“As Voices guitarist Sam Loynes says “yes to anything that comes [his] way, metal or otherwise,” his growing list of projects are quite numerous. Shrines (formerly Diminished Fifth) is the third of Sam’s bands I’ve reviewed, and one I’ve been very much looking forward to listening to.” The Voices and Voices related love continues unabated.
“I’m going to get this out of the way regarding Vattnet Viskar’s second album, Settler right now: that is the saddest album cover I’ve seen in my almost-two years of writing for Angry Metal Guy, and I’m not talking “OMG THEY WENT FULL DEAFHEAVEN!,” either.” But it would be very sad if they did go full Deafheaven, just to be clear.
“It’s early in June, and last night we had the heating on. The wind was howling through the trees, rain battered against the window, and I sat shivering under my duvet, mourning for the summer. Few bands could provide such a suitable soundtrack as Deuil.” Ha ha, he has a duvet. That’s not metal!
“It’s a rare occurrence when a band completely floors me with a debut release. Not just show bright glimmers of potential mind you, but seriously blindside me with a sound that is fresh, unique and remarkably well developed for a first release. Such was the case when Oakland’s Secrets of the Sky seemingly emerged from nowhere with their brilliant opus To Sail Black Waters in 2013.” The hype is strong with this one.
“Genre labels are such a double-edged sword, aren’t they? You mention nu-metal or metalcore around here, and there’s a good chance that the band you are describing will become anchored before they are allowed to soar.” Genre labels proved a hot topic not too long ago here on AMG. Will Taken By The Sun further fan the flames?
“Pelican is no stranger to EP releases and I’m no stranger to Pelican EP releases (I own every one of them). Their choice to do an EP is based solely on (as far as I can tell), mood. Some of their EPs stand alone as original releases (Pelican and Ataraxia/Taraxia), while others carry a song that will appear on an upcoming full-length. However, The Cliff goes in a different direction by kidnapping a song off the preceding full-length and fucking with it three times over with vocal and/or industrial remixing before closing out with the only original track.” An EP of remixes and remashes. Joy.
“One of my favorite things about metal is just how small of a world it can be. Like all metalheads out there, I have my favorite bands and musicians. Many of these musicians have a tendency to venture out into new projects and/or genres and I stalk them from band to band and genre to genre.” And this creepy stalking has led him to a bad case of…Sumac.
“Iceland’s Momentum is a bizarre beast. Aside from having a name and logo more suitable for a caffeine-packed energy drink than a metal band, they’ve undergone quite a few changes in style since their debut demo.” With many style shifts under their belt, they did it again here. Tricky stuff.
“Post-metal had something of a heyday in the last decade, with seemingly everyone on the Internet gushing over Isis’ Panopticon, Neurosis’ Given to the Rising, and whatever Cult of Luna and Pelican were up to. While there’s still quality post-metal coming out today (The Ocean’s Pelagial in 2013, Beak’s debut last year), I think it’s safe to say the genre is no longer as in vogue as it once was.” And if you don’t have vogue, what do you have?
“Citing likenesses to Isis, Converge and Tool, Indianapolis’s Burn The Army drew me with its promo blurb promising technical and progressive post-metal. Someone notify The Official Metal Categorisation Agency™ because it’s taken twenty years, but technical and progressive post-metal has officially been redefined! Unfortunately, what you’ll find on The Tide to Sink the Summit, their first EP, is fantastically average metalcore.” Once there was a time when Steel Druhm had to review all the metalcore. Now, we have people who do that for him.
