Metal Blade Records

Rivers of Nihil – The Conscious Seed of Light Review

By Jordan Campbell on September 26, 2013 in 2013, Death Metal, Djent, Metal Blade, Reviews, Djent, Technical Death Metal, 1 comment

“It was only a matter of time before a high-profile tech-death / djent mashup appeared on the scene. If you were hanging from your 8th string with bated breath for this moment, it has finally arrived: A mere year after their inception, Pennsylvania upstarts Rivers of Nihil are crashing the gates via Metal Blade. Their debut, The Conscious Seed of Light, is slightly baffling. On one hand, it’s easy to dismiss the album as an aural collage of the t-shirts in the band’s collective closet. At times, it plays out like a modern metal Power Point presentation: Bass-lick dropouts, open string chughammers, and spiraling-into-spaaaaaace shreddery all pop up within the first handful of minutes. The trope-aping is achingly obvious. That other hand, though? It itches to wipe away the clouds of cynicism.” Tech-death meets djent? How did this take so long, and now that it’s here, is it any good? Complicated questions indeed and here’s our man Jordan Campbell with some answers.

Retro-spective Review: Cities – Annihilation Absolute

By Steel Druhm on August 18, 2013 in American Metal, Heavy Metal, Metal Blade, Retro Reviews, 4 comments

“With these retro reviews, I’ve balanced albums from bands that had a decent following at one time and then fell off the map (Riot, Holy Terror) with those that had virtually no following at all despite a quality release (Hall Aflame, Damn the Machine). Count Cities as one of the latter…for sure. As a side band for Twisted Sister’s drummer A.J. Pero, Cities spent the 80s toiling in extreme obscurity, with only a small, but loyal fanclub in and around the New York area. With numerous line-up changes and breakups, they only managed one album; the excellent Annihilation Absolute and then promptly sank into nothingness.” If you were about to stop reading because you saw a mention of Twisted Sister, hold your horses! Steel Druhm wants to introduce you to the New York band that SHOULD HAVE been the 80s sensation!

The Black Dahlia Murder – Everblack Review

By Angry Metal Guy on June 9, 2013 in 2013, 4.0, American Metal, Death Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Metal Blade, Reviews, 14 comments

The Black Dahlia Murder were on a downward slope, succumbing to Angry Metal Guy’s Law of Diminishing Recordings™ with every step when Deflorate was released. The album was bordering on “nothing special,” and a record that probably didn’t make many End o’ Year Lists from that year or rank anywhere near Unhallowed or Nocturnal on lists of what TBDM’s best record was. So, as fans of this blog know, Ritual’s release was a gigantic step for The Black Dahlia Murder. It was an album that truly revolutionized the band’s sound, gave them a fresh start and blew my fucking mind. It should not be understated the seriously epic shift in feel and writing between Deflorate and Ritual, and the result is maybe one of the biggest swings for me in terms of excitement about a band’s forthcoming work that I can think of. A new TBDM record was becoming routine; Ritual proved that it was anything but.

Eldkraft – Shaman Review

By Natalie Zed on May 28, 2013 in 2013, 3.0, Epic Metal, Metal Blade, Reviews, Swedish Metal, Epic Metal, 1 comment

Shaman is the debut album from Sweden’s Eldkraft, a group who attempt to unite the ancient and mystic with the epic and contemporary. Their conceptual influences are Norse mythology and pagan rituals, especially those concerned with transition, growth and spiritual journeys. Their sound, however, does not have the folksy old-fashioned quality that one might expect; instead, they have gone for modern production and complex instrumentation that makes them sound considerably more grand and expansive than one would expect from a three-piece. This combines to make Shaman a strong and sometimes startling debut.” Join Natalie Zed as she goes on a journey of discovery with Eldkraft’s debut, Shaman.

The Ocean – Pelagial Review

By Noctus on April 18, 2013 in 2013, 4.0, Doom Metal, German Metal, Metal Blade, Progressive Metal, Reviews, Doom Metal, Progressive Metal, 15 comments

“No one can fault The Ocean’s ambition. Ever since their 2007 opus, the double album Precambrian, they’ve been setting their eyes on bigger and bigger projects. In the past few years they’ve released two albums arguably designed to be thought of as a double album — Heliocentric and Anthropocentric. These dealt with the origin of man and the redundancy of God in a two-hour, post-metal journey constantly switching between the conventional and unconventional that made for a disorienting yet satisfying experience. However, I can’t help but feel Anthropocentric, the second album, was somewhat of a blunder.” Noctus has had some issues with The Ocean and not because he’s afraid of water. That’s fortunate, because their new opus is aqua-themed. Will Noctus take the dive or stay high, dry and judgmental?

Beyond the Shore – Ghostwatcher Review

By Madam X on March 23, 2013 in 2013, 3.0, American Metal, Labels, Metal Blade, Metalcore, Rating, Releases, Reviews, Metalcore, 3 comments

“Madam X rarely wanders down the road of hardcore or metalcore since dealing with mallrats and emo’s is troublesome (where to hide the bodies and all…). Once in a while though, venturing out into the unknown pays off and you stumble across an album with a little more imagination and progression (cast your mind back if you will to 2011’s Digital Veil delivered by Travis Richter’s The Human Abstract). Now jump back to 2009 to the release of Lexington, Kentucky based Beyond the Shore’s first EP precursor (The Arctic Front). While the album bore some small resemblance to Parkway Drive, it sounded juvenile and lacked the intensity of say “Dark Days.” Four years later Beyond the Shore haven’t been working on a funeral doom album. No, instead they’ve been working on getting into Metal Blade Records (home to As I Lay Dying and a host of other big names) good graces, honing their sound and gathering some interesting elements to add to their music.” Is our Madam X warming up to metalcore?? Say it ain’t so, X!! Oops, there I go using genres as pejoratives…

Six Feet Under – Unborn Review

By Steel Druhm on March 7, 2013 in 2013, 3.0, American Metal, Death Metal, Metal Blade, Reviews, Death Metal, 11 comments

“Having never been a supporter of Six Feet Under and their caveman, cartoonish take on death metal, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of a few songs on their 2012 album Undead. While the album as a whole was still pretty rancid, there were telltale signs of a band maturing a bit (finally). When I heard they had line up changes, but still had another album ready less than a year out from Undead, it didn’t bode well in my mind for continued maturation. When, it shows what I know, because Unborn is a shockingly big step forward for these guys in terms of writing, playing and all things death related.” Steel Druhm has been mighty harsh to Barnes and Co. in the past, but times change and apparently Six Feet Under can as well. I like these little life lessons!

Things You Might Have Missed 2012: Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats – Blood Lust

By Steel Druhm on December 1, 2012 in 2012, Doom Metal, English Metal, Metal Blade, Rise Above Records, Things You Might Have Missed 2012, Doom Metal, 6 comments

Time for all the stuff you might have missed!! Join us as we do our yearly round-up of shit that got overlooked, underrated, misplaced and otherwise blackballed, censored or buried. Steel Druhm kicks off the festivities with a weird one from the weirdly named Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats. Do you like Ghost? How about old style doom? Well then pilgrim, you better read up!

Antropomorphia – Evangelivm Nekromantia Review

By Madam X on October 14, 2012 in 2.0, 2012, Death Metal, Dutch Metal, Metal Blade, Reviews, Death Metal, 2 comments

Madam X gets all the hot, nasty necro-metal! Here, she examines whether tales of necro-lesbianism make for a great album. The answer just might surprise you!