“What’s your first impression when I say Dark Hound? No, this isn’t a trap. And, no, I’m not looking for anything perverted, so fucking stop. For me, Sherlock Holmes comes to mind. I don’t know… creepy dogs and shit? Anyway, with that, I would imagine the band’s music to be dark, brooding, and haunting—with an atmosphere to match. Well, no surprise, everything I thought was wrong. If anything, this Nashville, Tennessee quartet is anything but that.” Bro down(tuned).
“Every metal-head has their watershed moment; whether that’s Master of Puppets, Symbolic or actually Watershed, that magic album taps you on the shoulder and says “young poser, let me show you the way to trveness.” Chariots of the Gods bills itself as melodic metal with In Flames as its top influence, I’m feeling cautious yet optimistic.” Get ready to chug.
“Sometimes it’s almost impossible not to look back on the past and ask ‘what if?’ As in ‘what if I’d actually taken those piano lessons in middle school and learned to play an instrument?’ or ‘what if I’d actually talked to that cute girl in my sophomore English class and didn’t end up as a single guy in my mid-twenties eating Chinese takeout on my couch while wearing a faded Morbid Angel shirt with the sleeves cut off?’ With debut Distant Call, German thrashy metalcore quartet Awaiting Downfall aim to answer their own versions of this question: what if Trivium didn’t go full Metallicore with The Crusade and instead tried to remake Ember to Inferno?” The implications are staggering!
“Mindscar gets weirder the more you learn about them.” With an endorsement like that, how can you not click through?
“I have many friends that share my exquisite taste in music. If this were not the case, I would not have stumbled across Spellcaster and their newest release, Night Hides the World. Suggested to me by a member of War Curse, Spellcaster is a purveyor of the simple and the accessible. Fusing six-string details with strong vocals, these Portlanders combine Iron Maiden-esque hooks with Ghost-ish melody.” Metal friends beat Super Friends any day.
“I’ll be honest: as a reviewer, I often don’t care how original a band is. Give me a thousand groups like Nails, who take a well-tread style and play it damn well, over any wacky group that artificially cobbles together disparate influences in vain pursuit of originality. To me innovation is something that should result from a band playing the music they love and want to hear, not an end goal in itself. And that’s exactly why I find Sektemtum’s sophomore LP Panacea so refreshing – not because it isn’t original, but because it seems to achieve originality without really trying that hard.” There is nothing new except what has been forgotten.
![Best and Worst Sounding Records of 2015 [Angry Metal-Fi]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/amg-mfi-300.jpg)
“It’s that time again where we extol those releases that exemplify high caliber production and condemn those which exact tyranny on all of our collective volume knobs. 2015 was a break out year for production in metal if you ask me. Not because the percentage of releases had higher DR scores mind you. Quite the opposite actually. But because you guys have made production a real talking point across the web.”
“Well, kids, let this be a lesson to you all. Dropping clickbait jokes and fucking too much with the AMG HR department results in the dropping of various hammers. In my case, punishments manifested themselves in the form of name-calling (Steel called me a “Master Baiter”) and a metalcore promo for review.” The core will flow until you praise our new logo.
“Unearth are among the last of their kind. The New Wave of American Heavy Metal – if there ever was such a thing – has crashed, receded, and carried away a flotsam of recycled Gothenburg riffs, open string drop-D breakdowns, and post-Pantera toughguy groove. Bands not dissolved in the fizz of waning popularity and ill-conceived murder-for-hire plots have either distilled themselves into Top 40 radio rock (Avenged Sevenfold) or continue struggling to recreate the glory of their heyday (Killswitch Engage). Unearth stand alone….” So much for progress and evolution.
“Okay, let’s be totally honest. Death Angel will never top their mind-blowing debut The Ultra-Violence. It’s just not going to happen. Some bands have that albatross hanging around their necks throughout their entire career, but that doesn’t mean they can’t turn out quality music. Death Angel has had a rather uneven run, with some good albums and some that were quite crappy. Act III and to a lesser extent The Art of Dying were good examples of old school thrash moving into the modern era. However, Frolic Through the Park was a perplexing shit show (and one of the most disappointing follow-ups in metal history) and their 2010 Relentless Retribution opus had some cool ideas and a few good tunes, but felt disjointed and confused, as if they couldn’t decide what direction to take. Naturally, as someone who grew up worshipping their debut, I wanted the band to get their legs under them again on The Dream Calls for Blood…” Another member of the First Wave of Thrash is still knocking around, trying to remain relevant in a harsh new world. Can they pull it off? Our resident thrash historian opines.
