“When Akercocke dissolved in 2012, a few of its members regrouped as Voices, releasing a respectable debut in the form of Voices from the Human Forest Create a Fugue of Imaginary Rain, revealing that there was some life left from the ashes of everyone’s favorite hedonistic prog-death merchants. However, absolutely no one was prepared for the relentless headfuck that came out the following year.” Voices carry… expectations.
“Slow year for death metal though it has been, things are speeding up — metaphorically, that is. Manchester’s finest slamongers are back with their fourth full-length insult, The Level Above Human, and as always they’re peddling their trademark combination of deathcore and brutal slam. It’s an influential mix and one that plenty of today’s slam-purveyors like Vulvodynia and Abominable Putridity owe their success to. Yet as fun, as the beatdown combo can be, quality control has never been a hallmark of either genre. Ingested navigate the bloodied, goopy waters of brutal deathcore as well as any crew of veteran slam sailors, and though The Level Above Human won’t change your world, it will change the position of your head in relation to that world with great regularity.” Level up or die.
“With the recent reunion of At the Drive-In, hopes have never been higher for a rekindling of the fire under the asses of Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala – a fire which produced the best prog rock albums of the 2000s. And given the rate at which Rodríguez-López currently produces LPs (about one a month for the past two years), it might not be long before there’s a new The Mars Volta album collecting saliva on turntables everywhere. But that doesn’t mean substitutes aren’t welcome.” We take whats we can gets.
“In the mid-90’s, Cathedral was turning into a household name in the realms of British doom. The steaming, sleazy groove of the quartet was best described as the midway point of Black Sabbath, Clutch and Mötorhead, and has seen its fair share of progeny (like The Necromancers, for instance.) Unbeknownst to many, the band had a side project simmering away in the form of Septic Tank, which was often mentioned between the members but was kicked down the road as much as that novel you intend to write sometime. Five years after Cathedral’s dissolution, the side project has sprung back to life with three of its original four members, including bassist Scott Carlson, guitar player Gaz Jennings and vocalist Lee Dorrian.” We’re getting the cesspool back together!
“Britain’s Shadowkeep lay more or less dormant for seven or eight years following 2008’s The Hourglass Effect, which itself was delayed due to line-up changes. This oft-contracted plague of metal bands received a cure in January of 2017 when none other than James Rivera of Helstar stepped forward and offered his services as the voice of the band for its long-awaited self-titled fourth studio album. As something of a fan of Shadowkeep’s earlier work, and especially The Hourglass Effect, I was interested to see what James would bring to the table in a setting other than Helstar (a band I’m admittedly not overly fond of).” Shadows of Hel(star).
“UK emokrust collective Morrow dropped a massive debut on my lap in 2016 in the form of Covenant of Teeth, an engrossing 4-song album that told a tale of a futuristic society where Earth was so ravaged by humankind’s assault of its natural resources that they became tribal again. The marriage of poetic lyrics, visceral vocals, and a sad-yet-ragingly-defiant musical backdrop lingered in my psyche long after my review was published. In fact, truth be told, it’s all I listened to this past Christmas season, not only to keep my mind occupied and my energy maintained, but also because the follow-up, Fallow, was due to drop in the spring of this year. So imagine my surprise when Fallow was released as a “name your price” release on the band’s Bandcamp over Christmas Eve last year, with a physical release soon.” Grymm surprises.
“Let’s get this out of the way up front: despite being named after Onset of Putrefaction’s opening track, Foul Body Autopsy doesn’t really sound much like Necrophagist. If you came hoping for a whirlwind of brutal neoclassical tech death, you’re better off reading one of Kronos’ reviews; for the rest of us, slightly techy melodic death metal is what’s on the operating table today.” Bone Saw is ready!
![Eye of Solitude/Marche Funèbre – Collapse/Darkness [split] Review](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Eye-of-Solitude-Marche-Funebre-Collapse-Darkness-01-768x702.jpg)
Chocolate and peanut butter. Cheese and crackers. One-person black metal and January. Some things just naturally pair up beautifully together. What normally doesn’t pair up too well? Funeral doom and brevity. So imagine my shock when I got assigned a two-song, 30-minute EP featuring two of the scene’s leading exports, UK’s Eye of Solitude and Belgium’s Marche Funèbre, and finding out that the EP’s just a hair over a lunch break long!” Doom comes fast on a Monday.
“Dad metal is a bit of a specialty here at AMG Inc., and Trespass certainly have the “dad” part down. The OG NWOBHM act cut their teeth in the ’70s alongside Iron Maiden and counted Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield among their early fans. But for a band approaching its 40th birthday, their metal resume needs some work. Footprints in the Rock marks only the third official LP of a lengthy career that, until now, has issued more compilation CDs than actual albums.” Rock in an old place.
![Me and That Man – Songs of Love and Death [Things You Might Have Missed 2017]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Me-and-That-Man-Songs-of-Love-and-Death-01-768x768.jpg)
It always struck me as curious, that Nergal didn’t branch out with any other such notable side-projects. 2016 came and went, and with it Nergal’s single-minded dedication to Behemoth. But in 2017, his Me and That Man project saw fit to release Songs of Love and Death.” A very special episode of Nergal and the Man.
