Reverend Bizarre - Dunkelheit

Powerful, hypnotic and moving. Suddenly life has new meaning.

Rush- Take A Friend

Happy 50th anniversary Rush!

Corrosion of Conformity - These Shrouded Temples... / Damned for All Time

Guitarists Woody and Pepper set the scene with this utterly menacing doom laden intro which rolls into this awesome drum section courtesy of the late great Reed Mullin, then we're into some of the most baddass riffage known to mankind. Karl's expressive powerful vocals top it all off.
Blind is this most incredible one-off album that seems to get sadly overlooked.
Gimme Blind over the Black any day of the week.

Eyehategod - Take As Needed For Pain

I don't know what the fuck he's singin about but it sure ain't daisies, puppy dogs and white picket fences.

Space Marine Corps - Dragonforce

Yeah this is fucking awful.

My god. I know a 40k song should have a bit of cheese but this is the Grimdark 41st Millennium. Here there is no peace, no respite, no forgiveness, there is only WAR! Yet this sound more at home if the theme was Pokemon.

And that singer sound weak and kind of sissy.

Bolt Thrower needs to reunite and show these guys how to make a proper 40k themed album.

Pest Control - Don't Test the Pest

Over n' done with in the blink of an eye but I'm in crossover thrash heaven. One of the best albums from last year.

Threshold - Divding Lines

Killer album, so much better and cohesive than one before.

News from the female-fronted underground:

Diverse:

Ice Age (Sweden) – Breaking the Ice: groove metal Overkill version of Velvet Viper. 7/10
Hitter (US) – Hard Enough: punky biker metal for the party after next. 6/10
Mean Mistreater (US) – Razor Wire: rough 'n' rockin' 'n' ok. 6/10

Traditional metal:

Blood Star (US) – First Sighting: slightly epic flair, a bit more polished than the others below. 6.5-7/10
Satan's Hallow (US) – Satan's Hallow: early Warlock, Maiden and some hard rock elements. 7/10
Bitter Velvet (Ecuador) – Unleashed Fears: metal and hard rock. Main selling point: Malixe's bratty, naughty singing. She's unique. 7/10
Natthammer (Peru) – The Hammer of the Witch: rough but melodic metal, the accent takes getting used to though. 6/10
Shadowland (US) – The Necromancers Castle: NWoBHM with a fantasy atmosphere. 7/10
Sölicitör (US) – Spectral Devastation: speedy US metal. Griffin? 7/10
Savage Master (US) – Those who Hunt at Night: starts like 80s-Priest but wanders off course, rough-and-ready vocals. 6/10
Crossed Hearts (US) – Forced Perspective: metal and heavy rock, vocals husky but comparatively subdued. 6.5-7/10

As far as style and execution are concerned, they're all rather similar and enjoyable but short on hooks, well thought out vocal lines and instrumental finesse, the kind of albums that would never have been voted "album of the month" in the 80s. You just read the review and bought the new Maiden instead.

Soon playing: Ice Age, Satan's Hallow, Bitter Velvet, Shadowland and Sölicitör – again.

Bruce Dickinson - Eternity Has Failed

This one has to have been the biggest grower on the album for me - sounds really dramatic, peacocking for sure, just massive theatricality. I like it a lot now.

Stormwitch - Priest of Evil

Man their early stuff is good. Hooks after hooks, witching atmosphere. Medieval metal.

Obituary - The End Complete

Pretty solid, I think I like it better than Cause of Death but this really emphasizes how great Dying from Everything and the s/t are and that this is a rare band that is putting out its best stuff late in its career.

Brodequin - Harbinger Of Woe

Killer song.

Defeated Sanity - The Sanguinary Impetus

The last album of DS is probably one of their most cacophonous and hard to listen to. I dig it, but after the 5 songs you start to look at the clock to see how much is going to last, good album though, is very jazzy in some way. Technical brutal death metal is in a league of its own in terms of creating weird and dissonant music.

Great album. Looking forward to the new album.

Vomit The Soul - Cold

Great production and songs. Killer album.

Dark Angel - Time Does Not Heal

I wish I could like this album, it's so full of talent and potential that is totally wasted that it pains me that all the songs with such deep themes end up being a snooze fest of riffs that go nowhere from a songwriting perspective.

Vomit The Soul - Apostles of Inexpression

A lot of technical riffs and groove.

Overkill-FUCT

This is as thrashy as so called groove metal can get.

Devangelic - Resurrection Denied

Great album from one of the best band from Italy.

Spinal Tap - Stonehenge
Spinal Tap - Big Bottom
Spinal Tap's movie songs are not only funny on their own, but enjoyable without the visuals too. It's obvious at times what they're parodying but especially in the case of Stonehenge it seems like it must be a certain band, but I can't put my finger on what it is. Rainbow? led zep? cream? Jethro tull sounds possible too, maybe BoC. Hard to say, but probably more meant as a general parody of fantasy in rock and metal.

Dinosaur Jr - Raisans
one of my favorite dinosaur jr songs ever, not metal I know, but such an easy song to sing along to! obscure lyrics, what does it even mean? This is from my bandmate's favorite album of all time, he's admittedly the true dinohead among the friendgroup. I can take or leave a lot of their stuff, but I just love this one. The instrumental, The Lung, right before it is also pretty rad, and of course, Poledo

The Black Crowes- Sometimes Salvation

This album is bluer than Cookie Monster choking to death.

Ingested - Surpassing the Boundaries of Human Suffering

Cover art on this album reminds me of Putrescent Infectious Rabidity album cover art by Cenotaph and the music is very brutal. Listening to this album alot.

DragonForce - Ultra Beatdown

I always liked this sort of in spite of the insane excess overpowering everything. Listening now it's very clear ZP was fucking over the whole thing. I would've been amazed if he didn't quit. Still sounds pretty good anyway.

Noom - Mother's Guilty Pleasure Pt 1

Instantly likeable.

Bolt Thrower - Those Once Loyal

The best death metal band.

Kraken is the best Dino song..

The Wagon the easy song to sing

You don’t see me
You don’t see me

Sepultura - Dead Embryonic Cells

Time to get the body movin'!

Receiver (Cyprus) – Whispers of Lore: epic galloping female-fronted proto-metal and the NWoBHM. Tanith? 7/10
Sölicitör (US) – All Debts on Death (Single): This one and the full length album "Spectral Devastation" are like unearthed gems from the shelf section where you hoard your Griffin and Liege Lord albums. Amy Lee Carlson is a powerhouse vocalist with a sure feeling for grit and melody. 7/10

Unaussprechlichen Kulten - Haxan Sabaoth

OK, enough of yesterday's DragonForce listening, they can be enjoyable but it's bad for you in the way a lot of preprocessed sweets are bad for you. Needed something totally other. Savage and individual.

Blood Star - First Sighting

I still think this is one of the better examples of new trad metal. Only thing is maybe it could be looser - there's still a sense of rigidness that is maybe somewhat inescapable if you get out of the actual early bands this is imitating, a little less rock and roll. I think Metallica and harder thrash really did a number on the old rock and roll, bluesy looseness I like to hear. But "The Observers" and "Cold Moon" especially are some of the best songs in this vein in years.

Master Saints Dispelled

One of most surprising album 2024

Flawless

Unleash the Archers - Awakening

"Apex" is still my favorite power metal released over the last like, decade or so. Just really strong songwriting and great vocals, imo. Also, no awful meme-induced gimmickry, which is currently a bit too common in the genre.

Seasons of the Wolf - s/t

This one is really cool actually... a lot of great, long, bluesy drawls but with that metal, badass touch, a lot of gnarly riffs and choruses. I never get tired of this shit.

Slough Feg - s/t

Another absurd 90s underground metal gem... "The Red Branch," what a fucking song. "Shadows of the Unborn" too. Mastery.

That is probably my favorite album by them.

Vltimas - Epic

Has some good riffs and ideas and somehow squanders them, vocals try to move between brutal and operatic/dramatic but he's not deft enough, there's some sublime moments but they don't cohere: generally not sharing the hype for this one.

I like some of the others more but there's a real charm to how weird and filthy this one is, it must've sounded totally alien in the 90s or whatever.

Savage Oath - Divine Battle

Whom Gods Destroy - Insanium

Checking out some new albums. The Savage Oath is great, I'm liking Whom Gods Destroy also.

I bought it pretty close to when it was released and it was described as a mix of Skyclad and DiAnno era Maiden. Not really sure about that description but yeah the album was pretty special at the time.

They always knew what they were doing.

Unaussprechlichen Kulten - People of the Monolith

One of the last things I hadn't heard from them. These first couple of albums are amazingly raw and insane. Just great, maniacal evil shit. It's fucking death-grind intensity but with the melodicism of a Morbid Angel, really cool.

Tyr - Eric the Red

Been a few years since I even played anything off this - the cool proggy, folky guitars really sell it and the vocals, while getting kinda chant-y and cliche here and there, hold up and feel integral. Much better than the later material.

The latest Sólstafir album..

What is up with this almost Nirvana-ish post-rock stuff? No more blind purchases for me this year!

Virus – Pray for War (1987)

As if tiny particles of cockroach sh*t decided to form a band. Awesome.

After that: other Virus and At War albums. Some of the most legendary thermonuclear waste this side of Carnivore.

Iron Maiden - Still Life

What a fucking great song this is! One of those unspoken Maiden's classics, and it feels so fresh and energetic to this day! Just pure torrent of passion and youth, great era of the band indeed.
Heh, to this very day I still haven't figured what is that mumbling at the start of the song.