"Black metal goes with just about anything, so they say. Shoegaze? Check (Deafheaven). Rock ‘n’ roll? Check (Kvelertak). Hell, even dream-pop has been incorporated (An Autumn for Crippled Children). Black metal covers of famous songs are now fairly standard (Fleshgod Apocalypse’s cover of Eiffel 65’s “Blue” and Children of Bodom’s cover of “Oops!… I Did it Again” stand as fairly notorious examples). But when Spider God released their infamous set of covers, Black Renditions, in 2022, the combination of overt pop sensibilities with legit black metal bona fides made metalheads take notice, if on ..read more

Women vocalists in metal are often labeled "Gothic" or categorized under power metal, even when the music lacks these traits. With its fourth full-length, Abyss, Ad Infinitum defies these labels. Moving away from their earlier symphonic and Gothic influences, the Swiss/German band now blends elements of Deadlock, Spiritbox, and Amaranthe. Their sound combines downtuned riffs with poppy female vocals and vicious growls, fitting the "modern metal" label. With Melissa Bonny leading, it’s hard not to bob your head along. The post Ad Infinitum – Abyss Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy ..read more

"San Francisco's Cyborg Octopus found a happy home with this sponge way back in 2018. Debut full-length Learning to Breathe floored me with a fearless application of kitchen-sink, genre-bending exuberance, all filtered through a tech-death/metalcore lens. It's difficult to craft music like this in a way that doesn't feel disjointed, but Cyborg Octopus skillfully arranged their kaleidoscopic writing to form a cohesive sound and thereby ensured my rapt attention." Tentacle failure. The post Cyborg Octopus – Bottom Feeder Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy ..read more

"If you don't know Jeris Johnson, let that horrendously edited self-portrait that would feel like a masterpiece of character design on Nintendo 64, like Lara Croft's pyramid boobs, really sink in. For the uninitiated, he's that guy who partnered with Papa Roach for a "reloaded" version of "Last Resort;" he did a collaboration with Bring Me the Horizon for a remix of "Can You Feel My Heart." For the initiated, he is big on YouTube and TikTok. For his first full-length Dragonborn, you might be confused about what exactly this album sounds like. I've repeatedly spun it, and I remain confused ..read more

"Alaska bears the honor of being the largest landmass of freedom—larger than even Texas—and also the most sparsely populated space in the union. Separated both geographically from the country and communally within its borders, living in the frozen frontiers can create a profound sense of isolation. Hailing from Anchorage, the industrial hardcore two-man assault of Skinwalker seems to find inspiration (or rather spite) in the kind of loneliness and frustration that a great, open land can bring." Frozen skin...walking. The post Skinwalker – Man Walks Backwards into the Ocean Review appeared firs ..read more

"We’ve had a pretty wide variety in album-complementing media over the years. I’ve personally dealt with a graphic novel where all the text was the lyrics of the album, and an album where every track got a music video which combined into a short film. More than a few bands have released novellas to accompany the music, such as Rush and Coheed and Cambria. But this is the first time I’ve run into a band releasing a video game counterpart to their new record. Tyraels Ascension has big plans for their debut Hell Walker, and one of those plans is this game, to be released in parallel on Steam." Mu ..read more

I’m not gonna pretend I’m Neaera’s biggest fan, but I was nonetheless brought hurtling back to my high school self circa 2010, when I came across their 2007 album Armamentarium and bought it on iTunes for $9.99 plus tax. Never mind that Omnicide – Creation Unleashed and Forging the Eclipse were out at that time, not to mention earlier material, but tracks like “Spearheading the Spawn,” “Armamentarium,” and “The Orphaning” were just too good. Well, I guess not good enough, because I never listened to Neaera again except to revisit Armamentarium. Until now. I’ve heard Germany’s Neaera described ..read more

The heat persists. Intensifies, even. We’re not even to the dead center of summer, where pavement melts and sinew sloughs off of bones. And yet, we toil. Endless trudges through the slime and grime of sharply angled ducts and beveled sheet metal characterize an average workday for my filtration minions, who do my bidding without question as I sip a piña colada in these run down and ragged headquarters. Alright fine, we don’t have piña coladas here, but a sponge can dream! A sponge can dream… What was I saying? Oh, right. After many months of constant pep talks and gentle reminders with a catt ..read more

So, Germany’s Fool the Masses emailed the site in hopes that we would review their second full-length record, It’s All Lost. Not only that, but they directed the email to me—as if I’m the metalcore expert at AMG Headquarters. I was born well before that abomination of a genre first reared its ugly head and I’ve had to suffer through the Unearth’s and Trivium’s ever since. But Fool the Masses is unique because it has no drummer and employs a DJ to program the drums and add electronic flavorings to the mix. Yeah, I know, I’ve already lost 85% of you by this point. But, the email was kind. So, wi ..read more

If you haven’t heard an Ingested album at this point, it’s that you’re new to the scene as a nerdy metal aficionado or that you’ve actively avoided all music labeled as deathcore for the past fifteen or so years. Unfortunately, if you found your head bobbing in extreme reluctance at the whiplash grooves and squeal-driven breakdowns that adorn the newest Aborted release, you should probably consider checking out the odd act or two. Ingested’s 2018 release, as well as some of their earliest work, would be easy, enjoyable listening,1 as release after release has proven through slam-smacked and ba ..read more