For years many of us have told death metal bands that instead of trying to mix hard rock into their death metal, it makes more sense just to cast off the underground metal aspersions and go full hard rock. With a mix of Motörhead, Iron Maiden, and AC/DC plus their own melodic and prog touches, Xysma do that.
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Back in 2019, Carcass released their first single in under five years with “Under the Scalpel Blade,” followed by a four-song EP entitled Despicable in late 2020, laying the groundwork for the release of their next full-length, Torn Arteries later this year.
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This EP could serve as a demonstration of the futility of postmodernism and pluralism, since riffs from hard rock, speed metal, death metal, and progressive rock happily coexist in these songs, but with each pulling in its own direction, songs have no center and tend to ramble between moments of clarity before drifting away.
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We cover many of the tangents and background nodal points around death metal here, and Demon Head fits right into those categories. Basically 1970s rock filtered through Danzig with a lot of Iron Maiden but played with a modern stoner doom approach and hard rock pace, Demon Head brings back the weird, enjoyable, and unsettling in rock.
12 CommentsTags: AOR, demon head, hard rock, stoner doom
The press release that came along with this album described it as being similar to Opeth, but a leisurely listen with one of my Connecticut wrapper mild cigars that taste like Nilla wafers reveals a more distant ancestor: Queen. This is theatrical rock music that borrows some metal riffs, but not metal in any meaningful sense.
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Like most of the death metal crowd, Nicke Andersson reverted to his hard rock and 70s stadium rock roots after participating on a few classic death metal releases. Once you have said the vital portion of your worldview in musical form, you are forced to articulate it, which is less fun than the unformed but emerging image.
8 CommentsTags: 1970s, hard rock, lucifer, Nicke Andersson
Evil hard rock retro-fusion band Lucifer, featuring Nicke Andersson of Entombed fame, announced their third and final leg of their North American headline tour. The band will hit the road starting on January 15th in Memphis, TN and ending on January 26th in Tampa, FL.
14 CommentsTags: hard rock, lucifer, retro-groove
Metallica’s mark on metal in both the mainstream and underground still continues to grow as every riff, drum fill,solo etc has been plagiarized. As Metallica progressed towards much tamer territories, the band did the opposite of what common sense dictated at the time. Instead of reneging their previous records, they embraced them and relished their mainstream status as kings of “The Big 4”. This allowed them to exist in a bizarre duality alternating between mainstream Radio Rock and furious Heavy metal depending on the fan. Through this duality many bands have taken from both periods to create a curious mix that resonates with with a wider audience. Demonpalm fall into this category but their music carries potential for something better in some of the brief glimpses shown here.
6 CommentsTags: demonpalm, hard rock, iron maiden, metallica, NWOBHM
[Continued from Part 1]
10 CommentsTags: 2018, aeschylus, ballads, barbaric romanticism, blues, by the gods, classical music, cock rock, composition, Concept Album, cover songs, david defeis, dionysus, edward pursino, epic, exorcist, frank gilchriest, hard rock, hatred, Heavy Metal, insanity, jack starr, josh block, lilith, long island, love, madness, Mythology, new york, Occultism, Opera, original sin, over the top, Paganism, passion, piano, piledriver, power metal, rock opera, Romanticism, sexuality, Speed Metal, the hammer of zeus, the wrecking ball of thor, tragedy, Transcendence, USA, USPM, Vengeance, victory, virgin steele, wine
By the Gods my friends!
Forged in the desolate halls of 1981, hailing from the majestic kingdom of Long Island, New York… Virgin Steele have been one of the most enduring acts of Powerful Epic Heavy Metal for aeons! The aural magnificence of ultra-charismatic vocalist / composer / keyboardist / all around renaissance mad-man David “Dionysus” DeFeis and trusty six-stringed axe warrior of indomitable fury and vengeance Edward Pursino’s combined creative efforts have been overlooked by scholars of Metal for too long!
21 CommentsTags: aeschylus, ballads, barbaric romanticism, blues, by the gods, classical music, cock rock, composition, Concept Album, cover songs, david defeis, dionysus, edward pursino, epic, exorcist, frank gilchriest, hard rock, hatred, Heavy Metal, insanity, jack starr, josh block, lilith, long island, love, madness, Mythology, new york, Occultism, Opera, original sin, over the top, Paganism, passion, piano, piledriver, power metal, rock opera, Romanticism, sexuality, Speed Metal, the hammer of zeus, the wrecking ball of thor, tragedy, Transcendence, USA, USPM, Vengeance, victory, virgin steele, wine
