“‘May you dream of the devil and wake in fright.’ This old curse serves as the inspiration for the novel and later film adaptation Wake in Fright, a harrowing descent into madness that tells the tale of an English school teacher in a remote Australian town who wrestles with conformity, misery and the innate self-destruction that clings to man like a shadow.” To sleep, per-chase to scream.
“As a burgeoning metalhead, I was stuck between three worlds: the moshability of hardcore, the relentless speed and savagery of death metal, and the morose, downtrodden danciness of goth music.” And then Demanufacture happened.
“When it comes to turning an extremely limited sound into a career spanning decades, Fear Factory stands alone (or with AC/DC). And as we approach the 20th anniversary of their “cyber metal” style and reflect on how heavily the band utilized themes of technological advancement, artificial intelligence and mutation, the irony of how little their approach has “evolved” should be obvious even to the most Neanderthal of metal fans.” Fear Factory is back to single-handedly disprove all your fancy theories of evolution and kick circuit boards in your face.
“There are three things you need to know in regards to Raunchy: 1) I’ve had an unhealthy love affair with them since stumbling across Wasteland Discotheque back in 2008; 2) they have the most misleading band name ever; and 3) never say “can I get Raunchy?” when asking for their promo.” We call that a micro-aggression, and we only tolerate macro-aggressions at AMG. HR awaits!
“My favorite Greek giants of atmospheric, Rotting Christ flavored symphonic death metal are back, and right on schedule with the delivery of their latest force of nature. And to add to my fangirlism, the album’s fittingly titled after the most ancient of all the gods – yes you read right, TITAN! Does it get any bigger, heavier or more metal than that?” Was the kraken a titan? He was pretty freaking big.
“Nothing burns with the same intensity as hate born of a once great love. While I worshipped early Pestilence albums like Consuming Impulse and Testimony of the Ancients, I hated their Doctrine release with the white-hot passion of a scorned fanboy. The dramatic back story to this epic tale of spurned love is a simple one. Pestilence began life as a primitive, old school death outfit and really had a lot going for them, but they rapidly evolved into a weird, proggy entity, freely dabbling in jazz-fusion. I didn’t care for the paradigm shift and neither did many of their original fans. When the band reformed after 16 years in the ground, I hoped they would return to their roots…” Who doesn’t dig a good story about love turned to hate? But can that hate turn back to love? How about love peppered with hate?
“There’s no better example of a hard-working, determined, but ultimately second tier act than Saxon. They were part of the original NWoBHM and have been churning out traditional metal albums since 1979. They’ve had classic platters like Wheels of Steel and Denim and Leather and a wealth of classic songs (“Crusader” is so damn good). Still, most metal fans wouldn’t put them on as high a pedestal as Maiden or Priest in the Pantheon of Metal Kings (ov Steel).” So does Sacrifice finally earn Saxon that much sought after ticket to the top of the pops? Maybe we should manage expectations…
Steel Druhm will never be your beast of burden. Bourbon maybe, but never burden! Anywho, you might have missed a pretty nifty power metal album called Burden of God by French act Nightmare. Steel doesn’t want that to happen.
Fear Factory was pretty revolutionary back in their beginnings. That was then, this is less than wow.
The Gothenburg brand of melodic death may be in its twilight years of relevance, but man, when a band truly nails the sound and style, it’s as glorious as watching stars explode overhead and guzzling craft beers as you get balls deep in a Roman orgy.
