2015 has been the Year of Black Metal, hasn’t it? Coincidentally, it’s also the Year of the Goat in the Chinese Zodiac, so it would make sense. With impressive releases by Imperial Triumphant, Akhlys, Mourning Mist, and Perdition Temple, you would think there would be little room for Poland’s Outre. Once the brainchild of guitarist Damian Igielski, performing all instruments by himself with vocals handled by Andrzej Nowak, they released one EP before becoming a full-fledged band with their split with fellow Polish blackened noisemakers Thaw. Now with Nowak out, they have delivered Ghost Chants, their debut full-length. And with that, you’ll need to make some more room, because this is some top-quality music.

Just as The Order of Apollyon lifted heavily from Poland on their newest (right down to the brickwalled production), Outre got their mime on and drew their inspirations from the French, namely the atmospherics of Deathspell Omega with a little bit of the progressive leanings of German newcomers Vehemenz. “Chant 3 – The Fall” provides a nice example of this, with Igielski and fellow guitarist Mateusz Jamróz providing angular-yet-shimmering riffs and melodies over Maciej Pelczar’s frantic blasts. Even Marcin Radecki’s bass can be heard coiling and slithering between the drums and the guitars, popping out whenever necessary. But those vocals… dude.

He may only be a hired hand, but Stawrogin (Crawling Death, Odraza) truly made this his playground. He has this blend of the weirdness of Mayhem‘s Attila Csihar, the snarl of Nergal (Behemoth), and the robotic cleans of Denis “Snake” Bélanger (Voivod). His performance on Ghost Chants brings the songs to a higher plane entirely. “Chant 5 – Equilibrium” is quite a dirge, made all the more special with a really cool multi-layered choir at the end. “Chant 4 – Lament” marches with atonal intent and some venomous growling and screaming. “Chant 2 – Shadow” is probably the closest this comes to being straight-forward black metal, but even then, Stawrogin’s growls and singing teleports this to the realms of the bleak and the bizarre. But the ultimate statement of intent occurs during the album’s capstone, “Chant 7 – Arrival.” It starts very ominously yet somewhat subdued, but from 2:35 on forward the song just builds and builds and builds, with the music and Stawrogin’s vocals creating a slow burn that only intensifies and strengthens until its explosive finale. This song will stick in your head long after it ends.

If there is a complaint to be had, it’s with the production. Recorded at No Solace and Impressive Art Studios by M. (Mgła), the sound could be a little more dynamic. The guitars sometimes bleed into one another, causing the bass to disappear. This is definitely a nitpick though, as the actual music here is quite intriguing and memorable, and I’m truly hoping that Stawrogin goes from “session vocalist” to “full-time member,” as his screams and singing help make Ghost Chants the memorable jaunt that it is.

After a rather lackluster beginning, 2015 is really coming into its own with quality releases just four months into the year. Outre dropped an impressive debut here in Ghost Chants. If you want your blackened meal with a dash of progressive seasonings, this is it. And if you’ve already spent a ton of money just these past two months alone on quality releases, well, I apologize to you and your wallet.

Rating: 4.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 319 kbps mp3
Labels: Godz ov War Productions | Third Eye Temple | Essential Purification Records
Websites: OutreOfficial | Facebook.com/Outre
Release Date: Out Worldwide 04.14.2015

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Minnesota’s medieval enthusiasts Obsequiae emerged from the ashes of Autumnal Winds and created an immediate impact in the underground metal scene with their exhilarating debut Suspended in the Brume of Eos. The album was a finely composed tapestry of pagan/folk influences, enchanting medieval melodies and raspier black metal elements that was a mystical, haunting and extremely catchy listening experience. Now nearly four years following the debut, the trio of Tanner Anderson (guitars, bass, vocals), drummer Andrew Della Cagna and Spanish musician Vicente La Camera Mariño have written a monumental follow-up that takes their musical vision to its next logical progression, while retaining the qualities that made Suspended such an exciting triumph. No stone has been left unturned in the expert craftmanship of Aria of Vernal Tombs, clearly defining the artistic growth the band has shown during the intervening years between albums.

The trademark folk melodies waltz in perfect harmony with Obsequiae’s earthy and melodic black metal roots, enriching their music with stronger melodies and tighter musicianship. Mariño’s use of a medieval harp is beautifully integrated, complimenting the band’s continual progression during carefully orchestrated passages and sombre interludes like opener “Ay Que Por Muy Gran Fremosura” and penultimate track “Des Oge Mais Quer Eu Trobar.” His expert use of the instrument adds further authenticity to Obsequiae’s medieval-rooted vision, enhancing the aged feel and mystical atmosphere of the album. However, the robust beating heart of the Obsequiae sound is once again represented by Anderson’s mesmerizing guitar melodies. His triumphant and intricate leads and harmonies course through the album in all their emotive and catchy glory, bringing a ray of hope to the album’s dreary tone and enlivening the mostly mid-tempo gallop of the material. Anderson’s memorable guitar work is expertly fleshed out by warm bass harmonies and tight and expressive drumming which favors nuance over one-dimensional blasting. It’s a winning combination that sounds all the more confident and evolved on this assured second outing.

Everything on Aria of Vernal Tombs sounds more sophisticated without losing the feverish energy and excitement Obsequiae generated on their debut.  Beyond the song-writing advancements, Obsequaie have matured and solidified into a far more confident unit, even down to the smaller details such as song pacing and album sequencing. And while the black metal elements conjure up images of enchanted forests and eerie shadows distorted by piercing rays of sunlight, rather than corpse painted loonies riding horseback through snowy battlefields, the album certainly doesn’t skimp on the heavy. Instead Obsequiae rely more on emotional weight, smart dynamics and alternately bleak and uplifting melodies to engage the listener.

Wide in scope and featuring impressive song-writing dynamics, Aria of Vernal Tombs is a remarkably consistent collection that works best as an album experience, with each song standing tall when isolated individually as well. Anderson’s hoarse, echoing rasps bleed emotion and despair on the bleak march of “Pools of Vernal Paradise,” a stellar tune that intertwines all the signature Obsequiae song-writing ingredients into one epic and harrowing journey. The sombre tones of “Autumnal Pyre,” anchored by heart-wrenching melodies and bursts of speed, and the dirgey march and serpentine guitar and bass harmonies of closer “Orphic Rites of the Mystic” are just a couple of notable highlights on an album full of memorable moments and top-notch song-writing. Folk metal often gets suffocated by excess layers of cheese and bombast but Obsequaie sidestep typical genre pitfalls with strong blackened overtones and a harsher vocal approach to compliment their hypnotic brand of dark metal. I’m struggling to find any significant drawbacks here, with the sonic improvements also worthy of high praise. Although not as raw or dynamic as its predecessor, Aria of Vernal Tombs features a far richer, fuller sound with warm organic tones and an uncluttered mix.

Aria of Vernal Tombs represents a supreme example of how to retain the core values of a well received debut, while strengthening and progressing an established formula without severing the crucial threads that drew listeners in to begin with. There’s been a number of turds masquerading as art forms floating around the AMG Offices of late, dutifully exposed and taken down by some of our esteemed writers. Thankfully Obsequaie have crafted a majestic album to extinguish the stench and realign the trajectory.

Rating: 4.5 /5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: 20 Buck Spin
Websites: ObsequiaeOfficial | Facebook.com/Obsequiae
Release Dates: EU: 2015.05.11 | NA: 05.26.2015

The post Obsequiae – Aria of Vernal Tombs Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

Pyramaze is a tough nut to crack and an even tougher one to anticipate or graft expectations onto. They released two very well done platters of crisp progressive power metal with Lance King at the helm in the early 2000s, the latter of which, Legend of the Bone Carver, ended up one of my favorite albums of the decade. When Lance left, they acquired the mighty Matt Barlow of Iced Earth fame and released the far heavier, very Iced Earthy Immortal. Then they fell silent and despite rumors of this singer or that joining the fold, no new material was forthcoming. Now, seven years later they finally reemerge from the Danish hinterlands with a new album, new guitarist and a new singer. But what do they sound like after so much time away? Like a completely different band, that’s what. Disciples of the Sun has very little in common with their past, aside from still falling into the prog-power genre generally. Gone is the heavy crunch of Immortal and the Euro-power frills of Legends, and in their place is something akin to recent Anubis Gate and Pagan’s Mind mixed with traces of indie rock. Regardless of how you categorize it, this is an absolutely brilliant slab of hooky prog-power and easily one of the best albums of 2015. Go figure.

Had someone played this for me without telling me who it was, there’s zero chance I’d think it was Pyramaze, and I’d have guessed it was Anubis Gate. And with guest appearances by member of said band and the addition of a former member into their ranks, it’s not surprising that songs like opener “The Battle of Parides” deliver the same kind of straight-ahead, vaguely proggy power with heavy guitar riffs accentuated by tasteful, twinkling keys and slickly smooth vocal harmonies courtesy of new front man Terje Haroy. It’s that perfect mix between technical and memorable that few bands besides Threshold can pull off, but pull it off they do and every song here nails the formula like they invented the damn thing.

The title track shimmers with moody and regal purpose, building up to an emotionally satisfying chorus and the music is very similar to what Pagan’s Mind did on their Heavenly Ecstasy outing with little traces of Evergrey‘s trademarked sadness mixed in. “Fearless” is a standout on an album of standouts; simple and direct in its approach with a great chorus where Terje’s vocals really pop. Other big moments come with the melancholy of “Perfectly Imperfect,” the darker edge of “Exposure” and the very Anubis Gate-ish mega-moody but disastrously named closer “Photograph” (look at this photograph!).

All the songs are written to stick in the mental crawlspaces you can never fully clear out, and stick they do. This is an album that gets better every time it’s played and soon enough it has you in its clutches. There’s the perfect mix of heavy, technical and melodic running through all the songs and there isn’t a sour note to be found over the album’s 52 minute runtime. That’s quite a rare feat.

Long-time guitarist Toke Skjonnemand is joined by new axe Jacob Hansen (Beyond Twilight, ex-Anubis Gate), and though I’m a little bummed Hansen isn’t singing as he did with Anubis Gate since he has an amazing voice, he certainly brings a lot to the guitar tandem. There’s an endless supply of fluid, techy solo work and highly memorable harmonies on display throughout the album and they surely know how to impress. The same can be said for Terje Haroy. His vocals are powerful and appropriately soaring, but offbeat enough to give the material extra character. It’s easy to imagine him singing in an indie or alternative rock act like Circa Survive and his delivery is a bit unusual at times, but that only makes things more interesting.

The more I listen to Disciples, the more their progression reminds me of how Pagan’s Mind evolved, incorporating ideas from metalcore and pop into their prog-power template. It worked for them, but it works even better for Pyramaze. They may compulsively shift styles, but this is a band with a winning track record and this is another victory for the Great Danes. Hell, I think they’d even sound good with Gilbert Gottfried singing for them. Hear this album, especially if you love Anubis Gate.

Rating: 4.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 192 kbps mp3
Label: Inner Wound Recordings
Websites: pyramaze.com | facebook.com/Pyramaze
Release Dates: 2015.05.22 | NA: 05.26.2015

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Near the end of Disney’s Ratatouille there’s a climactic scene during which the harsh, scrupulous restaurant critic Anton Ego (personality modelled, clearly, after AMG’s staff) savours the best ratatouille he’s ever had. Overwhelmed by the tastes and flavors that transport him back to his childhood, he’s left altogether dumbfounded with his usual negativity utterly dismantled. In a way, that’s the effect Amestigon’s Thier had on me. But before I begin explaining why exactly this record is as good as it is, two questions linger: who are these guys and where have they come from? While the band members are shrouded by a veil of trve metal mystery, what we do know is that Amestigon is a long-lived, low-key Austrian outfit born out of the minds of legends of the black metal scene (Tharen and Thurisaz from Abigor), and at certain pointsincluded other distinguished musicians such as Silenius from Summoning. More of a project than a full-time band and having published only one album in 20 years (the good but unremarkable Sun of All Suns from 2010), I wouldn’t have bet on them to produce something that could very well end up being one of the best releases of the year.

But here we are. Thier is a near-perfectly crafted record combining all the finest stuff found in melodic black metal through the ages, both old school and modern. Think Dissection’s Somberlain and Naglfar’s Vittra but with a decidedly modern approach. While these throwbacks are obvious, they come natural to the band and don’t feel derivative. The subtly introduced traces of doom, post-metal, Agallochian progressiveness, and experimentalism (title track’s middle section) alongside magnificent riffs and grooves prove to be crucial tools the band uses in their exemplary songwriting, evoking some of Enslaved’s most accomplished works.

While malevolent in its message and approach, Thier unfurls like a beautiful album since Amestigon don’t resort to cynicism, abrasiveness, nor coarseness. Like a pool of the blackest water, threatening and frightening, a dive into it’s depths can feel strangely comforting all the same. This might be due to their sound which is full, warm, and welcoming; easy to absorb and be absorbed into right from the first listen. There’s none of the snobbery or intentional hermeticism associated with contemporary metal acts, even if the relative lengthiness might indicate so. A potential downfall – an hour of music distributed among four tracks spanning from 10 to 20 minutes – that the band turns in their favour by weaving well-thought out and interesting structures with transitions from “aggressive” to “subdued” and back, executed masterfully and with a wonderful sense of flow. All of that and exactly zero seconds of boredom or repetitiveness.

The opening “Demiurg” is the best track here and one of the best songs I’ve heard all year. The combination of ever-changing, melodic tremolos that lay bare an atmospheric, synth-underlined mood with growls and choral chanting is deeply touching; majestic, chilling, and empowering in a strange way. Whilst a midtempo song in general, there are bursts of speed and great solos rounding out everything. Possibly the only downside to this album emerges from the fact that the following three tracks, “358,” “Thier,” and “Hochpolung,” don’t quite reach the heights of “Demiurg.” Nonetheless, they’re exceptional on their own and rely on the same formula without actually sounding formulaic.

How Amestigon accomplish that task and how they manage to conceive so many memorable and catchy riffs, alternating between them while leading to perfectly timed buildups and spectacular releases, without ever weighting down on the listener remains a mystery. The guitarist(s) are clearly the stars here, but the vocals, drumming, and bass-playing are all of the highest calibre and are often accentuated by the compressed yet somehow very appropriate production. It’s especially the bass that feels crucial to the encompassing warmth, whether providing nuances and textures or having it’s own, meatier flesh. Finally, if it was not clear by now, there’s a severe lack of serious flaws here – and it’s not because I didn’t look for them.

The experience of discovering albums like this make the effort of sifting through piles and piles of mediocre releases feel worthwhile. Amestigon deserve exposure and heaps of praise. They even make me want to stop people on the street and yell about Thier to their faces. I hope the guys are aware what a great record they’ve created and I truly hope that there’s more from them to come.

Rating: 4.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 200 kbps mp3
Label: World Terror Committee
Websites: AmestigonOfficial | Facebook.com/Amestigon
Release Dates: Out Worldwide: 05.28.2015

The post Amestigon – Thier Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

The newly devised Angry Metal Guy forums, in collaboration with the great guys at Metal-Fi, have had very mixed results. On the one hand, I now have a place where I can discuss metal with people from all walks of life – rather than just my superfluous IRL ‘friends’ whose metal credibility crashed and burned when they thought Bullet For My fucking Valentine was kvlt, a great ‘underground’ discovery. On the other, it has been apocalyptic for my productivity and bank balance. It goes to show the great diversity of music which regretfully flies under the AMG radar and reinforces the point made by Steel Druhm that we have a great fucking readership. Though some disagree (notably Kronos the miserable bastard), this had already been a stellar year for music prior to the forum’s establishment. Now that it’s here, I can only curse Refined Iron Cranium for further condemning my pauper monetary status.

Sleep at the Edge of the Earth is imperious. Boston’s Wilderun have crafted something so majestic that I can already confidently assert that it will be jostling for first place in my Top 10 o’ 2015. Heavy, melodic and symphonic, yet more than the sum of its parts, Sleep at the Edge is an Opethian metal album, but with grandiose orchestrations and a healthy wedge of Turisas folk. I have AMG’s explicit blessing to compose a “gushy” review, and fair warning: gush I shall.

Despite the very slick execution which ensures the material immediately sinks its hooks into the listener, there’s a lot to consume and consider with this album. It subtly coalesces extremity, classical and folk, genres which aren’t necessarily subtle themselves, leaving an overarching grace which transcends the grandeur of its composite parts. I cannot overstate how excellently the orchestrations are integrated, elevating the metal instrumentation to new heights without supplanting the core. The symphonic spectrum is utilized, from brass on “And So Opens the Earth” and “Bite The Wound,” through wind on “The Means to Preserve,” to strings on every track, even reaching a harp on “Linger.” The album reaches its heavy apex with “The Garden of Fire,” the opening to which leaves little room for doubts over Wilderun‘s metal cred. Evan Berry’s growls resonate with savage intensity, while his cleans are appropriately emotive. His phrasing and delivery on “Linger” evoke Mikael Åkerfeldt so convincingly that one could almost be persuaded he performed guest vocals. So while not exactly original, this testifies to Berry’s conviction and execution.

Moreover, the diversity of sounds and textures never feels extraneous or redundant. The song-writing is incredibly precise such that the album avoids stagnation. I frequently criticize records for overly-exuberant editors but there’s not a second here that I’d rather wasn’t. Everything fits together like an elaborate puzzle, carefully arranged via Pro Tools rather than the shitty jigsaws of Venetian flower markets you used to receive from your gran (just me?). Wilderun demonstrate great dynamic awareness in their constructions, with progressive songs and logical structures which ensure the aggressive peaks and subtle troughs are accentuated. The juxtaposition of “The Garden of Fire” with “Linger” at the core of the album is brilliant in this regard, twinning the heaviest track with one of the lightest.

Though it’s clear that Sleep at the Edge functions brilliantly as a collective, an album which flows within itself, no song is contingent on another for meaning or quality. Each is memorable, even the understated conclusion which could easily have been a forgettable classical piece to frame the core. It’s the calm after the cacophonous conclusion to the prior track, and it’s absolutely gorgeous. Particular note also has to go to “The Garden of Fire:” its opening sounds like unwritten material from Ghost Reveries, including what would have been one of the record’s star riffs. Indeed, the supreme clean vocal transition at 0:47 of “The Faintest Echo” has recalled me far too many times and foregrounds another great song. But one could easily defend almost any track as the best and they wouldn’t be wrong (aside from the fact that no opinion can be correct or incorrect).

The album sounds good too. I accessed an ALAC copy via Bandcamp which is appropriately rich in detail. The mixing balances affairs expertly, giving priority to the particular instrument carrying the focal melody while allowing other instrumentation to flesh out the compositions and augment harmony. I really am nit-picking when I say this since it sounds more generous than its dynamic range of 7, but a fuller range would better distinguish individual tones and afford further refinement for which Wilderun evidently strives. There isn’t much more I can say which hasn’t already vehemently spewed forth from my frothy, gnashing mouth, but you owe it to yourself as a fan of heavy metal to own this. Time will tell if my opinion ticks over into the hallowed halls of 5.0/5.0 (if White Wizzard can make it, so can Wilderun), but I really love Sleep at the Edge.

Rating: 4.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 16-bit ALAC
Label: Self-Released
Websites: WilderunOfficial | Facebook.com/Wilderun
Release Dates: Worldwide: 04.07.2015

The post Wilderun – Sleep at the Edge of the Earth Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

Detroit’s The Armed caught fire in 2012 with their second EP, Spreading Joy and haven’t lost momentum since then; successive years have seen EPs, splits, and singles, but until now an LP has been elusive. Now we know why. This LP, left untitled, is an out-of-left-field insurgency, absolutely decimating the group’s previous output and reinventing the mosh-friendly and hard-hitting mathcore that made “Cop Friends” and “Sterling Results” smash skulls and wreck cervicals. It’s hell and a half in a handbasket doused in kerosene, with even more noise and a healthy dose of Dillinger Escape Plan, despite the four years since Chris Penne’s work with the group on Spreading Joy.

While the album opens with a barrage of manic and inventive hardcore reminiscent of a more sane – and hornless – Idylls, it’s the seventh song, “Dead Actress” that will absolutely floor you. The Armed throw a genius wrench into the works halfway through the LP and go all “One of Us Is The Killer.” “Dead Actress” doesn’t reinvent the wheel – it opts to leave the road entirely. Its abruptly soothing entry completely blindsides you every time. Never did I expect to see this level of melody and suspense from a group that usually produces the soundtrack to an arson. This level of jazzy melody hasn’t been seen since “I Steal What I Want” and boy has it been sorely missed. “Polarizer” continues to amaze with its polyrhythmic synth leads and midtempo crooning sandwiching typically obscene guitar work.

It’s all uphill from there. “Ender” dips halfway through in order to introduce the group’s feedback obsession to a piano and the two become fast friends, smoothly (in the loosest sense of the word) setting up the surf-rock tinted “No Risk” and reuniting in “Issachar” for another crack at Farewell All Joy-styled miscreancy. For all of their Dillinger-inspired switchups, you’d think The Armed would come off as derivative, but in fact the opposite is true; they’re much more punk-rooted than the aforementioned, making heavy use of gang shouts, d-beats, and simple chord progressions.

And speaking of D-beats, the group’s recruitment of Baptists drummer Nick Yacyshyn couldn’t be more appropriate. His explosive performances perfectly compliment the group’s wild-card riffing, and he’s able to hold down the fort even when the brake lines are cut. Equally commendable is Kurt Ballou’s gritty but impeccably balanced production job, although I must say this album might have been more fun if it were just a bit dirtier. But with the second half of the album’s focus on melody and experimentation, the slightly sandpapered approach makes sense, even if it smooths over a bit of character.

Once you’ve spun through the LP once, the first half starts to make more and more sense; it’s about tricking you into thinking that the band is out of tricks and content by delivering variations on Spreading Joy. But if you listen again, the foreshadowing post-hardcore melodies of “Nervewrecker” and the ‘ripped straight from The Physics House Band‘ bassline of “Blessings” should have instantly told you something was up.

After years of waiting, The Armed have dropped on a hungry but unsuspecting fanbase a debut that stuns with its balance of maturity and true-to-form street urchin angst, and in typical fashion for the band, it’s available free of charge and, of course, context. Members yet again chose namelessness and present their work behind a puzzling David Bowie impersonation and a puff of smoke, sans title, calling to mind the blindfolded, alligator-holding man gracing the cover of their split with Tharsis They. The Armed present themselves in a laconic fashion, so it’s my job to tell you what they won’t. This album will fucking wreck you.

Rating: 4.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: Lossless FLAC
Label: No Rest Until Ruin
Website: TheArmedOfficial | Facebook.com/TheArmed
Release Dates: EU: 2015.07.03 | NA: 07.10.2015

The post The Armed – Untitled Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

The pushed envelope is licked shut with the tongue of pretense; the understated, the conceptual, and the bizarre find friends and conduits in those few artists with both the talent and the intrepidity to wrestle their muses in their hour of greatest strength. Picasso, Rothko, Pollock and their ilk of 20th century visionaries spilled their paint and blood to destroy the boundaries of visual art, and in that avant-garde tradition, many metal musicians have found a guiding light, a beacon of utter blackness in a starry night sky. For the past two years, my “Album of the Year” honor has gone to albums that clawed at the seams of extreme metal; while imperfect, they represented a rare glimpse at the technicolor darkness trapped perpetually beyond the horizon of the genre. It’s too early to call 2015, which I must say has piddled forth only a dilute stream of quality metal; but I can say without doubt that this album is a contender.

Much like the previous paragraph, A Tunnel to Eden is pretentious. It’s philosophical – the second song is entitled “The Atheist Phenomenon” – dramatic, and ends with a half-hour suite of songs that attempt to encompass the entirety of a human life and the delusion of free will. It makes frequent references to Abrahamic tradition while decrying the very existence of God. But it’s good. A Tunnel to Eden took every risk possible to achieve an epic scope and each one paid dividends.

Alustrium‘s sophomore offering, A Tunnel to Eden synthesizes disparate influences into something new yet achingly familiar, paying heed to their forebears in Death and Atheist while incorporating flourishes only possible after melodeath’s bloating in the 2000s. The band wisely sidesteps outright tech-death while remaining virtuosic and inventive, weaving complex strands of rhythm and melody in the vein of Dark Tranquility‘s Damage Done and Character albums. If Between the Buried and Me spent less time examining the finer details of their navels, they would be writing this kind of music. Every song A Tunnel to Eden offers is just about flawless, starting with the opening title track.

Not since Teethed Glory and Injury has an opener grabbed me as much as “A Tunnel to Eden.” With its heart-wrenching lyrics of alienation and a search for self-discovery, the stage is set for the album’s ambitious and introspective lyrical concepts, which prove consistently excellent and well-delivered by the band’s trio of vocal contributors, led by frontman Jerry Martin. It’s not just the lyrics that impress here; the album’s riffs are fantastic, flaunting a heavy Gothenburg influence while diving into the brutal when needed, as on the snappy “The Atheist Phenomenon.” Almost every cut features guitar solos and wailing leads that manage to be complex and interesting while lacking even a hint of self-indulgence. Even the long and complicated leads in “My Possessor,” which recall some of Psycroptic‘s recent work, flow effortlessly from point to distant point, connecting heavy chugs to an airy Cynic-inspired solo section, complete with fusion drumming and that arpeggio from “Hotel California.”

The second half of A Tunnel to Eden is the 30-minute ‘Illusion of Choice’ suite, made up of the album’s longest and most ambitious songs (“Genesis,” “Eros,” and “Thanatos”), arriving after the beautiful mid-album instrumental “Lucid Intervals.” These stretch out the runtime of the album past what I normally consider appropriate – bringing the total length far past the hour mark. They truly are a worthy addition, but one wonders why the band chose to put all of this into one album, rather than designating it a double LP or two separate works. The ‘Choice’ suite utilizes the same kaleidoscopic palette as the rest of the album and isn’t thematically different, yet it would have been more impactful to hear the two separately. Luckily, they’re well-proportioned to act as functionally separate discs.

This may very well be 2015’s best prog-death album, and Alustrium the best up-and-coming “traditional” progressive death metal band  in years. While not as jaw-dropping as Beyond Creation or as innovative – or anywhere near as dark – as Ulcerate and their nascent ilk, the band are obviously fantastic writers and performers, and A Tunnel to Eden is truly epic and inspired. Its middle-of-the-road approach might seem vanilla, but holy hell have they put a lot of sauce and jimmies on the cone – and it shows no signs of melting soon. It’s one of the year’s best releases, period, is chock-full of righteous God-denyin’ lyrics that would make Richard Dawkins bang his head, and has the prettiest album cover since Ecdysis; a whole orchard of forbidden fruits with the friendliest snakes around.

Rating: 4.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 160 kbps mp3
Label: Self-Released
Websites:  AlustriumOfficial | alustriumofficial.bandcamp.com
Release Dates: Out Worldwide: 07.24.2015

The post Alustrium – A Tunnel to Eden Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

The last time I put meat in my fridge was three months ago when I had to store a turtle carcass until I could properly preserve it. At parties I stand by the recycling bin and cuss at people who try to put their beer cans in the trash. Whenever I see a disaster movie I not-so-secretly root against the humans. I’m just short of buying carbon offsets for my own respiration. I think Cattle Decapitation is the coolest band on the entire planet. Not only do they perform some of the tightest deathgrind conceivable, not only is Travis Ryan the most spectacularly vulgar windpipe since Chalky (what ever happened to Mephistopheles?), and not only do they write the catchiest extreme metal around, but I’m infatuated with the group’s uncompromisingly anti-human rhetoric and omnicidal fantasies. Monolith of Inhumanity saw the group turn from their grisly vegan-core style towards a more universally disparaging and diverse set of lyrical and musical ideals, and ended up as one of 2012’s most enduring records. With choice cuts such as “A Living, Breathing, Defecating Piece of Meat,” and the spectacular “Dead Set on Suicide” powering its assault on both one’s senses and moral center, the album is something I’d consider a modern classic and the pinnacle of the genre. Logically, by Angry Metal Guy’s Law of Diminishing Recordings, The Anthropocene Extinction will not be as good.

It can’t be as good as Monolith of Inhumanity but I’ve listened to it a half-dozen times since this morning. It must be inferior, despite how immediately one feels the need to belt out “We’ll fucking die tonight/ and that’s perfectly all right with me” at the end of “The Prophets of Loss.” The album is necessarily second-rate, yet somehow my memory of “The Carbon Stampede” has crumbled under the pressure of “Not Suitable For Life.” Unless Cattle Decapitation have somehow beat the system, The Antrhopocene Extinction just can’t equal its predecessor.

For those who, like I, expected this album to obey known laws, Travis Ryan has some choice words; “Fuck your system and fuck your decision.” The Anthropocene Extinction looks Monolith in the eye and dares it to offer protest. Once again, the world’s angriest quartet of tofu-inhaling Californians produced a near-flawless album. It’s a wholly different beast, exploring mid-tempo grooves (which would be full-throttle for other bands) and melodic choruses in ways that Monolith of Inhumanity only dabbled in. As previously mentioned, the album really kicks in with “The Prophets of Loss” which recalls fond memories of “The Carbon Stampede” until its down-tempo double bass-infested ending hook. Smoothing out the transition into “Plagueborne” is a simplistic noise beat that Tristan Shone could follow with litigation; but despite the song’s doomy intro it’s still a sprint and a half for Dave McGraw who proves himself continuously capable behind the kit.

If there’s one reason to fault this album, it’s the performances, which are impeccable but a tad more restrained than fans would expect. Travis Ryan still spans a good three or maybe four octaves of gurgles and shrieks, but his range isn’t as noticeable on this release despite a ton of double-tracked vocal harmonies. Likewise, Josh Elmore has dialed back the guitar acrobatics; there’s very little gristle-licking sweep-picking here. Maybe he’s trying to take good care of that gorgeous Cardinal Instruments guitar he can occasionally be seen cradling onstage.

In true Cattle Decap/Metal Blade/everyone fashion, the album is loud, although it sounds excellent and is quite listenable even at a disappointing DR5. I’m not asking for an Ecdysis-style level of mastering perfection (what a world that would be), but something with a little more headroom – like the last Origin record – would greatly improve the impact of the record’s slammier sections.

In league with Meshuggah‘s Koloss, Gojira‘s L’enfant Sauvage or even Leprous‘s Coal, The Anthropocene Extinction sees a band distilling their formula and reigning themselves in to create a less groundbreaking but more cohesive work. The album’s emphasis on atmosphere, narrative, and above all Travis Ryan’s lyrics and delivery, both of which are unparalleled in the genre, is truly laudable and while the songs themselves aren’t quite as distinctive as the incredible collection from Monolith of Inhumainty, The Antrhopocene Extinction remains an incredibly compelling listening experience and the most quotable extreme metal album in recent memory. The band’s mix of slam, grind, black metal and misanthropy in the strictest sense is still the premiere poison for picking, ingesting, and lying bloated on an oil-covered beach. If you don’t buy this album, myself, Smokey the Bear, and Captain Planet will show up at your house with some choice words. And claws.

Rating: 4.5/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Metal Blade
Websites: Facebook.com/CattleDecapitation
Release Dates: Out Worldwide 08.07.2015

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Longtime readers may recall the genesis of my infatuation with Hope Drone in late 2014 when I featured them on the very first Sampling Bias (um, yeah I’ll do another one of those sometime) which covered the proud continent of Australia. I lauded their self-titled debut as “”possibly the most devastatingly nihilistic recording I’ve ever heard, both instrumentally and lyrically.“” That’s in double-quotes because it’s pulled from the Relapse press release that referenced our little anger-hole [angerquarium? angerena? – AMG] when the label signed the band just about a month after that post. So you could say the band owes me. They owe me a new album, at the least.

So naturally they gave both me and you the equivalent of two. Cloak of Ash should by all rights get immediately panned because it’s close to 80 minutes long. If you’ve never listened to Hope Drone before, the best approximation of their style would be Deafheaven if Deafheaven‘s Kerry McCoy had ever listened to metal before and the core of the band stepped out of the monstrous shadow of their own navels. Which I really hope happens sometime. Until then the Californian typeface salesmen [and Apple spokesmen – AMG] will remain overshadowed by a growing storm to the South, which brings us towards a more meaningful descriptor; a less pert analysis of Hope Drone reaches for the word ‘elemental.’ Cloak of Ash is that. Each fractal spark of a song crackles across the aural skybox, cast off from the forge as the hammers of entropy strike with deterministic indifference the rigid substrate of reality, eroding it grain by grain.

Like Ulcerate, Hope Drone build their empire of dirt from the perspective of a mountain looking down across the innumerable sand castles of human civilization. Cloak of Ash is as uncompromisingly bleak and indifferent as Hope Drone and even more fearless. The band’s ambition is truly remarkable; not only is this album massively long, it puts its most challenging material first, beginning with the 20 minute storm of “Endless Gray.” Denser and noisier than any previous material, the song drifts between endlessly echoing polyphonic guitar lines and the group’s unmistakable doom riffs and choking haboobs of tremolo-picked guitar and unrelenting percussion. Noise plays a much greater role in this record than it did in Hope Drone, whether from the indecipherably distorted bass tone, the enveloping reverb from amps recorded in rooms that sound dozens of stories high, or the tidal ebbs of pure noise that thicken each moment of sound.

And each moment of sound is incredible. Within the first moment of “Chords that Thrum Beneath the Earth” I had already surrendered money for a vinyl copy of Cloak. The production of the album is reminiscent of Colin Marston’s work with Rosetta but with a thousand times more noise and pure sound. Cloak of Ash appears to have been co-mixed by the band and Chris Brownbill at Sun Distortion in Queensland, and the recording and mixing of the album are beyond reproach; absolutely organic, noisy, and hopeless.

Cloak of Ash is just short of perfection. Were it not for “Every End Is Fated in Its Beginning,” which for some reason pales in comparison to the rest of the album, and especially to its neighboring songs, The album itself would be beyond a shadow of a doubt the year’s best so far, and even with this blemish it’s going to be crushing many a hope come year-end.

Drone at its most effective aesthetically resembles smothering oneself with a Rothko canvas. Cloak of Ash completes the experience with a tributary pool of arterial blood and eponymous dusting of tephra. The fate of every tear shed while enveloped in its veil becomes so incredibly clear; the water will evaporate, leaving everything that made it once a part of you behind; each molecule will blunder towards stoic nonexistence in anonymity. You will be left alone again with only yourself and your envy for the blissful unconsciousness of the thing. Hope Drone drowns you in a vast awareness of your own impossible burden of existence, suffocating you under tides of impossibly dense, churning guitar tone. Art such as this is dangerous because of how completely it creates and disintegrates desire; a desire for meaning broached with the purest hope and utmost trepidation and flattened by eons of senseless storm. It is the festering splinter of nihilism that we all try to bandage, but every jolt and jab bleeds the nervous fact of its continued mephitic existence. We are reveling and drowning in man’s failure to overcome. You will know it when you hear it.

Rating: 4.5/5.0
DR:6 | Format Reviewed: 320kbps mp3
Label: Relapse Records
Websites: facebook.com/HopeDrone
Releases Worldwide: July 24th, 2015

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The heavy metal scene has spent some time in recent years navel gazing. With every new “wave” that crawls out of the scene’s belly button, there’s one common trait: they’re fundamentally referential. Be it re-thrash, retro Swedish death, retro doom (omg staaahp), and even orthodox black metal, these waves aren’t about doing something new, they’re about making backward-looking music, with the aim of touching the essence of something perceived to be lost. Unfortunately, things that haven’t been doing this in recent years are scenes everyone feels uncomfortable with (generally -core) and these get labelled “modern metal.” So when a band genuinely sounds modern, but isn’t -core, labeling gets hard. And let’s face the facts: Angry Metal Guys need to label, it’s the life blood of this blog and of the reviewing arm of the metal industry.

Trials‘ lucky third record—This Ruined World—poses a problem: it’s tough to label. It is at its core a modern thrash album—and I don’t mean -core, seriously—with few peers and little grounds for reference in 2015. And Trials has been growing into this for some time. While I enjoyed the debut album Witness to the Downfall, I was floored by 2013’s In the Shadow of Swords, which hit the #3 spot on my Top 10(ish) of 2013, and which still ranks as one of the best records I’ve heard in the last 5 years. So This Ruined World comes with a world of expectations.

Trials lives up to the challenge of my heightened expectations by delivering unexpected twists, while keeping an iron-clad fist clenched around the essence of their strength: vicious riffs, slick songwriting, and immense presence. This Ruined World distinguishes itself from the opening salvos through its unique production. Hardly a lo-fi production job, the album still sports a raw, trashy sound. The drums, with splashy symbols and a snare that borders on too loud and too raw, are the lynch pin on which fat (not just audible!) bass and grindy guitar tones rest. Vokillist (get it?) Mark Sugar’s screams add a frenzied layer on top of the whole thing. The best comparison in tone is The Great Southern Trendkill from Pantera; scrappy, raw, heavy and tough. Y’know, like it’s heavy metal or something.

The writing on this record isn’t a huge departure from In the Shadow of Swords, exactly, but there’s a sense of adventure and experimentation on This Ruined World that was not one of the defining features of its predecessor. While Trials is unmistakably a thrash band—with all the triplets, Testament riffs and palm muting that entails—the record is littered with sick riff after inventive lick, and the best part is that they enthrall and surprise. The lead (“Gremlins II”) by Ryan “Still the New Guy” Bruchert and Morbid Angel vibe in opener “Truth Defiled” offsets groove riffing and feeds into one of the coolest dual harmonies ever featured on a metal record (adorably entitled “Tango and Thrash”). “Don’t Believe the Word” features fantastic dissonance and groove and is simultaneously hooky and uncomfortable. The chorus (eh?) on “Beat the System to Death” rocks an inventive melody and a near punk rock intensity, while the verses blast out at 90 miles an hour. And the title track features the sickest Morbid Angel riff since Formulas Fatal to the Flesh on the chorus.

Trials isn’t all thrash riffs, though. As the commercials of my youth were always reminding me, every rocker has a soft side. This makes rare appearances, but I loved the Opeth-homage on “Inheritance,” the proggy bridge on “Blink of an Eye,” and Mark’s baritone croon litters tracks to great effect on tracks like “Digging My Own Grave” and “This Ruined World.” Unlike a lot of bands who fall into a formula of dropping cleans into the chorus, and screaming over verses, Trials never follows a mold, instead letting songs dictate the vocals. And the band’s melodic side goes hand-in-hand with an elite sense of melody that lands these guys with the Bay Area and Gothenburg greats, without ever feeling derivative.

For me, the biggest weakness is that this album could sound even better if it weren’t as loud as it is. Given the quality of the tone and sound, I’m not sure how having more room to breathe for the bass and drums would hurt This Ruined World. One can argue—as they do—that for their sound to work, they want the record loud and dense, but I disagree. Still, for what it is, the production on this record is good. I love the tone and the whole spectrum of how the instruments work together. The trashy sound gives the album a live feel that is a nice shift away from Industry Standards™, without delving into the DIY sound of un-tuned guitars and one-take vocal tracks that is increasingly popular in the underground.

As a total package This Ruined World is an excellent record. The songs on here are razor sharp, tightly edited, written to be dense, technical, and immense—and it’s the balance Trials strikes between chugging intensity, harmony, dissonance and a fine understanding of dynamics in all the right places which makes this album stand out. I don’t know if these guys are harbingers of a new wave of metal that’s unapologetically interested in cutting the bullshit and writing great songs, or if they’re just a fluke in a wave of stoned kids with bell bottoms and bad mustaches. But whatever they are, I think we should all take a moment to appreciate just how good This Ruined World is and how good Trials is getting.

Rating: 4.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s CBR mp3
Label: Unsigned
Websites: trials.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/trialsmusic
Releases Worldwide: July 24th, 2015

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If you consider yourself a fan of extreme metal and don’t know the name “S. Vrath,” congratulations, because you’ve got some great listening ahead of you. Emerging in force with Scythian’s debut To Those Who Stand Against Us… in 2009, Vrath has fingerprints all over the place, serving as the driving force behind Craven Idol ‘s vicious Towards Eschaton debut in 2013, along with working as a member of Crom Dubh, Sepulchral Temple, and numerous underground projects. I suppose it’s not much of a surprise it’s taken nearly six years for us to get Hubris In Excelsis, Scythian’s long-awaited sophomore album. Working in earnest since around 2012, Vrath stated it was his intent to “absolutely destroy” the debut, but To Those was a beast of an album – death-thrash that was primal, huge in scope, and savagely catchy. Can Hubris match that fervor, or…

…actually, I’ll cut the crap. Yes, Hubris lives up to the debut. And then some. In fact, it’s difficult to find any issues here whatsoever. In today’s metal landscape, where genre tags feel increasingly meaningless as bands endlessly cross-pollinate from subgenre to subgenre, Scythian is one of the brightest beacons of light. A gnashing-teeth blend of death, thrash, and black metal, with whiffs of the best elements of other fine artists: the intellectually primed thrash of Ares Kingdom, the triumphant grandeur of Deströyer 666, and the unhinged aggression of Angelcorpse. Whereas To Those was a solid album that was largely lost in the haze of 2009’s other great releases. Hubris lives up to its name as a boisterous statement of intent, brimming with spunk, ire, and bombast, and garnished by lyrics that flirt with topics as broad as Nietzschean philosophy and dark ecology.

Right from the onset, the monklike choirs and desolate acoustic strumming that augment opener “Beyond the Dust” and early highlight “Apocalyptic Visions” help attain a larger-than-life, almost biblical feel. It’s an effect furthered by the blazing leads that seem crammed into every free measure. The riffing is no slouch either. Take the frantic Melecheshian lead that propels the verses of the title track, the predatory progression and twisted tremolo riff of “Three Stigmata,” or the beat shift that makes the closing of “Penultimate Truth, Ultimate Deceit” feel downright colossal.

But ever since Death’s “Crystal Mountain” made my nipples hard circa 2008, I’ve always felt that one of the signs of a truly great album is how it saves its best moments for the second half, and that’s certainly true here. “The Laws…” apexes with a riff that’s the aural equivalent of getting sliced by a scimitar, while closer “Dystopia” lopes along with a subdued sense of melody in its verses before the choirs return for a monumental finish. And in a delightfully odd twist, penultimate track “War Graves” offers three minutes of spoken word underlaid by some of the most elegant guitarwork on the album, before the distorted guitars triumphantly erupt into the fray.

The biggest difference between Scythian and similar bands, however, is a feeling of looseness. Whether blasting or hammering through thrash beats, one gets the sense that everything is right on the verge of coming undone. As if Vrath is so manic he’s just making up everything on the fly while spitting out lyrics in his rapidly delivered snarl. Likewise, the guitar tone is equally fiery – buzzy, ragged, and clear, while retaining a piercing blackened death edge. Don’t let the DR fool you – the production is full and lively, and I could barely believe the range was really that low until I measured it myself.

Listening to Hubris gives one the sense that there will always be more to chew on, always another layer left to peel back. At nearly 47 minutes, it’s incredible how many ideas are stuffed into the runtime, and flaws are practically non-existent. I guess a few more standout moments in the first half would have helped, and the occasional spoken word feels a tad cheesy at times, but that’s it. It’s a paradox that such a barbaric and raw album obviously took such care to craft, and listening to it has me throbbing with pleasure knowing there are still bands that won’t settle for shitting out a new album every two years just to follow the norm. Sure, it may be another six years until the follow-up, but if that’s the case I think I already know what my top album of 2021 will be. Hubris In Excelsis is more than a great record, it’s a goddamn celebration of extreme metal that even casual fans should seek out. Bravo, Vrath.

Rating: 4.5/5.0
DR: 4 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Hells Headbangers
Website: scythiandeath.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/scythian
Release Worldwide: August 21st, 2015

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Singer-songwriter Chelsea Wolfe’s music doesn’t strictly reside under the heavy metal umbrella. However her unique form of dark artistry has captured quite a significant following within and outside of the metal community. It helped that she publicly confessed her love of black metal and recorded an emotive, ambient cover of Burzum’s “Black Spell of Destruction” to amplify her metal credentials. As such I’ve highlighted the latest chapter in the career of the LA-based artist as worthy of landing on the pages of AMG as an entry into the ‘not-quite-metal-but-shit-you-should-be-listening-to’ category. Depending on who you ask or what particular song or album of Wolfe’s you might be listening to at the time, her music can be loosely described as a shape-shifting amalgam of folk, goth, noise rock, electronica, drone and doom elements.

I caught wind of Wolfe’s immense talents on her 2013 masterwork Pain is Beauty, featuring surprise hit “Feral Love,” which received significant airplay when it accompanied the season four trailer of Game of Thrones. Backtracking through her prior albums offered further evidence of Wolfe’s impressive song-writing skills and deft blend of styles and textures, not to mention the raw emotion that bleeds from her ghostly and captivating voice. Fifth album Abyss is yet another ambitious and versatile addition to a growing body of work that marks another interesting and adventurous creative turn. Containing elements of her previous work and expanding into even darker and more unsettling terrain, Wolfe knocks it out of the park with a raw, emotionally draining and eclectic batch of tunes. Distorted guitars and droning synths, jarring percussion, downbeat electronica and industrial overtones are assorted into challenging and diverse compositions, which are difficult to penetrate initially, but reward the patient listener and reveal the myriad of instrumental subtleties and elusive hooks that lurk beneath the foggy layers.

“Carrion Flowers” is an ominous, jarring opener featuring Wolfe’s intoxicating vocal melodies mingling with mangled industrial soundscapes and an underlying menace and foreboding vibe. Wolfe’s vocals frequently steal the limelight with her aching voice fragile and seductive one moment, mournful and menacing the next. Her expertly woven vocal melodies and harmonies leave lasting traces, while musically Abyss shifts restlessly between styles, from minimalist electronica and gloomy folk to a much harsher array of sounds and textures, siphoned into engaging and unpredictable arrangements. Wolfe’s expert grasp of soft-loud dynamics features prominently on the sublime “Iron Moon,” a song that glides between mournful restraint and sludgy bursts of doom, complete with soaring vocal melodies. The atmospheric and hallucinatory nature of Abyss is an apt fit with Wolfe’s lyrical documentation of her struggles with sleep paralysis and anxiety. “Simple Death” is perhaps the most spine-chilling and emotive examination of her personal demons with this rare disorder. Lyrically bleak yet poetic and heart-wrenching in its sadness, the moody ballad rides a simple tearjerking melody that’s incredibly moving, particularly when lines like, “Lost and alone in confusion, I’m screaming but I can’t wake up” are sung with such tenderness, desperation and emotion.

There’s an ominous and melancholic tone flooding the album, making for an intense and unsettling journey. But thankfully the dynamic song-writing and experimental dabbling ensures Abyss doesn’t quite plunge into razor grabbing gloom or monotony. The delicate, minimalist balladry of the beautiful “Maw,” bleak viola drenched thrum of “Grey Days,” and the bleeping electro dirge of “After the Fall” showcase the song-writing variety without slashing the threads of foreboding atmosphere, abstract melody and overall cohesion that binds the album.

Production is spot-on despite measuring a disappointing DR 5, with the levels of compression actually proving less detrimental to the finished product than one might expect. The in-your-face sound and menacing buzz only adds to the claustrophobic and nightmarish qualities of the album, with Wolfe’s tremendous voice comfortably penetrating the frequently dense waves of sound. My only gripes come down to superficial preferences like track sequencing and the fact that at nearly an hour in length Abyss is an emotionally exhausting ride. Really though, these are just petty nitpicks of a truly exceptional and compelling album.

Abyss may not qualify as metal, but it will likely go down as one of the darkest, most challenging and emotionally heavy releases of the year. Wolfe continues growing and evolving as an artist and her unique and highly innovative song-writing approach has hit yet another peak and yielded arguably her finest album to date.

Rating: 4.5 /5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Sargent House
Websites: chelseawolfe.net | facebook.com/cchelseawwolfe
Releases Worldwide: August 7, 2015

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I’ll freely admit to having thrown up my hands and walked away from the majority of black metal over the past five years. Whatever drew me to the style in its infancy with Bathory and onward through Emperor and Darkthrone has all but died. I’ll still pay attention to releases by the big names, but for the most part I’ve given up the ghost. One of the rare bands that still holds a special place in my nonblack heart is West Virginia’s quirky and obscure Nechochwen. Essentially a one-man act, it incorporates loads of folk and Native American tribal music into the sound and makes it works exceptionally well. Adding flavor to the musical package, lyrics eschew the usual “Satan this, Wotan that” poppycock in favor of Native American mythology and concepts. Their debut Algonkian Mythos was an album of simple but enthralling acoustic guitar work similar to early October Falls, while Azimuths to the Otherworld added black and traditional metal as well as 70s prog, giving the music multiple layers and a unique sound. Heart of Akamon continues the evolution, taking the black and prog influences even further while telling the history of the Native Americans and their leaders like legendary warrior, Tecumseh. The result is a beautiful, emotionally charged and unusual piece of art which, if there’s any justice in the world, will elevate Nechochwen‘s status to that of one of metal’s most creative and interesting acts.

“Serpent Tradition” opens the show with sweet acoustic guitars before giving way to blackened blasting that manages to retain a strong sense of melody. There are numerous tempo shifts and when Aaron Carey’s (Nechochwen) clean vocals come in, you’ll swear you’re listening to Opeth‘s Damnation or Dan Swanö’s Nightingale project. The guitar jumps between black, traditional and death metal ideas and even manages a few leads that belong on a classic W.A.S.P. album.  “Lost on the Trail of the Setting Sun” also contains a cosmic buttload of exquisite guitar work, and the riff at 5:40 is right off an Atlantean Kodex opus.

The high point comes with “October 6, 1813,” which is a stripped down acoustic piece with heartrendingly beautiful vocals and a strong Pale Communion vibe. It’s Song o’ the Year material and as sad as it is, I cannot stop playing it. There’s a lot of Agalloch‘s The Mantle drifting through the ideas on “Traversing the Shades of Death” and those influences are deftly paired with morose Finnishness akin to Rapture or Insomnium. “Skimota” is an adventurous merger of Ulver and Opeth and will hook you in immediately, and closer “Kiselamakong” even dabbles in melodic doom and pulls that off equally well.

There’s so much amazing music here that it boggles the mind. Each song has its own mood and many moments of lush experimentation, but none of it feels overly proggy or pretentious. The production is impressive despite the DR6 rating, sounding much fuller and deeper than you’d expect. The acoustic segments have a rich tone, and when things get metallic, they guitars have enough punch to get the point across. The vocals in particular pop and have a great place in the mix.

The two biggest selling points here are the guitars and vocals and Carey is responsible for both along with handling flute, Native American hand drums and the lalawas. The guitars are especially impressive throughout, be they acoustic or electric. The sheer number of sweet, hooky leads is breathtaking and there are many moments where a solo or harmony will seize your attention forcefully.  His forlorn clean singing is closest to Dan Swanö’s, but there’s plenty of Mikael Akerfeldt there too. Heart of Akamon marks the first time Carey has help, with Andrew D’Cagna of Obsequiae joining to handle drums and bass. He cements the sound and provides a solid foundation upon which the duo build all sorts of interesting musical edifices. With such a musically rich and diverse album, these two gentlemen deserve all sorts of credit for making it as listenable as it is while never giving in to the temptation to over-wank.

This is one of the most enthralling and exquisite pieces of music I’ve heard in a long time. In a way this is the Native America version of Bathory‘s Hammerheart, and a lot of the atmosphere I loved on that classic platter is here as well, but with vastly superior musicianship. This will appeal to metal fans of almost any stripe and it’s one of the best albums you’ll hear this year. Do not miss this one!

Rating: 4.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 188 kbps mp3
Label: Bindrune Recordings
Websites: nechochwenbandcamp.com | facebook.com/Nechochwen.com
Releases Worldwide: September 4th 2015

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I have been accused of being boring and touchy because I dislike parody heavy metal bands. Whenever a band like Steel Panther or The Darkness shows up, I get defensive. “Metal is alive and well,” I argue, and honestly, there are bands that are putting out great power metal and hard rock that gets ignored by mainstream press outlets that rave over parody bands and they sell lots of records.¹ I also tend to get annoyed by comedy lyrics; for the most part those songs are funny once or twice, but after a while they just stop being funny and they become uninteresting because, well, that’s the point. Put this together, and a parody band seems like it should have a lot of strikes against it here at Angry Metal Guy. Not only are Steel Druhm and I firmly anti-fun,² but I’m defensive about metal because I don’t want real, talented metal bands getting short shrift next to bands who are just making fun of the sound.

But when that parody band is knocking out epic power metal tracks in the stylings of [Luca Turilli’s] Rhapsody [of Fire]? I’m all in. “Why?” one may ask, but I can only assume that’s only people who have never bothered to actually listen to Euro Power at all. Between “swords” (held aloft for one reason or another) with audible Ws, “iron” pronounced “eye-ron,” and all the missing prepositions (“I look you and I blink my eye…“), you can sometimes get lost in the fact that the music you’re listening to sports a variety of Dark Lords, unicorn tears and armies of elves which are always warring through various “AVALAAAAAAANCHES” and cosmic portals. You’d be forgiven if you thought that epic power metal was basically populated by a lot of pent up D-grade fantasy fan fiction authors and geeks who can’t get published. This leads to a certain cognitive dissonance for me, though, because these bands produce music that I absolutely adore and I frequently go on power metal binges, bathing in the hockey rock choruses while lathering myself in chocolate spread and ridiculous guitar work I will never reproduce. But when combined with cringe-worthy texts sung with utter conviction and operatic passion, there’s something inherently comical about this whole subgenre. As a native speaker of English, I cannot escape it.³

Enter Gloryhammer, Scotland’s own purveyors of high-quality cheddar (35%, aged for 18 months!). While this is pure speculation, I assume that this band was started a bit like this: “Man, I love power metal and it would be absolutely amazing to play in a band that sounds like [Luca Turilli’s] Rhapsody [of Fire],” to which his mate responded, “yeah, but that shit is so cheesy man. Like how can we possibly write about goblin kings and ‘eee-ma-reld swohrds’ and take ourselves seriously?” This is the point where light bulbs appeared over their heads, and Gloryhammer was born. Why take yourself seriously when you’re writing this kind of music? No, instead, just gently rib the scene by writing exactly the same kind of lyrics they do—just, y’know, based in Scotland. Because let’s face it, epic power metal is easy to ape. It’s formulaic, but—as I’ve said previously—the formula allows for so much variation, that you can knock out albums that follow exactly the same format over and over and over and over and over again, and yet each one can be as entertaining as the last, because of the built-in degrees of freedom. Virtuosity, baroque and Viennese classical influences; these things allow purveyors of power metal to write amazingly varied music within a well-understood structure.

Space 1992: Rise of the Chaos Wizards follows that structure almost to the letter. When the narrator kicks in to start the record off “In the distant future of 1992, war has returned to the galaxy” and the orchestral introduction knocked out the album’s themes with surprising compositional skill I knew I was in for a wild ride. Like the very best the genre has to offer, that wild ride takes off with a healthy hat tip to The Omen and the only 5 Latin words that guys who write power metal know: “sanctus,” “dominus,” “infernus” and “ad astra.” As is the way,⁴ machine gun double bass kicks lay the ground for “Rise of the Chaos Wizards'” epic chorus, gallop driven verses and (oh yes) a built-for-Eurovision key change. Alestorm‘s very own Christopher Bowes fills the sound out with his epic keyboards, while vocalist Voice-Modulated Star Nucleus Thomas Winkler’s raspy cleans evoke the best vocalists of the German thrash/power tradition with his Swiss accent, perfect range and delivery.

After such an explosive opening, one might have suspected that the band had fired their highest powered lasers; but with Low-Orbit Ion Swoh-rds held High, Gloryhammer knocks out one ridiculous, awesome, and ridiculously awesome song after another. “Goblin King of the Darkstorm Galaxy” has an infectious chorus that I’ve been whistling for two weeks, while “Victorious Eagle Warfare” shows off Winkler’s range and power at its absolute best. These songs are laced with ridiculous licks, catchy counter-melodies and harmonies; the bridge between the chorus and the verses in “Victorious Eagle Warfare” is brilliant and the introduction to “Questlords of Inverness, Ride to the Galactic Fortress!” is gripping—balancing Sabaton-like oomph and an old school chug with cool and unexpected arpeggios. Taking it a step further, these tracks show off a band who understands the value of hooks and is obviously able to play with the Euro-power formula that we all love/hate. Every song on here is genuinely well-composed and well within the boundaries of what you hear on a new Stratovarius record—except with a self-distance of which no one could ever accuse Timo Kotipelto.

It’s this self-distance that makes Space 1992: Rise of the Chaos Wizards such a marvel. As usual when listening to music of this genre, I’m laughing at the lyrics. It’s just that on Space 1992, I’m laughing at the lyrics because they’re cheeky, not because no one bothered to double check Tony Kakko’s lyrics before he went into the studio. While I don’t have official lyric sheets, the snippets of the lyrics on here rank among the best I’ve heard on a power metal album. Winkler’s accented wail knocks out gems like “Fly… [orchestral hit] on gigantic dragons made out of steeeeel!” (“Heroes (of Dundee)”), or when choirs sing “Unicorn, show me the way to the way. Lead me to the ultimate fortress. Unicorn, reveal the truth of the ancient crystal galaxy!” (“Questlords of Inverness, Ride to the Galactic Fortress!”). Possibly my favorite lyrics on the record come on the album’s obligatory end-of-the-record-epic-with-narrations “Apocalypse 1992,” where Winkler sings—with conviction—about “The rage! The cosmic rage of Astral Dwarves of Aberdeen!” Or, back at the always giving Galactic Well of Unicorn Jokes: “Like tears of a unicorn lost in the rain…” There are, literally, 9 songs of this stuff and hit (“Legend of the astral hammer!”) after hit (“In the dwarven caverns beneath the mighty citadel of Dundee…”), I giggle like an Angry Metal School Girl.

Maybe it’s best to not call this record so much “parody,” though, as a love letter to the Euro Power scene. The beauty of this stuff is that even if it were serious and the guys from Gloryhammer were writing about Angus McFife XIII with straight faces, they would still have produced one of the best power metal albums I’ve heard in 2015. What stands out about Space 1992 are the compositions, choruses, the orchestrations, and the way guitarist Dark Matter String Manipulation Interface Paul Templing, drummer Percussive Phi-Quason Battery Ben Turk and bassist Trans-dimensional Subsonic Cluster James Cartwright all do their parts. The music on here is well-played, and while Templing isn’t Luca Turilli on the fretboard, few are. The lyrics being genuinely funny is just the (very tasty) astral icing on the unicorn cake. Space 1992 is excellent because it delivers great tracks and gives you a reason to “ironically” listen to the music you already listen to un-ironically in your closet. Now you can break this out at parties and sing along and everyone will think that you learned all the songs as a party trick, not because you’ve been dreaming about a pilgrimage to Inverness to find the Questlords of legend.

Rating: 4.5/5.0
DR: 5 | Media Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Napalm Records
Websites: gloryhammer.com | facebook.com/gloryhammer
Out Worldwide: September 25th, 2015

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I have a penchant for picking bands based on their names alone lately. For the most part, doing so has yielded some pretty damn good results. So when the Grymm Grab Bag™ belched forth The Camel, The Lion, The Child, the debut full-length from Seattle’s He Whose Ox Is Gored, you can say that I was a bit nervous. Long band name? Check. Nietzsche-inspired album title? Check. The sound labeled as “progressive doom”? Check. All signs were pointing to “pretentious,” and I was ready to give it a lashing. The only problem is that The Camel, The Lion, The Child is actually pretty damn engrossing and endearing.

First off, “progressive doom” is a great all-encompassing label for what He Whose Ox Is Gored do, but it’s so limiting. There are elements of doom and prog rock, to be sure, but there’s a healthy amount of shoegaze and sludge thrown in there as well, and it all works radiantly. You wouldn’t know it on opener “Oathbreaker,” though, as there’s an unmistakable Mastodon riff that leads the album off, alongside some keyboard swells. It’s mostly an instrumental save for one shouted line by guitarist Brian McClelland. There’s a tight rhythm supplied by drummer John O’Connell and bassist Mike Sparks, holding down an incredible foundation for McClelland’s circular melodies and Lisa Mungo’s keyboard atmospherics, but it’s not quite original. Still, it pulls you into the band’s world, even if it’s by baby steps.

The good news is that those baby steps stretch into countless miles just as “Crusade” marches forth, with McClelland sharing vocal duties with Mungo, the latter of which providing a beautiful keyboard melody with Sparks’ bass dancing over it around the 5:21 mark. From that moment forward, The Camel becomes an ensnaring album stuffed full of emotional roller coaster highs and lows. “Cairo” starts tranquilly before laying down the heaviest of Isis riffs at 2:24, laying to waste all that gets in the way. “Alpha” shows a more delicate side, with Mungo wailing over a simple drum pattern and guitar melody, only to throw its considerable heft halfway through the song. Every song on The Camel is beautifully paced, thoroughly engaging, and skillfully crafted.

The production by Robert Cheek and Matt Bayles (Isis, Mastodon) is lush and entrancing. The keyboards make their presence felt without overpowering the bass or drums, and the guitars sound warm and shimmery. The one complaint I have is that the band doesn’t begin to find its own identity until the second track, “Omega,” where it successfully marries its considerable influences into their own beast. Another point I want to make is that The Camel, The Lion, The Child is the ultimate “headphones album,” meaning this album is meant to be played in a quiet area with your cans on your ears, and preferably from start to finish, for as good as the songs are individually, you’re only shortchanging yourself from partaking a beautiful 53-minute journey.

I take pride in pulling something out of the Grymm Grab Bag™ and have the album not royally suck. I take bigger pride in discovering a cool new band to check out. He Whose Ox Is Gored crafted an amazing debut full-length that should be heard by anyone who’s interested in a fresh approach to doom metal, shoegaze, and progressive rock. Hunt this one down, folks.

Rating: 4.5/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: Bleeding Light Records
Websites: https: hewhoseoxisgored.bandcamp.com | hwoig.com | facebook.com/hewhoseoxisgored
Releases Worldwide: October 9th, 2015

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NWOBHM legends Satan are one of the greatest comeback stories in recent memory. Formed in the UK in 1979, the band’s early work was part of the blueprint for what became thrash and speed metal. However, Satan themselves had a rough career, plagued by lineup issues and multiple name changes, resulting in nearly two decades of non-activity. They eventually returned to the live stage in 2004, but no one could have predicted 2013’s Life Sentence, a blast of well-crafted, authentic, damn-near-perfect heavy metal that had seemingly been frozen in amber since about 1982. Two years later, the band returns with Atom By Atom, another collection of classic metal that threatens to put all other old-schoolers to shame.

Singer Brian Ross’ glass-shattering scream kicks off opening cut “Farewell Evolution,” a speedy number that splits the difference between “Aces High” and perhaps Kill ‘Em All-era Metallica. Ross’ voice is seemingly ageless, capable of the same piercing highs and rich midrange displayed on 1983’s classic Court In The Act. “Fallen Savior” is a more midtempo rocker with a chorus so anthemic, I can already hear thousands of old-schoolers singing along to it at metal festivals next summer.

Production-wise, Atom By Atom is nearly identical to Life Sentence, which is very much a good thing. The instruments all sound appropriately raw and 1980s-vintage, Ross’ vocals are given just enough reverb to make it work, and the performances sound remarkably like an actual band playing in a room together. These are all admirable qualities in a metal record, and I commend the band for sticking with them.

“Ruination” is another extremely well-composed track, utilizing guitar harmonies and a slightly prog arrangement as buildup to a waltz riff that makes me want to hit people with a mic stand. Throughout this record, the guitar interplay between Steve Ramsey and Russ Tippins is incredible to witness, and is a huge part of what makes Satan‘s comeback feel so right. The vintage tones, semi-technical riffage, and tradeoff solos are practically a clinic on how heavy metal guitar should be done.

The title track boasts yet another top-shelf classic riff and yet another monstrous chorus. At this point I’m wondering how the world didn’t already have these songs in it until now, because they feel like they’ve always been there. “In Contempt” is another master class of technical and harmonically complex guitar work, with some sections that border on thrash metal and some flashy fills from drummer Sean Taylor. (Side bar: considering Satan‘s history of courtroom puns as album titles, I’m surprised “In Contempt” wasn’t the name of this record.)

Side 2 of Atom By Atom takes a slight dip in quality from the material on Side 1. “My Own God” is a little hokey lyrically, although I certainly agree with the sentiment. And after all the ridiculously tasty guitar work preceding it, “Bound in Enmity” can only be seen as somewhat redundant. However, the band still has one ace up their sleeve: closing track “The Fall Of Persephone.” Satan goes all-out on this one, with harmonized leads, exotic guitar textures, and huge choirs of vocals, among other things. This song is, frankly, fucking stunning, and ends the album on an extremely high note.

Proving that Life Sentence was no fluke, Satan continues to churn out white-hot classic metal and make it look easy. There are very few bands from this era who are still making music this vital and high-quality. Atom By Atom is another nearly-flawless victory, and if you enjoy heavy metal music, I suggest you check it out.

Rating: 4.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 128 kbps mp3
Label: Listenable Records
Websites: Facebook.com/officialsatanpage | Satan (Official Website)
Releases Worldwide: October 2nd, 2015

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Winter is coming, and when the cold reaches my home and hearth, it’s time to break out the top-shelf sad boy melodic doom-death and spin it until Odin renews the world and grants primacy to the sun once more. As the low winter sun encroaches, one of the first bands into the depressive breach is the long defunct but truly excellent Rapture. A close second is the even longer defunct Slumber. The latter released but one brilliant album (Fallout) before imploding, and said album went on to be tragically overlooked, but was likely a big influence to bands like Insomnium and Omnium Gatherum. The brains behind Slumber belonged to Jari Lindholm and he eventually took his talents to Enshine where, along with co-founder Sebastien Pierre (Lethian Dreams, Fractal Gates), they released an excellent slab of melodic doom-death in 2013s Origin. Now this terrific twosome is back to uncork their next winter tested, Finland approved dose of ennui entitled Singularity. What it delivers is a hybrid of Slumber and my dearly departed Rapture – full of weepy guitars, beautifully trilling harmonies and monstrous death roars counter pointed by forlorn, Katatonia-esque cleans. It’s a depressive burrito you’ve tasted before, but the secret sauce is the brilliant writing and the all-enveloping mood. The end result is the near-perfect soundtrack to your sweet, snowbound misery.

Things begin swimmingly (in a cold Nordic lake) with “Dual Existence” which quickly sets the stage with somber and elegant harmonies, guttural death roars and an overwhelming sense of melancholy. There’s a nifty Katatonia-esque riff threaded throughout and everything calls to mind scenes of falling snow and quiet wintry landscapes. The solos are emotionally evocative and beautiful and everything feels classy and polished to a fine sheen. There’s virtually no way fans of Insomium can hear this and not go all loopy, and the best is yet to come. “Adrift” is a flat out exquisite work of art, merging emo goth like A Swarm of the Sun and modern Anathema into a New World Shadows style melo-death template. Sebastien’s clean and harsh vocals are perfect and the dreamy, laconic leads flowing in the background are things of a beauty.

Things get heavier on “Resurgence” and the jacked up but simplistic riffs blend well with the trilling harmonies to create an exceptional melo-death statement as good as any of their peers. “In Our Mind” is another slice of heaven, forcibly marrying excellent goth vocals to brutish death metal. The result is way more elegant and delicate than you’d expect, but man, it really works and the stellar guitar work sucks you in to its sad little world. “Echoes Master” is almost an exact replica of Rapture‘s classic style and the contrast of melodic, The Cure-esque riffing and the harsh roars is just as awesome now as it ever was. “Dreamtide” keeps the ice party going with one weepy guitar flourish after another and if you aren’t buried deep in the snows of sadness by the time this song ends, you may just live to see the Midvinterblot.

The album closes with a positively enthralling instrumental titled “Apex” and it’s one I can’t seem to stop playing. It utilizes the same somber acoustic segments Agalloch did so well in their salad days and also resembles the post-metal doom of Landforge. The whole thing is rich in mood and rife with depressive glory; understated but poignant and the guitar-work is stunning.

Without a weak moment anywhere, this is one of those albums that gets better with every single spin. There’s a lot to take in musically though the songs are very accessible. It’s the little details that keep catching your ear that make it so damn rewarding. The sound is also far better than the DR6 would indicate. It has a lush, expansive sound and the guitars definitely shine bright. Would I love to hear a DR10 vinyl rip? Hell yes, but this is quite amazing as is and I have no complaints about the mix.

Everything comes up aces here, but it’s Jari’s magical guitar playing that’s the big attraction. Borrowing from the very best of goth, doom, melo-death and even black metal, he’s created a wondrous tapestry of sadness and beauty here that few albums will ever equal. While the harder songs will remind many of recent Omnium Gatherum, there’s more than a little Rapture and October Tide in his playing and of course, the ghosts of Slumber are always near his fret-board. This guy is a genius at his kind of music and I cannot say enough good things about him. Sebastien Pierre also comes through big with some excellent vocals. His plaintive singing is tender and heartbreaking and his death roars are as convincing as anyone’s. This is a tour de force by two talented chaps and they’ve really created a career defining work here on Singularity.

A stupefyingly beautiful album from start to finish, Singularity is on a collision course with Record o’ the Year. If you love melodic doom-death and miss this, turn in your metal card and cred and leave the hall, for you good sir, are not my friend. Somewhere out there is a snowflake with your name on it. Get this before it finds you.

Rating: 4.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Rain Without End Records
Websites: enshine.bandcamp.com  | facebook.com/enshine.band
Releases Worldwide: October 18th 2015

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Horrendous caught many off guard when they dropped last year’s sublime sophomore opus, Ecdysis. The album blew away my modest expectations and cemented Horrendous as far more than your typical old school retro death act they appeared to be on their solid debut. Putting an innovative spin on their old school formula and heaving a weighty sack of delicious riffs, Horrendous took some gravity defying leaps forward to complete one of the more astonishing evolutionary strides I’ve had the pleasure of hearing in recent years. Now merely a year later, with barely enough time for the dust to settle on Ecdysis, Horrendous return in surprisingly prompt fashion with third album Anareta. I must admit quick turnarounds such as this fill me with equal parts excitement and skepticism, particularly on the back of the greatness of Ecdysis. So are the creative juices still flowing for the power trio on the all important album number three?

In many ways Anareta continues where Ecdysis left off while stirring some intriguing new ingredients into the stew. Whereas Ecdysis was a fun and rollicking ride anchored by glorious riffs and memorable songcraft, by comparison Anareta is darker, angrier and an altogether more intricate beast that cuts deeper on an emotional level. Notably Horrendous shoehorn a stronger melodic and progressive presence into the fray without compromising their iron grip of song-writing dynamics or their raw groovy approach to death metal. Horrendous hasn’t abandoned their old school ethos, but are simply too damn good and innovative to be pigeon-holed as just another retro death act. In particular the Stockholm influence has been scaled back in favor of a more twisting progressive style that recalls the genius of mid-late era Death. Adding further fuel to their supercharged engines, Horrendous balance old school inspirations with a distinct contemporary feel which finds them refining their sound into something endearingly familiar yet forward thinking, severing the rich bloodlines of death metal’s past and reattaching them to their own fresh blood supply.

Anareta’s strong melodic and progressive tendencies entangle around an aggressive death core that lovingly recalls but doesn’t tread on the toes of the bygone greats. Damian Herring and Matt Knox announced their superstar credentials on Ecdysis and continue their rapid rise here. Burly riffs retain much of the muscle, groove and catchiness of Ecdysis. Intoxicating leads and harmonies dart, spiral and pirouette through intricate melodic gateways featuring a myriad of tempo shifts, knotty twists and playful prog injections. The solos offer tasty, innovative punctuation marks while staying grounded within the context of each song. And if some of the riffs don’t deliver the instant ‘fuck yeah!’ rush of Ecdysis, they prove equally powerful and addicting over repeat listens. The easily discernible, mutating basslines play a key role in the album’s construction, further anchored by the accomplished work of drummer Jamie Knox. Vocals are an aspect of the Horrendous make-up that could be seen as a weak link, if the strained dual delivery wasn’t delivered with such venom, conviction and bloody throated rawness, with the occasional strained cleans well-placed and executed.

Anareta is a masterfully composed and intelligently written monster that grips from the energized, off-kilter thrash and rumble of “The Nihilist” right through to the somber notes and soulful doom-laden riffage of closer “The Solipsist (Mirrors Gaze).” While not quite as instantly memorable as Ecdysis, in comparison Anareta is a more layered and subtle affair, offering a richer in-depth listen that takes a bit more time and effort to fully appreciate and unlock the treasures within. However, the payoff is well worth the effort. “Ozymandias” and “Acolytes” feature dense and labyrinthine arrangements that pull together all of Horrendous’ song-writing strengths into powerhouse packages of death metal goodness.

Variety is present in spades, as the likes of “Polaris” attests with its warped mid-paced opening chug plowing into a blistering salvo topped with knuckle-dusting grooves and proggy interplay, while their penchant for writing interesting, evocative instrumentals shines again on the soulful and melancholic “Siderea.” Production-wise Anareta boasts a sound that somehow outdoes the critically acclaimed work on Ecdysis, featuring an equally dynamic yet somehow bigger and punchier sound that is both authoritative and comforting.

Horrendous have outdone themselves again and smashed out another brilliant album to enter the realms of the death metal elite. Anareta is a brutishly graceful death metal behemoth dressed in old school threads, that is every bit as compelling as its glorious predecessor. Now if you’ll excuse me, after all this gushing I need to take a shower. Get this fucking album.

Rating: 4.5 /5.0
DR: 10 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: Dark Descent Records
Websites: Horrendous.Bandcamp.com | Facebook.com/Horrendous
Releases Worldwide: October 30, 2015

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Beaten to Death: standard grindcore band name, anything but a standard grindcore band. Featuring ex-She Said Destroy vocalist Anders Bakke, ex-The Cumshots guitarist Tommy Hjelm, and Tsjuder drummer Christian “Bartender” (aka AntiChristian aka Jorn‘s drummer since 2014, so you know he’s epic), Beaten to Death formed in 2010 and wasted no time putting out their first record Xes and Strokes just a year later. I missed this at the time because I am a tool, but fortunately Angry Metal Guy (or rather Jordan Campbell) was on hand to enlighten me come 2013 and the release of the band’s sophomore Dødsfest! I immediately fell in love with their spectacular genre-bending tomfoolery and Dødsfest! set up camp right at the summit of my end-of-year list (even featuring as an “ish” on AMG‘s). They are rather good, you see.

Though ostensibly a grindcore band, Beaten to Death have always had at least one foot out of the grind closet, and Unplugged pushes the limits of the genre further still. Their genius lies in an ability to marry incredibly aggressive vocals and drumming not only to the expected pummeling riffs, but also to remarkably uplifting melodies, creating a highly original style which, combined with their unique production choices, endows them with a sound quite unlike any other band. Outrageous opener “Papyrus Containing the Spell to Summon the Breath of Life Enshrined in the Collected Scrolls of Sheryl Crow” (sorry Vehemence, we have a new Song Title of the Year front-runner) provides a good example, commencing with traditional death/grind fury before segueing smoothly into major chords and legato riffs to end on an almost happy note. The combination of melody and brutality crops up in the majority of tracks, from the wonderfully named “Home of Phobia” (say it quickly) to closer “Troll,” with great dollops of groove chucked in between – see in particular the brooding “Knulleviser for Barn”¹, and pulsating “Til Himmels (for å Gjete Gud)” that references the verse riff from Strapping Young Lad‘s “Love?” Only Napalm Death tribute “Greenway/Harris” is all grind, all the time, and quite rightly too.

Beaten to Death don’t just write fantastic riffs, they craft them into perfect little songs each with its own personality and charm. The track lengths on Unplugged are consistently between one and two minutes – short but not novelty length – which gives them enough time to develop and explore a couple of ideas without falling into the trap of creating riff soup. The amusing song titles are also cleverly applied: “Death to False Grindcore” features one of the prettiest melodies on the record, while “Robert Sylvester Kelly” bumps and grinds its way into the closet of your memory. “Don’t You Dare to Call Us Heavy Metal” is the winner here, though, teasing with stereotypical thrash riffs before launching into a rousing melodic chorus overlaid with repeated shouts of the song title. Attempts at humor often backfire for “serious” bands, but Beaten to Death get this spot on.

The band’s previous records were both recorded live in their rehearsal space, giving them a refreshingly rough sound that bristled with energy. I couldn’t find any information on the recording process for Unplugged but assume it was much the same. It sounds a little better than its predecessor as the occasionally irritating frequencies in their trademark twangy, lightly distorted guitar tone have been tamed, and the instrumental balance feels perfect. Keeping the bass in a vortex of distortion while reigning it in on the guitars was a great choice as they still sound thunderously heavy, but can bring some subtlety to proceedings when required.

I am head over heels with this record: it fulfills my every grind need while providing a bucketload of depth, variety, and humor, all in a perfect run-time of just over twenty minutes. My one minor complaint is that, despite the superior songwriting, predecessor Dødsfest! probably has the edge in overall riff quality, but it’s tough to call. Either way, Unplugged is the best grindcore album of 2015 and Beaten to Death are the best grindcore band since Nasum. You know what to do.

Rating: 4.5/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Mas-Kina Recordings
Websites: beatentodeath.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/BeatentoDeath
Releases Worldwide: October 9th, 2015

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Candlemass‘ 1986 debut Epicus Doomicus Metallicus had a big impact on my young metal mind and made me a lifetime convert to Leif Edling’s concept of what doom metal should sound like. Decades later, he surprised me again with his Avatarium debut and how it leveraged the prodigious vocal gifts of Jennie-Ann Smith to create a refreshing take on the classic doom template. While I expected The Girl With the Raven Mask to be a quality follow-up, I wasn’t prepared for how freaking fantastic it truly is! This tops their debut in every way and allows Jennie-Ann to shine in a different and much brighter light on songs that jump out at you like a crazy cat lady, hurling feral felines until she has your undivided attention. It’s a much more wide open, free-form album, approximating retro progressive doom with jazz fusion. That’s a tough concept to imagine and it’s a strange machine indeed, but a great one.

The opening title track goes for the throat from note one, demanding your attention and plowing you over with fat, aggressive doom riffs. When Jennie-Ann comes in, all dials move to red. She has such an enchanting, captivating voice – as close as it gets to a real life siren – often gentle, but able to sound edgy and even a little scary. She reminds me of a young Ann Wilson (Heart) and she delivers a skull-caving performance on this irresistibly rocking doom tune. Follow-up “The January Sea” is easily one of the best songs you’ll hear this year. It’s doom through the prism of a tripped-out Jefferson Starship concert circa 1968 and Jennie-Ann channels Grace Slick’s eerie and seductive power, hopscotching between menace and melancholy as the music marinates in the psychedelic rock of the past, replete with fuzzed out solos and Hammond organ swells. It’s a powerfully emotionally and strangely beautiful song and the chorus is sheer brilliance – sweet and sad in a way doom almost never pulls off.

But wait; “Pearls and Coffins” is also amazing, sounding like a gorgeously downcast ballad from the 60s fused with subtle jazz influences, especially in the vocals. The chorus is an absolute triumph and the song inexorably drags you back to the days of hippies and flower power. But is it doom, you ask? Maybe not, but who cares!

The rest of the album is great too and quite diverse – from the haunting “Hypnotized” to the very Catherdral-esque riff-fest of “Run Killer Run,” and the odd American folk mixed with indie rock of “Iron Mule.” The album winds out with “The Master Thief” which sounds like something you’d hear in a dark, smokey jazz club.It’s here Jennie-Ann fully unleashes her jazz cabaret tendencies for a smoldering, heartfelt performance. There are mild doom riffs floating in and out, but this is much different than any doom you’ve ever heard.

At the risk of earning myself a restraining order, I can’t stop singing Jennie-Ann’s praises. She impressed me on the debut, but she’s a absolute revelation here, making every song come alive and crackle with sultry energy. Sometimes she reminds me a bit of Jex Thoth (Jessica Bowen) and the aforementioned Ann Heart, but she really has her own unique style and it’s perfect for what Leif Edling is doing with this material. He seems to be trying to bridge all his various projects (Candlemass, Krux, Abstrakt Algebra) into one fully-realized, wide-open musical vehicle and he’s knocked it out the park with this album. Alongside Jennie-Ann, guitarist Marcus Jidell (Soen) does amazing work, offering up fat doom riffs and some positively smoking solos with a big foot in the 60s psychedelic scene. The solo breaks on “The January Sea,” “Hypnotized,” “The Master Thief” are perfect and he’s great at underplaying for maximum effect. Carl Westholm also deserves praise for his moody keyboards which drench the songs in a warm, nostalgic feel much like the recent Opeth output.

The sound is also very warm, organic and inviting, like something recorded in the early 70s. The mix is fine and everyone can be heard clearly. I was actually surprised with the DR6 score and you can rest assured, it won’t impede your enjoyment of this monster one bit. The only thing keeping this from a perfect score is the slight dip in quality after the first three monstrous tunes.

You may be looking at the Album o’ the Year right here, folks. It’s definitely the one that grabbed me the most so far in 2015 and it will grab you too. It’s not a traditional doom album, but it seems Leif decided the genre was due for another shake up. Well played, good sir. Do not attempt to leave the hall.

Rating: 4.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 160 kbps mp3
Label: Nuclear Blast [EU][US]
Websites: avatariumofficial.se  | facebook.com/avatariumofficial
Releases Worldwide: October 30th, 2015

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