Grymm

The beard knows who is trve.

Venomous Echoes – Dysmor Review

By Grymm on February 27, 2025 in Reviews, Black Metal, Death Metal, 46 comments

“I’ve told many friends, both online and in-person, that for death metal to connect with me these days, it’s got to go for my throat in unflinching, unapologetic ways, and that usually involves taking one of two avenues. Either the artist in question has to go all-out musically in a way that’s memorable yet uncompromisingly heavy, brutal, technical, chaotic, or all of the above, or the music has to come from a place of personal sincerity and experience. With Venomous Echoes, the project of sole mastermind Ben Vanweelden, it’s a maelstrom of frightening proportions brought on by Vanweelden’s personal struggles with body dysmorphia.” I against I.

Dax Riggs – 7 Songs for Spiders Review

By Grymm on January 31, 2025 in Reviews, Not Metal, 52 comments

“It’s a weird fact of life to experience this, but ask anyone with creative tendencies, whether dabbling or full-on submersion, what their biggest fear is, and many (if not all) will tell you that hating the very thing that gives you life and joy will be at the top. Burnout murders the love one has for everything they enjoy making, and sometimes the elixir one needs is time and distance away. That time and distance could be days, or it could stretch to months or years. Dax Riggs, the influential voice of his eponymous band as well as the frontman for the recently-reactivated legendary Louisiana sludge beast Acid Bath, took 15 years away from the music world shortly after the release of 2010’s Say Goodnight to the World, and seemingly lived up to that album’s title by disappearing off the face of the world.” Dax’s back!

Yer Metal is Olde: Amorphis – Tales from the Thousand Lakes

By Grymm on July 12, 2024 in Yer Metal Is Olde, Death Metal, Doom Metal, 71 comments

“Now here’s a desert island pick if there ever was one… Back in 1994, I discovered The Karelian Isthmus, the 1992 debut album by Finnish death metal upstarts Amorphis, at my local Newbury Comics. Upon hearing that its follow-up was due to drop soon, I played that album front-to-back on numerous occasions in preparation of its arrival, fully expecting a continuation of the debut’s doom/death musical motifs. Instead, the then-quartet added a keyboardist, discovered progressive rock, and took such a musical and lyrical left turn that not only turned heads.” Of olde lakes and timeless music.

Grymm’s Top Ten(ish) of 2023

By Grymm on December 31, 2023 in Blog Posts, 98 comments

A decade in to his AMG tenure, Grymm is here to tell you what the best albums of 2023 were! The Listurnalian bounty abounds!

Harmagedon – Dystopian Dreams Review

By Grymm on November 14, 2023 in Reviews, 15 comments

“I’ve got to come clean with you folks; there are times when I review bands that have nothing to do with the pedigree of the involved players, or the fervent word-of-mouth presented by the metal music sites at large. No, I tend to grab bands based on their names, or how bizarre the genre combinations appear on screen. Hence, today’s subject, Swedish trio Harmagedon, was described in our promo bin as “melodeath/crust,” and with a mental imagery of In Flames-by-way-of-Morrow soundscape, I was curious as to what that apparent trainwreck could sound like. I mean, who wouldn’t want a lil’ moonshield in their post-apocalyptic emokrusty adventure, right?” Eat your crust!

Yer Metal Is Olde: My Dying Bride – Turn Loose the Swans

By Grymm on October 22, 2023 in Yer Metal Is Olde, 40 comments

“1993 marked a brave time in the realm of heavy metal. It wasn’t unheard of to see a band do a massive about-face musically, in fact, it was oftentimes celebrated not only for the bravery of the act but also because said act blazed new trails for other bands to follow. When many death metal acts like Morbid Angel and Cannibal Corpse were pushing the envelopes in terms of speed, a select group of bands like Cathedral, Paradise Lost, and Halifax, West Yorkshire sextet My Dying Bride were going the opposite route by slowing things down to a crawl.” Olde swans and dead brides.

Karras – We Poison Their Young Review

By Grymm on September 28, 2023 in Reviews, 26 comments

“Named after Father Damian Karras from The Exorcist, this French power(violence) trio expend tons of energy and vinegar, but precious little time, on their second full-length We Poison Their Young. To quote the vernacular, this strikes the face and/or buttocks region with an open-palm swipe AND it has enjoyable recreational sexual intercourse. This is the type of grind and punky, powerful powerviolence that your late grandpappy warned you about when he was cradling his shotgun from the comfort of his rocking chair on the porch, all while blaring Napalm Death and Nasum at ear-bleeding volumes.” Commence to grinding, son!

Tideless – Eye of Water Review

By Grymm on September 20, 2023 in Reviews, Doom Metal, 32 comments

“We have an incredibly hungry, ambitious doom/death quintet in San Diego’s Tideless. Many of its members served time in other bands, so experience really isn’t the issue here. What is the issue lies in the fact that Tideless, on their second full-length, is punching well above their weight class. And nothing screams “punching up” quite like a 75-minute double album of Deafheavenly delights.” Low tide, high ambition.

Godthrymm – Distortions Review

By Grymm on August 15, 2023 in Reviews, Doom Metal, 70 comments

“Back in 2020, before things would go pear-shaped in literally everyone’s lives, I reviewed Reflections, the debut album from Godthrym, the new band featuring former My Dying Bridesmen Hamish Glencross (guitars/vocals) and Shaun Taylor-Steels (drums). I was enamored by how heavy, dirge-y, and Paradise Lost-y the entire album was. However, once the pandemic went into full swing, Reflections only gained in momentum and solace as everything around us quickly turned to shit on a planetary scale, bringing with it a sense of comfort and catharsis and landing itself on my Top Ten of a year we all would love to forget (but can’t). Now, in a happier(?) time and with a fuller line-up, Godthrymm are back with their highly-anticipated follow-up, Distortions.” Doom for End Times.

Dun Ringill – 150 – Where the Old Gods Play – Act 1 Review

By Grymm on August 11, 2023 in Reviews, Doom Metal, Folk Metal, 36 comments

“I’ve always been supportive of bands branching out a little bit from their comfort zones to stretch their limbs, check out new haunts, or just freshen up their catalog a tad. Sometimes, some peanut butter needs to be added to your chocolate to make things lively and exciting. So when Swedish doom metal sextet Dun Ringill, a band I’ll admit to never having heard before, decided to add some progressive elements to their particular brand of folk doom, well… I was intrigued.” Dun and done.