Candlelight Records

Anaal Nathrakh – Passion Review

By Angry Metal Guy on May 23, 2011 in 2011, 4.0, Black Metal, Candlelight, Reviews, Black Metal, Grind, 10 comments

So this is one of those bands that I really know nothing about. Back when I started reviewing I got the record Constellation of the Black Widow and I remember thinking it was pretty good, but it was a few months old at that time and so I never did a review of it. But in a world full of shitty black metal that bores me to tears by being repetitive and uninteresting, Anaal Nathrakh definitely appeared to be ahead of the game by, actually, not boring me to tears. I was reasonably interested to get around to reviewing Passion when I got it a while ago, but what with my busy schedule and everything I’d hardly even gotten around to listening to it until lately. And let me say, I’m impressed.

Havok – Time is Up Review

By Steel Druhm on March 21, 2011 in 2011, 4.0, American Metal, Candlelight, Reviews, Thrash Metal, Thrash Metal, 6 comments

A new year is here but the retro-thrash train keeps on rolling like it’s eternally 1988. Apparently it’s as unkillable as cockroaches and metalcore (same difference). At this point in the game, even a vintage, old school thrash enthusiast like myself is feeling the novelty wearing off and that’s saying something folks. Despite my increasing weariness with the second great wave of 80s thrash, I was unable to resist, deny or dislike the second album by Denver retro-heads Havok. Time is Up is an unapologetic ode to all things Bay Area style thrash and draws major influences fromÂ the legends of that scene like Exodus, Death Angel, Slayer and Testament. There’s no surprises and no innovation (you can’t innovate much when you’re trying to sound like your shit came out in 1988) but these youngins sound energetic, angry and full of piss, vinegar and cheap beer. Add to that the fact they can really play and this ends up being a pleasant surprise and shows massive improvement from their debut album Burn (which AMG actually liked way more than I did, go figure).

Yaotl Mictlan – Dentro del Manto Gris de Chaac Review

By Angry Metal Guy on February 26, 2011 in 2011, 4.0, American Metal, Black Metal, Candlelight, Reviews, 2 comments

One little-known, but easily knowable, fact about Angry Metal Guy is that he (I, I guess we’re going in third person today) is a big history buff. In other reviews I (OK, back to first person now) have frequently referred to the history of whatever it is that said band is writing about and I truly enjoy it when bands look backwards to their own cultural history for influence. Why form a band and copy the Norwegians and Swedes who did the same? Look at your own world, look at your own culture and build up from there! The band Yaotl Mictlan has probably not read this blog to get this idea, but they have the same idea that I do. Drawing on hundreds of years of history and hundreds more of oppression, Yaotl Mictlan is writing black metal with folk undertones that is strongly influenced by the history of the Mayans, the pre-Hispanic-conquest people of Mexico, who have never really disappeared, even if their ancient empire collapsed.

Abigail Williams – In the Absence of Light Review

By Steel Druhm on September 14, 2010 in 2.5, 2010, American Metal, Black Metal, Candlelight, Reviews, Black Metal, 7 comments

Symphonic black metal, a genre fraught with many a trap, snare and pitfall awaiting the unwary band that wants to go down this grim and icy road. Overproduction, bloating, too much keyboard, not enough keyboard, all can bring the metallic symphony to a halt faster than a black metal miser can frown. Even if one avoids all these dangers, the music must be interesting and compelling at its core or trouble ensues. It’s that last nagging little issue that drags down In the Absence of Light, the sophomore album by New York’s own Abigail Williams.

Demonic Resurrection – The Return to Darkness Review

By Angry Metal Guy on August 3, 2010 in 2010, 3.0, Black Metal, Candlelight, Reviews, 5 comments

As world metal takes the stage, something that is happening more and more frequently these days, we’re going to be seeing more of these bands coming from places where metal just hasn’t ever shown its face earlier. Demonic Resurrection, as those of you familiar with Sam Dunn’s documentary Global Metal already know, are a band from India who play symphonic black metal. The third record in a trilogy The Return to Darkness is being released (as I understand it) as the band’s first international release via Candlelight Records. That Sam Dunn is a rockstar creating machine, it turns out. Though, when it comes to Demonic Resurrection, their music speaks for itself and if you give that music a stage that myriads of metalheads have access to, it’s not hard to see how they managed to break beyond their borders.

Circle of Dead Children – Psalms of the Grand Destroyer Review

By Steel Druhm on June 14, 2010 in 2.0, 2010, American Metal, Candlelight, Death Metal, Reviews, Grind, 3 comments

Here at Angry Metal Guy Industries ©®, staff is small [by which he means “little people” – Ed.], deadlines are many and mercy is neither asked for nor granted. Therefore, we of the reviewer caste don’t always get to cherry pick bands or genres we love. Because of this ugly truth, sometimes a review must be done for something outside our musical wheelhouse. That is the very dilemma facing yours truly with a review of Psalms of the Grand Destroyer by Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s own Circle of Dead Children. Album number four by these purveyors of inhuman deathgrind is sick, twisted, chaotic and brutal for brutality’s sake, but is it good? That is a mighty tricky question.