“Between pillaging, plundering, and getting insanely hammered, Mark Z. interview’s Revocation’s Dan Gargiulo.” The first of several plunder publications from this year’s 70,000 Tons of Metal excursion.
Suffocation
70000 Tons of Metal: One Man’s Journey
“My friends ask me what happened, but my ability to verbally communicate has been reduced to moaning and a weeping noise that sounds something like a baby panda crying for milk. I wonder how I’m going to make it through the final day of this floating festival. I wonder when the aching will subside. I wonder where my life went so wrong. How did I end up here, on the 7th annual 70000 Tons of Metal cruise, weak with exhaustion and feeling like my body has been bludgeoned with a sledgehammer? My mind drifts back…” Tales from a 70000 ton heavy thing.
KforKill – The World is Broken Review
“KforKill is either one of the most on-the-nose monikers for a death metal band you’ve ever seen or a segment on Sesame Street devised by a writer trying desperately to get fired. In this case it’s the former and as a mechanism for establishing listener expectations it does an effective job of priming you for what’s to come. It did get me thinking: can this rudimentary but direct approach to band names be applied to other styles? Black metal? CforCorpsepaint. Speed? BforBulletbelts. Power metal? DforDon’tbotherwastingyourtime.” That’s cold, man.
Beheaded – Beast Incarnate Review
“Some metalheads get excited about new releases because they’re new; they know what they like and they want more of it. This album is for them. If you like death metal without a hint of pretense, pomp, or progression, Beast Incarnate has your fix.” Death for the masses.
Thron – Thron Review
“Relentlessly picking on black metal bands whose members opt for anonymity is a favorite pastime of ours here at Angry Metal Guy, but it kinda sorta makes sense when you look at the practice from the band’s perspective. When trying to break into the scene, withholding one’s identity means that critics have only the music to go on, and if the musicians happen to suck, it eliminates any possibility of cred shredding in the eyes of the masses.” Secret identities are metal.
Brutal Unrest – Trinitas Review
“Once upon a time, this writer, still a wet-behind-the-ears thrash aficionado, met his first brother-in-metal. He was a lanky fellow who’d rattle his neighbors’ windows with sessions of Cannibal Corpse and hit the pits so hard he’d be out of class for a week. So strong was our bromance that I cut my very first class to hit my first real show with him — I even had a beer (underage!) — what a rebel I was. I owe him, specifically his deification of Glen Benton, for a good portion of my listening habits.” Beers, Benton, bromance, Battlestar Galactica.
Cognitive – Deformity Review
“The Halloween period is here. Carve your pumpkins, bob your apples, egg your neighbors’ houses and listen to some horror-themed brutality. Hailing from Jobbstown, New Jersey, Cognitive play tech-death straight from the grave.” Boo-urns!
Them – Sweet Hollow Review
“New the band may be, but the individual members are all seasoned veterans, most notably bassist Mike LePond from Symphony X and drummer Kevin Talley from Suffocation. Markus Ulrich (Lanfear) and Markus Johansson (Sylencer) are on six-string duties and Richie Seibel (also Lanfear) handles the keyboards. Vocalist Troy Norr’s recent experience moonlighting in a King Diamond tribute band informs what Sweet Hollow is all about.” But they do make a good cup of tea….
Carnophage – Monument Review
“Though billed as a technical death metal album, Monument has little to do with The Faceless-core being oozed out of southern California every few months. Instead, Carnophage plays a not unsophisticated mix of early-’00s influenced death metal, taking cues from Suffocation and Hate Eternal. It’s not a fantastic formula, but the band follows through, and there’s surprisingly little to complain about on Monument.” I’m sure we’ll find something.
Unfathomable Ruination – Finitude Review
“One of my friends, a classicist and lover of classical music, has a few favorite metal bands he’s never heard. It’s not the music that makes him love Necrophagist or Abominable Putridity; it’s just the absurdity of their names, the contortions of language that must occur for brutality to surge forth. Unfathomable Ruination is a band he can get behind. And well he should, because it would be foolish to try to get ahead of them.” Unfathomable fanboyism.
