“If you were to guess what Nekrokraft and Witchery have in common, what would it be? OK, yeah, they’re both Swedish. What else? Nope, they definitely don’t play the same styles of metal—the former is more Swede-thrash oriented and the latter plays symphonic-black metal, in the vein of Dimmu Borgir. Give up yet? What these two groups have in common is their vocalist.” Scream us a song, you’re a screamer.
“Antioch, the last album from Sweden’s Throne of Heresy, proved little more than its own existence. The “I riff therefore I am” approach to music did little to impress, and despite good pacing and a few fun songs, It was brought down by an uninteresting Swedeath sound and even more uninteresting boilerplate lyrics. Having thus consigned Throne of Heresy to the ignominy of the 2.5, I found myself not terribly interested in listening to their latest. Yet in my supreme magnanimity, I decided to give the band another chance with Decameron, and well I should have.” When Kronos plays a game of thrones, things get brvtal.
“The illustrious Huck N Roll wrote recently that he spent his summer looking for the next great retro album. I write today that he needn’t have bothered; that album is to arrive after the summer and it’s called Excerpts from a Future Past. Wolverine blues.
“A few weeks ago, I described the latest Arch Enemy album as the bad kind of pop metal: too slick, too loud, too focused on choruses and too conscious about image. But there’s a different, less negative definition possible of pop metal: not afraid of loading the songs with easily digestible hooks, catchy melodies, EDM influences, simplistic structure and a focus on vocals. It’s daring, because it seems to aim at a gap between fandoms: too slick and not challenging enough for metalheads, but too heavy for the mainstream.” Pop goes the minstrel.
“It’s been a long and bitter journey. Fatigue clings to you like a drowning sailor; a debt accrued from the rancid marches and frigid mountains your troupe of brigands have had to push through. You stumble out from a forest that delighted in stymying your efforts to leave unscathed and come across a time-worn bridge that leads to a welcome sight — home. Before you can muster a cry of exultation a blood-curdling roar splits the silence and a gigantic blur of teeth and scales crashes down before you. A dragon now blocks your path.” Chaotic neutral.
“Sweden’s Siberian – with their second full-length Through Ages of Sleep – have transferred the contents of their dream journals into the realm of post-metal. Through their music, they present consciousness in flux with the physical fading into the incorporeal. The question is: is there enough tangible tastiness here to give weight to the fluffy incoherence of the dream world?” Dreamy post-metal? Is this all a dream?
“Take a moment to drink in the epic beauty of the image to the left of this text. It’s amazing that a picture with so much monochrome can conjure such a powerful atmosphere. My expectations for the music are already sky high without hearing a single note, and are only increased on discovering that Tid (aka Time Is Divine) contains former members of Swedish experimentalists Magna Carta Cartel and Subvision. Can they possibly have come up with music that matches such an incredible visual impact?” Open the pod bay doors, Hal.
“I have a long standing joke with friends that about fifty percent of death metal bands out there derive their identity with respect to the phrases “Lovecraftian horror” and “anti-Christian,” and Throne of Heresy isn’t out to prove me wrong. So find a bucket, because Antioch is the perfect chance to revisit a favorite conceit of mine; the album review as a drinking game.” Put on your drinking shoes and pull up your pants – we’re about to get our mead on.
