“My love of Body Count should come as no surprise to longtime readers at this point. However, I’ve been somewhat skeptical of the band’s output since their reformation/comeback in 2014. Manslaughter and Bloodlust each had their moments, but new band members and attempts at modernization had resulted in something of an identity crisis. On Carnivore, Body Count’s third album since said comeback, I can’t help but wonder: which version of the band will show up?” Ice T-Bone.
“Warning Blast was set to be one unstoppable slab of doomy death metal. That is, until it wasn’t. Siege of Power are far more interested in playing some punk infused death-doom, or what it would sound like if death-doom musicians tried to start an old hardcore-adjacent band. Conveniently, this is almost exactly what Warning Blast represents.” Feel the crust.
“Like many of you, I was shaken to my very core by AMG Himself‘s recent diatribe about subgenres. Fittingly enough, the very next album I’m handed to review is by a band that has blurred the lines of ‘metal’ and ‘hardcore’ for several years, confounding fans on both sides of the fence. As some of our longtime readers may have noticed, I really enjoy when bands do things that upset or confuse people, especially if it happens to result in interesting music. Enter Twitching Tongues and their fantastically-titled Gaining Purpose Through Passionate Hatred.” When the pigeon can’t find the hole.
I hope you all remember where you left your skull tanks…cause here’s more re-thrash!! Extra old school re-thrash is the game, and Die Hard is the name. Steel Druhm generously takes time away from lipsticking swine to discuss the album with you.
When an album lands in my inbox accompanied by an apology from Angry Metal Guy himself, you know it’s gonna be a rough listen.
Now here’s something quite a bit different! Australia’s Voyager has been tinkering with their odd blend of progressive space metal for a while now. However, here on album number four The Meaning of I, they’ve really hit on the perfect blend of influences and styles. Taking elements of traditional, power, progressive and even death metal, Voyager fuses it all together and the result is an odd, hyper-melodic and unique album that’s as intelligent as it is catchy (and its VERY catchy). As a big fan of their 2009 release I Am the Revolution, I expected great things and even I was surprised by how good this ended up. With traces of Nevermore, Star One, Tyr, Pagan’s Mind, Scar Symmetry, Vanden Plas and Anubis Gate swirling about in a creative maelstrom, you should certainly expect the unexpected. Despite the plethora of influences, The Meaning of I ends up a cohesive and compelling release with one killer song after another and brains til Tuesday. In case that doesn’t have you interested yet, they may be the only metal band currently using a melodica both in the studio and live. Call them spacey-prog or astral-metal but whatever tag you throw on them, they rock muchly. Can you tell Steel Druhm is impressed? He is.
