Relapse Records

Primitive Man – Home Is Where the Hatred Is Review

Primitive Man – Home Is Where the Hatred Is Review

“Loud, heavy, dense, raging, lacking any sort of subtlety or nuance – rarely has a band been so aptly named as Primitive Man. Self-releasing their debut to critical acclaim both here and across the metalogosphere, they followed it up with a series of splits before being snapped up by Relapse for their latest outburst of hatred. Their approach has remained pretty consistent across these releases: crank everything up until it feeds back, then hammer out the most repulsive blackened sludge they can conjure.” Better call your local Department of Sludge Control.

Lord Dying – Poisoned Altars Review

Lord Dying – Poisoned Altars Review

“The month of January is always a difficult one for us writers here at Angry Metal Guy. As evidenced by the staggering amount of Things You Might Have Missed articles that are still coming in, the sheer sparsity of new music is leaving us parched with thirst for thrilling material, and even more so when said thrilling material is at an absolute premium.” Can some heavy sludge shake off Grymm’s early year doldrums? And why are we already have doldrums?

Things You Might Have Missed 2014: Black Anvil – Hail Death

Things You Might Have Missed 2014: Black Anvil – Hail Death

“Three years ago at a Krallice show in New York, a band named Black Anvil took stage, struck an immense wall-shaking chord, and immediately captivated my unsuspecting ears with their hefty, head-crushing riffs. Unlike the post-progressive-neo-sludge-blueberry muffin-whatever I expected to accompany Krallice, Black Anvil was firmly grounded in the primal forms of extreme metal, somehow combining black, death, thrash, and doom without sounding like they’d spent the last decade huffing rubber cement and playing Celtic Frost records backwards.” Holidays go better with rubber cement huffing.

Abysmal Dawn – Obsolesence Review

Abysmal Dawn – Obsolesence Review

“Those readers familiar with my reviews may have guessed that I have a bone to pick with modern death metal. In reality, it’s more like a small skeleton. I love death metal, and I’m no retro-fanatic, but the vast majority of death metal that’s been made this decade is about as inventive and impactful as a marshmallow gun. The genre has always risked stagnation through competition, but as of late it’s a pissing contest between dozens of bands trying to be more technical, more brutal, and louder than everyone else, and none of them succeed.” The wrath of Kronos is terrible to behold when it comes to sub par death. Can Abysmal Dawn sooth the savage beast that dwells in his jaded heart?

Yer Metal is Olde: The Dillinger Escape Plan – Miss Machine

Yer Metal is Olde: The Dillinger Escape Plan – Miss Machine

“In my experience, there are two kinds of people; the ones that love The Dillinger Escape Plan, and the ones that don’t really get what all the fuss is about. Among the former group, there are those who say that they peaked early and have been cruising since Under the Running Board or 2002’s brilliantly strange Mike Patton collaboration Irony is a Dead Scene. These fans will claim that, after one of these two albums, the band either stopped being abrasive enough or stopped being inventive. In scientific circles, we tend to call sentiments like these “Wrong.” In reality, the zenith of the world’s most beloved mathcore band came in 2004, with a bold and bold-faced album named Miss Machine.”

Mortals – Cursed To See The Future Review

Mortals – Cursed To See The Future Review

“Now this is a pleasant surprise. With all the funeral doom, pagan folk metal, and post-black I’ve been subjecting myself to lately, I think it’s safe to say that I’ve had enough time to deeply reflect and wax philosophically with myself for quite a while. Sometimes, you just want to sit back, relax, and get steamrolled for almost a good hour without any form of forgiveness or breathing space. Enter Brooklyn, New York’s Mortals and their second full-length (and first for Relapse), Cursed To See The Future.” Tired of soulful introspection? Want to get beaten to a pulp instead?