![Whitechapel – The Valley [Things You Might Have Missed 2019]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Whitechapel-The_Valley.jpg)
“Bet you didn’t expect a TYMHM 2019 post just as TYMHM season 2020 begins to pick up, did ya? I also bet you didn’t expect to see AMG’s third- or fourth-best black metal specialist piggybacking aboard a relatively popular deathcore album either. Well, it’s 2020, a year jampacked with surprises. So surprise, motherfucker – the Metal Gods work in mysterious ways.” Time is a fluid construct.
“A spindly man enters the room and takes the chair in front of the casting agent. A gaudy yellow jumper is tied around his neck and he holds himself with an air of unearned confidence.” You won’t believe what happens next!
“It seems to me that there are really only two doors that need to be sought in the hunt for black metal of real quality. One leads to a well whose mechanism is complex and unconventional. But, with patience and a deft touch, it reveals a spring of challenging and creative potential. The other leads to a charred room whose blackened walls contain a particularly fecal Mark Z, resplendent in bullet belt and lobbing liberal handfuls of sickle cell anemia with feral abandon. Greece’s Akrotheism predominantly stand in the former, but somehow manage to channel a little of both.” Two corners, one trvth.
“I love it when cover art tells you all you need to know about an album’s themes. Look at that skeleton — he’s clearly in the middle of a battle. So this will be a furious riposte to the notion of the glory of war, right? A blast of anger like Marduk or 1914, perhaps? But peer closer: he’s settled mournfully next to a fallen comrade, arm placed tenderly on his chest, a look of weariness and loss etched on his skeletal visage. Head up, he stares forlornly at the horrors that lie ahead. The theme of Ellende’s Lebensnehmer (“Life-Taker”), then, is less the fury and horror of war, and more the melancholy, pain, and loss that accompanies it.” Survivor’s remorse.
“Two years ago I reviewed the self-titled debut of Australia’s Illimitable Dolor, a project carved from the members of The Slow Death to illuminate the loss of their friend and band mate Gregg Williamson. It was a feast of death-doom delights with a bold sense of atmosphere to truly define the plundered depths. Now, the band have returned with Leaden Light and a mind clearly bent on expansion. But a broadening of such bereaved horizons requires mass. And sometimes too much is simply too much.” When heavy isn’t enough.
“What’s in a name? How important is that moniker to a band’s identity? And what do we make of it when a band makes a radical change to its own name? These thoughts crossed my mind listening to the new album from Siberian metallers, Ultar. Previously, the members went by the very death-metal-sounding Deafknife. Then, for reasons unclear, they changed their name to Ultar, after the fictional town ‘Ulthar’ in. H.P. Lovecraft’s ‘Dreamcycle’ stories. The town of Ulthar in the books is famous for its most significant law: that ‘no man may kill a cat.'” How about beating a dead horse?
“Drum patterns emphasize velocity, above which electric guitar promulgates a chaotic aesthetic — not infrequently utilizing dissonant scalar patterns — to complement, to the point of a studious avoidance of juxtaposition, the aesthetic of furious speed cultivated herein. A huge breakdown hits right after, rattling skulls and seething with adrenaline. Complexity is easy, simplicity is hard — just look at academic writing. The difference between these two sentences — the first overtly if not needlessly complex, the second easy to read and appealing to those who grew up enjoying the deathcore boom of the mid-to-late 2000s — is a good picture of my reaction to Applaud the Impaler’s new record Ov Apocalypse Incarnate.” Tip your impaler.
“Hello, it’s me. I was wondering if, after all these years ov atmoblack reviews, maybe you’d like to meet something different? After rolling in the deep end of our promo bin’s blackest, mopiest waters for so long, it felt appropriate to set fire to the reign ov black ‘n boo-hoo bands and send my love to a new genre.” Muppet grinder.
“In the realm of blackened thrash, Frosthelm are a unique breed. While many bands of this style are content in simply carrying the torch of Venom or adding a slightly blackened edge to a thrash metal template, this North Dakota group instead swirl together Dissection-style meloblack and crunchy Bay Area thrash into a blizzard of orgasmic glee.” When victory is death.
“‘Rock is dead’ is a tired geezer quote if ever I’ve heard one. Sure, I’ve bitched about the state of modern rock before, but in reality there’s plenty of substance lurking around. There’s rock that progs, and prog that rocks, while the incestuous bloodlines of the stoner, doom, and sludge scene are often tied to rock featuring plenty of quality bands. Yet I admit, finding hungry and interesting bands that rock hard enough to appeal to the average metalhead can be challenging. Enter New York’s up and coming Moon Tooth.” Fear the Tooth.
