Vintersorg

Angry Metal Guy’s Top 10(ish) of 2011

By Angry Metal Guy on December 30, 2011 in Blog Posts, Record o' the Month, 71 comments

And here it finally comes. I want to take a little time to gaze at my navel before heading off to the races here. 2011 has been a hard year for me and for AngryMetalGuy.com. Without the help of Steel Druhm, this website probably would have gone under due to serious burnout. It stands that there are other options for both of us as reviewers, but we both love this site and the little community it has become and don’t have any desire to see it go anywhere. And, frankly, due to blood, sweat and more blood, we just don’t feel like we can really stop working on this website. So when I say to you all, that we don’t want to stop doing this largely because you guys keep coming by and reading this I seriously mean it. It’s a great feeling–even when sometimes the music industry gets goddamned lame.

Angry Metal Guy’s Top 10 Songs from 2011

By Angry Metal Guy on December 28, 2011 in Blog Posts, 13 comments

We made it through another year here in Angry Metal World. We overcame Terminal Reviewer Burnout Syndrome, careers and personal lives, just to bring you more of our self-righteous, ego-driven babbling and blathering. Why did we do it? Because we care so damn much! Now, as the year grinds us all towards inevitable doom, it falls to me to get the metal wheel a rollin and name my picks for the best albums of 2011. This was a pretty solid year, so it was tough to figure out which albums belonged where, but you demanded it, so I’m delivering the goods, Yeah!

Angry Metal Guy’s Best Heavy Metal Songs of All Time 20-11

By Angry Metal Guy on May 21, 2011 in Blog Posts, 22 comments

Wow, it’s been a long time and you’ve all been waiting patiently. So here’s my 20-11 of the best heavy metal songs of all time. If you’re in desperate need of an update as to what else we’ve posted, here are some links: Mine: 50-41, 40-31, 31-20 and Steel Druhm’s: 50-41, 40-31, 30-21, 20-11.

Yggdrasil – Irrbloss Review

By Angry Metal Guy on May 1, 2011 in 2011, 4.0, Folk Metal, Grandmaster Music, Reviews, Swedish Metal, Folk Metal, 6 comments

Yggdrasil is a new band to me, though Irrbloss (“Will-o-wisps”) is their third album. I know that there are a ton of folk metal bands out there, which makes actually going out and looking for new folk metal a very challenging endeavor. Like any underground scene there’s going to be a lot of shit, so sifting through that all sometimes is more effort than its worth. Fortunately for me, there are others with more patience than I who directed me to Sweden’s Yggdrasil and I am very glad that they did so.

Vomitory – Opus Mortis VIII Review

By Angry Metal Guy on April 20, 2011 in 2011, 4.5, Death Metal, Metal Blade, Record o' the Month, Swedish Metal, Death Metal, 18 comments

I’ve actually been having a bit of a problem this year. While this is supposed to be the big year for all the big-named metal bands that I love, I can’t help but get the feeling that no one is putting out records that are even nearly as good as they should be. OK, I really got into the new Vintersorg, but I thought Septic Flesh was a letdown, as was the new Amon Amarth. There are others that I can’t mention yet, but let me just say, I’m disappointed with pretty much all of my favorite bands this year. So when I got Vomitory’s Opus Mortis VIII and popped it in, I can’t say that I was expecting much more than that same ol’ same ol’ feeling of apathy. I was beginning to think, frankly, that this was my problem. But Vomitory helped me realize something, this is their problem, not mine.

Angry Metal Guy’s Best Heavy Metal Songs of All Time 30-21

By Angry Metal Guy on April 8, 2011 in Blog Posts, 27 comments

Closer and closer we draw to the best heavy metal song of all time, but indeed there is much in between and none of it has been come to lightly. I actually have spent a lot of time mulling over this list since its creation and I am pleased, thus far I can’t think of anything major that I’ve left out, which must mean that they are not indeed ‘top songs’ at all. But let me get to one note of concern that people have raised. They say that one of the reasons that a list like Gibson’s travesty is valid is because “it’s hard to know if these songs can stand the test of time!” I just want to take a minute to call bullshit.

Obscura – Omnivium Review

By Angry Metal Guy on March 22, 2011 in 2011, 4.5, Death Metal, German Metal, Progressive Death, Progressive Metal, Relapse, Reviews, Technical Death Metal, 11 comments

March has really been one hell of a month, hasn’t it? To think after Amon Amarth and Vintersorg we get to follow it all up with Obscura’s Omnivium. If any record counts as the most-anticipated of the year, Obscura is probably getting pretty close to that level. Having released in 2009, what was really a hell of a surprise for most listeners (including people who’d purchased their previous record) in Cosmogenesis, these technical death metallers built on their Necrophagist cred (and sound) and on the legacy of the mighty Death with their technical, progressive death metal, complete with awesome fretless bass attack. So, while this isn’t really a record that can fall victim of the sophomore slump (being the band’s third record), it certainly is an album that could fall victim to overly heightened expectations. And, I must admit, this Angry Metal Guy certainly had heightened expectations

Vintersorg – Jordpuls Review

By Angry Metal Guy on March 14, 2011 in 2011, 4.5, Avante Garde, Black Metal, Napalm Records, Record o' the Month, Reviews, Swedish Metal, 9 comments

Vintersorg // Jordpuls Rating: 4.5/5.0 — The Perfect Record for Spring Label: Napalm Records Website: myspace.com/vintersorganic Release Dates: EU: 2011.25-28.03 | US: 04.05.2011 After a wintry silence of 4 years about a new solo record, Vintersorg is finally releasing the long awaited follow-up to Solens Rötter. If you consider the early solo career of Mr. […]

Världsalltets Fanfar Streaming at MySpace

By Angry Metal Guy on March 2, 2011 in 2011, Black Metal, Blog Posts, Napalm Records, Swedish Metal, Black Metal, Folk Metal, 1 comment

A new Vintersorg track has just been added over at the MySpace in its entirety! This may be the best thing that we’ve heard from Mr. V in my opinion since Visions or even Cosmic Genesis! The record comes out on the 25th in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Then on the 28th it hits the […]

Kebnekajse – Idioten Review

By Angry Metal Guy on February 20, 2011 in 2011, 4.0, Not Metal, Reviews, Not Metal, Progressive Rock, 1 comment

The 1970s were a fascinating period for Sweden. There was a ton of experimentation, it was the 1970s, but just like many other phenomena, much of what was happening in the outside world was mirrored in the funhouse mirror that is Sweden’s culture. So while Americans of the time, for example, flirted with Marxism, drugs and experimental music, all of that stuff got taken in different directions in Sweden. Reading about the so-called “Red Wave” (red as in communist) of the 1970s is actually really interesting, and seeing how that was showed up and was interpreted in other parts of the culture is a fascinating endeavor. It follows, then, that one of the most interesting things that came out of the era was called “progg” (that might look familiar to you), and it is not the same as what we think of progressive or symphonic rock that changed the face of rock in the US or UK. Instead, much of the scene was caught up in ideologies and were far more concerned with political thought than with music at all. (Rumor has it that one of the bands let everyone play every instrument because it would be unfair otherwise.)