“Hello everyone! As I cannot pay the rent in the skulls of newbies, I work during the daytime for a traveling company. As such, I know that right after Christmas, people booking holidays surges. Now before you spend money on some dumbass idyllic location like the Canary Islands or Iceland, why not sweat it up with a bunch of strangers in black for a week on a field of grass in Slovenia? That’s right, bitches, it’s time for the first Angry Metal Days update!” Metal Avengers Assemble!
Grymm and Kronos serve up a rich helping of metal opinions with their Top Ten(ish) of 2019.
The lists continue as GardensTale and Ferrous Beuller regale us with their Top Ten(ish) picks for the year. Pay attention.
“The band are an institution and an interesting force in extreme metal for both their singular creativity and unflinchingly progressive politics in a genre dominated by derivation and incoherent edgelord lyricism. As I said in my review of The Anthropocene Extinction, Cattle Decapitation are just fucking cool.” Meat and greet.
“From their grisly origins in goregrind to their current set of genre-defying extreme albums, Cattle Decapitation have always been both provocative and purposeful. While crusading against the meat industry, animal testing, environmental destruction or transphobia, Travis Ryan’s stomach-turning lyrics often take to extremes of irony to turn abstract, far-away injustice into a personal danger. But the band climbed a long way to the top of their current soapbox.” Shake, cattle and roll.
“Death metal is not a subtle art. Brutal death metal doubly so. Brutal, technical… well you get the point. Unfathomable Ruination exemplify this dearth of subtlety in name but belie it in their music. Their sophomore effort, Finitude, stands as one of the decade’s most punishing yet memorable death metal albums, punctuating each of its songs with a constricting riff or winding lead that seared it instantly into the mind. A great deal of the album’s success came from the band’s shrewd dispensation of show-stoppers, always releasing just enough brilliance to keep the listener wanting more. Apparently unwilling to rest on their laurels, Enraged and Unbound lives up to its predecessor’s unpredictable brutality.” Ruination as hobby.
“It’s not exactly a secret that I hate you humanity and love King Apathy, so when I was presented with the opportunity to review the debut act of a band featuring Matthias S of King Apathy and ascribing to the same neo Cattle Decapitation lyrical teachings, it should come to roughly no one’s surprise that I squealed like a mildly surprised Kenword jumped at the chance to do so. This was a wish come true.” Wish or curse?
“The band’s grindy, slammy death metal draws many parallels to Cattle Decaptitation, whether it’s their everything-but-the-kitchen sink approach to riffing, their sudden outbursts of groove, or their vicious takes on social injustice. Samsara has no dull edges, no safe entrances, and a complete lack of regard for your safety.” Limited safe spaces.
“Glaring faults have surfaced after revisiting Cognitive’s 2016 release Deformity. At the time of my 2016 review, I was taken aback by Deformity’s barrage of brutal death metal merged with playful yet apt spurts of technicality. I complimented the vocal approach, too — using disgusting hyperbole I labeled vocalist Jorel Hart a monstrous vocal shapeshifter. However, upon my recent revisit, Deformity’s mix sounds dense in an obscuring, impenetrable way, the vocals are way too forward in the mix and carry a distracting monotony at times, and the technical escapades are either too brief or twist a song into an unnatural gait. Still, moments of exciting power remain, but they’re not as prominent or convincing as when experienced in 2016. I’ve become much more jaded since then. Fast forward 24 months and Cognitive are back with Matricide, their third full-length.” Time does not heal.
“Everyone loves a good horror movie, and for years Aborted have given us the musical equivalent. Since vocalist and Belgian native Sven de Caluwé began the project in 1995, he’s taken everything from goregrind to Carcassy death metal to melodic groove experimentation and bludgeoned it into his grotesque sonic mold. If you want to know what Aborted sounds like, shove your fist into a jar of old mayonnaise while watching the grossest horror film you know.” Special sauce and TerrorVision.
