“Every now and then you stumble across a young band and find yourself in the presence of enormous potential. Sometimes that potential is on full display and impossible to miss, and sometimes it’s partially concealed behind flaws or kinks yet to be worked out. My experience with the promo for II by Ireland’s Death the Leveller has been an odd combination of both these scenarios.” Irish eyes are crying.
“We live in a society where people add extra letters (specifically u’s) to words that don’t belong. As well as spelling words purposely (I think?) wrong to give them more emphasis. Or they use words that don’t mean what they think they mean. Who could forget the days of ‘wassup?’ and ‘wazzup?’ I mean, what’s not hip about saying ‘what’s up?’ or ‘what is up? Or remember when people used the word ‘bad’ but actually meant ‘good’? Or when you use ‘cop’ instead of ‘get’ and ‘whip’ instead of ‘car’? What the fuck is going on around here? Now there’re umlauts over consonants and v’s instead of u’s. ‘Lead’ is ‘led,’ ‘funeral fuck’ is ‘fvneral fvkk,’ and ‘rand’ has a ‘5’ in front of it. And now… there’s Badd Kharma.” Fyre is hawt!!
“The few times I’ve run reconnaissance to the front lines of war metal—sometimes called bestial black metal—it hasn’t exactly inspired me to take up arms. On paper, the bastard child of grindcore and raw black metal sounds like fun, but the unrelenting frenetic assault often turns tedious for this reviewer. I don’t mind dense music, but I like it smart, and that’s not really war metal’s MO. “Then why are you reviewing a war metal album?” the insolent reader may ask. I’ll tell you, though you deserve no such courtesy.” Towers of noise.
“I am not a particularly patient individual. In fact, it seems that the “older” I get the less patient I become. With this in mind, I asked myself, “Why. The fuck. Did you decide to pick up the two-hour split between Spectral Lore and Mare Cognitum as your next promo?” It’s atmospheric black metal for heaven’s sake! For two hours! Little did the voice inside my head know that this epic love letter to the planets (and planetoid) of our solar system would be so compelling.” Put a ring on Saturn.
“The death-doom umbrella is one that I use on occasion, but have never fully committed to. I understand the premise, of course, and I’m convinced that the style can work very well, but I’ve yet to be truly inspired by a sample of the craft. Generally speaking, I’m happy for my music to be fast and angry or slow and sad. Still, when you like a thing and you like another thing, it’s hard to resist trying those things together and seeing what results. These were my rough thoughts as I entered Kentucky’s Rotting Kingdom to sample their debut album, A Deeper Shade of Sorrow.” Sad City.
“Over the years the band lost some members, went on hiatus from 1991 to 1996, and released a slew of albums that never seemed to generate as much fanfare as their debut. Other than some curious midnight listens of Vengeance, I certainly hadn’t heard anything from the group until I came across Eye in Hell while rifling through the promo bin. Freshly signed to Mighty Music, this is the the band’s eleventh studio album and shows sole founding member Zhema Rodero joined by a new drummer and a trusted cohort of musicians who’ve been with the group for a few years now. Almost four decades into their existence, do Vulcano still scorch your ass or are their brutal eruptions long behind them?” Nighttime eruptions.
“Wolf came into being in the mid-1990s just as the metal scene was poised for a big retro nostalgia trend. A product of their time, they followed the lead of acts like Hammerfall and jumped aboard that “let’s do the 80s metal thing all over again” train with enthusiasm. Their 1999 debut mixed speed and traditional metal influences in ways big and small and managed to impart a degree of youthful vim and vigor to the olde timey sounds. As the band grew and evolved they continued to mine the 80s for all they were worth. After 2014s Devil’s Seed the band went silent and underwent personnel shuffles. 6 years later they reemerge from their steely cocoon with a new lineup, grisly, Korn-esque cover art and 8th album, Feeding the Machine.” Feeding time at the petting zoo.
“Huntsmen was one of the best left-field surprises of 2018 with their American Scrap album. By mixing progressive sludge and Americana, they created a sound not quite like any other. The songs neatly encapsulated heartfelt stories about working in the coal mines, a tragedy in Atlantic City, and others, closing on “The Last President” which included a dramatic performance by Aimee Bueno as the POTUS who unleashes nuclear Armageddon and hangs herself right after. It was a potent storytelling format that was bolstered by strong riffs, earnest vocals and succinct songwriting. So it makes sense that Mandala of Fear continues in… Wait… Does that promo sheet say “85 minute double LP dystopian concept album?!”” More as less.
“Prior to this review, you could have jotted down what I knew about sean-nós singing on the back of a postage stamp and still had most of the stamp free for other notes. Still, we are where we all are and probably only Fós, a collaboration between Irish singer Orla Cadden Patel and multi-instrumentalist Fionn Murray, have much right to feel aggrieved. Sean-nós turns out to be a traditional form of Irish singing. Typically unaccompanied, the singing is highly ornamented in terms of melodic style and the lyrics often deal in laments and tales of historic events. That description does not, perhaps, suggest it as the obvious partner for electronica-driven drone but then, as I always try to explain to non-metal friends and colleagues who ask (and usually regret doing so), one of the things I love about metal is its seemingly endless ability to blend genres and influences.” Luck o’ the Irish.
“Welcome to my ass. We won’t be long. I’ve gathered us here today before my review of the brilliant new Afterbirth record because I didn’t want to drag you through here in the middle of it. Suffice it to say that my critique of Afterbirth’s The Time Traveler’s Dilemma has proven unassailably correct: Afterbirth should get right back on the horse, they should keep exploring their progressive tendencies, and they absolutely should record with Colin Marston. Probably no thanks to my scolding they have. Four Dimensional Flesh is a triumph, one of the most charismatic and original death metal albums you’ll ever hear.” Ass above, so below.
