“Continuing the long and storied tradition of Finnish depressive music, Scapes is the brain-child of Olli Pirkkanen, and One: Unseen: One is his début under this name. His principle influences seem to be Katatonia and mid-era Anathema, sporting a moody and atmospheric ‘clean’ doom.'” Nobody does depression better than the Finns, but can it all be sad gold?
“The first time I heard Mors Principium Est was at the end of 2012 when I discovered that they had been slotted to release their first record in five years in December. Somehow in the course of my metal journey I’d managed to miss a band that few have anything bad to say about. In fact, despite being a bit late to the scene—with a debut record in 2003—Mors is one of those bands that everyone I know seems to either not know or love. And AFM releasing your new record in December? Not helping. This time of year is when lists blossom and we bloggers start going through all the stuff we’ve heard and a lot of the stuff we haven’t: new records have trouble finding their way on to our radars in December. AFM seemed to be telling them: ‘No end of year lists for you.'” December? Must mean AFM is releasing a new Mors Principium Est record. AMG has the scoop.
“Some bands make fans wait years between releases and drive them bonkers with their lack of productivity. Others like Finland’s Decaying release an album every year like clockwork. One to Conquer is the fourth album I’ve been dealt since joining AMG and though they started as a blackened death act, they quickly morphed into war metal enthusiasts, taking heavy inspiration from Bolt Thrower, Hail of Bullets and Asphyx.” The war goes on, but some must be sent to the rear to do the filing.
“Ghost Brigade are tough to neatly pigeonhole into a specific genre. Their early material was definitely post-metal/post-hardcore, but as they matured their sound evolved to include doom, gothic rock, alternative music and slight touches of black metal and prog. By the time they released Until Fear No Longer Defines Us, their style was quite the interesting stew of influences, yet their music remained accessible, direct and highly emotional.” Lineup changes abound, so does the classic sound stick around? We have…the DEETS!
“Remember Babylon Whores? No? Honestly my memory did require some jogging, but they were a rather good Finnish gothic rock band (yeah another) that released some underrated albums in the late nineties/early noughties before disappearing about ten years ago.” There’s nothing like some tasty, goth-rock stle metal! But does this have the right flavor?
“As most dedicated metalheads are aware, a hell of a lot of great heavy music has emerged from Finland over the years. However, I can’t recall too many notable Finnish thrash bands, which was a strong factor in putting my hand up to review the sophomore album from Ruinside. Diving in blindly with a review assignment is generally not how I operate, but needless to say I was intrigued by the prospect of a raging Finnish thrash album in a scarce year for the classic genre.” Diving in blind is risky work, especially with unknown thrash involved.
“Wondering why the band is called Swallowed? So was I; at least, until I put Lunarterial on for a spin. It was easy enough to work out after their musical palette aggressively assaulted my eardrums; their music swallows you whole and holds nothing back.” Prepare to be consumed by some nasty doom death.
“These days, prog metal seems to be coming down to how many strings your guitar has, if you’re a virtuoso or not, and what presets you have on your Axe-FX. Seriously, it seems like all the prog metal bands in the scene today have been obsessing over effect processors and compression during production, that it just drains the enjoyment out of it. Even then, they’re too busy wanking on their guitars, trying to constantly outperform everyone else who crosses their path. Essentially, to quote Devin Townsend, it’s a “dick swinging competition.”” When the dicks are a swinging, don’t come a dinging. Anywho, here’s some prog metal.
“I’ve always found doom to be a particularly beguiling style of heavy metal. I’m not sure any other subgenre is able to evoke such a broad range of emotions, from sheer suicidal despair to fist-pumping, booty shaking euphoria. Or perhaps I have a pathologically shaky booty (though if you don’t at least feel a twitch in your hips when listening to Sleep’s Holy Mountain then I don’t trust you as a human being).” Ready from some odd doom metal? Jean-Luc Ricard joins AMG’s probationary squad to tell us of Cardinals Folly and their interesting approach to the typical slow and low.
“Two decades ago, a young troupe of bummed-out Finns churned out two primitive death/doom demo tapes, and promptly disappeared following the death of one of their guitar players. Rippikoulu’s latter release, 1993’s primitive doom/death gem Musta seremonia, followed suit with other short-lived doom/death groups from the early 90s by accruing a great deal of kvlt charm cultivated by many years dwelling in obscurity and anonymity.” Back from dead, we get some old timey doom/death right out of Finland.
