“The fantastically named Demonic Death Judge is a sludge/stoner quartet from Kymenlaakso, Finland, having released two EPs and three full-lengths of plodding and hazy dirges since 2009, The Trail being their fourth. Their first two full-lengths were nearly identical to Louisianan Thou’s gloomy sludge affairs, pitching molasses-thick riffs, blackened rasps, and decidedly bleak themes.” The path unbakened.
“Nostalgia. In times of uncertainty, people seek its warm and motherly embrace: the familiar smells, the sense of safety, the notion that things were ‘better and less complicated’ back then. Artists have been trading off nostalgia for years now, whether it’s dropping the Millennium Falcon in The Force Awakens or the Pixies reuniting to perform Doolittle, there’s an undeniable comfort in the familiar. Perhaps this is the reason ‘traditional’ sounding black metal appears to be making a comeback of sorts.” Familiar demons.
“Name another site out there with writers hiding behind silly monikers whom you know better than your best friends. Name a site you dared to lean on, pouring your heart out in the comments, getting positive and uplifting responses when you needed them most. Name a site you’ve spent as much time debating, loving, and sharing music as you have on AMG. You can’t.” Truth telling.
El Cuervo and Diabolus in Muzaka made lists and checked them twice. But are their Top Ten(ish) of 2019 naughty or nice?
![Nocturnal Departure – Cathartic Black Rituals [Things You Might Have Missed 2019]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Noctural-Departure-Cathartic-Black-Rituals-01.jpg)
“With a purple, black, and white/grey color scheme, Cathartic Black Rituals immediately calls Mayhem’s Live in Leipzig—metal’s best live record—to mind. It screams second wave black metal, and as a fan of that little niche I heeded the call.” Running into the Nocturnal.
“Five years ago, Grier became more than a twinkle in AngryMetalGuy.com’s eye. Forever after, AMG was subject to the King of Clickbait. And, since then, you poor bastards have had to read the sometimes depressing, sometimes passionate, sometimes right and sometimes wrong moments of my career. In these early days of the Coming of Grier, there arose such an album that it still finds regular rotation for this ole Dok Tor. First, for its content—old-school, Scandinavian black metal. Second, for resurrecting a master of the black metal arts—Aldrahn. I loved The Deathtrip’s Deep Drone Master and still love it today. Not for its originality but, rather, for its commitment and flawless execution of ’90s Norwegian black metal. It wasn’t until I heard it that I realized how much I missed Aldrahn’s voice. But, Aldrahn has vanished once again. In his place stands Kvohst (ex-Code, ex-Void, and ex-Dødheimsgard).” Musical chairs and deathtrips.
“Germany’s Krater began their black metal journey in 2003, and the 16 years since have seen the band in a constant state of evolution. After a debut that tended towards the pagan side of black metal, 2011’s Nocebo saw Krater moving in a more aggressive second-wave direction, and 2016’s Urere built upon that sound by adding more melodicism and wrapping it in a clear and powerful production. Venenare is the culmination of this evolutionary process, incorporating many different styles and sounds picked up along the way but at the same time transcending descriptive labels and tags by appearing as pure, unadulterated black metal.” Blackened pot luck.
“What am I supposed to do if I can’t look at a band’s country of origin and judge them accordingly? What the fuck am I supposed to do as a reviewer if I can’t take one of my Sodom reviews, copy-and-paste it into the blog, and change the band name and album title? Don’t worry, dear reader. It’s no problem. I’ll, instead, steal some adjectives from Steel‘s Death Angel reviews and verbiage from AMG‘s Iced Earth ones to pen my writeup of The Final Divide. That’ll work.” Plague of plagiarism.
“A new Mayhem release is the most exciting thing to happen in metal this year. Unlike most other bands who offer refinements and (ideally) improvements on their established sound with each release, Mayhem exhausts a sound on each full-length by exhausting a theme; as the sound’s purpose is to express the theme, the sound’s purpose is fulfilled once the theme is expressed. This means the lazy reviewer can’t merely compare the new Mayhem record to prior ones and base his analysis on that without completely missing the point of the record at hand — Mayhem’s career is an anthology, not an arc.” Mayhem’s Hell awaits.
“This year, I learned that anonymity can only carry you so far in life. Ask Mr. Tobias Forge or either of the two proposed leaders from two of the bazillion Batushkas out there how that all panned out in the end, at least in terms of legal issues. And since their debut album, 2015’s impressive-if-repetitive Disciples of the Void, we’ve learned that Shrine of Insanabilis are German, and that their drummer, Serpenth, also played in Acherontas. Ah, well, so much for mystery.” He would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for you meddling kids.
