FOR THE LOVE OF METAL
Gulch is a salt-of-the-earth metal band. It does not adopt airs. It is not pretentious. It does not experiment. It just plays heavy rock. The guys in Gulch may not win awards for outstanding feats of musicianship, but they do play the kind of music that they would like to hear when they walk into a bar. It’s loud, heavy, and catchy with plenty of aggressive swagger and not a drop of sugary melody or limp-wristed balladeering.
Luna Mortis are predictable but nevertheless have some strong moments on this first Century Media outing.
The key to decoding the motivations behind God Dethroned’s latest album is its title: Passiondale is a concept album about a small site of tremendous struggle in World War One. Unsurprisingly, the subject matter works with the death metal ferocity running through most of the record
My Destiny is the most recent EP release from Leaves Eyes. The sound is symphonic metal with a dash of a Northern European folk sound. The overall feeling is to put on your crushed velvet frocks and watch the misty fog over an icy lake.
The breakdowns are so damn catchy I turned a baseball cap sideways and slammed danced by myself, right into a wall. My cat looked at me funny.
In The…All Together, although not quite as catchy as Semblance, is much more of a metal album and could have easily fit into their catalog amongst any of their 90’s albums. The majority of Skyclad’s signature sound from its genre defining beginnings is present: speedy, almost thrash riffing, with violin on top leading the way, and play-on-words, tongue in cheek lyrics to accompany the music.
A Journey in Darkness is a truly singular work within the realm of Swedish metal. There really is nothing else like it. Recorded in 1993 at Unisound Studios, the pseudonymically-inclined all-star lineup consisted of It (aka. Tony Särkkä of Abruptum and Vondur), Mourning (aka. Robert Ivarsson of Pan Thy Monium), Winter (aka. Benny Larsson of Edge of Sanity and Pan Thy Monium) and, most famously, Shadow (aka. Jon Nödtveidt of Dissection).
Tate Bengston reviews the new Peaceville reissue of this long lost Swedish metal classic.
Being a legendary band in brutal/progressive death metal
circles, many eyes and ears were at the ready to see what Pestilence
were going to come up with 16 years after their last proper full
length release.
Rotting Christ’s first DVD (In Domine Sathana) is barely a half decade old but the band’s 20th anniversary seems reason enough for another multimedia release. Non Serviam is a weighty package: two DVDs and two CDs of material arranged around a monumental live centre-piece – a two and a half hour performance in Athens, Greece, recorded at the end of 2007.
Microcosmos is Drudkh’s first album for Season of Mist, but it carries no compromises for a potentially larger audience – Drudkh remains rewarding but also difficult. Their newest record is sophistication without veneer, a visceral and kaleidoscopic brew.