“April was a good month for metal with a few firebombs of musical greatness peppered throughout like radioactive rainbow sprinkles from Hell. It was also a month where the AMG staff bickered, fussed and feuded more than usual over what was good, great and garbage. Some albums were way over-hyped, perhaps others were even overrated (gasp!), and opinions were more plentiful than assclowns at a Gathering of the Juggalos.”
“Although they began as progenitors of fuzzed-out Entombed-style death metal, Sweden’s Tribulation has been on a trajectory towards smarter, more structured music since their second record, 2013’s The Formulas of Death. Their latest album boasts the Dio-worthy title The Children Of The Night.” Tribulation is a tricky little wicket. You never know what they’ll do next.
“Execration appears to be quite the popular name for death metal bands, so I’ll begin with a clarification: this review concerns the Norwegian death metal band Execration – not the Italian death metal band Execration or the Colorado death metal band Execration (who themselves are not to be confused with defunct Michigan death metal band Execration, nor with disbanded Arizona death metal band Execration).” Eh, what’s in a name anyway?
“Odors – specifically bad ones – provide no end of inspiration for metal artists, so I was surprised to find that the simple name Stench hadn’t been taken some time back in the 80s when all these extreme metal shenanigans were kicking off (though I suppose this was also the time when metalheads collectively discovered adjectives, so we were treated to Pungent Stench instead). Containing two members of death metallers Tribulation, Stench released debut In Putrescence in 2010, mixing aggressive but melodic black metal with a good waft of Gardens of Grief to come up with a familiar but quite unique scent.” I love the smell of Swedish black / death in the morning. Smells like…Stench.
“The times they are a changing! If you were around for my review of Morbus Chron’s 2011 opus Sleepers in the Rift, you know how impressed I was with their Autopsy-laden salute to early American death metal. That album was a sewage leak of nastiness and I still spin it often. Naturally, I expected more of the same with their follow up, but I didn’t get it. Not even close. That’s because Sweven (yea olde English for “visions”) is an enormous departure in style and approach, veering off into the world of proggy, tripped out weirdness, while somehow still remaining death metal.” Wow, this one really knocked Steel Druhm off his feet, and he’s notoriously difficult to knock over. You best read on.
We haven’t had any old school Swedish death for awhile, so here’s some of that! Nominon does that beloved, old school style, but with much more thrashing, crashing, bashing and harassing. It sure is speedy, but is it good?
Bombs of Hades delivers an album of punky Swedish retro death loaded with crust and scabs. Our intrepid Steel Druhm is here to pick ’em all and find out what lies beneath. It ain’t pretty.
