Opeth

Cormorant – Dwellings Review

By Angry Metal Guy on December 7, 2011 in 2011, 4.0, American Metal, Epic Metal, Progressive Metal, Reviews, NWOBHM, 5 comments

Cormorant is a band that I probably would have never found on my own. Instead, I just randomly got an e-mail from their promoter a couple years back, where she hooked me up with the band’s 2009 release Metazoa. I was duly impressed by what these coasties had to offer, so when I saw that these guys had a new record coming out, I definitely reached out to get a promo of it. And I’m happy that I did, though I think that Dwellings is a different beast from Metazoa. Bad? Definitely not. But did the band grow and get a lot better? It seems like the maintained a pretty even keel during the two years away.

Things You Might Have Missed 2011: Nami – Fragile Alignments

By Angry Metal Guy on December 2, 2011 in 2011, Progressive Death, Progressive Metal, Reviews, Season of Mist, Things You Might Have Missed 2011, 3 comments

As we’ve done the last two years, it behooves us to point out all the shit that we’ve missed in the last year. And 2011 has been mighty full of oversights from our side. This has been a pretty crazy year, but let me just say that I apologize and hope we can really make it up to you by throwing out a few awesome or pretty awesome records that we’ve managed to overlook due to time constraints or limited attention spans.

40 Watt Sun – The Inside Room Review

By Chalimar on November 2, 2011 in 2011, 4.0, Cyclone Empire, Doom Metal, Reviews, Doom Metal, 6 comments

How often does music effectively convey the emotions that have been put into it? How often do lyrics and music truly fit and complement each other? I really don’t think it happens that often. I’m not a lyrics kind of guy, mostly because, most of the time, the lyrics don’t really do anything to me or they are plain stupid. And when does the music itself ever really seem heartfelt? There are so many examples of bands that are great at songwriting, who handle their instruments perfectly, but on that important emotional level, it just isn’t what it could be. Still, it can be great music. Take Opeth for example. Boy, can those guys make music! The sheer awesomeness of some stuff they put to record is something to behold. But much of their back catalog really doesn’t convey any emotion, at least to me, that is. It’s actually quite cold, buried somewhere between all that awesome-sounding stuff. It’s really very much like a rollercoaster ride. You get overwhelmed with all kinds of input and it feels great, you enjoy it, but does it move you in any other way?

3 – The Ghost You Gave to Me Review

By Angry Metal Guy on September 30, 2011 in 2011, 3.5, American Metal, Metal Blade, Progressive Metal, Reviews, Progressive Metal, Progressive Rock, 6 comments

3 was one of my favorite discoveries of the year 2007. The End Is Begun ripped me out of my progressive complacency and reminded me that well-written, well-performed progressive rock or heavy metal, can be some of the most interesting and effective music. In a world dominated by polyrhythms and breakdowns, 3 was a refreshing blast of melody, piccolo toms and some of the most creative and unique guitar playing and song writing that I’d heard in a very long time. So I guess it’s fair to say that I have been anticipating their follow up, The Ghost You Gave to Me with no small amount of anticipation.

Opeth – Heritage Review

By Angry Metal Guy on September 7, 2011 in 2.0, 2011, Progressive Metal, Reviews, Roadrunner, Swedish Metal, Progressive Rock, 126 comments

Disclaimer: Knowing how to review this record has been very difficult for me because I’m a big fan of the band and I have no desire to try make my opinion seem bigger than the band’s work. I understand my subjective position as a reviewer very well. But this record suffers from pretty major issues that it make it very difficult for me to enjoy and that show off the weakness of the band in its current incarnation. I am aware that there will be a good amount of whining and gnashing of teeth over this review, and you’re welcome to it. Just remember that I 1) am not invested in Opeth playing death metal; 2) like plenty of bands that have changed their sounds; and 3) enjoy progressive and abstract music of all stripes very much.

Arch/Matheos – Sympathetic Resonance Review

By Steel Druhm on September 6, 2011 in 2011, 4.0, American Metal, Heavy Metal, Metal Blade, Progressive Metal, Reviews, Heavy Metal, Progressive Metal, 12 comments

Steel Druhm needs to ramble on for a bit so kindly bear with me, or else! As a life long metal fan, I can look back and pinpoint those few truly special albums that blew me away upon release and continue to feel magical after decades of listening. Right at the top of that very short list are two classics by Fates Warning. Hailing from Connecticut, they released three albums in the early to mid-80s that really embodied the American take on the traditional NWOBHM ethos and at times sounded quite like vintage Iron Maiden. Of those three albums, 85’s The Specter Within and 86’s Awaken the Guardian were their masterworks and any fan of classic metal really needs to hear them immediately if not sooner. After so many years, both easily stand the test of time and I find myself going back to them frequently. The main draw, aside from the expert songwriting, are the vocals by John Arch. The man had a one-of-a-kind voice, killer range and the ability to write hyper-intelligent lyrics. When he left the band following Awaken the Guardian, Fates Warning sank into mediocrity and I lost all interest. Arch himself left the music business entirely and I always hoped he would resurface and grace us with his voice again. He finally did in 2003 with the short but excellent Twist of Fate EP, which I hoped was the start of a serious comeback. Well, it took another eight long years but he finally has resurfaced again for a collaboration with his old Fates Warning guitarists Jim Matheos (OSI, Gordian Knot), Frank Aresti and other Fates alumni, bassist Joey Vera (Armored Saint, Anthrax, Seven Witches) and drum lord Bobby Jarzombek (Halford, Riot, Iced Earth, Rob Rock). So does this mega reunion bring back any of the potent magic from days long gone? Well, it seems that isn’t a fair question since Sympathetic Resonance is quite a different animal than Fates Warning. It’s way more modern, proggy, convoluted and heavier than anything their old unit attempted (I was actually surprised how heavy some of this material gets). Overall, its very polished and aggressive progressive metal from old dogs that obviously have plenty of life left in them.

Leprous – Bilateral Review

By Angry Metal Guy on September 2, 2011 in 2011, 4.5, InsideOut, Norwegian Metal, Progressive Metal, Record o' the Month, Progressive Metal, 16 comments

Progressive music is a vast category filled with all sorts of various constellations of bands from Dream Theater to Symphony X to Rush to Opeth to Death to Pink Floyd to Pain of Salvation to Coheed & Cambria (arguably) and so forth. It can be very difficult to keep all that shit in order and, frankly, to find good progressive bands because it’s such a huge category. Despite the fact that progressive music should be the biggest, best and most original music in the world it suffers from some serious problems. The first is a tendency towards living in the past (fÃ¶r svenskar: bakÃ¥tstrÃ¤vande) and the second is unoriginality, oddly enough. So finding a progressive band that is excellent, modern and original is still a hard thing to do. But you’ll never guess who has some angry (but good) news.

Retro-spective Review: Camel – Music Inspired by the Snow Goose

By Angry Metal Guy on August 23, 2011 in Not Metal, Reviews, 14 comments

So, during this time of burnout, one thing doesn’t seem to be changing: the will to critique things and to tell people how important my opinion is how cool some music just really is. One of the things that happens to me when I get burned out on metal is that I go back and start researching other shit like, for example, the guy who wrote Meat Loaf’s music (Jim Steinman) or in this case, 70s prog. The ’70s were an era when music was musical and the production didn’t suck fucking ass and there was no douchebag screaming about how tough he was into a microphone to try to make you realize just how extreme his music is (unless of course you count KISS, but I don’t, ’cause they suck and they weren’t screaming, they were just douching it up).

Angry Metal Guy’s Best Heavy Metal Songs of All Time 10-1

By Angry Metal Guy on June 25, 2011 in Blog Posts, 82 comments

Well, here it is folks. The final 10 [Here’s the first 40: 50-41, 40-31, 31-20, 20-11 and Steel Druhm’s: 50-41, 40-31, 30-21, 20-11, 10-1]. And this is going to ruffle a bunch of feathers, I guarantee it. These are, for the most part, not widely considered “favorites” and would never make fan-voted lists, but these tracks all got onto this list pretty easily. I’m not as angry about the whole Gibson list anymore, and I’ve lost a bit of steam because of that, but these tracks are all fucking fantastic, top-o’-the-line kind of shit. I hope you enjoy the list and I look forward trolling you soon. U MAD BRO!?

Angry Metal Guy’s Best Heavy Metal Songs of All Time 30-21

By Angry Metal Guy on April 8, 2011 in Blog Posts, 27 comments

Closer and closer we draw to the best heavy metal song of all time, but indeed there is much in between and none of it has been come to lightly. I actually have spent a lot of time mulling over this list since its creation and I am pleased, thus far I can’t think of anything major that I’ve left out, which must mean that they are not indeed ‘top songs’ at all. But let me get to one note of concern that people have raised. They say that one of the reasons that a list like Gibson’s travesty is valid is because “it’s hard to know if these songs can stand the test of time!” I just want to take a minute to call bullshit.