“Admittedly, Valborg’s fifth full-length Romantik was selected for review by yours truly based solely on one thing: Valborg apparently sounds like Triptykon. I know; that’s not exactly the best approach when selecting a promo. However, being the fan I am of Tom G. Warrior Inc. (look no farther than my pick for 2014’s Album of the Year), how could I go wrong?” Did someone get trick-tykoned?
“Draconian Times is an album that never should have worked. By now Paradise Lost’s career trajectory has been discussed ad nauseam – from rotten doom-death to Depeche Mode-inspired dance rock to their current gothic metal resurgence – and Times was essentially that early transition album, a puberty-stricken adolescent with a new slicked-up hairdo and a European leather jacket that still fit a little too big.” It shouldn’t have worked, but it did. And now it’s olde.
“Transport yourself if you will to the outer reaches of planet Aegis VII. A routine mining operation’s in progress with the situation fast souring. The year is 2508 and our story opens up with the USG Ishimura as it sends out an ominous distress signal to the Concordance Extraction Corporation (CEC)… I’ve misled you, this is not an overdue review of that Dead Space.” Nerd Alert!
“The Kontinuum… continues! Not to be confused with the tech death band Continuum reviewed here by Dr. A.N. Grier earlier in the week, Kontinuum are an Icelandic band that plays a multifarious blend of dreamwave and post-rock/metal with some inviting and interesting gothic undertones.” Is Iceland becoming the next Finland?
“Karyn Crisis needs no introduction. Her ability to use her considerable vocal chords, going from charming siren to raging banshee to guttural demon (sometimes within the same breath), is quite legendary. When her band, Crisis, went belly-up in 2006, Karyn took a sabbatical from music to concentrate on her art before meeting up with Davide Tiso, future husband and mastermind behind Italian avant-garde machine Ephel Duath in 2009….” And now we get a much more personal album from Karyn and Davide. This should be interesting.
“Crimson Swan is a German atmospheric funeral doom band from Hamburg, Germany. With one EP under their belt from 2012, Unlit marks the band’s full-length debut. Readers of this site are likely aware that funeral doom and I rarely see eye-to-eye. My case of Angry Metal Attention Deficit Disorder™ is well-documented and as a general rule records that don’t pop out speedy tracks littered with engaging virtuoso performances or progressive wankery send me out to do what Steel Druhm calls kindly ‘moss gazing.'” Can these novice German doom metallers strike that special chord in Angry Metal Guy’s heart? Or is he doomed to hours worth of moss gazing and boredom?
“After ten albums (nine for those that don’t count Under Satanæ as an original release), each new Moonspell album leaves me in a state of “ummmm,” “hmmmm,” and “interesting.”” Things that make you go hmmmm, now including Moonspell!
“Cast your minds back to a time when metal music was not cool. Nay, indeed, a time when metal was anathema to all that was considered to be “chic” and “in.” A time when your favorite bands were actually encouraged by the music industry to play slower, cut their hair, and write sensitive lyrics about their childhoods. Yes, this unfortunately really happened. Our semi-irregular feature “90s Metal Weirdness” focuses on albums released between 1992 and 2001 and which we all probably would rather forget. But in the service of publicly shaming the musicians involved, we have pushed forward.”
“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?
“It turns out I’m a judgmental son of a bitch. I admit it, I label people before they even open their mouths and I usually find many decisions made by others to be dumb and immature. I don’t mean to be this way, but I’m very much a person that “judges a book by its cover.” However, I have to say that nothing pleases me more than discovering that the dickhead talking to me with his Corona Light and sport coat over a Superman shirt is actually cool as shit. I like to be proved wrong about someone’s character. It makes for a much better conversation. The same goes for music.” We like judgmental types around here, since we’re in the judging business and all. And this one deserved some real serious judgment.
