“I have a soft spot for things I spot in the promo bin that are self-released. I think this is probably a function of my own complete lack musical talent, which means I already hold musicians in high regard and anyone who has the drive to self-release a record is a little bit amazing to me—the downside to this foible is, of course, that there is no vetting or editing on self-released records.” Self help.
“Bestial war metal. It’s an evocative name, isn’t it? Succinct. Direct. Descriptive. You’re not getting pretentious instrumentation, or strange ancient languages, or complicated metaphors about the modern condition. Raw, primal, direct black metal designed to quicken the pulse is the name of this game. Enter Cult of Extinction, a one-man war metal band hailing from Germany, and the brain-child of the mysterious Void.” War metal. What’s it good for?
“In 2017, a little Texas band named Power Trip released their sophomore album Nightmare Logic and subsequently blew the metal world’s collective mind. Their brand of crossover thrash made them darlings of the underground and mainstream metal media alike, and that record was a part of several year end lists here at AMG. Todays offering At the Walls finds relative newcomers Virginia’s Enforced laying siege to the throne with their debut set of crossover tunes, but do they even riff?” Riff the walls down.
“‘There are few things in this world as pleasant as raw black metal.’ What foolish KenWords those were. I was young then, impressionable and naive. Akantha has since extinguished the innocent light from my eyes. In my newfound wisdom, I now believe that raw black metal is one of the ugliest things in this world.” Ugly is as ugly does.
“A wild Muppet appears! Maine is about as renowned for its black metal as it is for anything else that isn’t lobsters, blueberries, or Stephen King, and I’ll be damned if I’m gonna trust my homelands trvest export alone with Arizonan Ne’er-do-well Grier; I’m worried that his review isn’t biased enough, yo. There’s also the tiniest, itsiest little bit ov a possibility that alcohol and boredom coaxed me into challenging the Assumed Non-doctrinaire to a medieval weapons duel for the reviewing rights.” Fight for the Falls.
“There are two types of bad art in the world, just like there are two types of turds. The first type is embodied by the movie The Room. It’s a massive turd. It’s a turd that you look at and marvel over how it was produced by a human being, a turd that you immediately want to share and laugh about with your friends. And then, there is the fouler type. This is the turd that is spoken of in hushed tones, the pungent semi-diarrhea laced with the partially digested remnants of yesterday’s corn, the turd with a stench so foul it would wrinkle the nose of Beezlebub himself. This is the turd you immediately want to flush and never want to speak of again. This turd is Vomit Angel’s Imprint of Extinction debut.” Up the creek without an angel.
“Say what you will about Nightwishcore, but most of the bands following this insipid template have at least one thing going for them: a gifted, technically proficient woman on the mic. Regardless of instrumental quality, or absence thereof, the quasi-operatic skills of Sharon den Adel (Within Temptation) or Floor Jansen (Nightwish) cannot be denied. So what happens when such a band fails to follow through on this trend and flunks not only fails the songwriting and instrumental departments, but can’t even compensate with high quality vocals? My, that would be truly disastrous wouldn’t it?” Nightmiss.
“Little over a year later, Tomb Mold have returned with a third death metal opus, and things have changed. Planetary Clairvoyance is drastically evolved. Now in our midst is a star-spawned abomination, multi-formed and voracious. If the preceding records were a baring of teeth, then this collection is surely the war-turn for this dread conqueror worm.” Olde mold is bold.
“The level of diversity available with metal music is a wonderful thing. At any given moment, I’m completely enamored with two or three styles of metal, but those styles are constantly in flux, my needs and desires shifting with the mood of a given day. Lately, I’ve been coming back around to symphonic metal. Embrace of Disharmony launched me back in, and I’ve come to miss that orchestral, symphonic, and otherwise over-the-top element in my heavy metal. Enter Glasya.” Wish upon the night.
“Hard rock. Alt-metal. Post-grunge. These were the things I listened to back in high school. Breaking Benjamin and Disturbed in particular satisfied my desire for a bit of harmless aggression in my angsty youth. To be fair, I still hold a soft spot for the stuff, with Phobia and Ten Thousand Fists rising above the rest as the two albums from this subset of artists that I still regularly revisit. Los Angeles’ Hyvmine emerge from the same gene pool, fully intending to rock the world with their sophomore effort Retaliation.” You have hives.
