"When I wrote up Menschenmühle, the debut full-length by Germany's Kanonenfieber, in late 2021, I described it as 'stunning.' The storytelling arc that it achieves, opening with the almost enthusiastic bombast of the early days of the Great War, through to the exhausted horror of No Man's Land, is incredible. Cast in shades of blackened death metal, I ended up crowning it my Album of the Year, calling it a 'masterpiece.' So how does one write the follow-up to a masterpiece?" With one's tongue, apparently. The post Kanonenfieber – Die Urkatastrophe Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy ..read more

"Gritty, old-school, and definitely not pretty, Isolert takes more pages from the book of Seth than ColdCell or Selbst—or, indeed, the typical Greek black metal approach. Wounds of Desolation is their third full-length and comes on the heels of critically acclaimed World in Ruins. Wounds of Desolation picks up exactly where that record left off, sporting another collection of furiously paced second-wave riffs with howling, rabid vocal performances. Sometimes, something simple done well is exactly what you need." And you may need some Isolert in your life. The post Isolert – Wounds of ..read more

"Sticky Filters make things go off-kilter. When you scrub and grease, you end up with workplace peace. We cleaned off the June grime so you can have a good time!" These blurbs are out of control and I am going to launch an extended investigation into ending this nonsense. - AMG The post Stuck in the Filter: June 2024’s Angry Misses appeared first on Angry Metal Guy ..read more

"Some revered Firtan's Okeanos as the new age of black metal, but many of us were more skeptical. Some pointed to the pagan texture translated through a modern lens, while others, like the gone-but-unforgotten Akerblogger critiqued the overload of ideas with little substance to chew on. I found that 2022's Marter was an easy 4.0 on first listens, but its novelty wore off by the time AOTY's rolled around - a punishing and bulletproof black metal album, but ultimately too safely constructed by the time its lengthy hour concluded for the longevity I so wished it had. Two years ..read more

"A misleading genre tag can be a blessing or a curse for a humble reviewer such as myself. To go in expecting one thing, but receive quite another throws one for a loop either way. But in the case of Modern Rites, and their sophomore Endless, the surprise was definitely a nice one. Marked as 'industrial' in the pit, what lies within is in fact a modern, delicately atmospheric strain of meloblack; one that audibly carries the influence of their guitarist's other project, Aara. But rather than mimicry and filler, Modern Rites are in fact demonstrating their ability to evolve into somet ..read more

"In the grand tradition of doing things late and in the wrong order, this review for interstate progressive melodic black metal outfit Amiensus' fifth album, Reclamation Pt. II, comes before any AMG coverage of its companion predecessor, Pt. I, released just this past April. How does something like this happen? It's easy. We missed it. Life gets in the way, or promo came too late or not at all. Any number of scenarios lead to this result, but it is rare that we encounter such situations over the course of a single year. With so little time between releases, I ask myself what kind of album Recl ..read more

"2021 seems a long time ago. So long, in fact, that I had utterly forgotten half of my year-end List. Imagine my surprise then, to discover, while checking for previous references on our auguste site, that I had listed Spectral Wound's last outing, A Diabolic Thirst. That was as nothing, however, compared to my shock when I discovered that, not only had Deafheaven-groupie Doom_et_Al awarded it a list spot, so had avowed BM skeptic Ferrous Beuller. Perhaps this spread says something about what Spectral Wound achieved with its third record." Common wounds and cross-genre sympathies. The post Spe ..read more

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

"ColdCell don't fix what isn't broken, their black metal remains imbued with layers of drawling melancholic melodies that pleasingly blunt the serrated edge of harsh vocals and vitriolic tremolo. Having the drummer of Schammasch in their midst, it's perhaps no coincidence that they have historically sounded a little like a less long-winded iteration of that band, while in terms of delivery coming close to Dymna Lotva. Make no mistake, however, they are a unique force all of their own." No sleeping cell. The post ColdCell – Age of Unreason Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy ..read more

Ever since they blazed back onto the scene with 2021’s La Morsure du Christ, Seth have been the picture of a perfect comeback. This break from their second long hiatus, a shaken-up lineup in tow, brought many eyes and ears back to a band whose influence on the French black metal genre cannot be understated. The album ranked highly across the board, not least here at AMG HQ, striking Holdeneye as “an amazing black metal album that simultaneously captures the genre’s beauty and ugliness,” and ending up on several year-end lists. La France des Maudits, therefore, has a tough act to follow. But ha ..read more