“In theory, Georgia’s Black Tusk is a band I should like more than I do. Admittedly I’ve lost touch with them and haven’t revisited any of their material recently, but previous experiences haven’t exactly compelled me to come back for more, despite never really being able to pinpoint what the problem is.” Fear of the Tusk.
“The Malkuth Grimoire marked an exciting beginning for the star-studded line-up of Alkaloid. Escaping the imposing shadows of the band members other projects in unique and often unconventional ways, the album was very well received by myself and the metal community at large. Despite the chinks in its futuristic armory, such as the excessive bloat and ambitious but not always successful experimentation, Alkaloid emphatically proved they weren’t content to coast by with another typical tech death project. Now Hannes Grossman, Christian Münzner and co return with Liquid Anatomy.” Fluid dynamics.
“If your home country only has a whopping 172 bands documented on The Metal Archives, with roughly half of them split up or otherwise disbanded, there’s a decent chance that relatively few people have ever heard your particular take on metal before. Such is the case for Erdve, a fledgling four-piece emerging from the enigmatic Lithuanian underground.” Small scene, big sound.
“I try not to expect much from you people, but I think it’s safe to assume that one or two of you just may have heard of one Philip H. Anselmo, and this being the case you may (the ‘may’ is silent) have an opinion regarding the man. I don’t particularly care about any of that, but he definitely does, and this is painfully clear on Choosing Mental Illness As a Virtue, Phil’s second full-length endeavor with The Illegals.” Philling in the gaps.
“Rune Eriksen is a well-traveled gentleman of metal. He was an important part of Mayhem‘s second creative wave and continues to be a foundational part of Aura Noir. He’s also known for his gothic doom vehicle Ava Inferi, which released one of the most enduring albums in the genre with 2011s Onyx. Now he’s launching another project with long-time Ava Inferi collaborator Carmen Susana Simoes. Earth Electric could be called experimental goth rock, and rocking it is, taking an enormous 70s rock influence and shoehorning it into Ava Inferi‘s ethereal goth style.” Rock in a soft place.
“Having been rather busy as of late doing a paper on Edmund Husserl, I should probably be able to come up with a phenomenal introduction but instead find myself facing the Crisis of Angry Metal Guy Ledes head-on. I suppose a riff on how Grave Desecrator’s fourth full-length Dust to Lust works amusingly with Coffin Dust and Coffin Lust because coffins go with graves and chronologically Dr. A.N. Grier’s typically great work on the former came before my thoughts on the latter like the album name, but that’s not how you bait the clicks.” With a click o’ the switch, she’ll bait you sky high!
“It must be tough carving out a lengthy career within the somewhat narrow and restrictive confines of the grindcore genre and remaining vital and relevant as fresh faced young upstarts storm the scene. This problem hasn’t seemed to halt Finnish stalwarts Rotten Sound, who started their career back in 1993, from delivering consistent, high quality output.” And yet somehow these guys keep it up!
“As the old saying goes, you can legally coerce Abbath out of Immortal, but you can’t stop Abbath from up and taking Immortal with him in spirit. So instead of taking the ball and going home, Abbath proceeded to take the ball and dunk on the fools who think that Immortal can survive without him.” Abbath is back with Abbath. Hail Abbath!
“Last time Hate Eternal graced the digital halls of AMG, they left Steel Druhm throbbing with excitement and elation and in turn he gave 2011’s Phoenix Amongst the Ashes a near-perfect score. Four years later it appears something has throttled the throbbing, as their latest full-length Infernus was dropped on my desk alongside a wonderful lack of punitive metalcore.” Floridian death metal is back to melt ice cream and your face, and we’re all outta ice cream.
“Ghost Brigade are tough to neatly pigeonhole into a specific genre. Their early material was definitely post-metal/post-hardcore, but as they matured their sound evolved to include doom, gothic rock, alternative music and slight touches of black metal and prog. By the time they released Until Fear No Longer Defines Us, their style was quite the interesting stew of influences, yet their music remained accessible, direct and highly emotional.” Lineup changes abound, so does the classic sound stick around? We have…the DEETS!
