autothrall.blogspot.com
From the Dust Returned: Blood Dancer - Blood Dancer (2013)
http://autothrall.blogspot.com/2013/01/blood-dancer-blood-dancer-2013.html
Friday, January 11, 2013. Blood Dancer - Blood Dancer (2013). It's almost unthinkable that an unsigned band could record an album like the eponymous Blood Dancer. Are clearly providing a pure heavy metal alternative for something like Amon Amarth. Christopher Barclay's voice is a central selling point, a higher pitched, knife edged tone borne of a crystal clarity that will draw some obvious comparisons to Joachim Cans of HammerFall. He's very proficient at maintaining pitch, but thankfully he's also not ...
autothrall.blogspot.com
From the Dust Returned: Scar Symmetry - The Unseen Empire (2011)
http://autothrall.blogspot.com/2011/04/scar-symmetry-unseen-empire-2011.html
Friday, April 15, 2011. Scar Symmetry - The Unseen Empire (2011). Are another of the Swedish bands attempting to bridge the melodic death roots from which they've sprung with the commercially viable aesthetic of clean vocals, futurist lyrics and a progressive, groove metal leaning. Essentially, you take Soilwork. S excellent Natural Born Chaos. And expand upon the ideas there, increasing their latent complexity, and you wind up with something like The Unseen Empire. Or Dark Matter Dimensions. Full-length...
laceratedthrashmetal.blogspot.com
Lacerated Metal Zine: January 2015
http://laceratedthrashmetal.blogspot.com/2015_01_01_archive.html
Sunday, January 11, 2015. Soen - Tellurian [2014]. From the verse riff of ' Tabula Rasa' with its 70's feel to the utter headbanging pleasure one would derive from ' Void' , ' Tellurian' is abound with groovy, moody momentum. Something Japan's Sigh would have fancied, I imagine) is just a strange addition to the list of things I love about this album. It beckons with ebbing reverb of the final track, luring us inside it, one chopstick-full of listeners at a time. Subscribe to: Posts (Atom). Bunny Gamer's...
laceratedthrashmetal.blogspot.com
Lacerated Metal Zine: July 2015
http://laceratedthrashmetal.blogspot.com/2015_07_01_archive.html
Saturday, July 11, 2015. Vorage - Vorage [2015] (Demo). Thursday, July 9, 2015. Vardan - Between the Fog and Shadows [2015]. Solitary Death of a Forest Spirit. Sunday, July 5, 2015. Night Demon - Curse of the Damned [2015]. Screams in the Night. Subscribe to: Posts (Atom). Rarely, I'll post interviews, and I also tend exchange reviews with fellow blogs every now and then. For inquiries contact via email:. Vorage - Vorage [2015] (Demo). Vardan - Between the Fog and Shadows [2015]. Voidspawn – Pyrrhic.
autothrall.blogspot.com
From the Dust Returned: Morbid Angel - Juvenilia (2015)
http://autothrall.blogspot.com/2015/05/morbid-angel-juvenilia-2015.html
Friday, May 8, 2015. Morbid Angel - Juvenilia (2015). One has to wonder: is the title of this retro live album released for Record Store Day 2015 simply a nod to the fact that its date of recording (November 1989) being a moment in Morbid Angel. S formative, 'juvenile' (aka important) history, or is there something potentially backhanded going on as some sort of meta reference to the overwhelmingly negative response to the band's last full length album where they suddenly thought they were Nine Inch Nails.
autothrall.blogspot.com
From the Dust Returned: Six Feet Under - Crypt of the Devil (2015)
http://autothrall.blogspot.com/2015/05/six-feet-under-crypt-of-devil-2015.html
Monday, May 18, 2015. Six Feet Under - Crypt of the Devil (2015). For Chris Barnes and Steve Swanson to 'arm' themselves with a trio of Cannabis Corpse. Members on this 11th (original) studio album turns out not only to have been an interesting ploy, but one that more or less pays off, giving the long mediocre act a fresher sound that complements the veteran vocalist's gruff delivery with some more elaborate and intricate musicianship. That's not to imply that Crypt of the Devil. Crypt of the Devil.
autothrall.blogspot.com
From the Dust Returned: Salvation - Winter Wrath [demo] (2014)
http://autothrall.blogspot.com/2015/04/salvation-winter-wrath-demo-2014.html
Monday, April 13, 2015. Salvation - Winter Wrath [demo] (2014). Were I to deify the 'good old boys' of the black metal medium, then Salvation. Demo would likely be the sort of libation paid to them on the various solstices and equinoxes. The DNA of a recording like this is quite plainly linked back to those important, formative works of a Darkthrone, Hellhammer, Bathory. Or even a Deathcrush. But bear in mind: this is a very limited release, not intended for mass consumption or to be writ large across th...
autothrall.blogspot.com
From the Dust Returned: January 2015
http://autothrall.blogspot.com/2015_01_01_archive.html
Thursday, January 29, 2015. Blind Guardian - Beyond the Red Mirror (2015). Beyond the Red Mirror. Finally jump its shark and record a concept album about Buck Rogers in the Disco Century. Or did they succumb to the bland 'go big or go home' fever that they partially helped invent, which has infected all manner of hack European Gothic/power metal hybrids with female vocalists and lavish stage productions with all the substance of Disney's Frozen. Or Somewhere Far Beyond. Or A Night at the Opera. If not qu...
autothrall.blogspot.com
From the Dust Returned: Skyforger - Senprūsija (2015)
http://autothrall.blogspot.com/2015/05/skyforger-senprusija-2015.html
Tuesday, May 5, 2015. Skyforger - Senprūsija (2015). While a large percentage of the pagan/folk metal crowd seems to have reduced itself to a band of lively, gallivanting minstrels who have watched Lord of the Rings. To the point they can recite them line for line, there are particular bands among the lot which have long stood head and shoulders above their stylistic peers. Latvia's Skyforger. Which was among their best material to date, and sixth album Senprūsija. 1998) and the Latvian Riflemen. This is...
autothrall.blogspot.com
From the Dust Returned: Throes - Dissasociation (2015)
http://autothrall.blogspot.com/2015/05/throes-dissasociation-2015.html
Monday, May 11, 2015. Throes - Dissasociation (2015). It's instantly obvious, even without hearing the music itself, that England's Throes. Is a record aesthetically cast in the vein of December Wolves. Streetwise black/thrashing epic Completely Dehumanized. Or several of the works by their own countrymen Anaal Nathrakh. To some of the most ceaselessly intense and blasted black metal the Scandinavian territories have ever produced. Sanity waxing and waning, life mistakes flashing before your eyes in a he...
