“Apparently being ‘necro’ is a big thing right now. Necrophobic and Necropanther have new albums out this month, and the redundantly-titled Necrodeath are releasing a new record in March. With all that death piling up, where do Necrosexual squeeze themselves in? On the greasy avenue of primitive blackened thrash, of course.” Love life, not the dead.
“Hang around the AMG blog dispensary long enough and you’ll quickly discover that we don’t have a lot of love for EPs. As recently outlined by our Supreme Leader, a lot of fucking albums make their way into the promo trough, and we’re almost certain to overlook them in favor of more fulfilling and fleshed-out full-lengths. So when Steel Druhm actually caves to a request to review an EP – one that we weren’t even provided a promo for – by a foaming-at-the-mouth Eldritch, you can be sure of two things. One: HR is almost certainly on its way to my tenticubicle. Two: British trve metal outfit Dream Tröll has something really special on their hands with The Witch’s Curse.” E.P. stands for Extreme Penalty.
“Boy, where to even begin. If you’re a regular AMG reader and wondering why I’ve been reviewing the albums everyone expects to be catastrophes, it is in fact not due to my impending sacking. Rather, I’ve challenged myself to outpace the frankly worrying rate of Steel Druhm reviews for a month, and since brutal death metal is thin this time of year and we “employ” about fifteen writers who aren’t me nowadays, I have to subside on albums like Therapeutic Destruction.” When HR becomes obsolete.
“I’ve never had Larrys as friends. I have no idea if most of them are good, and the only bad ones are in this band. And although I know what hodads are, and I’m pretty damn old, I’ve never known any personally. So this album from The Bad Larrys, Hodads, is a whole lotta unknowns for me.” Don’t Larry profile!
“The much-maligned genre of djent seems to be undergoing a change as of late. It’s becoming more diffuse, more rarely a goal unto itself and more often part of the progressive metal vocabulary. This is a good thing because distilled djent commonly boils down to an exercise in making technical prowess sound as dull as possible. As an ingredient, rather than a meal, it can be used to contrast intense guitar sweeping, as a deliberately unsteady base or a breather passage.” Season sparingly.
“I’ve reviewed a decent amount of crappy records for AMG, and each one elicited a unique reaction. Some made me laugh; some made me cry; others still bored me to sleep or left me scratching my head wondering “why all the hype?” Listening to Cosmic Progression: An Agonizing Journey Through Oddities of Space, the debut LP of Poland’s Deconstructing Sequence, made for an unexpected new emotional response to add to my repertoire of negative thinkpieces: I was actually rooting for this band.” Fight, fight, fight for our love!
![Tetrafusion – Dreaming of Sleep [Things You Might Have Missed 2017]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Tetrafusion-DreamingofSleep1.jpg)
“I’m more of a modern prog dude. Not that I have anything against the classic ’70s era of progressive rock, but aside from a few notable bands, led by the obvious Pink Floyd, I simply haven’t been exposed to a lot of it, despite being a big fan of ’60s and ’70s music, in general. Yeah, I know, it’s something I need to rectify. Luckily, modern prog of the rock and metal variety offers an embarrassment of riches to indulge in.” Prog for the noggin.
![Cromonic – Time [Things You Might Have Missed 2017]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/643589.jpg)
“Back in the early 2000’s, Sweden was a hotspot for classic power metal. In addition to the many well-known acts that were getting rolling at that time, several albums were released by the bands Freternia and Ironware, which were fronted by a very distinctive voice in one Pasi Humppi. Various members of Freternia, including Humppi, formed a little side project called Cromonic.” Know what day it is? It’s Humppi Day!
![Timeworn – Venomous High [Things You Might Have Missed 2017]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/a1706746269_10-768x768.jpg)
“Like them or hate them, Mastodon have grown into one of the biggest metal bands this side of the millennium. But many pine for their pre-The Hunter era, when they were still playing dense, complex sludge metal instead of smooth progressive metal. If you’re like that, Timeworn should come as an absolute treat.” Snakes. Why’d it have to be snakes?
“Scars of Armageddon has an interesting fusion of sounds to its credit. The band’s style of power metal straddles the line between USPM and Euro-power, with occasional blips of melodic death metal influence, particularly in the rhythm section. All of this, along with a lack of keys, gives them a Germanic cant.” Chicks dig scars, but power metal? Not so much.
