“The Yer Metal is Olde segment here at Angry Metal Guy has always been one of my favorites. If you’re looking to expand your repertoire with some classics or need a reason to shuffle back through your library, clatter through your jewel cases, or dig through cracked cassettes for nostalgia, this is a segment for olde and younge alike.” 1995 was a tough year for kings and patriots alike.
“Draconian Times is an album that never should have worked. By now Paradise Lost’s career trajectory has been discussed ad nauseam – from rotten doom-death to Depeche Mode-inspired dance rock to their current gothic metal resurgence – and Times was essentially that early transition album, a puberty-stricken adolescent with a new slicked-up hairdo and a European leather jacket that still fit a little too big.” It shouldn’t have worked, but it did. And now it’s olde.
“Once upon a time in 1995, yours truly, then a long-haired kid with patchy facial hair, baggy cargo pants, and numerous black t-shirts featuring whoever was on Century Media Records at the time, was first getting into doom metal via word-of-mouth and the late, great Metal Maniacs magazine (RIP Katherine Ludwig). One of those bands I was told to check out was England’s gloomy sextet, My Dying Bride.” Doom is its own reward.
“Yer Metal Is Olde was started to honor records that we’re 10, 20, or 30 years old. Kronos noticed, however, that we’ve never reviewed Fleshgod Apocalypse’s magnum opus and, not only that, but that Oracles has turned five in 2014! So in honor of one of the best brutal/technical death metal records ever made, here’s a Yer Metal Is (Not Particularly) Olde for this brilliant work of art.”
![Yer Metal Is Olde: Sonata Arctica – Ecliptica [Revisted]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Sonata-Arctica-Ecliptica.jpg)
Fifteen years doesn’t seem like that long ago, but at the time I was a 17 year-old who would soon be writing for Al Kikuras at the legendary Unchain the Underground and getting deep into the back end of all the great metal that was coming out of Europe. On the top of my list was my discovery of cheesy power metal. At the time I was swimming in Blind Guardian, Rhapsody, and Symphony X (not Eurometal, I know) records for the first time and really finding my footing. One day while surfing the Internet I stumbled upon a streaming radio station and heard a song called “Letter to Dana.” I was stunned. Shocked. Cheesed out. And totally in love.” Can Ecliptica Revisited rekindle Angry Metal Guy’s innocent youth? Read on and find out!
“In my experience, there are two kinds of people; the ones that love The Dillinger Escape Plan, and the ones that don’t really get what all the fuss is about. Among the former group, there are those who say that they peaked early and have been cruising since Under the Running Board or 2002’s brilliantly strange Mike Patton collaboration Irony is a Dead Scene. These fans will claim that, after one of these two albums, the band either stopped being abrasive enough or stopped being inventive. In scientific circles, we tend to call sentiments like these “Wrong.” In reality, the zenith of the world’s most beloved mathcore band came in 2004, with a bold and bold-faced album named Miss Machine.”
“1994 was an amazing year for all forms of metal music. It was also a transitional year for one Johan Edlund, most famous as the guitarist/vocalist/founder of a little Swedish metal group called Tiamat. 1992’s Clouds was a breakthrough album for Edlund and his crew of death metal merry-men, but even with the album’s success, Edlund was not satisfied with the sound or results of that album. So, in an interesting turn of events, he fired the entire band (save for bassist Johnny Hagel), hired session musicians, brought his love of Pink Floyd to the forefront, and created one of the most engaging, amorphous, and creative albums ever released with the Century Media label: the still bewitching and beautifully crafted Wildhoney.” It’s about damn time we drool all over this classic!
“I am not ashamed to admit this, but it takes something incredibly special for me to be excited about a simple signpost. A benign, innocent sign nestled in the desert roads of California that, when looked at, conjures up memories of guitars blaring through bass amps, thundering drums, heartier-than-chunky-soup bass, and weed-and-beer soaked vocals about high temperatures, brushing your teeth, and calling the desert home. A sign that resonates within the souls of those who have experienced the musical memories it brings forth. A sign that, whenever viewed, causes people to proclaim, “DUDE!!! FUCKING KYUSS!!!””
“Yer Metal Is Olde is a recurring thing that we’re using to fill up space while we scramble around looking for reviews of new material that is worth reviewing. The idea was spurred on by the swath of amazing and classic records that are turning 10, 20, or 30 this year. It’s crazy to think that all the stuff that we worship is really as old as it is. Time moves quickly, but these classics never seem to lose their shine. Still, their enduring quality doesn’t change that your favorite metal is fucking old.” And what could be older than Motorhead? Nothing!
Yer Metal Is Olde! is a recurring thing that we’re using to fill up space while we scramble around looking for reviews of new material that is worth reviewing. The idea was spurred on by the swath of amazing and classic records that are turning 10, 20, or 30 this year. It’s crazy to think that all the stuff that we worship is really as old as it is. Time moves quickly, but these classics never seem to lose their shine. Still, their enduring quality doesn’t change that your favorite metal is fucking old. Note: our focus today, Ulver’s Bergtatt is actually only 19 years old, but it was recorded in 1994 and for some reason I thought it was released then, too. Once I’d written this retro-review, I discovered that I was wrong. While it makes it less Olde, it’s not so much less. And it certainly deserves recognition.
