Have you ever wondered what it would be like if Jon Nödtviedt decided to put Dissection to rest after the highly-influential Storm of the Lights Bane and decided to join Dark Tranquillity? Yes, I know, total blasphemy, but weirder things have happened. I mean, W.A.S.P. put out a better record last year than Slayer, for crying out loud. Nothing is completely out of the realm of possibility, right?
“Doom fans among you will likely know about New York’s Grey Skies Fallen, a vintage doom/death act that has been steadily improving their My Dying Bride/Anathema-influenced paeans to pain since the late nineties. Grind fans among you will likely know about New York’s Buckshot Facelift, a slightly less vintage hardcore/grind band that has been vomiting up vitriolic violence since the mid naughties.” But did you know they had a shared project? You didn’t, so don’t pretend you did.
“As noted in our brief thrashnalysis a few months ago, Peak Rethrash occurred in 2006 (defining Peak Rethrash as the year the largest number of new thrash bands formed). This makes Deathblow relative latecomers, forming initially as Deathblo in 2008 before buying a dictionary in 2012.” We examine trends, compile stats, crunch numbers. Then, and only then, do we rethrash!
“I have heard it bandied about that the mp3 and the iPod killed the album. The line of thinking goes like this: mp3s encourage a pick and choose mentality in listeners. It is easier to put together lists of songs that a listener loves, which means that they think in terms of playlists rather than records, which has led to a degraded importance of the longplay album as an art form.” We at AMG complain about album length constantly, and now we do it in long form.
In our new monthly feature, which will show up here on the 15th of every month and run over the next few days, I (Angry Metal Guy) will select 5 bands at random (usually those who have followed my directions and have bandcamp accounts) to get blurbed by every member of the AMG staff. The idea is to do at least a bit of our part to point out that the metal underground is still an important part of the world of metal. While we simply don’t have the manpower to produce regular reviews of unsigned bands, this is my attempt at a minor mea culpa if nothing else. So enjoy Angry Metal Guy’s Unsigned Band Rodeo and our fifth and final entry: Witch Ripper!
Nails are known for being an excellent, abrasive metallic hardcore with defiant punk elements. Based in Southern California, Nails are currently on deep-South, boozehound, sludge-loving label Southern Lord. The Obscene Humanity 7” comes to whet their audience’s appetite, filling in a gap between their recent split with Skin Like Iron and their forthcoming full-length, to be titled Abandon All Life, which will also be released on Southern Lord later in 2013.
Sludge is not what it used to be. In the 90s, bands would swarm like filthy locusts from New Orleans to bring the density of the bayou, its mud, and its endless drapes of sticky moss to a world living in denial and feasting its way to the end of the century. Happy days. In the meantime, a lot has changed: a new era has dawned on us and things have gone wrong in every possible way, but that strain of extreme music is still there to remind us that, well, things could get even worse. And when they do, it’s bands like Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire who provide the soundtrack.
It is, as you all know, difficult to keep up with the number of unsigned bands that we get music from. But, usually as a matter of luck, I occasionally decide that I have time to check something out (or I’m just avoiding my work). Fortunately, I followed the link to a Bandcamp (that’s usually a thing that gets me to click unsigned bands) for some itsy-bitsy, teeny, teeny, teeny-tiny Swedish metalcore-influenced prog-metallers Ennead who are writing music better than a lot of signed acts that I get these days when they can’t even grow facial hair. Sometimes I follow links and am unimpressed and turn the shit off, saving the band face. In this case, however, Ennead snuck up on me and surprised—and impressed—the hell out of me.
This post has been removed because it promoted Nazi or Nazi-adjacent metal bands or musicians. We apologize.
It’s important to remember that despite being known for their folk metal, doom metal, melodic death metal and well, just for being the official metal mecca of the modern world, Finland also has been home to some pretty sick and impressive old school death metal acts like Hooded Menace and Claws, and going back to the early 90s bands like Demilich and Amorphis were pushing into new territory; and I think it’s safe to say that we should maybe think about adding Corpse Molester Cult to that list. Apparently, in 2005 Tomi Joutsen (you know the new vocalist from Amorphis) started Corpse Molester Cult with a couple buddies and filled out the band in 2006. In 2008 they released this 4 track EP which is now seeing an official release (though it appears to be available for download still here). And really, can you go wrong with any disc that starts with a Night of the Living Dead quote? I think not.
