“71TonMan is roughly equal to ten adult tyrannosaurus rex; seven minke whales; moving to my own favored species, two megalodons; or one Leopard 2 tank, of the type recently pledged by Poland, Germany and others to Ukraine. And this seems appropriate, as a sizeable, if ponderous, battle tank is a pretty good comparator for this doom/sludge outfit.” Weights and pleasures.
“As someone allergic to major keys, I find a natural home with metal, which tends to focus on the minor, or indeed, dissonance. We’ve all heard non-metal-listeners in our lives pontificate about how angry metal sounds. We all also know that it can bring happiness no matter how nasty it seems on the surface. Allow me to introduce you to some extreme metal out to prove this with a vengeance. Spain’s Frozen Dawn make their Transcending Obscurity debut with LP number four, a slice of melodic black metal fizzing with rambunctious energy. Polished and fresh, yet still retaining an air of the dark, occult past.” Stay frosty.
“Lurkers in the Capsule of Skull was my 2021 Album o’ the Year. It should’ve been Ferrous Beuller‘s as well, though I suppose it’s easier to forgive him his transgressions since he did award Imperative Imperceptible Impulse his crown. In any case, Lurkers was another installment in an almost unfuckwithable string of killer material from Pennsylvania mind-flayers Veilburner. Their sixth record in a mere eight years of existence, the too-poor-for-vowels VLBRNR, has big shoes to fill to live up to the standard set by Lurkers.” Veils yet unburned.
“Under the moniker Defilementory, this Danish four-piece offers a debut that feels like a continuation of its last outing, The Dismal Ascension, but dispenses with the brutal death obsession with dismemberment and excess entirely. Dysgnostic, as a result, sets forth on its own path – a descent, if you will.” De-evolution.
![Heads for the Dead – The Great Conjuration [Things You Might Have Missed 2022]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Heads-for-the-Dead-The-Conjuring-01-768x768.jpeg)
Main Project Resorption (n): a phenomenon that occurs when a band’s side project grows so vigorously that it threatens to ingest the entity from which it sprung. I’m not ready to diagnose Sweden’s mighty Wombbath as being vulnerable to Main Project Resorption just yet, but 2022 was a banner year for the outfit’s spinoffs.” Absorb this!
“Atmospheric and dissonant death metal was my gateway into death more broadly. I missed entirely the blood-and-guts-strewn pathway of Cannibal Corpse, and instead fell head-over-heels for Ulcerate. If I’d come across Finland’s Devenial Verdict in my younger years, I might have passed over them, for their former output has been primarily in the brutal death metal vein. Although they’ve been lurking around since 2009, Ash Blind is their first full-length, representing thirteen years of evolution. A transformation from bludgeoning brutality into darkly melodic, eerily atmospheric dissonance that hasn’t forgotten how to be horrically heavy.” Death in development.
“De Profundis is a great band who gets a lot of love behind the scenes at AMG HQ, but somehow routinely misses out on full coverage. This kind of thing occurs occasionally and for a number of perfectly understandable reasons, of course. But after seventeen years of diligent work, it’s high time that the English death metal quintet get a proper review from us for their sixth full-length, The Corruption of Virtue. And, as is our prerogative, we bring this review to you late.” Corrupted deadlines.
“It’s not often that I get accused of underrating an album, but when I covered Live Burial’s 2020 release Unending Futility, a handful of citizens with torches and pitchforks came after me. Even our own El Cuervo said, ‘All the shit you give a 4.0, and you 3.5 this? This record is incredible.’ Now, it’s easy to see why people were up in arms, because Live Burial is an insanely talented bunch of musicians. Their brand of old-school death metal is heavily influenced by the almighty Death, and their technical ability is not far below Chuck Schuldiner and his cast of virtuosos. But while I found Unending Futility to be incredibly well made—the production was almost as impressive as the performances—there was some intangible part of the songwriting that held me back from being more enthusiastic about the record overall.” Death and unsatisfied readers.
“If you’re a fan of Swedish death metal, or death metal in general, you probably know who Rogga Johannsson is. The omnipresent Swede is in a host of bands, and his output frequency is beyond belief. Paganizer happens to be one Rogga’s longest running projects and, unsurprisingly, pays homage to just about everything that’s awesome about Swedish death metal. Previous album The Tower of the Morbid saw the band combining the buzzsaw sound of Dismember with a touch of melodic death metal a la Amon Amarth, and Beyond the Macabre finds the band dialing the latter up considerably.” Rogga party.
“A crucial aspect of my death metal enjoyment comes from the mood it invokes. I feel plain cold with OSDM stuff, but the oft-maligned dissonant death offers a spectrum of atmospheres and environs: Portal’s gates of madness, Ulcerate’s apocalyptic meditativeness, and Ad Nauseam’s croaking caverns, for example. Sinister intent and apathies to our suffering are a given in the dissonant stylings, but what if we could make it fun?” Devil-may-care and discord.
