“Not having heard anymore from the Graveworm camp after their 2011 release, you can hardly blame me for assuming the band had realized their obsolescence. Imagine my surprise at getting promo from AFM Records for Ascending Hate. I had to hear it, it was that simple.” Madam X needed to hear some blackened death? In other news: the sun is hot and dogs like steak.
“I’m not much of a social media trend follower, maybe it’s a generational thing (read as I’m old) or maybe it’s because I just really couldn’t give a shit about investing time in a meaningless fad, take your pick. That said, labelling today Throwback Thursday, transporting you briefly back to the 90s and enlightening you as to the highs and lows of Withering Soul’s third and forthcoming offering, now that appeals to me.” The clones are about to attack…again.
“Swedish musician Ola Englund is a busy fellow. Between stints helping rejuvenate The Haunted on their solid return to form platter Exit Wounds and breathing a glimmer of life into the caveman corpse of Six Feet Under on their Unborn album, Englund has also built a solid and prolific output with his main band, Feared.” Sometimes simple death is good death.
“We all have a little touch of crazy inside us. You know what I mean; trapped laughter that rumbles out with such force it makes your belly hurt. Sadly with all the hullabaloo and day-to-day grind we forget to stop and breath, but more importantly, we forget to laugh. American melo-death merchants, Nekrogoblikon have made it their mission to remind us that tapping into our crazy and embracing the silly is just downright necessary and I support that!” Goblins are the medium, meta is the message.
“Arghoslent are one of the best bands that ever shot themselves in the foot. Their melodic NWOBHM-tinged death metal was both original and exhilarating, but was sadly overshadowed by the group’s questionable ideology (sample song titles: “Hereditary Taint,” “Rape of a Slave”). Searching for a similar-sounding group without the racist overtones, I was thus overjoyed by Minneapolis’ House of Atreus and their debut EP, 2013’s Into the Brazen Bull.”
“Spectral Darkwave seems very confused. Last First Contact is a testament to the fact that it’s better to nail one style than incorporate many seemingly for the sake of it. Fusing strains of death-doom, melodeath, classical and electronic, it’s rare that it all functions as a cohesive package.” Anyone up for some genre stew?
“Melodic folk metallers Frosttide crossed my path back in 2013 with their debut full-lengh. Now a mere two years later, the Finns are back tipping tables and generally upsetting the orderly offices we have here at AMG central.” Honestly, it wasn’t all that orderly to begin with.
“I never got into the modern zombie craze. Maybe I just had too much of it when I was younger: in high school I played the Gamecube Resident Evil reboots with religious fervor and watched more George A. Romero movies than was probably healthy…thus, you can imagine my sentiments when assigned a promo from a South African band called Zombies Ate My Girlfriend. Not only is that moniker absolutely terrible, it blatantly panders to a trend that was stale two years ago – a trend that I never gave a shit about in the first place. However, as I learned with Calm Hatchery, a bad moniker doesn’t always equate to bad music.” Terrible name, terrible cover, but it’s the music that counts, you elitist snobs!
“They say nine out of ten startup companies fail. Much of this has to do with the venture’s lack of resources and connections; failing to find the know-how and know-who before the money runs out.” As companies race to find investors, you’re tasked with deciding what bands to invest your funds into. Choose…wisely.
“There are three things you need to know in regards to Raunchy: 1) I’ve had an unhealthy love affair with them since stumbling across Wasteland Discotheque back in 2008; 2) they have the most misleading band name ever; and 3) never say “can I get Raunchy?” when asking for their promo.” We call that a micro-aggression, and we only tolerate macro-aggressions at AMG. HR awaits!
