“The heart of the black magic cast over Pyrrhic is its sound. Now I know this appears a redundant observation but this goes beyond melody, instrumentation or structure. Or maybe it precedes these. What I mean is that it sounds evil. Oppressive. Monstrous. A cloying sense of darkness bleeds from its every orifice and it’s quite unlike anything I’ve heard before, despite compositionally not falling far from Chthe’ilist or Blood Incantation.” Into the heart of darkness.
“Readers au fait with the -core end of the extreme music spectrum will likely be familiar with Spazz and Black Army Jacket, the members of whom would go on to form our current review subjects. But for those of you that prefer Iced Earth to Infest, these names probably don’t mean much. While grindcore was close enough to metal to appeal to both the short and the long-haired, its musical cousin powerviolence remained firmly within the hardcore punk tradition. I owe Deny the Cross thanks for forcing me to expand my musical horizons further punkwards so that I can actually review them within some sort of meaningful context.” Feel the power (and the violence).
“One day a man was trapped out on a ledge – don’t ask why – with no way to get down except to jump. The fire trucks came and laid out a net for him, but he wanted something safer. They brought a pile of mattresses, but he still wasn’t satisfied. “Use the new Zodiac record!” he called down. The firemen nodded in understanding.” Living on the ledge!
“Abominant seem content to continue churning out sweaty Midwestern death metal with a big old melodic kick in the ass until the day arthritis makes that impossible. With a band this seasoned, it’s no surprise they weren’t out to redefine themselves on their eleventh full-length Napalm Reign, but that’s not a bad thing.” Olde and wise, they are.
“After spending hours on the web searching for the band Eerie, I’ve finally found them and their self-titled debut. With a band name like that, I passed by everything from comic books to Polish black metal to unsettling porn. And, as it turns out, it was well worth the frustrating Google search. Debuting on Tee Pee Records (a much easier name to search), the label describes the band as being black metal/rock—a combo that could go many ways.” When Google goes wrong….
“Jinjer play a combination of groove metal, metalcore, and nu metal. Vocalist Tatiana Shmailyuk does some screams, growls, aggressive spoken-word poetry, and clean vocals over top of it. If Issues didn’t try to be the combination of metalcore, Flo-Rida, and R Kelly that they are and instead were just another metalcore band, they’d probably sound like Jinjer.” Is nu metal still new?
“Everyone and their frostbitten mother knows about Norway’s infamous Black Circle, giving birth to church burnings, murder, and of course the second wave of black metal. But did you know that in America, another Black Circle lies waiting in the wings? Yep, the Black Twilight Circle, led by Eduardo “Volahn” Ramírez, is a prolific, young collective based out of Southern California that shares members of various bands within its ranks.” In the circle you will find your flute.
“A couple of years ago some noisy factions of the Angry Metal Guy readership kicked up a stink by our lack of coverage of the debut LP from promising Pennsylvanian deathsters Black Crown Initiate. Following the over-the-top acclaim for The Wreckage of Stars, a fine full-length debut loaded with potential, the boys return with the crucial and much anticipated follow-up, Selves We Cannot Forgive. Sophomore albums are often tricky propositions, especially in the wake of a well received debut.” Stop harassing us!
“When first discovering that Ghoul was releasing a new album, a friend of mine had this to say: “I didn’t realize Impaled… I mean, Ghoul, was still around.” Then, while phoning home recently, this was what my mother had to say about the new album: “Who in the fuck is Ghoul?” Whether surprised by the news of a new Ghoul release or not, one thing is for certain: my mom has a potty mouth.” Moms ruin all the fun.
“The country of Sweden is home to 9.9 million people. Judging from the number of bands that come out of that land, 10 million of those individuals are musicians. And good ones, too. In this latest version of his band, Karmakanic founder and bassist Jonas Reingold (also of The Flower Kings) attempts to use as many of them as possible. No less than twelve artists get credited on Karmakanic’s fifth full-length release, DOT.” I once knew a Swede that wasn’t in a band. He was actually in 5 bands.
