Hour of Penance

Murder Made God – Enslaved Review

Murder Made God – Enslaved Review

“Greek brutal death outfit Murder Made God didn’t exactly make a splash with their debut, Irreverence, which introduced the band with little fanfare. Enslaved isn’t out to challenge your conceptions of brutal death metal, but there’s a wealth of material on this album that shows the band growing but certainly not diversifying. With a name like Murder Made God, brutal death is what you expect, and brutal death is what you get.” Take what you get when it is given!

Bloodtruth – Obedience Review

Bloodtruth – Obedience Review

“Here at Angry Metal Guy, we love Fleshgod Apocalypse. Well, maybe not love… and sometimes not even very much like. It’s a complicated relationship. But one thing we can agree on is that Oracles is kickass. Its sultry fusion of tech-death and neoclassicism was a winning move that everyone, including Fleshgod Apocalypse somehow failed to follow up on properly. But of course, there are those few who malign such progressive elements, and thus ask the question, “What would this band sound like if they just wrote death metal?”” Kronos asks the hard questions and then answers them.

Yer Metal Is (Five Years) Olde! Fleshgod Apocalypse – Oracles

Yer Metal Is (Five Years) Olde! Fleshgod Apocalypse – Oracles

“Yer Metal Is Olde was started to honor records that we’re 10, 20, or 30 years old. Kronos noticed, however, that we’ve never reviewed Fleshgod Apocalypse’s magnum opus and, not only that, but that Oracles has turned five in 2014! So in honor of one of the best brutal/technical death metal records ever made, here’s a Yer Metal Is (Not Particularly) Olde for this brilliant work of art.”

Fleshgod Apocalypse – Labyrinth Review

Fleshgod Apocalypse – Labyrinth Review

Labyrinth is 2013’s incarnation of Fleshgod’s neo-classical death metal. Once again, Labyrinth is not a clone of the band’s previous work, but instead it seems to be Fleshgod’s attempt to reach a happy medium between Agony and Oracles, musically.” Angry Metal Guy weighs in to wordily explain how he feels about the latest slab of orchestral tech death from Italy’s Fleshgod Apocalypse. When we say wordily, we really mean it. Like a thousand freaking words just telling you what he thinks of this album. It’s kind of ridiculous really. No one should spend that much time writing about an album. Who the hell does he think he is?

Fleshgod Apocalypse – Agony Review

Fleshgod Apocalypse – Agony Review

In 2009 a record came sort of out of nowhere that really took me by surprise, and frankly, kicked my ass something fierce. It was from Italian technical death metallers Fleshgod Apocalypse and the record was called Oracles. What I loved about the album, and the thing that made it so addicting, was that it was beautifully melodic and unabashedly technical at the same time. It blended these two things into what was easily the most unique technical death metal or melodic death metal record that had been released in a very, very long time. I was blown away (and still am). I didn’t review it at the time, but it made the #3 spot on my Top 10(ish) of 2009 and I have been waiting for the follow up ever since. Agony, the band’s first record on Nuclear Blast records, is that follow up and it’s a great album that bugs me.

Abysmal Dawn – Leveling the Plane of Existence Review

Abysmal Dawn – Leveling the Plane of Existence Review

I’ve been waiting for a long time to get to Abysmal Dawn’s new disc Leveling the Plane of Existence. Having had a 2010 that was sadly devoid of mind-blowing technical death metal (excepting Hour of Penance’s Paradogma), I was really looking forward to a slab of technical death metal mastery that is being sold by Relapse as the savior of American death metal. While I wouldn’t go that far, Abysmal Dawn does offer up some solid technical death metal that is well-played, well-written and full of enough novel ideas and good riffs to make the record enjoyable. And the band has a unique, melodic voice that separates it from the pack.

Interview with Trevor from The Black Dahlia Murder (2009)

Trevor from The Black Dahlia Murder is the first person I’ve ever interviewed more than once. Â Unfortunately, he doesn’t remember that. Â When I talked to him, the guys were a start up band from Detroit that was soon going into the studio to record Miasma a record that went over, well, remarkably well. […]