“Slam’s audio palette isn’t especially varied. The death metal setup – already instrumentally optimized for a pretty particular group of timbres – tuned down and sometimes pitchshifted into an almost inaudibly low register doesn’t give you much to work with in terms of tone diversity, which is why so many slam bands have tight, grating snares and so many slam riffs go all in on pinch harmonics. And when Katalepsy go all in, I mean all in.” Go big or go home.
“I feel ashamed to admit it, but I had never heard Germany’s Assassin before grabbing their new release, Combat Cathedral. Which is sad considering they have been in the scene for some thirty years. This, however, is understandable if one looks at the band’s sporadic release schedule (which is nonexistent between 1988 and 2005).” German thrashers will even fight on holy ground!
“Remember when Tom Cruise got cast as The Last Samurai in 2003? Some people on the Internet really do, and take time out of what must be a rich and fulfilling life to vomit up prose so salty it gives Dutch licorice a run for its money. Naturally it’s made into a sociopolitical issue, but I’m going to leave that alone because I’m not a fifth-rate hack who feels compelled to use the metal blog I write for as a soapbox to spew typo-laden opinions on contemporary politics and the like. Anyway, Mr. Cruise remained The Last Samurai for about a year, because in 2004 Finnish Samurai metal band Whispered came into existence.” Eat it, Tommy!
“Arizona thrashers Vektor hold a special place in my cold black heart, as their previous album Outer Isolation was one of my very first reviews for this esteemed website. Crazy to think that that was five years ago, and crazier still is that Vektor has not released any new music in that half-decade — practically an eternity in today’s climate of short attention spans and equally short tour/record/tour cycles. Fortunately, Vektor has finally rewarded their fans’ patience with a lengthy, almost impossibly dense record called Terminal Redux.”
“Nothing clings quite so tenaciously to life as a Germanic metal band. Think about it for a moment – all the big names in 80s Kraut thrash are still active, along with nearly all of their 80s power and traditional acts. In essence, Teutonic metal is harder to kill than nail fungus and just as unsightly. Though Iron Savior didn’t come into existence until 97, they’ve proven typically resilient and hard to eradicate.” German metal can’t be stopped, German metal can’t be topped.
Blaze Bayley’s solo records have become a perpetual state of promise and terror. Turns out Infinite Entanglement is more promise than terror, if you’re keeping track at home.
“As pointed out by our highly esteemed El Cuervo, Suidakra is perhaps one of the most productive bands on the planet. Including this year’s Realms of Odoric, the band has dished out twelve albums in nearly twenty years (including an early-career period where the band was releasing an album a year).” With so much productivity, are these guys the anti-Necrophagist?
Winterhorde is why labels want bands to release every two years. Back in September of 2010, I reviewed the band’s album Underwatermoon and really enjoyed their well-composed, interesting melodic black metal. My only complaint was that the lyrical tropes felt a little paint-by-numbers coming from an Israeli band; but the music was incisive and gripping. That was, however, six years ago. In that time Winterhorde got signed by Sweden’s ViciSolum Productions—moving on from being the only good band on their previous label’s roster—turned over four members of their band, have continued to develop their sound. I also managed to forget that they exist in the rush of my everyday life, which is why putting out a new album every six years is probably a bad strategy.
“Instead of my usual modus operandi of writing something about food and/or beer and relating it to the band and/or record in question, I’m switching things up a bit and kicking this off with mentioning my biggest issue with American melodic black-ish/death-ish crew Enthean’s new full-length Priests of Annihilation. Writing this review, I kept coming back to G.K. Chesterson’s idea that we don’t have a lack of wonders, but a lack of wonder. This record, as I see it, is a reflection of that.” Is technicality the enemy of wonder?
“Progress can be a hard thing to accept. Whether you’re talking about laws being made, a review being worked on, or something just as simple as changing up your daily routine, throwing any type of wrench into the gears to liven things up a bit can be met with an unreasonable amount of resistance from certain people. Case in point? Finland’s Teloch.” Progress is for posers!
