“Communic sits comfortably in the subgroup of metal acts that don’t get the attention they deserve. With 4 albums of pretty consistently sharp, heavy prog metal under their belts, they’ve essentially filled the gap left when Nevermore folded shop. Albums like Conspiracy in Mind and Waves of Visual Decay mixed a satisfying crunch with soaring vocal harmonies, slick progressive sensibilities and a dark edge that draws me back often.” Dark minds plot darkly.
“I created my moniker out of a weird obsession with Akercocke. A close friend and I would muse over the lyrical and conceptual themes from Goat of Mendes, watch videos of the band being interviewed by Irish religious nuts, and generally make long-winded jokes over Jason Mendonca’s LinkedIn profile and his love for tweed and sophisticated exhibitionism. Beneath this was a love for the eclectic and unique extreme music that Akercocke crafted.” Tweed the demons.
In 2015, the multi-national post-punk supergroup Tau Cross captured our ears and hearts with their self-titled debut, blending the crustiness of classic British punk rock with the soul of Killing Joke and the nigh-shamanistic vocals of former Amebix frontman/bassist, Rob “The Baron” Miller. So effective was this mix that their debut found its way to my #2 slot of my Top Ten(ish) list of 2015. Two years later, and with a slight line-up change, the band returns with their eagerly-awaited follow-up, Pillar of Fire. The fire still burns.
“The sound of Mutoid Man is not something easily explained. The best I can come up with is ”80s metal mashed up with Nintendo game music, but with more hooks and a ton of guitar effects.’ Formed in NYC by Boston expats Steve Brodsky (Cave In) and Ben Koller (Converge), Mutoid has cranked out two and a half albums of catchy, hyperactive metal within a short span of time. 2015’s excellent Bleeder gained some recognition here at AMG, and now the band returns with that crucial third album, entitled War Moans.” Kiss the war.
“Between pillaging, plundering, and getting insanely hammered, Mark Z. interview’s Revocation’s Dan Gargiulo.” The first of several plunder publications from this year’s 70,000 Tons of Metal excursion.
“These days, PR companies feel the need to come up with unique classifications and genres for the bands they are repping. I’ve lost count of the number of “new” genres we’ve had to add to our tag system this year. Great example: this new release from Angela Martyr, with a label prominently affixed to the cover declaring the music as ‘grungy, mechanical, pessimistic metalgaze.’ Okay. Why don’t they just say, ‘Sounds like Nine Inch Nails?'” They’re paid by the word, Huckster.
![EP Edition [Things You Might Have Missed 2016]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Cuervo-2.jpg)
“Another year, another influx of new readers and writers at this mighty blog. Yet compared to those previously, this year has seen a significant growth in the consistency of our posts. A sad consequence of this is that EPs have increasingly fallen by the wayside as reviews of shitty full-length albums are summarily assigned to the probationary writers with reckless abandon.” We fixed the glitch.
“With the absurd amount of music being produced these days, I can only imagine how difficult it is for bands to gain exposure. Metal already caters to a rather niche market, and so it’s understandable that some artists might do whatever it takes to get their music heard. Sometimes, this means that musicians might sacrifice their artistic vision if they feel it will garner greater appeal. Thankfully, Arriver is not one of these bands.” Substance over style.
“Okay, so you burned every church out there. Every last forest has been utilized for frost-bitten photographs of corpse-painted minions wielding medieval weaponry, invisible oranges, or both. You sang every hymn there is for either Satan, Tolkien orcness, darkness, the wilderness, or anything even remotely related to the above. What’s left to cover? Why SPACE, of course!” Into the blackness (of space).
“Norwegian trio Virus, and by extension its mastermind Carl-Michael Eide a.k.a. Czral, never steered away from oblique, almost hermetic forms that somehow seemed to cater to metal audiences while simultaneously belonging to completely different narratives. In that respect, Memento Collider is a culmination and possibly the band’s boldest statement to date.” We found the profound for you.
