Suffering so you don't have to!
Metalcatto
Why do I do this to myself? Reviewing more Power Metal albums that aren’t for me at all. Well, Elyna is still sorting things out, so someone has to do the dirty job. Yet, Valkyrie’s Fire came to me with no fuss, except for having a solid label. That’s why Out of Darkness seemed destined to not impress me at all. You can see how I’m setting this up for a surprise, right? Or maybe not. Stay put.
Metalcatto
Time to continue with one of our oldest traditions, courtesy of Veilburner. These guys have basically released an album every year we’ve been running this business. It’s not up to us—they’re crazy productive and even more consistent. I can’t think of any of its albums being bad, which is why I’m approaching All That Glimmers is Gloam with a healthy degree of optimism. You never know what the band is going to deliver, and that’s exciting.
Metalcatto
What does this band have against carpenters? It’s a noble job. Hell, I’d like to be good at woodworking—you can actually make money out of it, not like writing… Anyway, Between Blood and Silence is supposed to uppercut us to the stratosphere, but you know the problem with ultra-heavy albums: they can numb you harder than the news. Let’s enter this slaughterhouse.
Metalcatto
Another Willowtip album? Are we getting bribed? Unfortunately, that’s not the case yet. We just think that when a Brutal and Tech Death Metal band like Vulgar Mephitis drops an album named From Dust, we need to pay a lot of attention. This hasn’t been the best year for ultra-extreme bands so far, but not all hope is lost. We can still hope to get our faces properly melted again. Yay.
Metalcatto
For some strange reason, I jumped into this album thinking that it would be another retro-Death take with crunchy distortion and grey riffs. Turns out Ceremonial Worship had other plans for our sorrowful lives. Between Sleep and Death is rancid and underground, for sure. You’re traveling back to the 90s, but maybe the result is something that will make you feel hope in Metal again. Or probably not. But hey, keep reading.
Metalcatto
You know what we don’t cover much around here? Traditional Proggy albums. It’s just not something many bands can do better than Dream Theater. However, North Sea Echoes‘ How to Cast a Shadow isn’t exactly a Prog album. It has a lot of the aesthetics, but it simplifies many things. There’s way less instrumental wanking here. I know that might let you down, but how about the other elements? Are they good? Let’s see.
Metalcatto
Fuming Mouth is quite a name for a band—I’ll give them that. However, that doesn’t mean things are going to convince me right away. Looking at Fuming Mouth‘s artwork, you might think this is either a hipster retro-Rock album or some Gothic melodramatic journey. The reality couldn’t be further from the truth, because this thing moves in areas and greys that don’t seem to fall into any obvious category. It’s interesting, I guess. Right?
Thechopstickdrummer
I’m a Star Wars guy, not a Doctor Who guy. If you were to order me to name ten characters from Doctor Who, I’d say TARDIS, Captain Kirk, Superman, and the Pillsbury Doughboy. I’m joking, I’m joking. I do know, however, of the “Weeping Angels,” a race of Doctor Who aliens that appear as statues and move to send victims into the past when unobserved. Pretty terrifying, if you ask me. Weeping angels also appear in real life, mostly on gravestones to symbolize grief and mourning. Whether New York’s Weeping Angel drew their eponymous title from TV or a graveyard isn’t clear; what is clear is their progressive metalcore tendencies and the release of their newest album.
Metalcatto
I felt like doing something different. Something that wasn’t judging the work of young, hungry bands that have next to no hope of making it to your playlist, even less to your wallet. Some of you have told me, “I can’t get into Black Metal”—whether it’s the edginess, the awful production, or the shrieking. Well, here are a few albums that could ease your journey into that dark and cold world. Just remember: this isn’t a historical trip. It’s one about digestible listens. See yourself as a frog in a pot, and I’m slowly raising the heat. The idea is that you don’t notice how cooked you are.
Thechopstickdrummer
A TECHNICAL DEATH METAL BAND FROM MAINE! I REPEAT, A TECHNICAL DEATH METAL BAND FROM MAINE! How merry can I be! If each of the 50 states contested to see which was most lucrative for extreme Metal music, Vacationland would run sobbing to the nearest blueberry field as California, Florida, and New York fill the podium, all hosting greatly influential Metal movements. To demonstrate the unexpectedly bloodthirsty nature of New England’s northernmost region comes Ethereal Rot, a dissonant Death Metal collective from Portland. Ethereal Rot is releasing their debut full-length record next month, presenting a refined group shaped by on-the-road seacoast slaughterfests and combinations of the bandmates’ past stylings–almost every member hails from former projects spanning power Metal to Metalcore. This debut marks an exploratory thematic shift for the group, demonstrating that Ethereal Rot can withstand the harsh climates of both their state and their industry.
