“While some of the band’s fanbase has been rather worked up about the change in singers after the less than amiable departure of Liv Kristine following divorce from keyboardist Alex Krull, I’m interested only insofar as the impact the lead singer has upon the music. Which is to say, not much.” When Leaves leave.
“Welcome to the future, dear readers! Once again, we’ve braved a lap around the sun. 2018 looms ahead, and I get to look forward to another 12 months of somehow always picking the shittiest promos.” The Wheel of Promo is a brvtal mistress.
“Corrosion of Conformity has a convoluted history, to say the least. Beginning as a hardcore trio in the early ’80s, the band eventually became a five-piece metal band, before promoting guitarist Pepper Keenan to lead vocalist for the landmark Deliverance album in 1994. In recent years, the original three-piece had reconvened without Keenan, starting off strong but eventually running out of steam with 2014’s lackluster IX. By popular demand, No Cross No Crown features Keenan’s return to the fold and is the first album in 18 years to include both him and original drummer Reed Mullin. Can these guys recapture whatever it is that made Deliverance and its follow-up Wiseblood so compelling?” Corrosion will continue until conformity declines.
“Today, Cruentator present you with Variations on a Theme: the Kreator riff. That’s what the promo bin listing for Ain’t War Hell? promised, and for the most part, what it delivers. Ripping off acts is in vogue nowadays, and while Cruentator stop short of lifting Kreator’s riffs completely, it is for no lack of trying. Hell, that sort of thing can actually land you on top ten lists nowadays.” A Kreator in hand beats 2 Cruentators in the bush.
“2018: A new year bringing new experiences and opportunities. It’s a personal reset and we all get a pristine clean slate…and the same sweaty, unclean man back that plagued us throughout 2017. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Into this dichotomous environ journeys our intrepid Steel Druhm, eyes glistening with the ghosts of AMG’s past as he comes to grips with the site’s Great White Albatross.” Ear today, gone tomorrow.
“Shining is remarkably long-lived if one considers mainman Niklas Kvarforth’s admonitions that everyone should commit suicide. Twenty years into Shining’s career, Varg utan flock (Wolf without [a] Pack) marks the band’s 10th full length, and first since 2014. I have been holding out hope that Shining will regain the form of their earliest masterpieces, but since 2011 that field has been fallow. It’s tough to live up to records like Halmstad—one of the best albums of the 2000s—and Född förlorare. Those albums were excellent, memorable, and loaded with great writing and riffs. But starting in 2012, Shining/Kvarforth made a lot of noise about change. This was particularly present on 2012’s Redefining Darkness and even, to an extent, on IX: Everyone, Everything, Everywhere, Ends. The reasons for this are unclear—it could simply be that Kvarforth was bored—but the “redefinition” meant English lyrics in 2012, and a significant lack of intensity in 2015. So, you’ll forgive me if I approached X: Varg utan flock with some hesitancy.” In the darkness, a ray of deeper darkness.
“If I were tasked with appointing one artist as head of a guild of Tolkien-inspired musicians, Summoning would be my number one pick with a bullet. That’s not just because Protector and Silenius have been churning out reliably high quality material for over two decades. As an act that pays tribute to a man who created a fantasy realm so intricately as to craft entirely new languages for it, Summoning has always been similarly ambitious, spawning a musical language as beautiful as it is unique, as if it were forged from cultures that couldn’t possibly exist in our own realm.” Ring in the new year!
“From Rabid Death’s Curse to Lawless Darkness, Sweden’s Satanic three-piece, Watain, have enjoyed one of the best careers the black metal community has ever seen. With each release, the band explored more and expanded farther than the record before. The result is that 2007’s Sworn to the Dark and 2010’s Lawless Darkness are a couple of my favorite albums of all black metal. But, then, a peculiar thing happened. That thing was 2013’s The Wild Hunt.” Hunting season is over.
“Ho boy. I signed up for this review based on my experience with Meden Agan’s 2014 release, Lacrima Dei, which I thought was pretty stomachable – commenting as a fellow who has little patience for generic female-fronted sympho-goth outfits.” That outfit is really tight.
“Two years ago, both Grymm and myself were fairly impressed by Portuguese doom outfit Sinistro’s sophomore album, Semente. The band laid down an ambient, unobtrusive foundation for Patricia Andrade’s haunting vocals, creating a mesmerizing, promising soundscape. Now here we are in 2018 and the band has taken a monumental step forward.”
