“I just couldn’t turn down an album by a band called Neurectomy. I’ve heard of a lot of medical procedures in my day, but I wasn’t as familiar with the process by which a nerve is severed or removed to reduce pain, never to grow back again. With a new “ectomy” added to my growing surgical lexicon, I was still apprehensive. But while tech death can certainly be hit or miss (with the misses often being tedious, forgettable affairs), I was far too interested in the band name and the album art to let something as silly as past experience impact my decision-making.” Nerves of steel.
Obscura
Yer Metal Is Olde: Cynic – Focus
“Dolph does Focus, who could have seen that coming? Certainly not a ramshackle group of kids in Florida who drank death metal in the wild and jazz fusion in the heat of endless study and rehearsal.” We said FOCUS!
Alkaloid – Numen Review
“German collective Alkaloid bucks the trend often associated with bands fitted with the ‘supergroup’ tag. With a line-up boasting members of such lauded acts as Spawn of Possession, Obscura, Necrophagist, Eternity’s End, Dark Fortress, and many others, on 2015’s striking debut The Malkuth Grimoire, and 2018’s phenomenal sophomore opus Liquid Anatomy, Alkaloid ascended to elite status in the modern progressive and technical death metal scenes.” Dream team on paper (but see the N.Y. Jets).
Dr. A.N. Grier’s Top Ten(ish) of 2022
“You don’t know shit until you read this. It’s not opinion; it’s science.”
Record(s[es]) o’ the Month(s) – October & November 2022
December is upon us. Smoke rises from the mountain of doom, Listurnalia™ is just around the corner and Steel Druhm rides to AMG HQ in a vain attempt to get the Record(s) o’ the Month back on track in 2023.
Freedom of Fear – Carpathia [Things you Might Have Missed 2022]
“As the year grinds to a close, it is time to reflect on the rich heavy music landscape of 2022 and unload the Things You Might Have Missed tradition. Released in October, the sophomore full-length from unheralded Australian outfit, the oddly named Freedom of Fear, has rapidly grown on me like a fast-advancing fungus.” Fear is the earkiller.
Obsidious – Iconic Review
“There’s been an incredible amount of hype roiling behind international supergroup Obsidious’s upcoming debut record Iconic. Having lived under a rock for the past two years, I missed literally all of that hype, only first becoming aware of Obsidious late this past summer. Nevertheless, once I heard all of the numerous advance singles, I was convinced that this would be my Album o’ the Year by the time I got to hear the whole thing. Technical death metal meets post-apocalyptic space opera meets musical theater? It’s quite possibly the most me thing to fall into my lap during my entire four-year tenure at AMG to date. Needless to say, I generated plenty of my own hype. The question remains, did Obsidious live up to it?” Hype and reality.
De Profundis – The Corruption of Virtue
“De Profundis is a great band who gets a lot of love behind the scenes at AMG HQ, but somehow routinely misses out on full coverage. This kind of thing occurs occasionally and for a number of perfectly understandable reasons, of course. But after seventeen years of diligent work, it’s high time that the English death metal quintet get a proper review from us for their sixth full-length, The Corruption of Virtue. And, as is our prerogative, we bring this review to you late.” Corrupted deadlines.
Fallujah – Empyrean Review
“Fallujah has a contentious history here at the house of AMG. From the first flirtations Angry Metal Guy himself had with The Harvest Wombs, to the loudness wars that consumed The Flesh Prevails to the unenthused success of Dreamless—all ending in the nonconsensual torture of our very own TheKenWord with his harrowed recount of 2019’s Undying Light, which left the poor poriferan in a state most unfit for attacking this newest, Empyrean.” Fuss and bother.
A Lie Nation – Sociopathology Review
“Sociopathology is A Lie Nation’s debut full-length, despite the band having been around since 2009 and follows two EPs, Begin Hate and Human Waves released in 2015 and 2017, respectively. Described as melodic blackened death metal, there’s more than a hint of the most recent Obscura to be found here but heavily diluted by something that sounds suspiciously like metalcore in places.” What lies beneath.