New Band Watch: Valkaria
Oct 08
New Band Watch: Valkaria The state of Florida may be the mental asylum of the North America’s, but you can’t deny the fact that the penis shaped funny farm has some serious metal cred. I mean hell, death metal was practically invented there and its population of headline-flavoring nut baggers still manages to turn out some top talent, signed and otherwise. A good example of this is Valkaria, out of Melbourne FL. The young group took a short time to find their feet and released their debut EP, Skylines earlier this year (so I don’t go through my promo list that often, but I get around to it…), and it finds the group delivering a solid mix of hardcore and New Wave of American Heavy Metal. The sound is definitely abrasive and heavy, but they throw in plenty of colorful elements for a well-rounded listen: there’s almost always a melody drifting through the the riffing, and electronic samples are mindfully used as accents to the onslaught. You’ll even find a few thoughtfully lulled moments of ambiance on the EP that help give it some dimension. If you need some new heaviness in your day, do yourself a favor and check out Skylines from Valkaria, which you can listen to below. Look for a full length effort coming soon, and make sure to follow them on Facebook and...
Review: Saor – Roots
Sep 24
Saor – RootsReview Rating: 6/10 As a music reviewer, you know that you need to get through your submissions pile a little quicker when the band you’re reviewing has changed their name since sending you their promo. Which is apparently the case with Scotland’s Àrsaidh, now known as Saor, who released their debut album Roots earlier this year. Name change aside, the one-man atmospheric folk/black metal group (now apparently a two person venture) have a fairly respectable if not somewhat homogenized offering in their first release. Saor plays brand of celtic-ish black metal that aims to channel the natural spirit of their Highland home country, and in that pursuit they succeed fairly well. The music is richly textured with native instrumentation that sweeps through sombre and often majestic progressions that call to mind the rolling green hills of Scotland, all the while propped up by the more aggressive and forceful backbone of traditional folk-infused black metal. Appropriately, the thundering drums, grating guitars, and shouted growls never overpower or step in front of the wandering and mostly forlorn melodies, which keeps the music atmospheric and listless while still maintaining a definite bite. The songs, all four of them, take their time to meander along their way, slowly rising and falling along the journey as they evolve through loosely structured though very natural progressions. While Roots certainly boasts a lengthy trek through an aurally scenic soundscape at slightly under an hour of playtime, it cannot be said to have a great breadth of variety; it has its path and it sticks to it. There is a slight ‘breather’ track in the middle of the album with “Saorsa”, an ambient instrumental which helps break any potential monotony in the effort, but there is still a feeling of sameness across the album. However, this is not a deal breaker by any means, as this is not a record that relies on the individual songs, but rather the overall journey of the sound as a whole, and in that Roots accomplishes what the band sought out to do. All in all, Saor’s first outing is noteworthy for its ability to capture the distinct emotional impression of its subject. One would hardly have to be told the inspiration behind the record in order for them to recognize it as a sombre and often sorrowful ode to the Scottish Highlands and the natural spectacle they hold....
Getting Your Nerd Horns Up – The Best in 8-bit Metal
Aug 25If you are a fellow geeked out metalhead like myself, then chances are that many a drunken night of debauchery have ended in inebriated marathons of retro NES or SNES gaming. I don’t care how old you are, games like Castlevania and Zelda just never go out of style. The only problem is, despite how cool those old 8-bit soundtracks were, they just weren’t metal enough; so here’s a list of some of the best heavy music given the retro treatment for you to spin as custom background music next time you get your 4-button gaming on. Press Start. Pantera – Cowboys From Hell The perfect soundtrack to a late night retro session of Metal Gear Solid! Judas Priest – Painkiller A perfect match for classic Doom. I can see the imps and lost souls being blasted away just listening to this, ending in an epic Cyberdemon boss battle. Iron Maiden – The Trooper Get your freedom fightin’ on, Contra style! Dismember – Casket Garden Got a dungeon level coming up? Start this creeper up and watch out for the bats that fly off the ceilings! Metallica – Master of Puppets I don’t care what flavor of NES gaming you’ve got going on, just crank this and throw up some pixelated horns! The Black Dahlia Murder – Moonlight Equilibrium Sure, these guys have a song that actually is about Castlevania (What a Horrible Night to have a Curse), but this track has more of the vibe, plus the title fits all too well. Diamond Head – Am I Evil Bionic Commando didn’t have this in the soundtrack, but it damn well should have. ‘Nuff said. Megadeth – Holy Wars…The Punishment Due Some serious Mega Man action going on here. Motorhead – Overkill Who can’t see a striking resemblance between Motorhead’s Snaggletooth and Bowser, eh? Slayer – Angel of Death Metroid has never been so...
New Band Watch: Soliloquium
Jul 12
If you stick around this site long enough, you will notice that I’ve got a thing for doomy death metal, so it’s nice to have it occasionally dropped into my inbox from random places across the globe. Although to be honest, Sweden may not be so random. They’ve been one the genre’s most fertile spawning grounds for a couple of decades now, and the Nordic country continues to foster an underground of dreary metal that is as forlorn as it is fuckin’ heavy. One such band doling out the doom is Stockholm’s Soliloquium, comprised of Stefan Nordström and Jonas Bergkvist from Desolator and Ending Quest. The group has recently released a new EP titled The Concept of Escape and features expansive and wandering songs of raw melancholy reminiscent of early Katatonia or Anethema. There’s quite a bit of range and texture to the music, from somber clean guitars and hauntingly subdued vocals, to crushing chords and unhallowed growls. Check out the EP below, and make sure to follow the band, these guys have something good in the works.The Concept of Escape by SoliloquiumFollow Soliloquium on...
Review: Phalgeron – Cosmic Cataclysms
Jun 24
Phalgeron – Cosmic Cataclysms Bleak imagery of shadows and despondent melancholy are the signature characteristics attributed to black metal music, a genre that wallows in the sorrowful hollowness of human isolation and desperation. It is these themes of the dismal and depraved that suit the sound so naturally to the Pacific Northwest of America, with its perpetually dreary climate, sparse population, and near endless reaches of cold mist filled forests. The environment, nearly identical to the birthplace of the then-underground movement in Scandinavia, is bound to foster a similar spawning ground for purveyors of doom, gloom, and spiritual dejection by its very nature. And indeed it has, with cities like Seattle, Portland, and Olympia cultivating tight-knit communities of underground black metal acts since the mid-nineties, one of which being the somewhat recent transplant from Los Angeles, Phalgeron. After slaying many a stage in support for a respectable montage of both national and internationally touring acts, the epic black metal trio has released their debut album, Cosmic Cataclysms, an effort which craftily fuses a flair for fantasy with a blackened assault of pummeling thrash metal. From the opening notes of “Feeding the Phlegethon” you get an immediate impression of the band’s sensibilities, as a rather epic sounding melodic guitar line heralds the warsong to come to good effect. When the attack is unleashed, the listener is treated to a barrage of frantic riffing, pummeling drums, and vocals that morph easily between rasping graveyard verses and deep chorus growls. This is largely the sonic pallette utilized for the album as a whole with slight variations and flavorings here and there. Phalgeron, at their heart are a blackened death metal band with taste for melodic fantasy-battle elements in the vein of bands like Bal-Sagoth, but with a more traditional style of delivery that eschews any reliance on symphonic accents and instead opts for a straightforward brutal thrash metal onslaught. While brutality and fiery blasts of aggression is the primary name of the game on Cosmic Cataclysms, the band is mindful never to exclude melody, as every song features wandering lead guitar lines that give them their discernible identities. These melodies generally retain an air of ominous majesty and epic battle calling that give the album a flavor that, if devoid of, would make for an otherwise generic modern blackened death metal release. Songs like “Creatures of the North” stick in the listeners...
AMRB is Twitterpated
Jun 23
Another Metal Review Blog is further succumbing to the entanglements of social media and now has a Twitter account. Follow it at @somemetalblog for announcements, randomness, and of course, drunken ramblings on all things noisy. Feel free to tweet your metalness at me, especially if you’re in a metal band as I will retweet for you to spread the metal love. Oh yeah, and...
