Death Squad – Split You At The Seams
Ever Rat Records, 1991
Speed metal — rising from Tank, Satan, Metallica, and Mercyful Fate — had a good but short run in the 1980s before enterprising poseurs worked rock and blues back into the mix, taking away the focus on riffs and song construction in favor of what were essentially pop songs with lots of muted E-chords. Split You At The Seams shows a late entry with roll-your-own spirit.
6 CommentsTags: death squad, Speed Metal
Primordial Offerings follows up on the first Kever which focused more on an intelligent form of percussive death metal; the second EP from this promising band attempts to invent a new style of atmospheric death metal without losing any of the intensity, sounding like a mix of Florida, Buffalo, and selectively melodic European acts like Fleshcrawl and Demigod.
8 CommentsTags: atmospheric death metal, death metal, kever
Chuck Schuldiner who once played crushing music that popularized Death metal before attempting to follow the mid 90s phase where every Underground band had to somehow rise to face the more rock influenced bands at their own game through whinier passages and trivial lyric matter. During that period his technical abilities increased but his inability to arrange worthwhile music become obvious rather as he relied exclusively on rock structures that culminated in a solo before repeating the whole process without any thoughts on progression, narration or momentum. This created the effect where some truly incredible melodies were juxtaposed next to some very mediocre sections derived from rock and other genres. This device was then taken by a large number of bands who have then used it to promote a singular idea over everything else and has contributed largely to the decline of metal in general. Let us look at a few moments where the Chuck Schuldiner syndrome was very apparent.
Tags: chuck schuldiner, Chuck Schuldiner Syndrome, death, death metal, grave, nile, Obscura, terrible, The Absence, vektor
We all miss the glory days of black metal, especially those who were not there to experience them the first time. That urge has spawned many bands who tried to uphold the original style and spirit despite the inevitable tendency of foolish humans to “mix it up” with other genres and random bits that are inarticulate to the purpose of the genre.
5 CommentsTags: Black Metal, clandestine blaze
Andrzej Sapkowski’s “The Witcher” series has seen itself appropriated and simplified in the form of a ridiculous TV show and movie that never garnered much respect in its native Poland and has been heavily critiqued by Sapkowski himself. The books find themselves once again simplified and denied of their essence in the form of three large budget video games that do attempt to bring to life the world of the series, but gameplay, endless superfluous content and the lack of understanding from the writers hinder this. Fortunately we are blessed by a truly transcendent series of books that despite the mainstream’s attempts at commercializing them remain unaffected in their message and expression. Enter “The Last Wish” which is the first book of a majestic saga that soars above the common man’s need for digestible media.
12 CommentsTags: Andrej Sapkowski, Classic fantasy, The Last Wish, The Witcher
by Veadtruck
Some people here don’t like negative metal reviews. I disagree, as I believe that pointing out bad music, and more importantly explaining why bad albums are bad, is necessary.
16 CommentsTags: Arch Enemy, behemoth, Belphegor, blut aus nord, dark funeral, dying fetus, immortal, Kalmah, Sewer, six feet under, terrible metal, terrible music, vader
Queensrÿche plans to introduce its sixteenth (!) album, The Verdict, to the world on March 1, 2019, representatives announced today. Century Media will release this newest work which is “the most metal and the most progressive record we have made in a long time” according to guitarist Michael Wilton.
5 CommentsTags: Heavy Metal, progressive metal, queensrÿche
Artists recovering from the downfall of black metal in 1995 faced a daunting challenge: how to keep aesthetically developing a genre that was based on primitive but elegant melodic and violent music, and how to expand its philosophy past its original primal, nihilistic, naturalistic, and anti-humanist roots.
9 CommentsTags: Black Metal, sorcier des glaces, technical black metal
As metal tries to reorganize itself, bands recombine previous styles, trying to find the right formula from which a next generation could be birthed. Such is the case with Blasphemous, which combines late-model slam-style death metal with power metal to make a listenable but ultimately rather simplified form of extreme metal.
1 CommentTags: blasphemous, death metal, metalcore, power metal, Speed Metal
Notorious violent black metal band Sammath gained a fanbase among the black metal horde for refusing to tone down the intensity of black metal, and instead mixing it with elements of fast technical death metal to achieve an uncompromising sound. Following up on the epic Godless Arrogance, the band faces a massive challenge in exceeding what it has already achieved, but a new demo suggests that this Dutch-German black metal assault has done just that.
6 CommentsTags: Black Metal, death metal, sammath, underground metal
