Compiled
Review by Metallattorney. He is the law.
Hmmm. I am not quite sure why I am reviewing this. I did not realize it at first until listening to it for the first time that this is a compilation rather than a full-length release. I realized it finally when I kept thinking to myself "I know I have heard this song before". I guess it helps to pay attention occasionally.Anyway, I am a big fan of Toxic Holocaust so even though this is a compilation, I enjoyed listening to it. This is a collection of tracks off of EPs and splits that the band has done over the years. Toxic Holocaust has a lot of music out there and this puts together some of the rarer tracks for easier consumption. That is what a good compilation does after all.
The issue on appeal is whether Inter Arma, as evidenced on Sky Burial, is “boldly combining influences in new ways, or do they lack identity?”* The rule applicable is whether the release kicks enough ass to make the listener say, “Whoa, this some good fuckin’ shit.” (hereinafter “the kick ass good shit rule”).** Respondent argues in essence that the length of the release, combined with its allegedly mis-placed acoustic interludes and discordant influences present a confused but potential-laden release. We granted this writ because it presents an issue of first impression – i.e. significant disagreement between FMA and joanismylover. Because real-party at interest – Inter Arma – despite some minor mis-steps, ultimately satisfy kick ass good shit rule, joanismylover will, as explained below, give Sky Burial an improved rating.
Bone Sickness: Alone in the Grave (2013)
I decided to check out Reflection of the Negative because half of the split is from Cough. A couple years ago, I nearly gave Cough’s Ritual Abuse a perfect score, stating that the record takes Black Sabbath to its logical extreme.
Despite my seemingly intellectual exterior, I am a lawyer after all, I love slam death metal. I know it is mostly stupid and juvenile, an excuse for bands to get as brutal as they want with ridiculously filthy lyrics. And even though I admit that it is ridiculous and juvenile, I still can not get enough of it. It is a dichotomy that perplexes me. Some slam bands are surprisingly talented musically with some well-written lyrics, just look at Wormed and Defeated Sanity. But then there are groups like Devourment, who were instrumental in giving slam death metal a formula. 
Spawn of Possession is yet another technical death metal band. The band has been around for awhile now, though I have not previously had an opportunity to check them out. This is the band's third full-length and their first one in six years. I had heard good things about their prior albums, with some calling them a cross between Obscura and Necrophagist. So I was kind of anxious to hear this group.
Hooded Menace: Effigies of Evil
v. 
Weapon is one of those rare death metal bands who don’t sound exactly like a more famous band, or a combination of two more famous bands. With 2010’s From the Devil’s Tomb, they had Middle Eastern inflections, yet they sounded nothing at all like Nile. Embers and Revelations finds them continuing on their own path, but with a few changes.
The bad news: Unearthly Trance has disbanded. The good news: They’re actually still together, operating under a new name with an expanded lineup (including Tim Bagshaw of Ramesses/ex-Electric Wizard renown).
has become the latest beloved metal act to abandon metal. 
was the most widely-touted metal album of 2009, appearing on more end-of-year lists than perhaps any other. So the shift away from the genre will be met with antipathy. Among metalheads, the double album Yellow & Green will surely be the most debated record of the year.
Horseback is one of the most unusual-sounding bands to get regular mention in metal publications. Clearly they're not a metal band, but those raspy black metal vocals and the dark tone of the music make us the primary audience. 
Slam death has not been a microgenre that I've explored a lot. It gets derided for being the dumbest kind of death metal. Admittedly, I prefer smarter music, but dumb shit is fun sometimes.
The whole female-fronted hard rock / metal thing is getting to be a competitive field. With bands like The Devil's Blood and Christian Mistress getting huge press and rave reviews, not to mention a notable touring gig for the former, it's tough to ignore this reemerging phenomenon. After wowing us with Christian Mistress, Relapse has presented us with Royal Thunder, a band from the fertile ground of Georgia.
Women have a strange place in the history of heavy music. When they're not in the band, they're marginalized, objectified, or targeted for lyrical and artistic violence. When they are in the band, they can be seen as a blatant appeal to sex, an automatic commercialization, or as lesser than their male counterparts. In reality, they've contributed a lot more than people recognize. 
In 2011, a trend can start and end in a couple months. With a dozen new releases in every genre every day, and people writing about music on umpteen million blogs (I'm guilty too), it just moves fast. Take, for instance, the so-called New Wave of Old-School Death Metal. It was identified as a reaction to the too-clean, too-technical sound of modern death metal. The NWOOSDM seems to have started some time in the middle of 2010, and here we are in the middle of 2011 and the anti-trend of NWOOSDM is now the trend. Some people are already getting sick of it. 
, because they obviously don't care.
on their end-of-year lists before they even heard it. On the other hand, you have the silent genre nazis (like the people at Metal Archives) who off-handedly dismiss it as "not metal"--or the loud genre nazis who insult the band every chance they get.
The truth is, I'm not sure what's not to like. The music can most succinctly be described as blackened sludge metal, not unlike