMG is a deep vault of horrible secrets.

Angry Metal Days 2020: COVID-19 update

Angry Metal Days 2020: COVID-19 update

“Well. This fucking sucks. As most of you are probably aware unless you literally just woke up from a 2 month coma, the summer of 2020 has effectively been cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Concerts, tours and festivals the world over have bid months of preparations and investments goodbye. Now, MetalDays has joined the fallen, as the Slovenian government has decided to keep the ban on public events in place.” You can’t stop the Metal Days.