Self Release

The Dread Crew of Oddwood – Lawful Evil Review

By Diabolus in Muzaka on April 26, 2016 in 2016, American Metal, Folk Metal, Not Metal, Reviews, Unsigned Bands, Folk Metal, Not Metal, 32 comments

“Call me Diabolus. Some years ago – never mind how long precisely – I granted the privateers in Alestorm a Letter of Marque and they went on to capture The Good Ship TYMHM and raise the Jolly Roger high over the AMG Staff’s Top Ten Lists. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating circulation. Whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul, I simply drink away the accursed rain. Alas, my initial deed could not go unaddressed forever; I was ordered to write about The Dread Crew of Oddwood’s Lawful Evil.” Keel haul em’ all.

Predatoria – Unmarked Graves…Tell No Tales [Things You Might Have Missed 2015]

By Diabolus in Muzaka on February 14, 2016 in 2015, Belgian Metal, Death Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Things You Might Have Missed 2015, Unsigned Bands, Death Metal, Melodic Death Metal, 58 comments

“If we apply the maxim of “I didn’t feel like drinking until I started drinking” to listening to metal bands you’ve never heard before, I firmly believe that this fertile ground is where plenty of our favourite records are born. When I first listened to Belgium’s Predatoria in an effort to acclimatize myself to my temporary home’s up-and-coming death metal bands, I had no idea that what they were selling was exactly what I was looking to buy but here we are.” Can we start drinking now?

Illusions Dead – Celestial Decadence Review

By Diabolus in Muzaka on February 5, 2016 in 2016, Finnish Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Reviews, Unsigned Bands, Melodic Death Metal, 24 comments

“While I’m a man who has never invaded a cottage owned by bears, eaten their porridge, and slept in their beds while complaining about everything the entire damn time, I sometimes feel a bit like Goldilocks when commenting on melo-death.” It’s time to bed hop our way through the melo-death genre.

Suppressive Fire – Bedlam Review

By Diabolus in Muzaka on January 8, 2016 in 2016, American Metal, Reviews, Thrash Metal, Unsigned Bands, Thrash Metal, 38 comments

“The Raleigh-based power trio of Suppressive Fire plays a brand of fun and slightly blackened thrash that skips the pizza entirely. Culling mainly from the “devil metal” of Nunslaughter, Nocturnal Breed’s Fields of Rot, and producer Joel Grind’s main outfit Toxic Holocaust, this is a modern take on thrash, infused with more extreme elements but still being rooted in the ethos of the harsher end of the classics spectrum.” So, can this debut differentiate itself in the early days of 2016?

Silent Line – Shattered Shores Review

By Diabolus in Muzaka on November 10, 2015 in 2015, Canadian Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Reviews, Unsigned Bands, Melodic Death Metal, 21 comments

“If you’re feeling a combination of bored, Aristotelian, churlish, and are unwilling to leave your house, Form and Matter: Metal Edition is fun for the whole family. It’s a simple game where you make the “form” (the “definition”/record title) match the “matter” (the music) of a record. Some examples: Your Weird Drunken Uncle Makes an Edgy Hard Rock Record; Alestorm but Not as Good, and Eight Strings, Zero Riffs.” And that brings us to today’s contestant.

Pseudo/Sentai – Bansheeface Review

By Jean-Luc Ricard on October 13, 2015 in 2015, American Metal, Non-Metal Metal Things, Progressive Metal, Reviews, Unsigned Bands, Non-metal Metal Things, Progressive Rock, 42 comments

“I’m a bit wary of reviewing prog records because I don’t want to end up sitting through eighty minutes of decadent aural onanism from tedious Dream Theatre wannabes (I would rather listen to eighty minutes of “Wannabe”). But done well prog provides musical nourishment rarely offered by other genres, and having spent a large portion of the year listening to grindcore, I was ready to take a risk with Pseudo/Sentai.” Jean-Luc is a risk taker and that can be risky.

War Agenda – Night of Disaster Review

By Dr. A.N. Grier on October 11, 2015 in 2015, German Metal, Reviews, Thrash Metal, Unsigned Bands, Thrash Metal, 47 comments

“As this year comes ever-closer to its conclusion, I couldn’t help but pull up last year’s picks for Records and Song ‘o the Year. It didn’t quite dawn on me that there isn’t a thrash album to be found on my list. In the grand scheme of things, this is not surprising being with the old-farts producing some real turds and the newbies re-hashing the old-fart’s classics. The year, however, harbors some thrash threatening to invade my end-of-the-year picks.” There is no safe harbor when re-thrash comes to call.

Sloth. – Slow as Shit Review

By Diabolus in Muzaka on September 22, 2015 in 2015, Doom Metal, English Metal, Reviews, Stoner Rock, Doom Metal, Stoner Rock, 15 comments

“Sloth. is the one man doom machine piloted by the UK’s Blake Caverly, and you have the project’s debut full-length Slow as Shit. If that’s not a welcome change from doom’s usual dour titles, I don’t know what is.” With a name like, we have little to add.

Pyramids on Mars – Echo Cosmic Review

By Jean-Luc Ricard on September 16, 2015 in 2015, Canadian Metal, Progressive Metal, Reviews, Progressive Metal, 25 comments

“Sometimes I’ll pick a band from the promo list just because they have an interesting name. So it was with Pyramids on Mars, who I dearly hoped were a bunch of Richard C. Hoagland inspired conspiracists writing metal for martians.” Here at AMG we’ve brought you the scoop on goblin metal and troll metal. Why not add martian metal to the list.

Feared – Synder Review

By Saunders on May 26, 2015 in 2015, Death Metal, Reviews, Swedish Metal, Thrash Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Thrash Metal, 4 comments

“Swedish musician Ola Englund is a busy fellow. Between stints helping rejuvenate The Haunted on their solid return to form platter Exit Wounds and breathing a glimmer of life into the caveman corpse of Six Feet Under on their Unborn album, Englund has also built a solid and prolific output with his main band, Feared.” Sometimes simple death is good death.