DVD

Orphaned Land – The Road to OR-Shalem Review

By Angry Metal Guy on November 11, 2011 in 2011, 4.5, Century Media, Progressive Death, Progressive Metal, Reviews, 6 comments

It’s no secret that right now my favorite band in the world is Orphaned Land. And if it was a secret, I guess it’s not really a secret anymore. Orphaned Land does what no other band alive does and they do it so very, very well. Mabool was fantastic, but 2010’s The Never Ending Way of OR’WarriOR was my record of the year and is really my standard for what a modern progressive metal record should be like. The mix and production from Steven Wilson was excellent, the song writing was tremendous and it’s one of the very few records over about 45 or 50 minutes that I can even handle these days. So I was super pumped when I got a promo copy of the band’s DVD The Road to OR-Shalem. I’m not a huge fan of DVDs, as I’ve said in the past, but this one is definitely worth your time, both as fans and non-fans.

Amorphis – Forging the Land of Thousand Lakes Review

By Angry Metal Guy on July 5, 2010 in 2010, 4.5, Doom Metal, Finnish Metal, Folk Metal, Nuclear Blast, Progressive Metal, Reviews, Progressive Death, Progressive Metal, 2 comments

Amorphis is a band that needs no introduction, particularly if you’ve been reading this zine for more than a few weeks. When Skyforger came out in 2009, I was fortunate enough to be able to catch it on MySpace at the time and put up a review of it on this site: it was actually one of the first things that started increasing traffic to this site. At the time that I wrote the review I was particularly laudatory of the band’s new material. Despite the wave against them because they never re-wrote The Karelian Isthmus or Tales from the Thousand Lakes again, I have been nothing but enchanted by the last three albums. They are, for lack of a better word, genius. Modern, melodic metal done with class and style, Eclipse, Silent Waters and Skyforger are three of the best album from the 2000s and have re-established the legacy of a band that has seemed to have lost its way at times.

New Amorphis DVD Cover and Tracklisting Revealed

By Angry Metal Guy on April 9, 2010 in 2010, Blog Posts, Death Metal, MySpace, Nuclear Blast, 0 comments

Forging the Land of Thousand Lakes will be the title of the new Amorphis DVD which is set for release on the 25th of June via Nuclear Blast. The band revealed this today through a posting to their facebook page and a quick update on their website. Like most DVDs, this is also getting the double live album treatment. The track listing appears to be pretty heavy on the later material, but I don’t think that’s anything to complain about as the last three albums have been spectacular. It’s no secret that this Angry Metal Guy has been a really big fan of the later Amorphis stuff, so you can imagine that this is pretty exciting for me.

Blaze Bayley – The Night That Will Not Die Review

By Angry Metal Guy on November 3, 2009 in 2009, 3.0, 4.0, Reviews, 0 comments

Blaze Bayley, for those who don’t know (where the hell have you been??) is the solo project of former Wolfsbane and Iron Maiden frontman of the same name. Honestly, this guy’s story is a true underdog story. To hear it told, he was the singer that no one wanted until he got picked up by Wolfsbane and then he was chosen to fill Bruce Dickinson’s shoes in Iron Maiden after Bruce decided he was too cool for the band. There was absolutely no way for him to win in that situation. A man with a baritone register filling Dickinson’s shoes is just ridiculous and everyone should’ve known better: but this reviewer humbly submits that X Factor is a classic record and that Virtual XI, while definitely weaker, was not weak because of Blaze, but instead because of Steve Harris’ writing and the very poor production. In fact, I’m still waiting for those two albums to be remastered.