Massacre Records

Horrizon – World of Pain Review

By Twelve on December 2, 2019 in 2019, German Metal, Massacre Records, Melodic Death Metal, Reviews, Melodic Death Metal, 45 comments

“One of the earliest things I’ve learned in my short tenure working with these angriest of metal men is how difficult describing music actually is. Scholars throughout time have worked hard to remedy this situation by giving us the hallowed name drop, and venerated genre tags, that we might use few words to convey great meaning. And yet, these still often fall sadly short of describing the actual phenomena we experience. I could tell you, for instance, that the music of World of Pain, the third full-length output from the German band Horrizon.” When words fail.

Stormwarrior – Norsemen Review

By Holdeneye on November 29, 2019 in 2019, German Metal, Massacre Records, Power Metal, Reviews, Speed Metal, Power Metal, Speed Metal, 60 comments

“Aeons ago, long before I answered the casting call to write for this prestigious hostile work environment or had even commented on a review, I was but a reader and lurker of the site. Even then, I imagined that I might one day find my name written upon the sacred digital stone of AMG’s “About” tab. I fancied that I might form an inseparable bond with one Swordborn, the site’s apparent resident cheese custodian. In my fantasies, we’d frolic together through meadows like metal Cupids, firing 4.0’s and 4.5’s at power metal albums all willy nilly, laughing all the while.” Oh, so this is one of those fanfics.

Coronatus – The Eminence of Nature Review

By Emya on November 25, 2019 in 2019, German Metal, Massacre Records, Reviews, Symphonic Metal, Symphonic Metal, 18 comments

“The Eminence of Nature is Coronatus’ ninth studio album. Before claiming this album as my own for review, I performed my usual quick search on the AMG site to see which one of my coworkers was historically responsible for dishing out either love or distaste in response to Coronatus’ eight other albums. Had to be either Twelve or TheKenWord given their public and overzealous love of the cheesiest of the symphonic metals. I was pleasantly surprised to see “No results for ‘Coronatus’ Try another search?” pop up on my screen. Eight albums and not one was covered by AMG?!” Bad omens.

Cathubodua – Continuum Review

By Master of Muppets on October 23, 2019 in 2019, Belgian Metal, Massacre Records, Power Metal, Reviews, Symphonic Metal, Power Metal, Symphonic Metal, 33 comments

“Fucking fuck you fucking all, you fuck fucking fucks. I absolutely fucking hate everyone right now and I blame each and every one of you miserable shits. I suppose I could blame Steel, him having personally assigned me to the nightmare which I must shortly relive, but I blame you. You, ‘dear’ ‘read’-er, are why we do the over worded and under think-ed things that we do, and to the best of my knowledge I have never hurt any of you enough to owe anyone the undertaking that was Continuum, an album I’ll be dedicating my life and liver to erasing the memory of.” Powers.

Negator – Vnitas Pvritas Existentia Review

By Doom_et_Al on October 17, 2019 in 2019, Black Metal, German Metal, Massacre Records, Reviews, Black Metal, 16 comments

“You know that feeling when you’ve entrusted someone you don’t know to do a job, and you realize early on that they are capable and competent and that, for this particular task at least, you don’t have to worry? Listening to Negator’s latest effort, Vnitas Pvritas Existensia, is a lot like that. Within the first 5 minutes, you know exactly what you’re getting yourself into: furious, no-nonsense Germanic, occult black metal (with a distinct paucity of U’s in the song titles).” Goats til Sunday!

Ivory Tower – Stronger Review

By Steel Druhm on August 22, 2019 in 2019, Massacre Records, Power Metal, Progressive Metal, Reviews, Power Metal, Progressive Metal, 23 comments

“I stumbled across Beyond the Stars, the sophomore outing by unsung German prog metallers, Ivory Tower. Though they weren’t doing anything Dream Theater hadn’t done 500 times bigger and with more drum solos, there was something oddly endearing and earnest about the band’s material. I never saw or heard about another release from them until Stronger bobbed up in the promo bin unexpectedly. I doubted it was even the same band, but it is indeed.” Swole spire.

Illdisposed – Reveal Your Soul for the Dead Review

By Diabolus in Muzaka on August 20, 2019 in 2019, Danish Metal, Death Metal, Massacre Records, Reviews, Death Metal, Melodic Death Metal, 31 comments

“Back in my younger years, I played in a little local band that was glorified Obituary-core. I had no delusions of grandeur, unless “grandeur” was playing at seedy bars for beer money some weekends. It was fun, and it was what I wanted to write and play at the time. Recently, before seeing Iron Maiden for the fourth time, my friend – who was in the old band for a spell – said that if he started another band, he’d want it to be Kataklysm 2.0. He quickly corrected himself and said it would be Kataklysm 0.9, as there was no way to beat Kataklysm at their own game. This was a somewhat unfortunate development – I’d love to play death metal with my friend again, but Kataklysm 0.9 already exists in the form of Danish death metal band Illdisposed.” Math is hard.

Hatriot – From Days Unto Darkness Review

By Steel Druhm on July 26, 2019 in 2019, American Metal, Massacre Records, Reviews, Thrash Metal, Thrash Metal, 44 comments

“Like father, like son, they say. Hatriot was the side project of Steve “Zetro” Souza of Exodus fame and his sons Cody, who handled bass duties, and Nick, who manned the kit. Their 2013 debut Heroes of Origin was a rip-roaring dose of classic thrash, and though 2014s Dawn of the New Centurion felt like a drop off, it was still a respectable slice of speed. The band’s been silent since then, but From Days Unto Darkness sees the Souza clan return sans dad, with Cody picking up vocal duties.” Thrash is thicker than blood.

Brocelian – Guardians of Brocéliande Review

By GardensTale on July 15, 2019 in 2019, German Metal, Massacre Records, Reviews, Symphonic Metal, Symphonic Metal, 34 comments

“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.

Stormhammer – Seven Seals Review

By Dr. A.N. Grier on June 2, 2019 in 2019, German Metal, Massacre Records, Power Metal, Reviews, Power Metal, 34 comments

“There’re seven things in this world I cherish, seven people I don’t hate, and seven albums I’ll love to the grave. OK, the seven ‘things’ are only one, the seven ‘people’ are only two, and the seven albums I plan to die with are none of your fucking business. ‘Seven’ is a lucky number for dumbasses in Hollywood movies. But, for me, seven is a convenient middle-ground to questions from my boss, family, and ‘friends.’ ‘How much longer is this gonna take?!’ Seven minutes. ‘Christmas is starting! How far away are you?’ Seven days. ‘How old is Abigail?’ Seven. Wait! Nine?! Fuck. You get what I mean. Regardless of how idiotic a lucky number can be, ‘seven’ might be, indeed, a lucky number for Germany’s Stormhammer.” Lucky number Stormhammer.