“When “Spain” and “thrash” are mentioned in the same breath, I immediately think of Angelus Apatrida. While they kind of lost me with their newer stuff, their first two albums (especially sophomore release, Give ‘Em War) are essentials. The mold is a familiar one for fans of Testament, Death Angel, Exodus, and Megadeth, but those first two albums deliver. However, a couple weeks ago my definition of Spanish thrash metal changed forever when Crisix appeared in my inbox.” That sounds promising!
“Norway’s Vredehammer started off as a solo-project for mainman Per Valla in-between work with his other bands, Elite and Allfader, as a way to branch out of the traditional sound of his country’s musical export of choice. Until most recently, Valla was hired on as a live second guitarist for Abbath’s band, but quit to concentrate on completing Vredehammer’s second full-length, Violator. I bring this point up because Violator isn’t dissimilar in style and approach to the lovable crab-walking ex-mainman for Immortal.” We like crabs, and Abbath.
“I’ve always found the crude, no-fucks-given approach of Australian blackened death band Sadistik Exekution quite endearing. With their sloppy live performances, reports that their founding guitarist lived in a Sydney dungeon, and insistence on spelling ‘fuck’ with two ‘k’s (a tendency I’ve often found myself adopting in drunken text messages), everything about the band is appealing in the same way as a B-grade 80s horror movie: extremity for the sake of extremity, with an underlying camp nurtured by splatter-happy nastiness and an utter lack of technical aptitude. It was in search of other groups with this aesthetic that I decided to check out Aussie duo Decrepit Soul’s sophomore LP The Coming of War!!” Fuckks were given about this here review.
“My introduction proper to Anvil came at the pubescent age of 14 when I chose Pound for Pound as one of my 12 introductory cassettes from the Columbia House Record Club. I’d heard a song here, a song there, but Pound for Pound was the first platter I heard from nuts to noggin. My initial feeling? Underwhelmed.” Will the new platter whelm Mr. Kikuras?
![Morality Crisis – MASH [Things You Might Have Missed 2015]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Morality-Crisis-MASH-768x768.jpg)
I really hope that you, dear readers, are as alarmed as me that we are deep into February 2016. What’s that? It’s March? Bloody hell. Well that explains why it’s still light during the drive home from work already. My perennial quest Sophia sluggishness means I’m nowhere near keeping up with the 2016 release schedule […]
“One lesson I’ve learned in my tenure at AMG is that burgers can be successfully compared to just about anything. Just like burgers are a great plan for a meal in a pinch, they also work in that annoying pinch when a lede just refuses to come to mind. I think we can largely agree that listening to Swe-death records is like the endless quest for the perfect burger.” In dining, as in death, it’s the seasoning that counts.
“There are one-man bands and there are one-man bands. Via Vengeance is the latter. Shane Ocell is not only the sole-instrumentalist of this Arizona-based doom band, but also performs guitar, drums, and vocals simultaneously. Yep, you heard me. The Via Vengeance live experience consists of Ocell sitting behind a kit, chugging away on a guitar, and belting out vicious incantations through his monitors. For this reason, Ocell’s songwriting is simplistic, proving that doom can be done well without over-the-top epicness.” One man, big doom.
“For whatever reason, bands tend to get less and less extreme as they age. Sometimes it’s the extremity of earlier albums being too much to match. Some musicians just get tired of metal, like Brent Hinds or Mikael Åkerfeldt. Bands can change style completely, like Opeth and Cynic, or they can just write more choruses, as Kurt Ballou says of Converge. Yet for all the diversity of unmetalification, there are some very consistent pathways that musicians and bands tend to follow. Today’s example, most notable in Cynic and Opeth, is something I like to call Kronos’ Law of Increasing Hippietude[1. It is suspected that this contributes directly to Angry Metal Guy’s Law of Diminishing Recordings.].” Kronos is working on his thesis and his advisor seems to have disappeared.
“Paragon has been nothing but consistent over their 22 year career, releasing album after album of raging Germanic power metal in the same vein as Grave Digger and Iron Savior. Though they’ve had plenty of fun moments, 2012’s Forces of Destruction took a big leap forward in terms of song writing, heaviness and staying power. Coming off their best album to date obviously puts more pressure on the band and perhaps that’s the reason for the 4 year wait for Hell Beyond Hell.” Roll out the Cheese wheel!
“You’ve witnessed the scene. It’s a part of the furniture in many contemporary neo-neo-noir, ominously foreboding, condemningly pseudofuturist movies. Our heroic but morally ambiguous protagonist visits some sort of underground nightclub. People, presumably the filth of the city, dance spastically (yet provocatively) under stroboscopes, adorned by black leather and fetishized clothing. A mixture of disgust and temptation lingers while a red haze surrounds the entangled mess of bodies. It’s Hollywood’s typical portrayal of Hell on Earth, a mise-en-scène imbued with cheap symbolism. Imagine now a worthy metal accompaniment to such a spectacle in real life, deprived of all the fabricated fanciness, something that would eclipse phony visual cues and provide a truly infernal setting.” Or just recall the club scene in Blade II.
