“I went for a walk on a beautiful day – fifteen degrees Celsius or so – and gave Danse de Noir, the fourth record from German metallers Lord Vigo, its maiden voyage through my ears and mind. Within five minutes, I was reminded why I love this outstanding little genre called metal. Lord Vigo plays trad metal in the vein of Ram but stirs some Candlemass and Angel Witch into the mix for good measure.” Metal appreciation.
“Name another site out there with writers hiding behind silly monikers whom you know better than your best friends. Name a site you dared to lean on, pouring your heart out in the comments, getting positive and uplifting responses when you needed them most. Name a site you’ve spent as much time debating, loving, and sharing music as you have on AMG. You can’t.” Truth telling.
“With multiple platinum records under their arms from the 00’s, the glam-turned-goth collective has been active since the early 90’s. One might assume they intended to be a Sisters of Mercy that actually releases new music. That lengthy career path is evident in some of the stronger tracks.” Goth by the numbers.
“I’ll admit, I usually associate certain countries with distinct sounds, especially when it comes to doom metal. The dreariness of British doom sounds miles apart from their Swedish counterparts, and American doom sounds just as removed from the aforementioned. Hell, here in America, you can usually tell from a band’s musical make-up just which city they’ve come from. What I’m getting at here is that, besides Type O Negative, I can’t think off the top of my head another doom metal band from New York state. Brooklyn’s Kings Destroy are hoping their fourth album, Fantasma Nera, will change all that.” No doom til Brooklyn.
“A belated Happy New Year to all. But the genre at the core of today’s review may not be conferring that same wish on its listener; namely, atmospheric, Gothic metal. And there is surely but one obvious band when we consider Gothic metal from Brooklyn, NY; namely, Type O Negative (‘TON’). Given the clear limitations of a specific sub-genre of metal in one borough of a city, it’s no surprise to learn that Sal Abruscato, the Brooklyn goth behind A Pale Horse Named Death (‘Pale Horse’), has long-standing ties to that late but great band as a founding member of both.” Type So Negative.
“A Voluntary Lack of Wisdom is smothered in a dense layer of fuzz. But not the delicious tickle of a soft blanket, this is a bed of post-doom fiberglass. Italian three-piece metallers Loimann release this—their third full length—touting it as being more in your face and featuring less complex songwriting than prior efforts. Formed in 2001, it seems a change of direction was in order for this album. Keyboards have been dropped altogether and the harsh vocal quotient has been increased in an effort to provide a more extreme overall result.” Fiberglass-core.
“At Bloodstock Open Air 2018, I was able to spend an hour with the Leeds-based progressive black metal Victorian menagerie that is A Forest of Stars. They had just finished their set on the Sophie Lancaster Stage and were riding a wave of adrenaline that placed them in an excitable, energetic, and joyous mood.” A day in the forest…with stars.
“When Akercocke dissolved in 2012, a few of its members regrouped as Voices, releasing a respectable debut in the form of Voices from the Human Forest Create a Fugue of Imaginary Rain, revealing that there was some life left from the ashes of everyone’s favorite hedonistic prog-death merchants. However, absolutely no one was prepared for the relentless headfuck that came out the following year.” Voices carry… expectations.
“In 2004, a close friend of mine lost not one but both of his parents in the Indian Ocean tsunami that claimed nearly a quarter of a million lives. While I hope I will never experience tragedy as dramatic and profound as his, the impact reverberated throughout our small group, and to a comparatively infinitesimal degree, we shared in his loss. Without wanting to cheapen such sorrow, doom metal — particularly in its more extreme iterations — has always offered me a similar catalytic capacity to know its author’s pain.” Tragic beauty.
“Like many of you, I was shaken to my very core by AMG Himself‘s recent diatribe about subgenres. Fittingly enough, the very next album I’m handed to review is by a band that has blurred the lines of ‘metal’ and ‘hardcore’ for several years, confounding fans on both sides of the fence. As some of our longtime readers may have noticed, I really enjoy when bands do things that upset or confuse people, especially if it happens to result in interesting music. Enter Twitching Tongues and their fantastically-titled Gaining Purpose Through Passionate Hatred.” When the pigeon can’t find the hole.
