“Being of the ‘80s thrash generation, I was born a few years too late to experience the actual birth of metal first hand. As a result, I have had to seek out that old-school sound and those pioneers of what we now know as “metal.”” And seek out he did.
“Although they began as progenitors of fuzzed-out Entombed-style death metal, Sweden’s Tribulation has been on a trajectory towards smarter, more structured music since their second record, 2013’s The Formulas of Death. Their latest album boasts the Dio-worthy title The Children Of The Night.” Tribulation is a tricky little wicket. You never know what they’ll do next.
“Sweden’s Anguish have a lot of hype going for them. Their debut, 2012’s Through the Archdemon’s Head, turned the heads of fans, critics, and foxes the world over, bludgeoning everyone with their massive mix of Candlemass, Trouble, and the *ahem* unique vocals of J. Dee. Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to check that album out, but when news hit that their newest release, Mountain, would take their sound and streamline it, cutting out the fat and giving us just the meaty morsels of their maddening dinner spread, I took the opportunity to jump in…” There may or may not be some minor hype about this band, but we ignore the buzz and deal in facts. Just the facts.
“As someone who entered the world of metal during the mid-1990s, I quickly got used to bands evolving and changing established formulas. We never knew if someone’s next album was going to go techno, or go punk rock, or invent new subgenres entirely. Granted, a lot of these “experiments” had commercial motives behind them, and oftentimes the results straight-up sucked. But still, there’s something to be said for being surprised.” Mr. Fisting is tired of metal bands playing it safe and he’s pissed at metal fans too. Give us hell, Fisting!
“As I gaze out the windows of the AMG offices (located hundreds of miles beneath the Earth’s crust, so I’m not sure why we have windows), I can’t help but wistfully reflect on my time with this fine metal institution. In just a few short years, the site has gone from one man’s labor of love to a major force in the metal blogosphere with a staff of ten dedicated writers, and though the journey wasn’t always easy, it’s been exceedingly interesting and rewarding.” Follow along as Steel Druhm gets maudlin, waxes nostalgic and grudgingly drops his Top Ten(ish) for 2013. A Two Kleenex read!
This year the plebs get a say. While I have fought against this with every fiber of my body, Madam X‘s caring, feeling, and ultimately populistic, womanly touch has poisoned this blog by allowing people who aren’t me (including herself) to have lists. Frankly I’m offended. No one comes to Angry Metal Guy to read these guys’ lists. But hey, you know how it goes. Times, they are achangin’. As I no longer have time to be the site’s lone dictator, and Steel Druhm has proven incapable of keeping the mustache twirling hipsters underfoot despite his enormous gun collection and tough talk, you, dear reader, get extra Top 10 lists.
I hope you’re happy.
“In my (vain)glorious time at AMG Conglomerated, I’ve written off almost every year as a substandard time for quality metal. While some of that criticism was well founded, 2013 was the most craptastic year so far! The first half was the ultimate in lackluster and underwhelming, with many major players releasing flat, uninspiring platters. Hell, even the mythical Amorphis fell off their Pedestal of I-ruhn with a dull thud. While the back end of 2013 picked up the quality dramatically, it wasn’t enough to redeem a very sub par year.” Join the all knowing Steel Druhm as he takes you on a whirlwind tour of the best of a fairly crappy year in metal. Yes, 2013 kind of blew, get over it!
Apparently the heavy metal gods waited for September 2013 to unleash a shitstorm of fantastic records. Indeed, it’s difficult to understand how the year could be so goddamned back-loaded as it has been. Up until this point there were some good records and then suddenly September came along and we apparently hit the year’s goldmine. […]
“Well, look who wandered off the homage reservation. Sweden’s In Solitude made their mark with 2011’s The World. the Flesh. the Devil. and its uncannily accurate aping of vintage Mercyful Fate. So close was the sound to albums like Melissa and Don’t Break the Oath, that several people I played it for thought it was a reunion album or re-recorded demo material. While homage bands are all well and good, it seems these chaps wanted to shake off that image and on Sister, they’ve done so quite impressively. While the Mercyful Fate influence is still apparent (especially in the vocals), the new material takes their Fate worship and coats it with scads of gothic and doom sensibility while adding a strong Danzig vibe as well.” Why would a band so skilled at ripping off one of the best metal bands of all time ever change their approach? Because that’s what art is all about, you dullards!!
Steel Druhm likes his old Mercyful Fate. Yep, those first two albums and the early EPs were pure metal magic and some of the best stuff the genre every coughed up. Needless to say, I support the sudden wave of Mercyful Fate influenced retro metal that’s been popping up of late. We have Ghost, Hell and now you can add In Solitude to this heady witch’s brew with their second release The World. The Flesh. The Devil. Along with fellow Swedes Ghost, these gents are shamelessly robbing the graves of the Melissa and Don’t Break the Oath albums and trying to bring some of that ancient black magic into 2011. While Ghost took elements of the Fate sound and added poppy, catchy hooks, In Solitude stays much closer to the source material. They actually sound A LOT like the great Fate as they trot our their own tales of demons, devil worship and all things malevolent. So, does their similarity to a Mercyful Fate tribute band necessarily mean I love them too? In this case, yes, yes it does. I love them and I’m man enough to admit it!
