Technical Death Metal

Beneath – The Barren Throne Review

By Madam X on April 27, 2014 in 2014, Death Metal, Icelandic Metal, Reviews, Unique Leader, Death Metal, Technical Death Metal, 6 comments

“The Barren Throne sees us heading back to Reykjavík, Iceland for a re-boot of brutal tech-death band Beneath. You should remember from my last review, or not, that Beneath is built up from the dregs of some of Iceland’s top metal bands (Sororicide, Changer, Diabolus and Atrum) and a mere 2 years after the release of Enslaved by Fear and the loss of frontman Gísli Sigmundsson, they’re about to make an aggressive comeback.” Madam X assumes The Barren Throne, will she delight in causing heads to roll?

Rivers of Nihil – The Conscious Seed of Light Review

By Jordan Campbell on September 26, 2013 in 2013, Death Metal, Djent, Metal Blade, Reviews, Djent, Technical Death Metal, 1 comment

“It was only a matter of time before a high-profile tech-death / djent mashup appeared on the scene. If you were hanging from your 8th string with bated breath for this moment, it has finally arrived: A mere year after their inception, Pennsylvania upstarts Rivers of Nihil are crashing the gates via Metal Blade. Their debut, The Conscious Seed of Light, is slightly baffling. On one hand, it’s easy to dismiss the album as an aural collage of the t-shirts in the band’s collective closet. At times, it plays out like a modern metal Power Point presentation: Bass-lick dropouts, open string chughammers, and spiraling-into-spaaaaaace shreddery all pop up within the first handful of minutes. The trope-aping is achingly obvious. That other hand, though? It itches to wipe away the clouds of cynicism.” Tech-death meets djent? How did this take so long, and now that it’s here, is it any good? Complicated questions indeed and here’s our man Jordan Campbell with some answers.

Fleshgod Apocalypse – Labyrinth Review

By Angry Metal Guy on August 14, 2013 in 2013, 3.0, Death Metal, Italian Metal, Nuclear Blast, Reviews, Neo-Classical Metal, Technical Death Metal, 23 comments

“Labyrinth is 2013’s incarnation of Fleshgod’s neo-classical death metal. Once again, Labyrinth is not a clone of the band’s previous work, but instead it seems to be Fleshgod’s attempt to reach a happy medium between Agony and Oracles, musically.” Angry Metal Guy weighs in to wordily explain how he feels about the latest slab of orchestral tech death from Italy’s Fleshgod Apocalypse. When we say wordily, we really mean it. Like a thousand freaking words just telling you what he thinks of this album. It’s kind of ridiculous really. No one should spend that much time writing about an album. Who the hell does he think he is?

Wormed – Exodromos Review

By Alex Franquelli on March 21, 2013 in 2013, 4.0, Death Metal, Hammerheart Records, Reviews, Willowtip, Technical Death Metal, 3 comments

“It is brutal, rather technical and it has its roots in death metal. But is Exodromos a pure brutal technical death metal album? A lazy, complacent answer would be: yes. A more elaborate response – and one you would expect to read on these respected pages – is: not quite.” Alex Franquelli reviews the new Wormed record, in all its brutal, technical glory and asks “What next?”

Kamikabe – Aberration of Man Review

By Madam X on November 30, 2012 in 2.5, 2012, American Metal, Death Metal, Hardcore, Progressive Death, Reviews, Unique Leader, Hardcore, Technical Death Metal, 2 comments

Tech death is a fickle mistress. Madam X is our less fickle mistress of evil, debasement and death. Join her as she examines the techy, deathy strew cooked up by Kamikabe. It doesn’t sound all that appetizing, does it?

Beneath – Enslaved by Fear Review

By Madam X on October 18, 2012 in 2012, 4.0, Death Metal, Reviews, Unique Leader, Death Metal, Technical Death Metal, 3 comments

Who would have thought that an icy wasteland would be good for the music community, it seems ice inspires insane speeds and death metal! A few weeks back, in my review of Kontinuum’s Earth Blood Magic, I commented on the metal kick-assery that’s making its way out of Iceland (and in particular Reykjavík), and at the time of their review another band aggressively caught my attention, doggedly refusing to let my mind rest! In true shit-happens style I ended up missing their release date and now you have a retrospective review of Beneath’s Enslaved by Fear [I feel shame at my tardiness].

Angry Metal Guy Speaks: On Genres as Pejoratives

By Angry Metal Guy on August 26, 2012 in Blog Posts, Alternative Metal, Deathcore, Melodic Death Metal, Metalcore, Nu Metal, Technical Death Metal, 85 comments

A really curious thing happens from time to time that I think it’s time to comment on. Because we all (that is, those of us who read and/or write AngryMetalGuy.com) love heavy metal, we all essentially draw boundaries for it. It all depends on your perspective, but largely we say that one thing is metal and another thing is not. We make fun of the things we find to be not metal and we praise (and often deify unnecessarily) that which we find to be super metal. This is not a surprise. In fact, I’d guess that it’s a natural part of the human brain: we group things and put them in their place so as to better order our world. We also use cognitive short cuts in order to reach conclusions about the vast seas of information that exist outside of our existence.

Sophicide – Perdition of the Sublime Review

By Angry Metal Guy on August 8, 2012 in 2012, 4.5, Death Metal, German Metal, Hammerheart Records, Progressive Death, Reviews, Willowtip, Death Metal, Technical Death Metal, 26 comments

Technical death metal was the darling of the death metal scene about 5 or 6 years ago, but since the ever-growing retro-death craze has begun to take over the number of quality technical death metal releases that I’ve gotten my hands on has dramatically decreased. Still, that didn’t stop the now 22 year-old Adam Sazslo from writing a bunch of pretty fucking sweet techy songs and getting himself a worldwide deal with Willowtip. Perdition of the Sublime is Sophicide’s debut record and one can see why this record – produced by someone who can’t tour to support it – is being released by a label of this quality: because it’s a truly elite technical death metal experience.