“We predicted October would be a sticky wicket of a month for the put upon electors of Best in Show, and it certainly was. Any number of killer platters could have been hoisted overhead and declared the new Golden Calf without damaging our enormous metal cred and everyone had their own personal favorite clutched tightly to their steely bosoms. So how did we decide?” Civics lessons for free, only at AMG!
“Khemmis sat atop my list of very pleasant surprises for 2015, with their unheralded Absolution debut being one of the best doom platters of the year and one of the top metal albums overall. I assumed 2016 would see these youngsters flushed with newfound success, touring extensively and carefully prepping to battle the dreaded sophomore slump sometime in 2017. Instead they chose to come right back at us with Hunted, and I wondered if they might be rushing things.” The hunt for quality doom is on.
“Goats and metal go together like macaroni and cheese or beer and pretzels. These mischievous grass munching fiends have shared a long affiliation with the dark arts, Satan, generalized evil and of course, heavy metal. Plus they have really cool-looking skulls and boast a strong track record of being paired up with various complimentary descriptors in the metal band name stakes. Sweden’s Goatess is another band raising their horns to goats, returning with their second full-length platter, Purgatory Under New Management.” Don’t rock the goat!
“AMG Himself likes to use helpful descriptors to mark band promos on the master spreadsheet so the staff knows what’s what. Having never heard of Arcana 13, my eyes were drawn to his cursory note describing them simply as “Ghost-core.” With my interest thusly piqued I gave Danza Macabra a spin and as advertised, it’s somewhat Ghost-y occult rock, but they make things more interesting by dialing up the heaviness and incorporating a good amount of Khemmis-esque stoner doom along with weird Danzig and Tiamat-isms.” From the crypt comes…monster riffs!
“We’ve reached another December and that means another nostalgic summation of 365 days of anger. Looking back, 2015 was a good little year and I’m glad for all it provided.”
“This year saw many a change… Old friends were lost and new friends were found, likewise there were job and career changes, but through it all AMG and its growing feeling of community shone bright and strong.”
“When perusing the AMG Upcoming Crap We Need to Review List™ of new releases, it’s easy to judge bands based on their names. King Heavy and their self-titled debut album apparently fell into the doom metal category, and I immediately made the connection with King Giant’s recent release – the two similarly titled bands within the same genre would surely broadly equate and offer a convenient comparative review?” Nothing is as it seems on the Crap List.
July was a crazy month here at Angry Metal Guy studios. Not only did we have our best day ever (again), but we all agreed on what should be the Record o’ the Month for the first time in a very, very long time. There was little self-flagellation or—as the case usually is—n00b-flagellation. Instead, we all gathered around the fact that Angry Metal Guy‘s word is law. It’s nice when that’s the case, it makes a guy want to post the Record(s) o’ the Month a mite earlier than usual.
“2015 may not end up a magical year for metal, but it has certainly dropped some earth-shaking doom on the unsuspecting masses. In the wake of mammoth shit kickers from Crypt Sermon and Goatsnake, we must now reckon with the ponderous girth of unheralded Colorado doomers, Khemmis and their righteous debut, Absolution.” your doom is at hand once again.
