“Unguilty’s legacy of misery dates back to 2018, having released two full-lengths, an EP, and a split with fellow Brazilians, Fentanil. Gray is DSBM, and everything you expect, but amplified with a mammoth doom heft, the emotional devastation reigns supreme. Perhaps an interpretation of Saturnus’ underrated Veronika Decides to Die.” Days of Gray.
“I like the Swedeath subset of death metal, but I don’t like it enough to delve into it on a regular basis. Perhaps this is due to its lack of character; or, more accurately, its abundance of character, one which has largely remained unchanged since Entombed ventured down the Left Hand Path. As such, while countless notable Swedeath releases have come and gone, the only ones that truly stick with me are those that inject a fun little twist while staying true to the tenets of the style. The melodic grotesqueries of Lik and the horror soundtrack stylings of Heads for the Dead are a few recent examples, and with their sophomore record, Carnal Heresy, Wretched Fate aims for similar prestige.” Swedetails.
“Names are hard, man. As a dungeon master. I find myself faced with this quandary all the time, and that’s for made-up people and places, not for a band whose moniker I would someday hope to see plastered across T-shirts and battle jacket patches galore. With Tramalizer, though, I feel like they’re trying to pull a fast one on us, not only attempting to convince us that tramalization is a thing, but also that a person or object exists whose hobby or career is tramalizing.” Trauma opportunities.
“Ok, stereotypes out of the way: I’m vegan. I bring this up because disparaging the violence—and apathy about such violence—of humankind towards our non-human brethren is To the Grave’s Director’s Cuts’ central theme. And I can sympathize. In the band’s words: “[w]e are all the writers and directors of an unending horror film, its actors unwilling and the scenes taking place in every circus, zoo, lab, farm, and slaughterhouse that stain our green globe”. Misanthropy, specifically from the perspective of humanity’s treatment of animals and the earth has been their ethos from day one. In a sense, they are a deathcore analog to Cattle Decapitation.” Arm the animals.
“Swiss trve metallers Megaton Sword made quite the impression on my war helm with 2020 debut full-length crusade, Blood Hails Steel – Steel Hails Fire. Using my name twice was a sure ticket to getting my attention, and their raw, rough, and epic sound did the rest. It was an imperfect album, but the highs were very high and it reeked of Manopotential. Now a few years on we get the next installment of the Megaton saga and I’ve been eager to wield its unreasonable mass once again.” POWERS.
“Sergio González Catalán—can anyone stop this man? Does anyone want to? Year after year, EP after EP, full-length after full-length, there is no slowing him down. Less than two months into 2023, the man behind Rise to the Sky and Winds of Tragedy is back with another full-length, the sophomore album for his latter black metal project.” Hating down time.
“When I shared with the slack hacks gathered in the AMG Break Room, the offensively purple artwork for ,b>Old Spirit’s Burning in Heaven, the Boss Ape piped up, “That the guy from Vanishing Kids,?” I shrugged noncommittally. I didn’t know whether it was the guy from<,b>Vanishing Kids, had never heard of Vanishing Kids and was unsure whether expression on those leathery features was a smirk or just a sign the old fella had gas again. I just wanted to revel in a group at how awful the artwork was. Denied this opportunity, I trudged back to my cubicle and started working the foot pedal that powers up AMG-issue computers to do some research.” Old spirits and missing kids.
“It has taken some time for me to warm up to Big|Brave’s brand of noise/drone/doom. I didn’t love 2017’s Ardor, but it did pique my interest. Minimalist formalism in music doesn’t offend me the same way it does others, but their single-chord experiments didn’t resonate at the time. Still, the pairing of Robin Wattie’s waif-ish vocals with heavy drone was something new, so I kept an eye out for them. I warmed up to the stark elegance on follow-up A Gaze Among Them, but it wasn’t until Leaving None But Small Birds, their collaboration with The Body, that the appeal became revelatory.” Bigly braveness.
“I’ll be honest, I went into this review ready to bash this album. Crimson River is a silly name with awkward connotations, the album title doesn’t make any sense and the band’s logo makes them look like an evil tech company from an unproduced 90s Transformers movie. Still, I did my due diligence and spun the thing lest Steel withhold my precious gruel. With the opening Iron Maiden-y guitar notes, my preconceptions vanished like so many wasted years.” Iron water.
“1670 A.D. through 1700 was not a good time for Scandinavia. Famine put large swaths of the population in the ground and religious fervor led to horrific witch hunts with scores of women executed in gruesome ways. It is these especially dark times that Insomnium turned to for the inspiration for ninth album, Anno 1696. The concept revolving around the clash between Christianity and paganism, ruthless religious persecution, and the supernatural all plays out to Insomnium’s signature blend of melodeath, doom, and dark folk/goth.” The bad olde days.
