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.
Darkthrone
Master’s Hammer – Vracejte Konve Na Misto Review
Eccentric. That little word can apply to avant-garde, cutting edge music just as easily as your crazy uncle Barnaby. You know, the one that collects cats and built the time machine out of used exercise equipment and urinal cakes.
Impiety – Ravage & Conquer Review
Y’know, Impiety is kind of like the Hitler of the underground blackened death metal community.
Cult Cinema – Iscariot Review
Avant-garde black metal ain’t so avant-garde anymore
Desaster – The Arts of Destruction Review
Desaster has been around forever, perpetually rocking their slobbering, Neanderthal variety of berserk, blackened thrash. Their sound is defined by an unswerving dedication to excessive over-the-top-itude that few bands could rival. By taking the classic Darkthrone sound and welding it together with Motorhead, old Destruction, Autopsy and Slayer, a squirming mass of belligerent bellicosity is unleashed.
Goatwhore – Blood for the Master
Holy shite, this is a feisty and fiery one! One of the most successful “project” bands in recent memory, Goatwhore has come roaring back, filled with piss, bile and cayenne peppers on album five, Blood for the Master. This is nasty, blackened death/thrash from the most stagnant bayou of the Big Easy and it’s the musical equivalent of a gator attack.
Steel Druhm Reflects On What’s Wrong With Black Metal
Okay, I’m just going to come right out and say it. Black metal as a genre has stagnated and become very boring. While that inevitably happens to every musical genre (power metal has had it bad for about six years), with this particular style it seems far more pronounced and chronic. Although I’ve appreciated the scene and sound from its earliest origins (as a Bathory fan in the 80’s) and essentially grown up alongside the genre, the past year has seen things run into the creative wall and slowly slide into a morass of tedium and lethargy. Be it the symphonic or the raw and primitive, very few bands are doing anything new, interesting or compelling (even the new Agalloch felt samey and safe). While some solid albums surfaced in 2011,they feel increasingly rare and even those offered little in the way of innovation or originality. Obviously, of all the subgenres of metal, black metal is the most rigid, inflexible and laden with rules and expectations of scene orthodoxy. Throw a saxophone solo on a power metal album, it may be daring and ballsy. Try that on a black metal album and you’ll be burned in effigy across Norway (and parts of New York).
Sarke – Oldarhian Review
This is an odd one indeed. Basically, Sarke is a side project for Thomas Berglie (Old Man’s Child, Khold) and he handles all the instruments here. He recruited Nocturno Culto (Darkthrone) to do the vocals and together they released Vorunah in 2009 and now they’re back with Oldarhian. Although both men come from black metal backgrounds, Sarke is not a black metal band. Instead they play a mix of traditional heavy metal, Cemetary, Tiamat and new Darkthrone with some extra punk tossed in for good measure. The music is very stripped down, simplistic and not exceptionally heavy. At least for Nocturno, this material isn’t a big departure since it’s similar to Darkthrone albums like Circle the Wagons and F.O.A.D. Keeping their sound fairly consistent with the Vorunah album, Oldarhian offers more of their basic metal-punk fusion and while it has some enjoyable, rocking songs, it doesn’t completely work for me as a whole.
Steel Druhm’s Best Heavy Metal Songs of All Time 40-31
You know, I’ve had some quiet, introspective time to think about this whole “best songs list” thing. Maybe we’re wasting our time preaching about our metal cred. Maybe Gibson’s list is just as valid as Angry Metal Guy’s (50-41, 40-31) list or my list (50-41). I’m sure many of you out there have your own lists and they’re great too. As I mulled this over and over, I more I was forced to finally accept that my list is the one true list and superior to all others (except mine, of course – AMG). Now that we cleared that up, here’s more of THE List (that is right below Angry Metal Guy’s list on the pecking order – AMG).
Burzum – Fallen Review
This post was removed because Varg Vikernes is a terrible human being. If you were unaware of this, now you know. Armed with that information, I encourage you to not support Burzum or any Nazi band. The reason this is important is because financial support for neo-Nazi groups often comes via the white power punk and metal music scenes and, therefore, cutting off financial support to these bands may be a meaningful way to counteract the ability to organize.
