Self Release

Clouds – Departe Review

By Steel Druhm on November 16, 2016 in 2016, Doom Metal, International Metal, Reviews, Self-released, 47 comments

“Sometimes a piece of music is entirely about a single, specific feeling, be it rage, joy or sadness. Departe, the second album by atmospheric post-doom super group Clouds, is definitely about the latter, and it attempts to drown the listener in a vast sea of chilling, cloying melancholy without offering the slightest hint of hope or beam of light. Formed by members of The 11th Hour, Eye of Solitude, Rapture, Barren Earth and Shape of Despair, the line up reads like doom royalty and their vast experience helps make this one of the bleakest, most depressive listens of this year or any other.” Got something in your eye? You’re about to.

Nothing Lies Beyond – Fragile Reality Review

By Diabolus in Muzaka on July 15, 2016 in 2016, Israeli Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Reviews, Unsigned Bands, Melodic Death Metal, 19 comments

“Nostalgia is a dragon that almost always eludes our grasp, because we’ve grown and the things we used to love are still essentially the same. While some things like Super Mario 64 will never lose their appeal, others will. So it was with Nothing Lies Beyond, a band so sonically entrenched in the days of 2005-2009 that I was basically transported back to my high school years.” Sounds of a playground…rising!

Pseudo/Sentai – Enter the Sentai Review

By Jean-Luc Ricard on July 2, 2016 in 2016, American Metal, Progressive Rock, Reviews, Unsigned Bands, Progressive Metal, Punk, 29 comments

“The Super Sentai are a team of superheroes who protect planet Earth from the relentless onslaught of assorted evil beings while sporting tight, really tight, brightly colored, super tight costumes. Though you might not have heard of the Super Sentai despite their essential work, I assume you know of the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, who are their Western counterparts.” Go go Super Sentai!

Enthean – Priests of Annihilation Review

By Diabolus in Muzaka on May 11, 2016 in 2016, American Metal, Black Metal, Melodic Black Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Reviews, Unsigned Bands, Black Metal, Melodic Black Metal, Melodic Death Metal, 17 comments

“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?

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.