Meshuggah

Deus Otiosus – Murderer Review

By Angry Metal Guy on November 9, 2011 in 2011, Danish Metal, Death Metal, FDA Rekotz, Reviews, Death Metal, 4 comments

When you hear the phrase “old-school death metal,” you pretty much know what to expect. You can rattle off the usual list of influences (Death, Entombed, Autopsy, etc.) by heart, and you can envision the sound in your mind without hearing a single note. There’s about 9 thousand bands that are playing this style today, and neither you or I give a fuck about them because it was already done 20 years ago, and better. So when Danish band Deus Otiosus describes their debut full-length, Murderer, as “old-school death metal,” you know what you’re in for, right?

Textures – Dualism Review

By Rusty on September 21, 2011 in 2011, 4.0, Nuclear Blast, Progressive Metal, Reviews, Djent, 11 comments

The guys in Textures are smart guys and they make smart metal. Their brand of metal has a lot of technicality and there’s no tediousness in their approach to song writing. So if you’re a two-digit IQ kind of listener, please don’t bother us with any dim-witted comments you may have concerning how pretentious you think these Dutch fellows sound. Textures started to blossom as a unique band with their second album Drawing Circles and they cemented their sound quite impressively with 2008’s Silhouettes. Some line-up changes brought in a new vocalist and a new keyboardist which consequently had them take three years to put out album number four but it’s one that is definitely worth the wait

The Human Abstract – Digital Veil Review

By Angry Metal Guy on March 8, 2011 in 2011, 4.5, American Metal, Deathcore, Metalcore, Progressive Metal, Reviews, Deathcore, Metalcore, Progressive Metal, 13 comments

One of the things that I consistently tell people when they give me shit (which they inevitably do) about my taste in music is that you should call a spade a spade and like what you like without apologies. That doesn’t mean that I don’t have biases, however, and one of those biases that I have is against things that can be labelled as “metalcore” or “deathcore.” Since the early aughts we’ve been plagued by shitty record after shitty record from post-hardcore entities that have been passed off on us as the next big thing and that have ultimately felt sad and tired and not good. I recently ripped into Architects, for example, for being billed as ‘reinventing metalcore and themselves,’ only to produce an epic fail of a record.

Sanity of Impiety – In Life We Despise Review

By Angry Metal Guy on January 6, 2011 in 2010, 3.5, Death Metal, Reviews, Swedish Metal, Unsigned Bands, Melodic Death Metal, 0 comments

I know it’s not a popular standpoint, but I’ve actually been pretty critical of Sweden’s underground. It is true that Sweden has produced some of the best metal in the world, I still have a bit of a feeling of “What have you done for me lately?” While there are some great bands out there that we all know, the underground here since after that first wave in the early 90s just hasn’t been the same. However, in the last few years a new generation of Swedish death metal and black metal has started coming to the forefront. Sometimes these are older bands, but there are also a number of younger bands carrying on the banner of their proud Swedish heavy metal heritage and doing it well. Sanity of Impiety, from up north in UmeÃ¥ (the same city which spawned Meshuggah, Naglfar, Cult of Luna and others) is certainly one of these bands.

Nominon – Monumentomb Review

By Cerebral Bowlesy on June 9, 2010 in 2010, 3.0, Death Metal, Reviews, Swedish Metal, 1 comment

It is a bit odd that I haven’t heard Sweden’s Nominom. They’ve been around since 1993, when I was just a wee metal lad, discovering the merits of Carcass, Brutal Truth, and their ilk. And while perhaps the name was heard in the venerable annals of metal, it is not recalled by this metallion. The ranks of metal run deep, however, so it is not a big surprise. Just in recent years I discovered the intense and ever-evolving Immolation, so there’s always a wealth of metal to discover, and new interpretations of heavy to be explored, to make me forget I have tinnitus before I go to sleep.

Arise – The Reckoning Review

By Angry Metal Guy on March 31, 2010 in 2009, 2010, 3.5, Death Metal, Regain Records, Reviews, Swedish Metal, Thrash Metal, Death Metal, Melodic Death Metal, 0 comments

Arise was a little late on the uptake on the first go around of the Gothenburg sound, forming in 1996, but really getting their first demo out there in 1998 and getting signed about the time that all the death metal elitists I knew were already writing off the sound as “done”. However, unlike most of the bands from that era, they are still alive and kicking and putting out music of the style that was popular at the time. There’s some confusion about this record, which according to some sources came out last year, but it’s being promoted right now by Regain with a release date of the 22nd of March (which means it’s out now). It has, indeed, been a few years since Arise put out their last album, but even with the departure of two members, they don’t seem to have lost any steam.

Interview with Mary Zimmer from Luna Mortis

By Angry Metal Guy on January 22, 2010 in 2009, 2010, American Metal, Century Media, Interviews, Power Metal, Progressive Death, Progressive Metal, Things You Might Have Missed 2009, Unsigned Bands, Power Metal, Progressive Metal, 1 comment

One of the most promising bands that I’ve ever encountered in my time in the underground has been Luna Mortis. Within the scene that they were surrounded by, it was basically taken for granted that if someone from the scene was going to take off it would be them (at the time called The Ottoman Empire). To no one’s surprise they got bigger, got better management, got a better band together and continued developing. To no one’s surprise they started getting good press and good reviews and making contacts. To, I think, a lot of people’s surprise they ended up getting signed by Century Media. Not that they didn’t deserve it, but just to think that a group of local kids were getting picked up by the label that had shepherded so many of us into the extreme metal scene was pretty astounding.

UmeÃ¥ Rock City

By Angry Metal Guy on January 15, 2010 in Blog Posts, Death Metal, 1 comment

There’s a new group up on Facebook called UmeÃ¥ Rock City which is totally fascinating for those of you who are into the history of metal or are fascinated by what your favorite musicians were doing before they were in the biggest and/or best Swedish heavy metal bands, or working on Drumkit from Hell, for […]

Mnemic – Sons of the System Review

By Angry Metal Guy on January 7, 2010 in 2.0, 2010, Eurocore, Metalcore, Nuclear Blast, Reviews, Eurocore, 0 comments

Mnemic has been around in the ether for a while but I’ve never given them a proper listen until now. The band has good promo, they’ve toured Europe twice with metal giants (like ’em or not) Metallica, they look like real metal dudes and they’ve got cred because a couple people I know compared them to Meshuggah back when they first came out. Unfortunately, Sons of the System sounds a lot less like Meshuggah and a lot more like Sonic Syndicate. This record is another convergence point for things that I’m not really keen on in the world of metal and I’ll give you a short run-down.