“Indeed, my indirect memories of the 70s feature objects and trends grown shabby from age and eventually replaced by neon colors, Reaganomics and synth pop. Raleigh, North Carolina’s Lightning Born, on the other hand, remember the 70’s in living detail and have preserved them in pristine amber on their full-length eponymous debut.” Lightning born, time frozen.
“I used to dislike female vocalists in general. As I’d mostly been exposed to them through either shitty pop music or shitty Nightwishcore, I simply never felt any emotional connection regardless of their technical skill. The turnaround came from outside of metal with Florence + The Machine, and since then I’ve found a new appreciation for womanly voices, particularly in male-dominated sub-genres, with bands like Madder Mortem and Messa featuring high on my Best Ever lists. Burning Gloom (formerly named My House On Trees) are a doom-sludge band from Milan, and they have female vocals as well, something that may be rarer in sludge than in any other sub-genre sans perhaps thrash.” Women to the front!
We’re getting to the nitty gritty of the lists, and now Lord Protector Steel Druhm‘s list must be weighed, measured and accepted as gospel. Let no man question the Steel of Approval!
More lists for the list machine! The men who unwisely go by their real names, Mark Z. and L. Saunders boldly proclaim their best albums of 2018.
Ferrous Beuller and GardensTale need to unburden themselves and share all their picks for the best of 2018. Be polite and sit quietly until they’re done, then you can go outside and get a cupcake.
“Stepping out of your comfort zone is often a healthy thing. Slither away from the soft bed you know into the cold bath of the unknown and you might find yourself with a new affection you never knew existed. When it comes to metal, by and large, this means black metal for me. Though I’ve run into the occasional band that surprises me with articulate frostiness, such as Mistur and Gaerea, the genre as a whole tends to linger outside my grasp. So here I am once more, venturing into the obtuse murk, with the harsh glare of Essenz, a German outfit of cryptically abbreviated band members.” From comfort to cvlt.
“2018 is off to a generally piss poor start when it comes to timely Record(s) o’ the Month postings, and I suppose some of the blame for that rests with us at AMG. I’m never one to point fingers and assign blame, but it’s mostly Muppet‘s fault and he’s a real problem that must be dealt with.” Blame the night.
“In my lengthy tenure as an AMG contributor, I can count on half a hand the number of albums that blindsided me as hard as Messa‘s debut Belfry did. I plucked it from the promo sump knowing zero about the upstart Italian doomsters and was soon hopelessly in the thrall of their eerie doom drone hybrid style. Naturally, Belfry was going to be a tough act to follow regardless what direction the young act decided to travel, and after a fairly short wait, we get their second album, Feast for Water.” Into the deep end.
“Female fronted doom metal is certainly in vogue these days, with an ever expanding list of bands joining the fray. Now you can add Swedish act Besvärjelsen to the roster with their doomy debut, Vallmo.” Swe-doom in da house!
![Laser Flames on the Great Big News – Laser Flames on the Great Big News [Things You Might Have Missed 2017]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/LaserFlamesontheGreatBigNews1-768x766.jpg)
“The term retro metal/rock gets bandied around a lot, due to the over-saturation of bands mining the freewheeling creativity of ’70s rock to varying degrees of success and very little originality. Lumping Laser Flames under the retro label would be a great disservice to the creativity and inventiveness the band conjures throughout the epic stoner odyssey of this self-titled release.” Retro rock with freakin laser beams!
