"Vida Blue, Mamaleek's ninth full-length, mourns the 2023 death of member Eric Livingston - paralleled by the Oakland Athletics' relocation to Las Vegas. It reflects on legendary pitcher and namesake Vida Blue's legacy - and Livingston's. In honor and homage, Vida Blue takes the squelching and jangling hemorrhaging cyst-blues template of 2022's impressive Diner Coffee, painting a '70's folk-, blues-, prog- and jazz-rock sheen across it with reckless abandon." Memories, moments, baseball. The post Mamaleek – Vida Blue Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy ..read more

“AMG’s Unsigned Band Rodeö” is a time-honored tradition to showcase the most underground of the underground—the unsigned and unpromoted. This collective review treatment continues to exist to unite our writers in boot or bolster of the bands who remind us that, for better or worse, the metal underground exists as an important part of the global metal scene. The Rodeö rides on.” New year, same ol’ Rodeö! As the inaugural unknown-spankin’ event of 2024, we shall take a moment to recognize the bands who put up the best fight in this unforgiving clown show. Texas doomsters Slumbering Sun may not h ..read more

Never before had I met a Promo God-designated genre-tag so perfect: “silliness.” La Suspendida is a wildly experimental Silent Pendulum-backed collaboration of four artists – and I’m not gonna pretend I know each of the act’s respective history or discography. Mostly based in Brooklyn, Kilter is a jazz metal trio featuring Imperial Triumphant drummer Kenny Grohowski, Andromeda Anarchia is an opera soprano and also a member of the opera/black metal Folterkammer project, the Growlers Choir is a Montreal-based group of metal vocalists (including growlers of Basalte, Spectral Wound, and Entheos, a ..read more

On the ranking of Things Ken Doesn’t Like™, circus music once lived just beneath the throne. For whatever reason, cabaret in all its forms annoyed me to no end, even in its natural environment. Why, then, do I find myself continually obsessed with Russian/Australian1 cabaret metal clowns Tardigrade Inferno and their particularly crunchy, creepy, crazed take on the cirque de métal? 2019’s ridiculously fun and silly Mastermind wouldn’t leave my mind at peace even for a moment. Even still, it regularly slithers into my rotation with it’s bizarrely effective hooks and kooky stylized sound. Now, fo ..read more

Chaos has never been so inviting. Hot and abstract hues of molten color greet the eyes and the ears, and you’d be remiss to step aside. The Primordial Blues is nearly unrelenting, constantly unpredictable, and always bludgeoning, dwelling in labyrinthine hostile twists and turns. While names like The Chariot, Coalesce, and Every Time I Die will certainly come to mind, what sets the Danish Oxx apart is its fullness and warmth. While undeniably heavy, it tones down the scathing sting of mathcore’s less forgiving hearts, and instead dwells in punishment by dull blade. Rather than the sum of its d ..read more

Over the past several years, I’ve learned that tags like “progressive metal” and “avant-garde” tend to spark intense debate, largely over what does and does not qualify for such attributions. The nerd in all of us either overtly or secretly desires a nice, clean categorization of everything we hear, but it’s not always so cut and dry, and not everyone is going to agree. In the case of Montreal symphonic extreme metal troupe Sanguine Glacialis, however, there’s no denying their singularly weird and wacky approach certainly qualifies as progressive, and at times even avant-garde. Third LP Malada ..read more

Metal is all about pushing boundaries, taking sounds to new heights and to new depths. It’s the dialogue between progression and status quo, new sounds and familiar tricks, darkness and light, blasphemy, and zealotry – a commentary on the emphasis of excess. It’s music for the cast out and the alienated, and there’s something for everybody to drink deep from its well. Its fluidity calls for vast and daring forms of experimentation, and there is no shortage of earthmoving outputs from all over – both challenging and inspiring. All that being said, fuck if I know what the hell’s going on with On ..read more

Apparently, we’ve reviewed Arketh before. Somehow I forgot, despite that obnoxiously bright and colorful artwork. The Australian one-piece, masterminded by one Tyrone Kostitch, returns four years later with his fourth opus, entitled Clarity Came with a Cool Summer’s Breeze, and graced with a cover as flamboyant as the last. Recruiting the help of Glen Wholohan (alto and tenor saxophones, bass clarinet), Tarquin Halls-Corbett (additional guitar and vocal work, and bass guitar), Prophanant (second guitar on “Psychonautica”), and Hunter McDonald Gerrand Rogers (string orchestrations on “Pati ..read more

I would rant about what exactly the phrase “avant-garde” means, but its evasive definition speaks for itself. You could slap anything with the phrase and get away with it. I could argue that Dr. A.N. Grier‘s love of the phrase “shut up” is avant-garde, that the man is the embodiment of art in all its brashness and brevity, and that art and the good doctor demands our attention and focus. Doom_et_Al‘s love of Deafheaven is avant-garde, as the accessibility of the iconic blackgaze act challenges the lines between ugliness and beauty, holding a mirror up our smug faces as we taunt and mock – we ..read more

Latin—language of ancient history’s classiest empire, known only by nerds with and without PhDs, and vernacular of choice for many a metal act. Somnium Nocte Mendaciis (Night’s Dreams of Lies) continues Ophe’s foray into the world of incomprehensible titles, and nearly as incomprehensible music. In the time since 2018’s Litteras Ad Tristia Maestrum Solitude, sole member Bargnatt XIX has only doubled-down on the weird. Now forgoing clean vocals entirely, as well as almost all things approaching a melody, the album is the exact opposite of easy listening. Noisy and strange, the supposed com ..read more