“After recent (and in one case accidental) forays into genres somewhat removed from my traditional hunting grounds – funeral fucking drone and death metal – I am pleased this week to be back in more familiar waters with some sludgy doom. Vermont two-piece, Body Void return with their third full-length, Bury Me Beneath this Rotting Earth.” Cull and void.
“As just the second full-length from The Funeral Orchestra in 18 years of existence, to say that Negative Evocation Rights has been long in the making feels like a massive understatement. The follow up to 2003’s Feeding the Abyss, and given the band’s nom de plume and the fact that this Swedish trio do actually specialize in an ultra-slow, stripped back form of doom – it should be my opportunity to hold forth, at length, on the funeral doom genre.” Charnel knowledge.
“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.
Grymm and Kronos serve up a rich helping of metal opinions with their Top Ten(ish) of 2019.
The lists continue as GardensTale and Ferrous Beuller regale us with their Top Ten(ish) picks for the year. Pay attention.
“Yes, dear readers, the time has come once again for the favorite annual article of our deaf readership. Yours truly, the Furious Art Maestro, has once again taken it upon himself to make a selection of covers that pleased him personally.” Art for the metal masses.
“It seems that music holds a special place for many, like myself, who feel they can’t always safely express concerns about their own mental health. Music functions both as a creative outlet and as a method of processing what we feel, occasionally to the point that it heals. Furthermore, music offers a powerful community simply by existing, and metal, I believe, especially so. Therefore, Grymm, Master of Muppets and I reached out to a few artists whose product takes a hard look at mental health and its relationship with music. First up is an interview with ALN of Mizmor.”
“Metal music is rife with either “mosts” or “-ests.” The most brutal. The most extreme. The most depressive, oppressive, and downtrodden. The saddest, angriest, fastest, meanest, and heaviest. Our music lives and dies by those concepts. Every day, bands, fans, and us critics go on the hunt to find or create music that scratches the perpetual itch that those “mosts” and “-ests” bring forth. But in that unending pursuit, many bands and musicians fall by the wayside. Worse still, some of those musicians do so by their own hands. Today is a good time as any to talk about mental health in metal and rock music, and what can be done to stop the stigma associated with it.”
“This is death metal from Portland, Oregon. I could probably stop there and you would still know whether or not you’ll love this album. That city is absolutely dominating the genre this year, and we should probably just add a “Portland Metal” tag to Wordpress as that domination extends beyond the bounds of death metal. You’re probably getting tired of me blabbing about how great the Weird City’s output has been this year, but I could comfortably fill half of my year end list if forced to choose only from records released by Portland bands. And so, I will continue to drink from the fountain until it runs dry.” The weird travel on.
After a summer that was good, September was kind of insane. There were seven albums that were nominated that I considered for the list. And, of those seven, there were three that could be sitting in the top spot. So just let me go on record and say that this was an extremely difficult month. Being difficult, therefore, I had to ask myself a principled question: what would troll the readers and writers of Angry Metal Guy the most? The answer was simple: there was a progressive metal band that released iconic material in the early aughts. A band whose work is epic in scope and style. A band whose legacy is spoken of in hushed tones. A band lauded for epic compositions and an innovative style. That’s right…
