“For my money, Vindicator was always underrated re-thrash, notwithstanding my concern about their collective understanding of monetary policy. Nearly 10 years later, the brothers Stown (Vic on guitars and vox and Jesse on drums) have reunited to bring us a new slab of post-Bay Area re-thrash called Communal Decay. What ensues is not surprising, but it’s teeming with old school riffing and features a short and sweet 31-minute runtime.” Did you miss it? We sure as hell did.
Vindicator
Vanik – II: Dark Season Review
“There are many ways to celebrate Halloween: candy; costumes; horror movies; punk-influenced thrash metal albums from Cleveland. The latter is brought to you this October [Er, November… my bad – Ed.] by Vanik, a thrash band Frankensteined together from punk and metal musicians harvested from the likes of Toxic Holocaust, Ringworm and Vindicator. Following up their self-titled debut, Vanik have now sharpened their Voorheesian machetes in preparation for spreading terror with their new Halloween-themed record II: Dark Season, released by Shadow Kingdom Records.” Is one of the ways you can celebrate Halloween as dressing up as a retro thrash band and releasing a record? That answer, inside!
Shed the Skin – We of Scorn Review
“The music on the sophomore release by Cleveland’s death metal quintet Shed the Skin is deceptively simple. In its core, the band’s possessed, groove-laden death metal is propelled steadily forward at medium pace and with a certain brutality characteristic for Hells Headbangers’ roster. Around these straightforward and conventional structures, floating somewhere between thrash, old school, and modern death metal, the group cultivates an abundance of flair and an aura of tight frolic.” Frolic through the grave park.
Angry Metal Guy’s Top 10(ish) of 2012
Angry Metal Guy mails in his Top 10(ish) of 2012.
Record(s) o’ the Month – July 2012
July has actually been a bit of a strange month. While every other month of the year has had some really amazing releases and it’s been difficult to choose, the competition was a little weirder this month. There wasn’t really anything that destroyed anything else—instead, the highest score that we gave out during July was a 4.0. It was also weird, because we reviewed up-and-coming vest metal rockstars Castle who, at least Steel Druhm and I, agreed deserved recognition. But since the record was not released in July, it was not eligible.
Vindicator – United We Fall Review
You know that a trend is reaching “carrying capacity” when you’re working on your fourth review of that genre in a single week, but I thought I’d take time out of my busy avoiding-writing-a-review-of-the-new-Nile record schedule to let you know that the thrash band with the best logo since Kreator is back with a new record.