“Your parents, guidance counselor, and teachers were right: you don’t get a second chance at a first impression. This is why The Crown will always be a wonderfully over-the-top and high energy death-tinged thrash band to my ears. Deathrace King introduced me to their work, opening with the perfectly titled “Deathexplosion.” Johan Lindstrand’s shout of “FIRE!” over a fast, aggressive, and simple riff sold me on the band and their brand of metal immediately.” Snakes on speed.
“I like a gap of a few years between albums; I find it reassuring. Anything sub-24 months and I begin to get twitchy. This is probably wholly unreasonable, and I’m sure the AMG readership can think of a litany of absolute turnips that took years to write and record, but I simply can’t help it. I was a little put out, therefore, to discover that Witchery were planning to unbox their latest work, I Am Legion, a paltry 350 days on from the release of their crushing 2016 effort, In His Infernal Majesty’s Service.” It’s the slow knife that thrills.
“It’s a ritual most metalheads born in the 80’s have participated in. At some point, that guy who got into metal a few months before you did comes up to you, brandishing a discman, and says: “You gotta hear this, there’s a band with a chick who can growl!” In 10% of the cases, he’d have Kittie or Otep with him, but most of the time he’d be talking about Arch Enemy, the melodic death metal band whose primary distinguishing feature is having a chick who can growl.” Growlers, man.
“Say what you will about Adam Clemans, but Skeletonwitch really lost something when they kicked Chance out, leaving me hungry for bands that captured the rowdiness of their early days. Enter All Hell.” Skeletons, witches and Hell, oh my!
“I still remember the day I ventured into the world of Swedish melodic death metal. The time, the mood, the buying of so many albums. There was At the Gates’s Slaughter of the Soul, Dark Tranquillity’s Projector and Damage Done, In Flames’ Jester Race and Clayman, The Haunted’s debut and Made Me Do It, and Amon Amarth’s Fate of Norns. All purchased and consumed within weeks of each other. I was fucking hooked—ignoring reason (and my food budget) to please my insatiable craving for everything this genre had to offer.” The Left Hand Path has many toll booths.
“November was sure to be a much easier month to sift through than October, which was outright ridiculous. Of course it had its share of standouts, but most of the AMG intelligentsia was in agreement where the November crown should be placed. Since this is such a rare occurrence, we were able to render a timely posting, which is in itself quite rare.” No turkeys here.
“For a quality so inextricably linked with metal, at times heaviness can be a difficult characteristic to define. For some it’s all about sheer volume and noise, whereas for others, myself included, attitude and the weight of feeling behind the music are key components. Every now and then, however, a record will come along dripping with such malice and vitriol that it nullifies any need for a debate on the matter entirely.” 8 out of 10 Witchfinder Generals recommend this.
“Choosing what to do for Halloween is, in some sense, a lot like choosing how to be a metal band. You can try to deliberately frighten people, like Portal, be as provocative as possible, like Anal Cunt, flaunt your good feminine looks like the one member of Amaranthe anyone cares about, do something wacky and out-of-the-box like Troldhaugen, or you can throw on some old goblin mask and just go get drunk, loud and rowdy.” The goblins and ghosts are at the door.
“As you get older, reminiscing becomes part of everyday life. Especially those pushing thirty, forty, fifty years old. Times were simpler in the old days and, while we’re wiser now, there’s a sense of envy for those days of ignorance. In 2016, AMG Industries, Inc. gives Sodom’s thirty-year-old self an opportunity to look back at baby pictures. A few weeks ago we got an YMIO on Obsessed by Cruelty and now we get 2016’s Decision Day.” That baby was mighty ugly. So what’s the adult version looking like these days?
“Much like Behexen, Dark Funeral have been at this whole black metal thing for some time. Not sure if “pioneer” is appropriate for these Swedish tremolo-crafters, but they are influential. Their approach is straightforward, their black metal is classic, and their releases consistent.” Classic and consistent is an okay way to go through life, son.
