![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?
![Pristine – Ninja [Things You Might Have Missed 2017]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Pristine-Ninja-01-768x768.jpg)
“It might not have been the best year for male vocalists, but the women in metal more than made up for it. Stellar performances from bands as varied as Royal Thunder, Sabbath Assembly, Chelsea Wolfe, Myrkur, and Diablo Swing Orchestra showed us that the women can bring it. But the best performance of the year came from a band whose album flew under our radar back in June, Pristine, and their fourth album, Ninja.” Women to the front!
“Despite being a huge fan of death-thrash, I wind up feeling and sounding more like a curmudgeonly Goldilocks when I write about the stuff. It’s not fast enough, it’s not thrashy enough, it’s not death-y enough, there aren’t enough of those devastating Slayer-style slowdowns, and on and on ad infinitum. Naturally, I began to worry: was it me? Have I outgrown death-thrash?” No one outgrows death-thrash until death.
![Satan’s Hallow – Satan’s Hallow [Things You Might Have Missed 2017]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/a2128778736_10-768x768.jpg)
“While there’s no arguing that the terms “retro” and “revivalist” are absolutely appropriate when describing certain acts, they tend to feel a little reductive to me, diminishing a band’s efforts as little more than a novelty. Sometimes facts are facts, however, and Chicago’s Satan’s Hallow are undoubtedly retro yet unequivocally awesome, having dropped the best classic metal record of the year.” Let’s go down to the Metal Revival and find ourselves religion.
![Dvne – Asheran [Things You Might Have Missed 2017]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/0010402274_10-768x769.jpg)
“Flow. Like love, it’s a word that’s difficult to describe, but you know it when you experience it. It’s the feeling of losing yourself in a task or a game, becoming one with the activity, balancing perfectly on the edge between skill and difficulty. No frustration, no boredom, and no sense of time or place. If you’ve ever found yourself looking up from an activity after ten minutes and find out three hours have passed, you’ve experienced flow.” Like an everflowing dream.
![Elvenking – Secrets of the Magick Grimoire [Things You Might Have Missed 2017]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/1000x1000-768x768.jpg)
“Welcome to Bizarro Metal World, where the reviews are made up and the scores are reversed! Just kidding, but seriously, Angry Metal Guy himself was set to review this album. However, time being what it is during the holiday season (and AMG being as angry as he is), he didn’t get around to it. As luck would have it -at least for Elvenking – while I’ve heard tell that AMG was quite disappointed with this album, I am not!” Dodging the AMG bullet.
![Phrenelith – Desolate Endscape [Things You Might Have Missed 2017]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Phrenelith-Desolate-Endscape-Cover-768x778.jpg)
“Three chimes. That’s how much warning Phenelith afford before Desolate Endscape steamrolls you into fucking oblivion. “Heavy” doesn’t begin to cover the Copenhagen quartet’s skull-obliterating debut, an album which elevates death metal from a mere musical style to a tectonic force.” You can’t outrun the Steamroller of Fate.
![Laser Flames on the Great Big News – Laser Flames on the Great Big News [Things You Might Have Missed 2017]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/LaserFlamesontheGreatBigNews1-768x766.jpg)
“The term retro metal/rock gets bandied around a lot, due to the over-saturation of bands mining the freewheeling creativity of ’70s rock to varying degrees of success and very little originality. Lumping Laser Flames under the retro label would be a great disservice to the creativity and inventiveness the band conjures throughout the epic stoner odyssey of this self-titled release.” Retro rock with freakin laser beams!
![Shadow of Intent – Reclaimer [Things You Might Have Missed 2017]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Shadow-of-Intent-Reclaimer-Cover-768x768.jpg)
“Shadow of Intent have a lot in common with your typical power metal band. Florid guitar lines, cheesy orchestration, slick production, and ridiculous space fantasy lyrics (pulled straight from the Halo video games) are elements you’d expect for a band of central European hair-conditioner-connoisseurs.” Brvtal power!
![Æther Realm – Tarot [Things You Might Have Missed 2017]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/a4166387068_10-768x768.jpg)
“Why do I do this? I am not paid to write here; I wouldn’t mind but I never set out to cash in on my inconsistent drivel at 700 words a pop. Love of the gig, the craft, the community all register and indeed carry me when nothing flows and everything comes out like shit, but that did not impel me to sign up. Having something to say reads more like a line on a CV than a raison d’etre, but maybe. Tarot make me think so. I can count on one hand the number of records that so immediately and viscerally impacted me as Æther Realm’s second effort. Rectifying its absence here might just be why Jørn put me on this planet.” Jorn to review.
