Voivod

The Kennedy Veil – Trinity of Falsehood Review

By Kronos on January 14, 2014 in 2014, American Metal, Death Metal, Reviews, Unique Leader, Death Metal, 12 comments

“For every Voivod album that teaches us not to judge a book by its (horrendously poorly made) cover, there are dozens of other albums with laughably bad artwork that also contain laughably bad music. This was somewhat the case with The Kennedy Veil’s debut disc, which hid uninteresting death metal behind a photoshop abomination. They can’t be faulted for this, seeing as the it was self-released, but it’s nice to know this time around they’ve put forth a properly constructed, though again clichéd face for themselves.” Sometimes we make note of album artwork, but Kronos really takes that to a new level of visual obsession. Fortunately, he also reviews the music… eventually.

Fisting Andrew Golota’s Top Ten(ish) of 2013

By Dr. Fisting on December 30, 2013 in Blog Posts, 29 comments

“I don’t really have any clever observations about the past year in metal. A few of my AMG cohorts have griped that 2013’s release schedule was somewhat lacking, but I didn’t have that problem at all. There may have been fewer good albums quantity-wise (I wasn’t counting), but the ones that were good were REALLY fucking good.” Always the optimist, Mr. Fisting found the good in 2013 and tells you where it was hidden. He’s like Mr. Silver Linings!

Things You Might Have Missed 2013: Vhöl – Vhöl

By Dr. Fisting on November 25, 2013 in 2013, American Metal, Heavy Metal, Profound Lore Records, Things You Might Have Missed 2013, Heavy Metal, 6 comments

“Being the jaded old fuck that I am, there are very few musicians that I go into straight-up fanboy mode for these days. One of those individuals is guitarist John Cobbett. Who, you ask? Cobbett is a member of prog sextet Hammers of Misfortune, and has done time in both Slough Feg and Ludicra, which puts him at the center of San Francisco’s present-day metal scene. When Ludicra abruptly folded after touring for 2010’s brilliant prog-black-metal opus The Tenant, I was genuinely bummed out. Lucky for me, Cobbett quickly assembled a new outlet for his heavier material, dubbed Vhöl.” Are you worried you might have missed some precious metal this year? We worry too, so we’ll start bombarding you with our selections of quality albums we didn’t get to review, but would hate to see you miss. Here, Mr. Fisting brings you the new project from the ever interesting John Cobbett. You’re welcome!

Pestilence – Obsideo Review

By Steel Druhm on October 24, 2013 in 2013, Candlelight, Death Metal, Dutch Metal, Reviews, Death Metal, 17 comments

“Nothing burns with the same intensity as hate born of a once great love. While I worshipped early Pestilence albums like Consuming Impulse and Testimony of the Ancients, I hated their Doctrine release with the white-hot passion of a scorned fanboy. The dramatic back story to this epic tale of spurned love is a simple one. Pestilence began life as a primitive, old school death outfit and really had a lot going for them, but they rapidly evolved into a weird, proggy entity, freely dabbling in jazz-fusion. I didn’t care for the paradigm shift and neither did many of their original fans. When the band reformed after 16 years in the ground, I hoped they would return to their roots…” Who doesn’t dig a good story about love turned to hate? But can that hate turn back to love? How about love peppered with hate?

Newsted – Heavy Metal Music Review

By Steel Druhm on August 2, 2013 in 2013, 3.5, American Metal, Chophouse Records, Heavy Metal, Reviews, 12 comments

“By now most of you are familiar with the dysfunctional soap opera that led Jason Newsted to jump ship from Metallica prior to their execrable St. Anger album. Anyone who watched the shockumentary Some Kind of Monster can see why he bailed and most probably wonder why he didn’t beat copious amounts of Danish ass and kick over the Hetfield Table™ on his way out the door. Since his exodus, Jason has shown himself to be a productive and versatile musician’s musician, recording with Voivod, playing with Ozzy Osbourne, keeping his Echobrain project running and finding time to launch his eponymous solo project Newsted.” Jason Newsted has this solo thing going on and finally released the debut album. Steel Druhm gives you the lowdown as Lars and James download it illegally out of spite.

Angry Metal Guy’s Unsigned Band Rodeo: Bill Pulmonary Embolism – A Galaxy Consumed

By Angry Metal Guy on April 15, 2013 in Angry Metal Guy's Unsigned Band Rodeo, Blog Posts, 35 comments

In our new monthly feature, which will show up here on the 15th of every month and run over the next few days, I (Angry Metal Guy) will select 5 bands at random (usually those who have followed my directions and have bandcamp accounts) to get blurbed by every member of the AMG staff. The idea is to do at least a bit of our part to point out that the metal underground is still an important part of the world of metal. While we simply don’t have the manpower to produce regular reviews of unsigned bands, this is my attempt at a minor mea culpa if nothing else. So enjoy Angry Metal Guy’s Unsigned Band Rodeo and our very first entry ever: Bill Pulmonary Embolism!

Wormed – Exodromos Review

By Alex Franquelli on March 21, 2013 in 2013, 4.0, Death Metal, Hammerheart Records, Reviews, Willowtip, Technical Death Metal, 3 comments

“It is brutal, rather technical and it has its roots in death metal. But is Exodromos a pure brutal technical death metal album? A lazy, complacent answer would be: yes. A more elaborate response – and one you would expect to read on these respected pages – is: not quite.” Alex Franquelli reviews the new Wormed record, in all its brutal, technical glory and asks “What next?”

Record(s) o’ the Month – January 2013

By Angry Metal Guy on February 1, 2013 in 2013, Blog Posts, Record o' the Month, 19 comments

After donning the blue and gold on AngryMetalGuy.com for a whole month and making every red-blooded Swede vaguely uncomfortable due to the latent nationalism that they can’t possibly ever admit to, it’s time for a change. Indeed, 2013’s first month has passed and while it hasn’t been extraordinarily explosive, it brought with it a few great releases that deserve a second (or third or fourth) look. So, without further ado…

Voivod – Target Earth Review

By Dr. Fisting on January 16, 2013 in 2013, 4.5, Canadian Metal, Century Media, Progressive Metal, Releases, Reviews, Uncategorized, Progressive Metal, 15 comments

The prospect of a new Voivod record is something I approached with a fair amount of dread, mostly due to the minor detail that guitarist/bandleader Denis “Piggy” D’Amour passed away back in 2005. A lot of ’80s/’90s bands have buried their dead and moved on, occasionally with decent results (see: Alice In Chains). But Piggy seemed irreplaceable. He was the band’s main songwriter by most accounts, and more importantly, he possessed one of the weirdest, most eccentric guitar styles in all of metal. It seemed that no one could possibly take his place.

Bombs of Hades – The Serpent’s Redemption Review

By Steel Druhm on September 17, 2012 in 2012, 3.0, Death Metal, Grind, Pulverised Records, Reviews, Swedish Metal, Death Metal, 2 comments

Bombs of Hades delivers an album of punky Swedish retro death loaded with crust and scabs. Our intrepid Steel Druhm is here to pick ’em all and find out what lies beneath. It ain’t pretty.