“As 2015 makes her grand and stately entrance, bear with and support me as I try to hunt down even more new blackened death metal albums that sound exactly like Septicflesh.” Madam X has her foibles, but she also has plenty of quirks. Join her as she unveils a Top Ten(ish) list sure to bumfuzzle and befuddle.
“Down here at AMG, we work our asses off to bring forth “similar band” references and genre classifications, define the intentions and directions of an album, and even evaluate the recording/mixing/mastering processes of the release in order to satisfy the insatiable hunger of the AMG hordes.” And we dont always feel appreciated, so give us beer and hugs.
“Taake are back and pimping their Norwegian black metal wares as only the gloriously bare chested Hoest can do! Yes you read right, it seems the obligatory three year wait since the release of Noregs Vaapen is over and it’s time for the sixth and newest “exciting” chapter in the band’s extensive catalogue. So what of it?” Bare chested bravado only goes so far in black metal, even if Madam X appreciates it more than most.
“Continuing the long and storied tradition of Finnish depressive music, Scapes is the brain-child of Olli Pirkkanen, and One: Unseen: One is his début under this name. His principle influences seem to be Katatonia and mid-era Anathema, sporting a moody and atmospheric ‘clean’ doom.'” Nobody does depression better than the Finns, but can it all be sad gold?
“The death metal super group of all death metal super groups is finally back from the grave after six long years moldering in the soil. Bloodbath needs little introduction, as the preeminent standard bearer of all things retro Swedish death this collective composed of members of Opeth, Katatonia and Witchery once included the likes of Dan Swanö and Mikael Akerfeldt, but both have fled to other pursuits, leaving the band’s new era in the hands of Nick Holmes (Paradise Lost) who now handles vocals.” Can Mr. Holmes shed his rave club past and bring his share of gore to the bathtub?
“Soen’s Cognitive, which was released in 2012, was the band’s debut and it bore a striking resemblance to the work of Tool and, to be fair, A Perfect Circle. Despite this undeniable likeness, the record was chock full of fat grooves, great writing, beautiful vocal performances from vocalist Eklöf and amazing performances from all the musicians—but especially metal’s best bassist (Steve Digiorgio if there’s any doubt) and one of metal’s best drummers (Martin Lopez). I’ve often felt a bit guilty for labeling Cognitive as too derivative, because despite the sound it has been a regular on my playlist since then—and I would hate to be responsible for pigeonholing a band before they had time to develop; great debuts are few and far between.” But the operative question is: can Soen step through Tool’s shadow and come out the other side?
“Kindly overlook the album cover you see to the left. Not only does it lack the good grace to include some kind of cool spherical object, but it also resembles something from a Christian new age rock group (the kind they play at inoffensive volumes in Christian, new age-y coffee joints). Worse still, it doesn’t give the slightest indication that Autumnal is a winningly morose, melodic doom act from Spain, or that The End of the Third Day is destined to be one of the sleeper hits of 2014.” Are you ready to feel those gloriously sad feels?
“Is there a better way to start a review of a metal album that with a brief discussion of semantics? Yes, there is, but I’m going to do just that anyway, written hooks be damned. Can anyone accurately define what “progressive” metal, or even “progressive” music, is? Is it letting everyone within earshot know that you listened to and enjoyed the entire discographies of King Crimson, Camel, and The Mahavishnu Orchestra?” Semantics? This here website is getting too damn educated these days!
“Ótta consists of 8 tracks, beginning with a representation of midnight, moving through each Eyktir in the day, coming to a steady close at what would be representative of between 9 pm and midnight. Hardly a riveting concept I grant you, but thought provoking nonetheless.” Usually it takes lots of SepticFlesh and blood to make Madam X swoon, but Sólstafir’s blend of heathenish melodic, melancholic post-metal and bizarre alternative rock seems to have done the trick in a big way!
“Let’s pretend for the sake of argument that you’ve read all of our articles and are now a true believer: The overzealous use of dynamic range compression coupled with brickwall limiting yields lifeless, dull sounding records. But if this is indeed all true, then why does the industry continue to approve of (and even insist on) this insanity in the first place?” Now that’s a good question, and the Metal-Fi guys have answers you might not like.
