Danzig: Danzig III: How the Gods Kill (1992)

Motion for Reconsideration
20th Anniversary

As a junior high kid first getting into metal, without any guidance from an older and more knowledgeable metalhead, I had few methods to discover new music. One of the most eye-opening was the shotgun method, i.e., blindly buying a whole lot of stuff all at once. At that time, there was no such thing as music downloading, so the next best thing was to sign up for one of the music clubs. Younger readers will have no idea what I'm talking about, but you could sign up for these "clubs" and get a dozen or so CD's for very cheap. They then planned to send you unsolicited CD's and charge you for them afterward, but most everyone would cancel immediately.

When I signed up for one of these, I got albums from Black Sabbath, Korn (this was before Follow the Leader), Type O Negative, Sepultura, and a handful of others. But out of these, the one that stood out the most to my developing tastes was Danzig, the debut by the band of the same name. Later I began collecting all of the band's albums, and I've listened to them, especially the first four, many times over the course of nearly two decades.

Azoic: Gateways (2012)

Deathportal Mitochondrion

Icelandic two-piece Azoic contacted me a while ago regarding their debut release Gateways. I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that someone they talked to leaked the album, because a month later they announced they were giving it away for free.

I wasn't really on top of this one. I thought, "Well, how good could a black metal two-piece out of Iceland possibly be, if they aren't represented by a label or a PR company? I'll just get to it when I get to it." Apparently I forgot all my good experience with two-man black metal operations (e.g. Rite). I'll be sure not to make that mistake again.

Samothrace: Reverence to Stone (2012)

Don't Look Them Up on Metal Archives

Samothrace is a band that you should never, ever, under any circumstances, look up on Metal Archives. You will not be able to listen to them if you do.

I managed to listen to the band's sophomore album about five times before looking them up, and I formed my opinions about the record before seeing that page. What they play is often described as stoner doom with crust punk influences, which makes me think Electric Wizard and Amebix. But I find that couldn't be much further from the truth. It sounds like Isis interpreted by Swallow the Sun, or in other words, melodic death/doom with post-metal influences. OK, so they're both doom descriptions, but completely different otherwise.

Grime: Grime (EP 2011)

Grimy

I've mentioned before that I have a truly first-world problem. That is, there is more music vying for my attention than I have time to explore. OK, it's not really a "problem," it's a good thing, but it does require that I prioritize. Usually that means the bigger bands and bigger labels take precedence. Which I should kick myself for, because it's the smaller bands and labels that made this possible in the first place, and you can read about the bigger names anywhere.

I still allot time for a handful of unknown releases, but most of them don't get a complete review unless they grab me right away. Grime fucking grabbed me.

Sons of Tonatiuh: Parade of Sorrow (2012)

Primordial Sludge

The early years of sludge metal's existence found it marginalized and ignored by the core of metal's audience. Corrosion of Conformity did have success with their brand of Southern rock-inflected sludge, but the core New Orleans scene (Crowbar, et al.) labored in obscurity for a decade. Thanks in large part to the high profile of Phil Anselmo, Down brought sludge metal into the public eye. Mastodon then proceeded to blow it apart, resulting in the rise of the Atlanta scene, and the eventual infiltration of sludge into every branch of metal's family tree. Sludge is now a ubiquitous, fully-formed, developed, and mature style of music.

For whatever reason, Atlanta's Sons of Tonatiuh have rebelled against that development and maturity. Sophomore release Parade of Sorrow deconstructs sludge into its primitive elements.

Mystagog: . . . of Old (2011)

Unblessing the Black Metal Purity

Guest review by Patrick, proprietor of Beards Etc., home of metal, beards, and more.

Mystagog are a Hungarian black metal duo who released their debut album "...of Old" in December of last year. According to Metal Archives the band has already split up, but the same pair have collaborated before as part of another group, so I don't really know if any future exists for these two or not.

This album is really, really lo-fi black metal. That is of prime importance, because it dictates the remainder of the listening experience.

Ihsahn: Eremita (2012)

After After

Ihsahn’s After was easily the best progressive metal album of 2010 for most of that year—until Enslaved showed up right at the time that everyone began putting together their end-of-year lists. Still, the Norwegian metal veteran had a strong showing on many of those lists. I personally didn’t spend a lot of time with that album; while I recognized its excellence, there were simply other things that occupied my attention. Yet whenever I do put it on, it digs its tendrils a little deeper into my skull.

Eremita continues the progressive, saxophone-infused extreme prog of the last album, not straying too far from the formula. It differs in a few respects, however.

Wreck and Reference: No Youth (2012)

A Personal Recommendation

When one of metal’s most innovative artists personally contacts you with a specific recommendation, it’s probably a good idea to listen. Otrebor (of Botanist fame) contacted me about Wreck and Reference, so I listened.

If that name-drop alone doesn’t pique your interest, perhaps you should know their sophomore effort No Youth was mixed by Krallice’s Colin Marston, a.k.a. the producer du jour for avant-garde extreme music, and the vinyl version will be released by The Flenser, a.k.a., the next Profound Lore. From all that information, you’re probably pretty sure whether this is something you’d be interested in, or if you’re just going to move on to the next Hell’s Headbangers release. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) But if you’re still on the fence, it might help to know that it’s available for a pay-what-you-want download.

Antigama: Stop the Chaos (2012)

Personally, I'm Progama

I really admire guys who can write cogent, meaningful reviews of grindcore albums. I simply don’t have the required skillset to pick out all the subtle differences as they flash by in 0:20. It doesn’t help that I’m grossly under-educated about the genre and have very little practice writing about it.

But when it comes to deathgrind, like Antigama, I’m a little more comfortable. Stop the Chaos is a 15-minute EP from the Poles. It’s my first experience with the decade-plus old band, but from what I gather, their recorded output has had a spotty reception. You’d never guess it from the confidence displayed on this EP.