“Imagine that you mated Gorguts and Dodecahedron and left their bastard progeny on the doorstep of The Ocean. By the time Light Through Dead Glass flies out the F1’s mouth, nature and nurture have taken their course in shaping their grubby offspring. Passed down from their father are incoherent shrieks and furious black metal riffs, complementing the intricate bass lines and scintillating guitar tone contributed by their mother. Both parents passed on the recessive atonality and strangeness alleles, and somewhere along the line a mutation occurred giving rise to the novel trumpet player feature. Despite Epistasis’ breeding, their adopted parents have taught them some manners, instilling upon the young band a sense of melody and introspection. With such a colorful bouquet of attributes, Epistasis is an impossible specimen to miss in a screen, even for the amateur metal geneticist.” In our ongoing quest to marry ivory tower academia with metal analysis, here’s Kronos discussing insect genetics and their relation to progressive and black metal. Huh?
Sigh
Hail Spirit Noir – Oi Magoi Review
“Are you sick and tired of getting your evil delivered to you in cold, icy, frost-bitten care packages from Norway? Does your black heart sink when there’s too much treble in your diet? Do you lack the strength to pick up those juicy invisible oranges you once craved? Sometimes, you just want Satan’s message to be delivered in a nice, toasty-warm basket with some fresh bread, a bottle of wine, and a couple of aromatic cigars.” And that’s where Hail Spirit Noir comes in. It’s time for a cozy brunch date with the Dark Lord.
Angry Metal Guy’s Five Year Anniversary Post
In 2009 Angry Metal Guy started. Since then we’ve produced hundreds of reviews, and Angry Metal Guy has cranked at the world for free. Check out what he takes away from the whole experience.
Chthonic – Bú-Tik Review
“While first wetting my feet with black metal I came across Chthonic’s 9th Empyrean, Relentless Recurrence and Seediq Bale albums. I felt a distinct pull towards their use of traditional instruments, their dramatic, aggressive, melodic sound and their bleak, nihilistic undercurrent and for a fair while their screams gripped my attention. Eventually though I felt the inevitable allure for darker and uglier and sank deeper and into the blackness discovering Nattefrost, Carpathian Forest, Shining (Swedish), 1349, Marduk and so on and to be honest I got distracted and I guess I just forgot about Chthonic….” Will Madam X have a happy reunion with the once beloved Chthonic or has absence made the heart grow bitter? So much drama!
Angry Metal Guy’s Top 10(ish) of 2012
Angry Metal Guy mails in his Top 10(ish) of 2012.
Angry Metal Guy’s Best Records o’ the Year 2012 – Halfway Point
We’re now into July! Impressive as it is, this year has been one hell of a year: like the year 2011 was supposed to have been but really, really wasn’t. On a personal note, I can say that I wasn’t expecting 2012 to be good at all. However, there haven’t even really been any major […]
Diablo Swing Orchestra – Pandora’s Piñata Review
Mixing the meathead with the egghead. Also opera. Mandatory purchase.
Interview with Mirai Kawashima from Sigh
Enigmatic and uncomfortably cheerful, gregarious and ambitious Happy Metal Guy managed to catch up with Mirai Kawashima from the Japanese avant-garde black metal band Sigh. He bombarded him with positivity, amusing anecdotes and uncomfortable questions about steel phalli until Mr. Kawashima relented; answering the questions and talking about… flowers? This fucking blog gets weirder and weirder every day.
Sigh – In Somniphobia Review
Bands really get the shit end of the stick sometimes, and one of the areas that this happens with is the concept of change. On the one hand, a band is never supposed to change their sound. Their fans will freeeeak out and everyone will call what they do a big pile of shit (how about that last Drudkh album, went from darling of the scene to whipping boy in the matter of a day). On the other hand, others will hear a record from a band that functionally the same and say something cocky like “Is Cannibal Corpse even remotely relevant anymore?” [Oh wait, that was me and everyone got mad. — AMG] Sigh is one of those bands that I think threads that needle perfectly—offering up records every couple of years that change their sound, while keeping the core in place. In Somniphobia is really no exception to this rule—and it triumphantly continues the band’s current success streak.
Hail Spirit Noir – Pneuma Review
This is a remarkable record… and I mean that in a good way this time.