May Filter uncloggings bring cool metal...sloggings? Work with me here, people! The post Stuck in the Filter: May 2024’s Angry Misses appeared first on Angry Metal Guy ..read more

I approach Julie Christmas from the stepping stone of post-metal. I discovered her through Battle of Mice’s A Day of Nights and her 2016 collaboration with Cult of Luna, not through Made out of Babies or her solo work. Her vocals floored me, oozing emotion and fitting impeccably with the rhythmic styles of both bands. Her proximity to hardcore and noise exposed me to new musical avenues, even as she raised the bar for post-metal. Appearing 14 years after her solo debut The Bad Wife, Ridiculous and Full of Blood was one of my most anticipated releases of 2024. While it may not be the greatest a ..read more

No one does music quite like Austin’s Glassing. Nearly impossible to pigeonhole in its blend of jagged riffs and crystalline melodies, critics have conjured the likes of post-metal, post-black, post-rock, mathcore, shoegaze, sludge, noise rock, screamo, and post-hardcore to describe it – none ever quite sticking the landing. Comparisons to Amenra, Deafheaven, Holy Fawn, and Infant Island are rife – fair but incomplete. Ascending to the ether with a style formed on 2017’s Light and Death, honed in 2019’s Spotted Horse, and perfected with 2021’s Twin Dream, Glassing seems to level up with each r ..read more

Throughout the tapestry of shimmering tones, weighty riffs, and desperate fry vocals in Light Will Shine, a common thread courses, of vulnerability and tension. Belgium’s Divided offers a style not unlike Glassing, Amenra, and Envy, with crystalline melodies colliding with unforgiving heaviness, with a distinctly unfriendly guitar harmonic approach. However, it professes a soundtrack for anxiety, recalling the tragically short-lived Sufferer project in its depiction of inner struggle and striving for better. Light Will Shine offers no easy answers, but is a voice through the storm. Influenced ..read more

I have a soft spot for young bands releasing records under their own steam. With the amount of time I’ve spent pooling money for too little studio time and going through sketchy post-production just to have a stack of records I end up giving away to friends and family, I feel a masochistic duty to tackle self-releases when the promo sump presents them. Today’s lucky candidates are the French quintet Uncomfortable Knowledge, with their second full-length Lifeline. Now remember, I’m the guy who gave Sodomisery his number one spot last year, so looking past an unfortunate nom-de-guerre is a super ..read more

Baratro is a side project of Dave Curran of Unsane. If that shouldn’t clue you in on the level of sonic abuse that awaits you on The Sweet Smell of Unrest, then get outta my face. Noise rock is already a caustic breed of music, a nasty chocolate coating, but when you fuse it with the megaton weight of sludge, the heavy peanut butter, you’ve got yourself a sonic peanut butter cup of bludgeoning pain. Bands like Today is the Day, Iron Monkey, and Fistula have already cemented their presence in its storied halls, while acts like Great Falls and KEN mode offer the next step in its future, so where ..read more

Look, I’m one of like three metalcore apologists at Angry Metal Guy HQ,1 and I’ve had it up to here. No more sticky noted car, printer wrapped in festive holiday paper, or the squirting flower trick, okay guys? Plus the rubber rat with “BREAKDOWNS” scrawled with Sharpie was going too far. I already get my seven daily lashes from the Most Holy Gorilla when the punishment of metalcore promos seemed insufficient. As we approach the holidays, the last thing I want to do at the office Christmas party is to open my bonus addressed to “sellout.” Don’t even fucking think about it. And Jesus, Tariot s ..read more

Some albums need a particular reviewer to get the appreciation they deserve. A reviewer who connects with, and is able to extol virtues of, the record, like a preacher patiently explaining some of the finer tenets of an obscure religion to the untrve masses. Roquentin was the man that Richmond duo Among the Rocks and Roots’ sophomore album, Raga, deserved. And needed, frankly. On other occasions, an album lands itself a reviewer who is spectacularly ill-equipped to deal with it. AtRaR’s third album, Pariah, is that record and I am that man. Knowing only that Raga scored a 4.0 and that Roqqy is ..read more

Silent Planet, named after the first installment of C.S. Lewis’ creatively titled Space trilogy, has always been a lyrical triumph and the pinnacle of metalcore consistency throughout the quartet’s four-album run. With the relentless vulnerability and desperation of The Night God Slept and Everything Was Sound, the regality of When the End Began, and the experimental textures of Iridescent, you could always expect technicality and atmosphere balanced throughout. Atmosphere now is the star of the show in the fifth full-length Superbloom, with technicality taking a backseat, an uneasy but ultim ..read more

Hardcore is all about the message, and Bristol’s Svalbard lays its message with all the fury its members can muster. Largely considered controversial, awkward to some and powerful to others, the four-piece forgoes poetry for passion in some of the rawest and most in-your-face lyrical attacks. Contrary to the scattershot lyrical themes of its wild discography, including 2020’s excellent When I Die, Will I Get Better?, The Weight of the Mask deals with its themes with a solidarity unseen in previous releases: depression and imposter syndrome. Each passage feels like a swan song, an homage to a s ..read more