Amon Amarth: Deceiver of the Gods (2013)

We March Again to Reach Valhalla’s Mighty Royal Gates

This would be the second entirely unnecessary review in as many weeks. Instead of writing a typical review, I considered writing a vignette of a Viking battle scene. At the thought of inviting such a direct comparison between my words and the experience of hearing Amon Amarth, I decided against that option.

Deceiver of the Gods is the eighth full-length record from the mighty Amon Amarth. They only need one more to have as many albums as there are homeworlds in Norse cosmology. If you’ve got any of their previous seven records you have a pretty good idea of what to expect. If you don’t have any of their previous seven, you need to buy this one, buy another one, or get the Hel out of here. There’s not another way. If you don’t love Amon Amarth, then you can’t claim to be a metalhead.

Aeon: Aeons Black (2012)

Blah Blah Blah

Review by Metallattorney. He is the law.

Aeon is a Swedish death metal band. Now when I say that, many people will have a certain sound in mind for what they think that the band will sound like. They would be wrong in this case. You see when I say that Aeon is a Swedish death metal band, what I mean is that Aeon is a death metal band that happens to be from Sweden. Their sound owes far more to the early New York death metal scene than to the Swedish scene. Think Immolation, Suffocation, and Incantation. There is a little bit of technicality, but that is more along the same lines as saying that Cannibal Corpse is technical.

Aeon's music deals with anti-Christianity, which is certainly nothing new in the genre. So the music is of course dark and heavy. Unfortunately this is all just more of the same from Aeon who have been doing this type of death metal for years now. Most of their albums sound basically the same as well. This one added a little bit to the mix, mainly short acoustic tracks to break up the monotony of the pounding riffs.

Satan's Wrath: Galloping Blasphemy (2012)

Worshiping at the Throne of Extreme Metal Pioneers

Review by Metallattorney. He is the law.

Greek band Satan's Wrath make their debut on this release. The band is the new project of former Electric Wizard bassist Tas Danazoglou who appeared on EW's last full-length release but has since moved on. Satan's Wrath is very much Tas's project as he performs the bass, drums, and the vocals with only Stamos K making up the rest of the band on the guitar. Tas has always been something of a menacing presence in EW so this project promised to be intriguing.

Things definitely start out ominously with some bass strings being plucked along with the screams of some poor tortured souls. This immediately leads into an opening guitar melody that would not sound out of place in the opening strains of a Slayer album, just to set the mood.

King Diamond: Abigail (1987)

Motion for Reconsideration
25th Anniversary

In addition to being my twins' first birthday, this is the 25th anniversary of King Diamond's Abigail. It's not just a favorite of mine, but one of the most beloved metal albums of all time. As evidence, you need only look at the Metal Archives review average: 13 reviews with an average score of 96%. Browsing around and looking at the usual suspects, I could find only one other album with at least a dozen reviews and an equal score (Sad Wings of Destiny).

I should have named my twins Jonathan and Abigail.

Timi Hansen, Michael Denner, and the incomparable King Diamond had all been involved in two of the greatest metal albums of all time. After the break-up of the great Mercyful Fate, they formed the band King Diamond. 1986 Debut Fatal Portrait didn't make a drastic departure from their old band's style, and only partially qualifies as a concept album. But Abigail represents the moment that King Diamond (the band) truly came into its own.

Hammers of Misfortune: 17th Street (2011)

Review

Since I let my very expensive Terrorizer subscription lapse, the only metal magazine I continue to read is Decibel. And with good reason. Not all of their writers have the best taste. Some of the reviews are filled with hyperbole or references I don't understand. Some of the stuff they go nuts for just makes me scratch my head. But those are the exceptions.

So, when I saw the prominent position of 17th Street on the magazine's top 40 of 2011 list, I decided to check out the latest from Hammers of Misfortune. This is my first exposure to the band, and I have to say that in a magazine focused on extreme metal, they stick out like Nergal in a cancer ward. But it's good enough that the divergence from their normal coverage is warranted.

Glorior Belli: The Great Southern Darkness (2011)

Review

There have been many stories of musicians who sold their souls to the devil to gain fame or mastery of their craft. Italian violinists Giuseppe Tartini and Niccolò Paganini were said to have done so as far back as the 18th and 19th centuries, respectively. But the concept is more famously associated with blues musicians who met the devil at the crossroads, such as Tommy Johnson and Robert Johnson. Perhaps this has something to do with the popular idea that Satan was the one who invented music, or because the establishment wanted to villify music that frightened them. But in any case the archetype is ubiquitous. The concept was parodied by Metalocalypse and Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny, and even referenced in the title to Black Sabbath's greatest hits compilation.

Perhaps naturally, metal grew out of the blues, with Sabbath beginning in the blues tradition. But somewhere along the line the older genre was excised, perhaps by Judas Priest. Glorior Belli have brought it back.

The World. The Flesh. The Devil v. Crimen Laesae Majestatis Divinae

v.

Mercyful Fate is the greatest metal band, ever. Melissa and Don't Break the Oath are easily on par with Vol. 4 and Master of Puppets. Shermann and Denner have the most distinctive (and excellent) double-guitar riffing in the genre, and I recently named King Diamond as the greatest metal vocalist of all time. I defy you to find any issue of Decibel or Terrorizer that doesn't mention the glorious MF or KD. Try to argue with me, and you will come up with only four or five other bands that could possibly claim the title: Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Metallica, and maybe Celtic Frost. But each and every one of those bands has bad albums to their name. Not so for the great Danes.

Two bands have recently been recommended as Mercyful Fate sound-alikes: In Solitude and Portrait. They have quite a bit in common with each other besides that comparison. Both are from Sweden. Both are on Metal Blade. Both released their debut albums in 2008. And both released their sophomore albums (with verbose titles) this May.

First, I'll take up In Solitude and The World. The Flesh. The Devil. There are plenty of Fate-isms here. Primarily you'll find it in the work of frontman Pelle Åhman, who, like King, is the only one in his band to wear face paint. The lyrics about evil, demons, and sacrifice could easily have been penned by King, and the vocal phrasing is distinctly similar. In terms of range, Åhman doesn't shoot for the falsettos, but sounds a lot like King's mid-range, and also does the occasional growl.

Metal Podcasts

I mentioned a while back that podcasts were an important element in my metallic education and my growth as a metalhead. They exposed me to a variety of different metal, and taught me genre differences. They still serve an important purpose for me, whether it be a label-run podcast to let me sample new releases, or another podcast to yield the hidden gem. And they still simply entertain.

Maybe I'm a dinosaur. I'm not sure if the young kids are still listening to these. But I like to be able to have it download and sync to my iPod automatically, to listen wherever I am.

Now, metal podcasts should be music-driven. I've tried some metal podcasts that were not, whether they were mostly metal news or simply talk radio with metalhead hosts. Usually, they'll play some music, but not entire songs. I'm not interested in that. If I want metal news, I will read it. If I wanted to hear metalheads talk to each other, I would get a friend.

So, here are a handful of metal podcasts, and my thoughts on them. If you want to listen, all you need to do is search in the iTunes store. They're free, so why not?

The Metalcast

The Metalcast was my first metal podcast, and it's still my favorite today. Many of their episodes sample broadly from all metal genres, including power metal, trad-metal, doom, black, and death. But my favorites are the themed episodes. These give a good view of whatever that theme is, be it a country-based special or a genre-based one. The format is perfect--song, commentary on the previous song, commentary on the next song, and another song, repeated until the end, so that you never get lost about which song they're talking about. The hosts are people you would like to meet, and are fully engaged if you comment on the site or their Facebook page. They often conduct interviews, including well-known bands like Agalloch. And for the last couple years, the format has been upgraded to show album art during the songs and allow you to skip something if you don't like it. Everyone should give this a shot.

Hate Eternal: Phoenix Amongst the Ashes (2011)

Review

Eric Rutan's Hate Eternal sometimes gets flak for being an unoriginal, boring, pure-Florida style death metal band. That's wrong in at least two ways.

Phoenix Amongst the Ashes (the band's fifth full-length) has the band performing death with intensity and ferocity equalled by few others. In terms of the clean production, the death grunts, the incessantly machinegunning drums, and the massively grooving riffs, they sound more like Behemoth than their Floridian brethren.

Pentagram: Last Rites (2011)

Review

Pentagram has a mythical story going back four decades that would easily fit the mold of Greek tragedy. Mighty doom-bringers, they are said to be great enough to be America's answer to Black Sabbath. That is, but for the flawed character of vocalist/principal songwriter Bobby Liebling, whose attitude and drug abuse have thwarted them at every turn. But now he is supposedly sober, and reunited with born-again Christian Victor Griffin on the axe. Last Rites was anticipated and hailed as the band finally overcoming their problems to bring their full greatness to the world.

In reality, they're America's answer to Sabbath like Cactus is America's answer to Zeppelin. Who? Exactly. Like other semi-legendary bands of the underground, their influence on subsequent acts can't be denied. But as a listening prospect, they tend to be pretty hit-and-miss. That is definitely the case here.