“On Heaven into Dust, Knife have done what many bands refuse to do: grow. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still heaps of Motörhead and Venom worship; plenty of gang chants and blackened vocals; oodles of speed metal chugging, heavy metal galloping, and thrash riffing; almost everything endearing about their debut still applies here and the changes are relatively minor, but they’re impactful.” Stab or prod?
As I surfed the AMG promo wave, Finland’s Death’s-Head and the Space Allusion (DHATSA) caught my eye. It was the attached “Modern Melodic Metal” tag that made me curious. It’s the kind of descriptor that lacks substance since the terms “modern” and “melodic” are often thrown around to the point of meaninglessness. I found myself almost instantly assuming the music would be trite and overproduced. I’d wager that some of you reading this did as well. But in truth, that’s hardly fair to DHATSA.” In space no one can hear your Death Head.
“It is not normal for us to review an album months after its release, but I’ve never been called normal, have I? This album was originally slated to receive the Things You Might Have Missed treatment, but some records simply demand the full-meal deal. This is one of those records.” Brace for Outcry!
“Bull Elephant are a wild bunch, and their particular approach to metal reflects that wildness in full measure. A bonkers combination of death metal, doom metal, stoner metal, prog, heavy metal, and the occasional dalliance with thrash, Bull Elephant’s sound offers much in the way of variation and permutation.” Now with extra Nazis!
“Despite Iron Maiden being my entry point into metal, NWoBHM has never really been a mainstay in my catalog. Maybe it’s because so few bands could live up to my first flame. Maybe it’s because after my Maiden voyage, I dropped right into the rapids of melodic death metal and it took a while before I rediscovered the appeal of not having harsh vocals. Whatever the case, traditional metal frequently languished on my personal side-line, and it doesn’t deserve that. Perhaps I can make some amends shining a little spotlight on Receiver, a new band with an old sound, hailing from the ever-contested island of Cyprus.” Defend the Isle of Olde!
“Last we met Howling Giant they were dueling with Somerset’s Sergeant Thunderhoof in groovy stoner split Turned to Stone Chapter 2: Masamune & Muramasa, which deserved a word, not a numerical score, to describe its quality. Howling Giant strung together a fun-loving single track with multiple movements, their meat-and-potatoes approach slightly outdueling da Hoof’s bombastic and flashy performance.” Howling at stones.
“In a year steeped with excessive amounts of death metal and the unspeakable depravities that go with that, I’ve been without my normal dosage of sword-swinging traditional and trve metals. Luckily, the Hellenic warriors in Diviner are out to remedy that situation with their mammoth third opus, Avaton. Since their founding in 2015, Diviner made it their business to bring burly, machismo-laden classic metal to the masses on quality platters Fallen Empires and Realms of Time.” Divine interwention.
“Helms Deep is the brainchild of vocalist and guitarist Alex Sciortino, and the project is his personal love letter to classic heavy metal. Helms Deep recalls the olden NWoBHM majesty of bands like Angel Witch and Satan while simultaneously channeling the epic power of early Savatage.” So it begins…
“Sorcerer are back, and boy howdy did I need the sanctuary afforded by their classic epic doom sound after marinating for weeks in Autopsy’s gore-encrusted catalog! For those not familiar, Sorcerer haunted the Swedish doom scene since the late 80s without seeing a proper release until 2015s In the Shadow of the Inverted Cross. Though I was a fan of their demos and compilations in the 90s, I missed In the Shadow entirely and didn’t come back on board until 2017s The Crowning of the Fire King. That album’s loving tribute to the Candlemass school of epic doom blew my mind and ended up my Album o’ the Year. I still spin it often and it’s one of my favorite albums of the decade.” Wanded: Dead or Alive.
“Cirith Ungol always seemed mysterious and enigmatic to me as a metalhead growing up in the 80s. Their earliest output sounded like it came from a bygone age when Iron Butterfly and Alice Cooper were in their primacy, and no one else sounded anything like them. They were the most cult of bands and that made them all the more interesting. From the clumsy acid rock meets metal of 81s Frost and Fire to 84s massive, doomy, and epic King of the Dead, there was just something odd and fascinating about them. 1986s One Foot in Hell was more traditionally metal but the band’s unique character remained in full force. After a 5 year absence, they dropped the lackluster Paradise Lost and then vanished completely. Thus concluded the strange case of Cirith Ungol. Or so we thought.” No one expects the Cirith Inquisition!
