Oct17

Hades Archer – Temple of the Impure Review

Hades Archer – Temple of the Impure Review

“Presumably vocalist/bassist/guitarist Nabucodonosor III has been busy with black-thrashers Force of Darkness while drummer Hateaxes Command has been pounding the skins for seemingly every band in the Chilean underground. Nonetheless Archer’s sophomore full-length is finally upon us, and it probably isn’t too far off what you’d expect from a record with ‘impure’ in its title and poorly rendered titties on its cover.” Raw is a lifestyle choice.

Enslaved – E Review

Enslaved – E Review

Enslaved is Norway’s biggest and most successful (currently active) metal band. They have garnered a following of intensely loyal fans who adore their every release with the fervor of the newly converted. In fact, I once counted myself a huge fan. There was a string of records that Enslaved released between 2000’s Mardraum: Beyond the Within and 2008’s Vertebrae which are practically unassailable. Not every one of those albums was perfect—Isa and Ruun were both only great records when sat side-by-side the excellent Below the Lights and Vertebrae, but they were consistently addictive listens from a band that could do no wrong. And I, along with everyone else, lathered Axioma Ethica Odini with praise, only to declare it one of my biggest disappointments of the year in 2010. I meh’d the hulking RIITIIR, and ¯\_(ツ)_/¯’d its follow-up In Times, declaring it a testament to the excesses of the modern recording industry. In sum: Enslaved went from being one of my favorite bands in 2008 to being a band whose newest release almost didn’t get reviewed by me. But with all the ranting and raving about how E is the best album they’ve put out in a while, I couldn’t keep myself away.

Sarke – Viige Urh Review

Sarke – Viige Urh Review

“Well, the cold has begun to settle in. Which means dark, frigid, unforgiving black metal will soon permeate the air of the Grier home. You can expect nothing less than the raw, primitive output of old-school Mayhem, Darkthrone, Enslaved, and Celtic Frost. It’s the right metal for the right season. The kind that you can almost feel blow through the pines as you walk over the fallen needles. The kind ‘Where Cold Winds Blow’ ‘Under a Funeral Moon,’ just ‘(Beyond the) Northern Winds.’ It’s the time of the year where I find myself once again—burrowing under cottonwood leaves until the warm suns of spring arrive to dry them out. So, it’s only fitting that one of my favorite black metal vocalists is back with an October release.” Winterize your ears.

Forsaken – Pentateuch Review

Forsaken – Pentateuch Review

“Malta’s Forsaken is often cited as their country’s answer to Candlemass and the long-dormant-and-sorely-missed Solitude Aeturnus, it should check off all the tick marks for a good-to-great album. And with their fifth full-length (and first album since 2009’s After The Fall), Pentateuch, it would seem like a solid grand slam of Epicus Doomicus Malteseum Metallicus.” “Seem” is a red flag.

Battle Dagorath – II – Frozen Light of Eternal Darkness Review

Battle Dagorath – II – Frozen Light of Eternal Darkness Review

“Space is fucking big, and there’s an appropriately sizeable array of space-themed metal bands to match. Some artists approach the infinite blackness with a sense of child-like wonder, with bands like Star One and Keldian playing up sci-fi tropes in admiration of the majesty of the star ocean. Others, like Darkspace, channel the cosmos as an unparalleled force of nature; empty, suffocating, and impossibly cold. Battle Dagaroth, a band I had expected to be pure Summoning worship based on their name and ‘atmospheric black metal’ tag, is yet another act intent on aurally replicating the incomprehensible vastness of space.” In space no one can hear you frown.

Siberian Meat Grinder – Metal Bear Stomp Review

Siberian Meat Grinder – Metal Bear Stomp Review

“Recently I’ve developed a newfound appreciation for thrash metal. I never used to dig it, but somewhere in the last few years, something must have clicked. However, the sub-genre of crossover thrash was still foggy to me, which made me hesitant to review it. But the combo of the ridiculously cool nameSiberian Meat Grinder and title Metal Bear Stomp were too much to resist. Topping that with an equally ridiculous album cover, with a 60 foot bear dressed in bullet chains and a cape stomping his soldier boots into a panicking mob, I felt it was my sworn duty to brush up on my crossover and expose the masses to the Russian quintet.” The right to bear arms.

Wheelfall – The Atrocity Reports Review

Wheelfall – The Atrocity Reports Review

“Drag the light from its perch and smother it in darkness. Crush it, beat it, push it down and hold it under until the thrashing stops and everything is still. Everything is cold. It’s done; the light is dead. All that’s left is to dig the grave, a deep trench for a silent slumber. The grave is yours. Of course, it is. Why linger in a world where the dawn will never spill over the horizon once more? A mouthful of soil is all that remains. Misery, misanthropy and unflinching nihilism, these are the pillars that hold The Atrocity Reports aloft, the latest album from French industrial metal act Wheelfall.” You just buried yourself.

Nocturnal Rites – Phoenix Review

Nocturnal Rites – Phoenix Review

“Back when I was a carefree graduate student, the band was a fairly typical sword and sorcery themed Euro-power outfit. Despite an artery clogging cheese quotient, the sheer infectious strength of albums like Tales of Mystery and Imagination and The Sacred Talisman all but forced you to get your Balrogs to the wall. Everything changed when Jonny Lindqvist joined as vocalist for 2000s Afterlife opus, slowly shifting the style into a more hard rock oriented sound.” Back from the ash hole of metal history.