Best Underground Metal of 2019

by Nicholas Vahdias on January 3, 2020

While 2019 has shown that home studios are only getting better with the release of better emulators and cheaper “ready to record” prepackaged setups, the increase of quantity has not shown a proportionate increase in quality across the music spectrum. Metal has been in a particular weak state despite the best releases of the year being better than those of previous years, the overall quality was so low that even the present editor had to explore non-metal underground music in hopes of finding something of great quality. While such “expeditions” have been for the most part fruitless, the best of the year can only leave the metal listener with a sense optimism of what the new decade has to offer. Without any further ado, here is the best underground metal of 2019.

(more…)

28 Comments

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Funereal Presence – Achatius

by Nicholas Vahdias on December 31, 2019

Following the tale of one of the fourteen holy helpers Achatius, more commonly known under the name of Saint Agathius, the patron saint against headaches and more importantly a central figure in the various wars against the Ottomans. His story is that of a soldier who was tortured and decapitated for not relinquishing his faith and therefore becoming a martyr. Funeral Presence expand on this brief tale by playing a form of Black metal that exists within the confines of the first wave yet but with subtle influences in overall scope and direction from the second wave.

(more…)

17 Comments

Tags: , , ,

SMR – Descend Into Boredom

by Nicholas Vahdias on December 13, 2019

Fleshcrawl – In the Catacombs of Flesh
Fleshcrawl return after a twelve year layoff with this abortion of an album that should be avoided. The overall motion of the album is extremely bizarre as the band start with one decent song before slowly spiraling into simple chugging rhythms reminiscent of later Entombed and slowly falling into pure saccharine Melodeath. The vocals have devolved into the almost shouted Nu Death vocals popular in the early 2000s. The weak vocals lead these songs and help distinguish them by shouting each title multiple times. The lyrics perfectly illustrate to what mentally deficient depths this band has descended to with golden quotes likes “Suffer you fucking cunt, die you fucking cunt”. The drums have devolved into follow the riffs without any of the intelligent fills and patterns that were once emblematic of this band. In the Catacombs of another man’s flesh!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypcJiUCqB84

(more…)

16 Comments

Tags: , , , , , , ,

SMR – To Ape Or Not To Ape

by Nicholas Vahdias on November 27, 2019

Since the dawn of man there have been two kinds of people. Those who are capable of innovating and those who can follow with varying degrees of success. What lies here is some of the first worst Death metal in existence as it poorly tries to capture the essence of the greats and a mix of other bands that do their best to break away from such heavy chains that burden all musicians in the 21st Century.

(more…)

11 Comments

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Comparing Old And New Peterson Irish Flake Pipe Tobacco

by Brett Stevens on November 24, 2019

People generally split into two groups: those who want an external order so that they can focus on their inner refinement, and those who want no external order so that they can avoid self-actualization. The former like tradition, where the latter detest it, and claim the former just repeat the past out of fear of the new.

(more…)

20 Comments

Tags: , , , ,

OPHTHALAMIA – A Journey in Darkness (Avantgarde Music, 1994)

by Johan Pettersson on October 19, 2019

While primarily known for his work with black metal/noise-pioneers Abruptum and assorted non-musical activities in the – at least locally – infamous “True Satanist Horde”, it is the strange entity of Ophthalamia that remains as Tony “IT” Särkkä’s (RIP 1972-2017) greatest artistic achievement. Ophthalamia’s debut album A Journey in Darkness stood out in the early 1990s black metal-environment with its anachronistic and all-around peculiar mode of expression. In rough terms, the music can be described as a blend of black-, doom-, and heavy metal with the conceptual and structural trappings of 1970s progressive rock.

(more…)

4 Comments

Tags: , , , ,

Ultimate Analysis : Bathory – Twilight of the Gods Part IV

by Ioannis Metaxas on September 17, 2019

Part IV: The Spiritual Significance of Struggle and the Mountain

“The most spiritual men, as the strongest, find their happiness where others would find their destruction: in the labyrinth, in hardness against themselves and others, in experiments. Their joy is self-conquest: asceticism becomes in them nature, need, and instinct. Difficult tasks are a privilege to them; to play with burdens that crush others, a recreation. Knowledge-a form of asceticism. They are the most venerable kind of man: that does not preclude their being the most cheerful and the kindliest.”

(more…)

1 Comment

Tags: , ,

Classic reviews:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z