It’s been a long five years since we’ve had an album from this Norwegian foursome. Which is probably a good thing, considering their last few releases haven’t been their best by a long shot. Basically, since 2011’s V, the band has struggled to retain their days-of-yore sound while trying to expand on it and deliver something fresh. Having left Season of Mist and returned to Indie Recordings, now is the time to drop something new and exciting—especially if you’ve once again enlisted the mighty Mistur’s keyboard wizard, Espen Bakketeig, to lend a hand in the finished product. One spin in and Vreid fans will find a lot of what you’ve come to expect from the band, while also exploring some surprising new directions that are sure to drop your jaw. But, is that a good or bad thing for The Skies Turn Black?

As has become the norm for the band, we’re blessed with some killer guest appearances by the aforementioned Espen Bakketeig and Djerv’s Agnete Kjølsrud, a smart decision by Kampfar on the amazing Ofidians Manifest. While Bakketeig’s performance on 2021’s solid Wild North West, I felt he was underutilized when crafting his key atmospheres or lustful piano passages. Thankfully, that is not the case for The Skies Turn Black. Outside of the emotional piano interludes, you’ll find plenty of powerful, spacey, and quirky key atmospheres throughout. And Kjølsrud’s contributions to the almost gothy “Loving the Dead” make it one of the best songs the band has ever penned.¹

The album begins on a strong note with “From These Woods,” which is one of the longer and more epic tracks. After opening with some soothing clean and acoustic guitars, the black metal assault ensues. After passing through a dark alley of echoing clean-vocal support, the new riff change is nastier and heavier than ever. But the moment you get settled in, the song comes to a screeching halt, unloading beautiful piano, soaring guitars, and lush, clean vocals. When it concludes, you’re whiplashed with a vicious attack because the fucking song still has two minutes to go. Another track that has similarities is “Smile of Hate.” This one has a simple but headbangable riff in the vein of Amon Amarth, that marches along at one point and collapses into another impressive piano passage. This time, a little less ethereal and more like the piano and key work of Dimmu Borgir.

But, like all Vreid records in the last decade, there’s a point where things get real weird. Not in a negative way, like some previous material. On The Skies Turn Black, it begins with “Kraken.” It turns out this track is part of the soundtrack to this year’s Norwegian “blockbuster,” Kraken.² But being more synth-driven than guitar-driven, it has an eerie vibe that actually would work equally well in the movie Sorcerer.³ It’s not a standout track, but it’s the perfect introduction to “Loving the Dead” because it uses the same elements. As mentioned, this song stands way out because Kjølsrud dominates on vocals. This eight-minute epic takes you through so many emotions, from Kjølsrud’s vocals to the intertwined guitar work and the climactic finish. This special piece is definitely a Grier SotY contender.

There are plenty of other high moments on this record, which is hella nice to hear for a change. The track that really loses me, though, is “Echoes of Life.” It’s not a bad song, but it’s an odd duck of ’70s progness. While it’s smooth and clean, it’s too old-timey to fit with the rest of the album. Thankfully, the follow-up closer “The Earth Rumbles” reignites the fire before the album concludes. If “Echoes of Life” ended the record, I might be a bit more upset. But, I’m pleased to say The Skies Turn Black is Vreid’s best album since V. Which is wild to say considering there are four full-lengths in that time. The master is nicely done, letting everyone shine when it matters—especially the bass, which has always been a major staple to their sound. If the skies really are going to turn black, I’m here for it. After all, that’s better than the color they are these days.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: Stream | Format Reviewed: Stream deez nutz
Label: Indie Recordings
Websites: vreid.bandcamp.com | vreid.no | facebook.com/vreidofficial
Releases Worldwide: March 6th, 2026

The post Vreid – The Skies Turn Black Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

Though folk-inspired, it’s tough to classify Hymns as anything other than black metal. There is no traditional folk instrumentation save for a sejd drum¹ which, though advertised heavily in the album’s promo materials, is seldom utilized. The second-wave emulation is waning, with a result closer to Kampfar than Darkthrone. Chants appear frequently, either standalone (“Allfaðir,” “My Kingdom Come”) or subtly woven alongside founder/vocalist Seiðr’s rasps (“The End of Days”), making Hymns sound more like, well, hymns. Where Seid excels is reverently evoking nature, from Pär Johansson’s thunderous drumming to the echoing vocal effects that give the impression of sound bouncing off canyon walls.

Hymns does much with simple tools to build the desired atmosphere. It’s amazing how much potency a few sejd drum hits contribute to the intro of “White Beast from Hel,” and it’s a shame that the instrument isn’t leveraged more elsewhere. Other songs summon the spirit of a Viking whitewater rafting trip. “The End of Days” starts with a fantastic buildup of tremolos and blast beats and maintains momentum over nine minutes as the river winds through chaotic rapids and tranquil stretches. There’s a distinct moment in “Nordmænnens raseri” when the guitars abruptly cut off with a buzz and resume with a muffled, distorted sound for a few seconds, creating the sensation of being briefly plunged underwater. The outros are the main speed bumps to Hymns’ pacing–at times they suddenly shift to slow, trailing guitar lines (“Hymns to the North,” “Light up the Sky”), and “The End of Days” ends confusingly with a spacey synth tone that feels anachronous. These minor songwriting stumbles break immersion a bit, but not enough to seriously impair the experience.

The production choices are both boon and bane to the overall ambience of Hymns. The quality skews towards lo-fi, but it’s still clean enough that most of the elements are recognizable with little difficulty. Although this production style is divisive, It can be the right call for this type of music that seeks to replicate the lawless beauty of the natural world. However, the drums are too loud in the mix, especially the snare, so the plentiful blast beats tend to distract from everything else and grow tiresome over the otherwise reasonable 39-minute runtime. Such a preventable misstep is disappointing, as Pär Johansson is quite versatile behind the kit and is a big part of the success of Hymns.

Hymns to the Norse proves that Seid is adept at crafting solid black metal but seems hesitant to fully commit to the ritualistic elements that connect past to present. The sejd drum in particular has the potential to become a powerful and unique part of Seid’s identity that should be embraced more thoroughly in future songwriting. I have mixed feelings about the production–in many ways, it complements what Hymns is trying to accomplish but it straddles the line between raw and clean, making it feel slightly more amateur than deliberate. Regardless, the members of Seid have made progress in their mission to convey their history in a format more familiar to modern audiences.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: De Tenebrarum Principio
Websites: Bandcamp | norseblackmetal.com | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: October 18th, 2024

The post Seid – Hymns to the Norse Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

One gloomy evening in early April, I sat down for a Zoom call with German black metal machine, Noise, the mysterious creative mind behind Kanonenfieber, Leiþa and Non Est Deus. As something of a fanboy—Kanonenfieber’s outstanding

And what, you ask, did I learn from an hour or so chatting with Noise? Well, certainly not his real name. I did confirm that he is, indeed, German and originally from Bamberg, though no longer lives there. Where he lives now … no idea. I still don’t know what he looks like as I was, of course, greeted on Zoom by a black screen that stayed resolutely blank throughout our chat. I know he used to have a day job (as what, I couldn’t tell you) but now he doesn’t and makes music full time. When he plays live as Kanonenfieber, he has a band, obviously, and he has known some of them a long time, some for a shorter time but I don’t know who they are. I learned that he in fact released at least five albums before he adopted the “Noise” moniker for Non Est Deus’ 2018 debut, The Last Supper, but I can’t tell you anything about those earlier records (other than Noise’s summary, that they’re “not that bad”), nor where you might be able to listen to them. Seriously, this guy really—I mean, really—values his privacy.

But he has his reasons, which we discussed. We also talked about the pressure Noise feels writing the next Kanonenfieber, coming off the success of the incredible Menschenmühle, as well his collaboration with the late, great Trevor Strnad. We talked about Nazis, sexual abuse committed by the Church, as well as the new Non Est Deus—Legacy is out on May 12th on Noisebringer Records—and what would have happened if you stripped the Holy Spirit out of the Old Testament. I learned that we can expect a new Kanonenfieber EP and live album this year but will have to wait until 2024 for the next LP. We also talked about the recent Noisebringer Fest and whether we’ll see other bands on Noisebringer Records any time soon, as well as about producing your own records and whether Noise gives a shit about reviews. Oh, and I got a few record recs.

So, here is my conversation with Noise.

“The Nameless Soldier”

Greeted by that unflinchingly black Zoom screen, I start by asking why Noise places such a high value on his anonymity. For him, it’s the “nameless soldier thing, you know? I want to create that because I don’t want to give the music a face. It’s like Cannibal Corpse, you listen to Cannibal Corpse and you always have in mind an image of Corpsegrinder screaming into his mic.” Noise wants people to see the music, not have a mental image of his face as they hear him scream.

Hailing from the small Bavarian town of Bamberg—much better known as the home of the delicious smoked beer Schlenkerla¹ than as a hotbed of metal—Noise was 11 or so when he set out on the path to becoming, well, Noise. An older friend, who he “was a little scared of at first,” introduced him to the likes of Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir and Finntroll, and the rest, as they say, is history. For Baby Noise, it was “straight into black metal, the underground brutal shit from the local scene”.

As for actually playing metal, although his mother offered him the chance for piano lessons when he was about 4, Noise points first to his uncle, who bought him a drum kit aged 14 or so. “That was when it all started,” he says, “I built the kit in my room and played drums all day, dawn till dusk”. When a band at school needed a bassist, adolescent Noise bought himself a bass and learned to play that too. Scroll forward another six months, and it was time to buy a guitar, “a flying-V, Alexi Laiho-style, cheap metal guitar”. After that, all he did “for the next three or four years was play drums, bass and guitar every freaking day … for hours, that was all I did outside of school.”

And that first band, was it a precursor to his projects today, I ask. “No, it was Rammstein covers band,” he says wryly. A guilty pleasure for me, as I have disclosed in my AMG bio, Noise agrees: “come on, everyone likes Rammstein in some way, just no one wants to say it out loud.”

So how did we go from Rammstein covers to where we are today? I had been laboring under the impression that 2018’s The Last Supper by Non Est Deus was the first album Noise released, so I am surprised to learn that The Last Supper was simply the first LP he released anonymously, as Noise. There were five albums that he put out in the years before that. When I ask if anyone can actually get hold of those earlier albums, Noise replies rather cryptically, “well, I mean, they are out there.” I expect him to tell me he wants to keep it that way because they were not up to his current standards but instead he says, “they’re not that bad to be honest. I mean, I don’t like listening to my own music but my first real output a few years back, when I released like three albums, it was OK … if they were anonymous, I would put them out on Noisebringer because I’m still kinda proud of them.” That said, “recording those records today, it would be a totally different approach to writing them but they’re a part of me, right?”

“The trenches just terrified me”

Turning to his current projects, I want to understand what inspired Noise to write about the Great War for Kanonenfieber: “Living in Germany, World War II is everywhere and the Great War is totally forgotten. History class at school doesn’t talk about it” but, for Noise, “the idea of World War I is way more terrifying. Being trapped in the trenches, living in the mud, the sickness and … you know, World War II was awful for the mass murder but the trenches just terrified me.” Originally, in 2016, he envisaged it sounding something like Dying Fetus but the idea was soon forgotten amid his other projects and only resurfaced years later, sitting with a friend called Dani B., who’s written about the Great War and was into old school death metal, the likes of Kreator, Morbid Angel and Hail of Bullets. Together, they plotted what would become Kanonenfieber because, when it comes to the topics those other bands write about, Noise says, “we always felt they somehow glorified this stuff, you know? You look at, like, Marduk, Endstille or even Sabaton, war is presented as something majestic and glorious … almost celebrating the topic.”

As Noise and Dani sat there, they envisaged something different, “something authentic, showing the horrific side of war, teaching about the terror and sadness of real war.” So they drew on original source materials for the lyrics, using “letters from the front, those deep, sad letters back home from men crying and yearning for their children and their families, their homes, as they died in the mud.”

This all makes perfect sense to me and was how I understood Menschenmühle from the first but then, I have read a lot about 20th-century history, particularly 1910 to 1990 or so, and I am also a German speaker. I wonder though, given all the associations of black metal with fascism—that vein of NSBM in black metal that most of us try our absolute hardest to avoid—did Noise worry about the potential for blowback as a German, releasing a German-language record about war? There’s a long pause, then Noise says he needs to “take a step back. Initially, no, that never bothered me because I didn’t really think anyone would even listen to the music. I thought I’d make, like, 300 CDs and sell them over five years, like usual, and that would be that. Fine. OK.”

But it quickly became apparent that Kanonenfieber was different and it hit Noise “like a hammer to the face” because almost overnight “everyone was saying ‘this guy’s a Nazi, he’s singing about defending the Fatherland’, even though I’ve said over and over, in interviews, wherever, there is nothing right-wing about this. It’s just historically accurate, authentic and correct lyrics set to blackened death metal. Most of the time people get this.” Noise sighs deeply, “I mean, if you’re a little bit aware of your history, you know that fascism started with Mussolini in the 1920s, there was no national socialism during the Great War, you just can’t relate that to NSBM.” Noise isn’t trying to deny the obvious historical path from World War I to II but “how far back do you want to take it, dude? Bismarck, Napoleon … ?”

“This guy’s a fucking legend”

Leaving one difficult topic for another, I turn to Noise’s collaboration with the late Trevor Strnad (The Black Dahlia Murder) on “The Yankee Division March”. I don’t know what I was hoping for here but Noise tells me “it was pretty simple actually … Trevor was just strolling about on my social media and posted some skulls under a picture of mine, and I messaged him back, you know, saying he’d made my day because I’d been a fucking huge fan since I was like 14 or whatever. He told me he’d already ordered a CD and a shirt … I was like, ‘what the hell?’ but there it was on my Bandcamp: Trevor Strnad, New York, his address, we’d already shipped it … I was just amazed!” A few months later Noise was toying with an idea for a song, half in English and half in German, taking two opposing reports from a battle at Saint-Mihiel in 1918. Then Noise’s friend, Dani suggested asking Strnad to sing the American part and “I was like, ‘no way, this guy’s a fucking legend, how can I just ask him to do this?!’” But Noise was talked into it and, after sending the message, got a reply from Strnad within about 20 seconds just saying “I’m in.” That was it. Noise sent him the music and the lyrics, and about two weeks later, Strnad sent him the vocals.

“For my part,” says Noise, “I’m pretty sure it was the last thing Trevor recorded. There was another LP that came out later² but it was recorded way earlier … I released “The Yankee Division March” like two weeks after I got the vocals back and very soon after, he sadly, sadly passed away.”

“I’ve written the album four times over”

As for when we’ll get the next full-length Kanonenfieber, well, Noise says he is “having some struggles with it. I’ve written like 50 songs for it, guitars parts, structures but no lyrics and … I don’t know, I’ve written the album four times over now but somehow, I just don’t like any of it.” It’s clear this is a first for Noise, someone who usually writes albums very fast. It’s also clear that he is feeling “a lot of pressure on this next album, there’s a lot of expectations. Then Der Füsilier also did very well, and that hasn’t helped!” Noise doesn’t think that he’s going to finish that record this year but he expects to be out on the road some more (even hinting he might make it to the soggy, failed state of an island, just off the coast of France, that I live on) and also has another EP and a live album (coming pretty soon!) in the works.

By contrast, when Noise writes for Non Est Deus, there’s no pressure and “no expectations. I just write it, I don’t overthink it. There it is, take it or leave it.” Although Leiþa is a very different project again, it’s the same story when it comes to writing those albums. That shows, says Noise, “if you compare the two Leiþa records, Sisyphus and Reue, they are like two different bands, you know? I just write it, let it out. It’s cathartic. But I just can’t do that with Kanonenfieber because people now have expectations for the sound, what’s happening.” Clearly more conscious of this than he’d like to be, Noise goes on that now, in trying to satisfy people’s expectations, he’s got inside his own head in a different way and “now I’m scared that I’m just going to repeat myself and write “Grabenlieder 2.0”, “Die Schlacht bei Tannenberg 2.0”, you know?”

While I can think of plenty of things worse than getting “Grabenlieder 2.0,” I see where he’s coming from. Whenever an album hits me like Menschenmühle did, I’m always torn on what I want from the follow up, more of the same, incredible quality, or for the band to take some risks, avoid repeating itself and see what happens.

“Fighting inner demons”

A very different project from Kanonenfieber, for Noise, Leiþa is about “fighting inner demons, you know? It’s a cathartic project to me. That second album, Reue, was a lot more direct, a lot more honest and open than the last album.” Of that first record, Sisyphus, Noise draws the surprising comparison to everyone’s favorite guilty German pleasure: “that was more the Rammstein approach, you know, writing lyrics that people maybe don’t understand but you yourself know what it means. Reue is a lot more personal.” It sees Noise dealing with, and drawing on, not only his own past but also that of his friends and family, where he slips “into character sometimes because someone I know had these feelings or these experiences and I try to speak for them, give them a voice.” As for what that first track on Reue, “1.9.2015,” is about, Noise doesn’t want to be drawn: “It was a really deep and sad subject for me and … yeah, I’ve said my piece on the album, let’s leave it there.”

And Noise certainly did say his piece on the album. Looking back at my review of Reue, which I gave a 3.5/5.0—or a ‘very good’, if you prefer our word scale—I am pretty sure I underrated it. In fact, Angry Metal Guy, in awarding Reue Record of the Month for January 2023, was clear that I’d underrated it (not an accusation he’s ever leveled at my reviews before), saying Leiþa had “wrought a masterful platter of great (4.0)—potentially even excellent (4.5)—black metal that deftly balances the genre’s past and present.”

While he says he was honored by this, I wonder does Noise really care? Does he take note of reviews, critiques, fan responses? “I would love to say I don’t follow it all but, honestly, I read every review, I’m interested in every comment on the videos and what people think … I read everything. I try not to then think about it when I’m writing the music, you know, but that’s the problem of social media, you kind of get dumped into the middle of everything.”

“I guess you can call it disgust”

If the Great War inspired in Noise the horror to make Kanonenfieber, what is it about religion that drives him to write Non Est Deus – maybe hate, I wonder? “I guess you can call it disgust,” says Noise. “I’m a fan of history, mainly modern history but also going back to the Middle Ages and the Church over that period has had such value, such power in society and they did so much …” There’s pause as Noise searches for the right words: “cruel bullshit,” he almost spits. And even with all the scandals about pedophilia, sexual abuse and rape of children by Catholic priests, “the Church still continues to have that power … no company on the planet could have done what the Church has done and still have a voice, still talk to people, still influence society as it does.”

Although Noise has his camera off, I picture him shaking his head at this point, as his tone softens slightly and he says, “so, yeah, I guess that’s where all the disgust built up because there’s so much fucking wrong on this planet and most of the problems are caused by religion.” Noise is clear that he’s an atheist and Non Est Deus is an expression of his fear of the pure power that organized religion wields: “It’s not anti-Christ, nor is it satanism, it’s anti-fucking-religion”, a phrase he emphasizes every word of, giving each a very hard edge. “All these inverted crosses and all this stuff that happened back in Norway or whatever, that was just a stage act.”

The new Non Est Deus, Legacy, which is out on May 12th (on Noisebringer, of course), offers a re-imagining of various tales from the Old Testament. “Basically,” says Noise, “I took some of those stories and turned them around. You know, you have all these problematic topics, like in the tale of Lot, where two angels arrive in Sodom and Lot takes them in. Then, when an angry mob arrives demanding Lot turn over his guests, instead he offers them his two daughters but the angels stop the mob from taking them … well, in my version, I take out the holy spirit or whatever, and imagine what would really have happened, so Lot’s daughters are raped and then murdered by the mob.” So, basically, on Legacy, “everything goes to shit … it’s the story of our legacy, our religion and what came with it.”

“That would be my dream”

Even allowing for the speed at which Noise often works, this guy puts out a lot of music. By my count, since 2018, he has put out six full-length records, plus a handful of EPs, with the new Non Est Deus about to drop and the second Kanonenfieber in the works, plus another EP and a live album. Where does he find the time, alongside holding down a day job? “Well,” says Noise, sounding slightly gleeful, “I used to have a day job but since summer last year, finally, finally … I’m a full-time musician and that’s just what I do now.” What did he use to do, then? “That’s something I’d rather keep for myself,” he says.

Alongside turning out a lot of very high-quality black metal, Noise also manages his label, Noisebringer Records. Thus far, it’s been a vehicle for his projects alone. “At the moment, we don’t have the capacity to do more than that, there’s only three people working at the label doing everything from shipping, marketing, management, website and stuff,” he says. “As everything’s progressing though and my projects get a little bigger, there will come a time where I won’t keep saying ‘no’ to other bands.” So other bands have shown an interest in joining Noisebringer then? “Oh yeah,” says Noise, “some good friends of mine from pretty well-known bands asked about it, mainly because I’m very open about how much things cost and how much money I’m making, you know, complete transparency.” A lot of labels, Noise suggests, just aren’t that honest with their bands and he would “love to set up Noisebringer as an artist-friendly, very honest label that pays musicians in the right way. That would be my dream but it’s probably still a way off.”

Although perhaps organizing events like Noisebringer Fest, which took place in Bamberg over two days in March, suggests that the dream isn’t as far off as Noise believes. The line-up for that two-day festival, featuring the likes of Belphegor, Grima, Hideous Divinity and Kampfar (as well as Noise himself, in his Kanonenfieber guise), shows he already has a fair amount of influence. “It was really crazy actually, both days of the festival sold out completely and suddenly I had these bands I’ve admired for years sitting in my backstage, drinking my local beer, you know, that’s a pretty amazing experience.”

For anyone who’s not been to the north Bavarian town of Bamberg, it’s not the first place you would look for a black metal festival but “everyone was amazed how kind all these dark metalheads were, as well as how much they could drink … the venue had to keep hauling in more and more barrels of beer because they drank the place dry. The owners of the venue had no idea what was about to happen to them and they were terrified as people started to arrive but by the end everyone was super happy! It was all just perfect.”

Although writing and making the music is a solo pursuit for Noise, going on the road as Kanonenfieber, as he did for 15 straight nights in March, Noise has to draft in support: “Otherwise, what, it’s just like me with a guitar in hand, drums on my back, a monkey on my shoulder and a pig running around behind me, or what?” Having clearly amused himself, Noise giggles for a moment before turning serious again. His live band is made up of really close friends, some going back a very long way. The rhythm guitarist he’s known since they were kids and together they started Noise’s first extreme band. The Kanonenfieber bassist played in that band too, while the lead guitarist is one of his best friends. Even the drummer, a more recent addition whom Noise has only known a few years, has fitted in well and “the chemistry is perfect, it feels like just friends hanging out, having fun.”

“I just pay for the electricity”

One of the things that sets apart Noise’s projects from many other black metal outfits is the production, which is pretty much flawless. Handling both this and the mastering himself, Noise is, I discover, completely self-taught in this field too. During an illness a few years ago that left Noise bedridden for six months, he just had his laptop for company. “So,” he says, “for a half a year straight, I just tried to figure out how to make music sound good and after that, I still sucked at it but got less and less shitty from LP to LP.” Because Noise does everything himself, from writing and recording to producing, and all on his own label, he doesn’t face some of the pressures other bands do. “Nikita Kamprad from Der Weg Einer Freiheit,” he says, “you know he’s a great, great producer and he’s mastered some of my work before but that guy mixes a song in like two days! As I’m an amateur, it takes like four weeks for me. I am very slow, as I look at every detail, take a lot of references from bands or albums that I like, and try to match it in places. I might mix an album 20 times or something before I am satisfied enough to release it.” As a fully-DIY musician, “I just pay for the electricity … everything else is just my time. But I invest a lot of that. Otherwise, I would just sit around and watch Netflix, and my wife would kill me.”

I wrap up the interview on a selfish note by fishing for recommendations of recent releases that I should check out. Noise reaches for his phone—at least he tells me does, obviously I cannot see him—“I’m terrible with names,” he says. I am not disappointed as he reels off a number of records for me to check out, some I know already, many I don’t, including Antrisch’s EXPEDITION II: Die Passage, Dust by Thron and Hunter by End, which are the picks of the bunch for me (plus the likes of the excellent Afsky, which is already well-known to the denizens that lurk on this blog).

I spent an hour and change chatting to Noise, and although, in one sense, I don’t know much more about him than before—at least not in terms of hard facts—I do have more of a sense of him as a person. He is a thoughtful and relaxed guy, with a wry sense of humor, who is just loving the fact that he can now focus exclusively on doing what he loves: making music. That, in turn, makes me even more excited to see where he goes next and I won’t have to wait long because, as soon as I finish writing up this interview, I need to turn to reviewing Non Est Deus’ Legacy.

Noise is on the road across Europe with Kanonenfieber from May to August this year, with further dates to be announced. For more information and tickets, visit Noisebringer Records.

The post Interview with: Noise of Kanonenfieber, Leiþa and Non Est Deus appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

What a wild ride 2022 has been. We all sat back and watched as the economy crashed, gas prices rose, and we felt the dread of waking up without a job. Like so many (including many of you, no doubt), those uncertainties hit the Grier mansion in June. As the year began, the anxiety of the tech layoffs soared out of control. Like other tech industries, ours made a massive cut in February and March—decimating (x50) of my team. We knew it was coming, but who it would target was unclear. “We are stable now,” they said. “We can’t promise more cuts, but not this year,” they promised. Fast forward to June, when I attempted to log in to my computer one sunny morning. No such luck. As I attempt to reach out to IT, I receive the news—I lost my job. Bewilderment, confusion, frustration, and sadness hit me as I put down my headphones and picked up the bottle. Joining the throng of others on LinkedIn, I scrambled to find a new job. Thankfully, a contract gig fell in my lap a month later, and I settled in to erase the pain placed on my friends and me.

Six weeks later, as I continue to hear of ex-colleagues jumping ship for calmer waters, I receive a message. They made a mistake and want me back. Not only that but to lead what’s left of the team they destroyed. As one would expect, I ignored it—even thinking, “fuck off”. After a couple of days of consideration, I realized 1) this current job bored me—siloing me off into my own world without guidance—and 2) there’s so much more I can do for that team. So, after some negotiation, I took the plunge. Over two months now, upper management finally allows me the freedom to adjust processes and rebuild morale. With it came long hours, exhausting weekends, sleepless nights, and creative—yet brain-numbing—strategy. But it’s been great.

All that to say, my review numbers are low this year compared to previous ones. At times, listening to anything became a chore. I’d find myself driving with the radio off and working at my desk with no headphones. Even AMG, my outlet for over eight years, became the extra work I didn’t have the energy to do. But, even with that and my dislike for nearly everything the other writers reviewed, it’s been a solid year for metal. As with every era of this site, newbies rolled in and—overly excited because they haven’t achieved burnout just yet—overrated everything they touched. As the legacy of 4.0ldeneye persists, everyone’s scores skyrocketed. As their lists emerge for consumption, they’ll surely be overlapping—each writer masturbating over solid 2.0-2.5 releases. With no one to count on, there’s only me to provide a list of unique and truly remarkable albums in this, the Season of Lists. I will not go the way of the wankers. I will stand firm and ensure the mighty falsettos continue their metal reign.

(ish) Khold // Svartsyn – It’s been a good year for black metal. And nothing makes me happier than seeing a band I once respected come back into the fold and drop a bomb. Being busy with Sarke and Tulus, I feared the members of Khold might never bring a new album to light. Eight years since their unremarkable Til Endes, I figured this Norwegian foursome had moved on for good. So, you can understand my surprise when I discovered Svartsyn in the promo sump. Rife with everything I’ve ever loved about Khold, Svartsyn is a proper comeback for the masses. The vocals are as old and strong as they were on the band’s Masterpiss of Pain debut. The guitars are rich with life, delivering chuggy grooves, painfully slow trods, and black ‘n’ roll kickassery. And that bass. What can I say about the bass? Where many bands push it to the back or use it only the emphasize guitar strokes and drum kicks, Khold gives it a deserving voice. And boy, does it deliver. So, rock out with “Skarpretter” and stomp your feet to “I Demonens Bok” this holiday season. Let’s see how long those lights stay colorful before going black.

#10. Belphegor // The Devils – Like another band on this list, Belphegor are truly kings of their domain. Since the early ’90s, they’ve released good and great albums—but never bad ones. And, unlike so many other black metal outfits these days, these Austrians stay trve to the only deity worth mentioning: Satan. While others explore Odinism, frighten themselves with the Necronomicon, conjure and (try to) control demons with the Ars Diabolica, or meddle in National Socialism, Belphegor continues to explore what founded the genre in the first place. What the band did differently on The Devils is push beyond that comfortability they’ve protected for years. The Devils charges forward without fear or reservation into melodic passages, clean vocals, female chants, and symphonic atmospheres—all while maintaining the viciousness so familiar to their sound. Nothing is ever truly beautiful and safe as all these layers and elements unravel. Employing Obscura’s David Diepold on the drums was a masterstroke. When the drums hit, they hit hard, and the guitars have no choice but to join the vortex. Some will argue my score and place it higher on the list than yours truly. But there’s no doubt that The Devils is a killer album that finds the band full of exciting surprises.

#9. Them // Fear City – Yep, Grier did it. He put Them into a numbered slot on his end-of-the-year list. For the ridiculousness of the vocals, the cheese ball lyrics, and the “let’s make The Warriors a rock opera” attitude, Fear City is the most fun I had all year. Sure, it helps that vocalist Troy Norr not only sounds like King Diamond but was part of a King Diamond tribute band. Those facts aside, Fear City is genuinely a Them record and not a falsetto-screaming copycat. Though the album’s story is far from original, it’s tweaked ever so slightly that it fits the band. It follows our protagonist (if you can call him that) from Hemmersmoor to New York City, where to hunts down his nemesis’ kin. The album takes you through a NY club (“Retro 54”) to the 191st Street tunnel (“191st Street”) and across the Hell Gate Bridge (“The Crossing of Hellgate Bridge”) to find his prey. But nothing goes as planned when KK meets his target in “The Deconsecrated House of Sin.” KK might not have achieved his goals, but the band surely did. Fear City is a fun story-centered adventure with old-school licks, fast-running bass work, and some of the most addictive choruses in the band’s history.

#8. Eruption // Tellurian Rupture – While I regret the opening paragraph of this review—and the subsequent therapy recommendations—I don’t regret loving this record. Nearly five years since Cloaks of Oblivion, Eruption returns with a thrashtastic monster. Combining elements from Forbidden and Metal Church with vocals akin to Warrel Dane and Stu Block, there’s no way I could stay away. While Cloaks saw the band improve on all fronts, it’s got nothing on Tellurian Rupture. This new release finds this Slovenian quintet snapping the chains and emerging from the reservations that held them back on Cloaks. The result is a record that is both unhinged and on the straight-and-narrow. The first-pumping chorus of “Aegeon’s Wrath” will have you screaming the Kraken’s name in vain. And the cannot-listen-to-one-without-the-other duo of “Praise the Serpent Queen” and “Gone With the Floods” will have you suffocating in Iced Earth-esque aggression that’ll send you to bed with choruses pounding in your brain. Not only has Eruption released one of my favorite thrash albums of the year, but Tellurian Rupture’s mix and master might also be my favorite.

#7. Alex Nunziati // Il Mangiatore di Peccati – OK, hold up for one fucking second. Let me try, for the second fucking time, to explain why I like Il Mangiatore di Peccati. It’s not because Alex Nunziati is a creative mastermind, he’s been in various Italian goth outfits, or he necessarily created that ill-fated genre. It’s not because his solo band is a continuation of all he created or even a compilation of it. What I like about Il Mangiatore di Peccati is that it sounds nothing like Nunziati. Do you seriously think I sit around listening to Lord Vampyr? Pull your heads out of your asses. Il Mangiatore di Peccati is 150% nothing like Nunziati’s previous work. And, for that, he has the biggest balls in the world to pull it off. And I have to give him props for that. Also, no album I’ve ever encountered has transported me into a creepy Thomas Ligotti short story like Il Mangiatore di Peccati. Be mad at me all you want, but if you were to try it, you’d understand the mood he’s trying to create. Then maybe—just maybe—you’d realize the guitar tone, vocals, and circusy elements are intentional. Plus, it was my birthday. Fucking selfish assholes.

#6. Midnight // Let There Be Witchery – I’d like to take this opportunity to get something off my chest. If you find Midnight boring, you’re a fucking idiot. I recently saw Midnight and Mercyful Fate sandwich Kreator like they were tuna salad on the stage. Like their stage performance, Midnight writes records as if they’re in your living room playing an exciting setlist just for you. It’s always a party of burning swords, stale beer, and the scent of grave dirt when this black/thrash trio releases a record. Resurrecting the blackened slop of Venom and infusing it with clay from the tomb of Hellhammer, you know everything they do is gonna be disgusting. But it ain’t all filth and ripping guitar solos. Unlike previous releases, Let There Be Witchery is a tight record from beginning to end. With ten concise tracks, this new record focuses on bringing out the best in each. You can find the patience necessary to craft songs like the Motörhead beauty of “In Sinful Secrecy,” the old-school sliminess of “Nocturnal Molestation,” and the crushing headbangability of “More Torment.” While the band has never released a bad record, Let There Be Witchery climbs the rung.

#5. Darkher // The Buried Storm – Few album covers convey what lies ahead as Darkher artwork does. Like a ghost washed up from a self-inflicted tragedy at sea, she finds herself forever trapped on this lonely beach. And that’s precisely how The Buried Storm makes me feel. While I’d be happy to give greats like Darkher and Messa the honor of turning me onto this depressing, soundtrack-like music, I can’t. If it wasn’t for the masterful scores from the genius duo of Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, I might never have come around to Darkher. If it weren’t for the music of films like The Road, The Proposition, and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Buried Storm would not be here. While there are obvious differences between Darkher and the talents of Cave and Ellis, the mood of the three is the same. While many listeners like to dissect The Buried Storm, arguing over and selecting the best tracks on the record, I cannot. To single out one or any of these tracks is a detriment to its whole. That might be a problem for some, but it isn’t for me. Like the vast desert—home to drought, pain and danger—the only way to understand it is to accept it all. That’s the way of The Buried Storm.

#4. Black Cross Hotel // Hex – Like others, supergroup Black Cross Hotel is not anywhere near my wheelhouse. But to deny its genius would be a travesty. While you won’t find anything that separates it from the Ministrys and Killing Jokes of the world, its simplicity makes it great. Combining influences from these bands, Black Cross Hotel stands out of the crowd with Stabbing Westward guitar work and the unique yet satisfying vocals of Dee DeEmme. While the vocals march along with chugging riffs, the haunting keyboard work matches the album’s sinisterness. Hex sends you back in time to the glory days of horror movies. The theme around ’80s horror flicks infects each song with spooky moments from classics like Halloween, Halloween II, The Fog, The Thing, and Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. And to release the album around Halloween 2022 was a stroke of genius. A consistent flow from song to song keeps the terror honest and the thirty-eight-minute runtime effortless. Being a debut, Hex shows promise for this one-of-a-kind band.

#3. Second to Sun // Nocturnal Philosophy – If you go back through Dok Tor Grier’s top-ten lists, you’ll find that Second to Sun shows up a lot. What’s surprising is how many times I’ve listed them in such a short amount of time. Since 2018, I’ve listed them three times, and here they are again. While prolific, Second to Sun has maintained its strength, if not grown stronger, with each release. This year, this Russian outfit tries something different. Breaking course from their classic album and song structure, Nocturnal Philosophy is a compact, five-track record that flows like a novel you can’t put down. With a songwriting structure that never fails to draw you into its dark, dissonant atmospheres, Second to Sun pushes that to its limits. From the initial gripping moments of “North Metal Legion,” the bait is set. By “Veter,” you’re fully investing in taking this meal no matter the cost. Once the title track hits you across the jaw, it’s too late—the hook is set. Your only wish will be a swift death when pulled from the water.

#2. Borealis // Illusions – Borealis is easily one of the greatest sleepers in modern metal. Never one to jump in your face—or down your throat—this quiet group always seems to come out of nowhere and leave everyone in awe. Having cemented their sound into a melodic metal combination of Evergrey and Symphony X, Borealis has umphed the symphonic elements more and more with each release. Some would argue that with each iteration, the atmospheres have become uncontrollable. To an extent, I agree. Twenty-eighteen’s The Offering saw the band focus more on the builds than on the songwriting and album fluidity. For Illusions, they brought in the mighty Vikram Shankar to write these passages and bring them in sync with the guitars, drums, and vocals. The result is nothing short of phenomenal. Taking their time to write and rewrite every song, strengthen each piece, and ensure tracks flow together like waves on the sea paid off. Illusions contains some of the band’s best riffs, choruses, and builds ever recorded. They lift you to the frothing peaks and drop you into the smooth valleys with absolute ease. The passion the album emanates proves that Illusions was a labor of love. We can now enjoy their hard-earned work as they arguably produced their greatest achievement.

#1. Kampfar // Til Klovers Takt – Make fun of their name, but Kampfar is nothing short of a remarkable band. This band has led the pagan pack for nearly thirty years, and their releases remain relevant. Not only that, but they continue to show us what else the genre has in store for us. Their career exists in two eras: when Thomas Andreassen was in the band and when he wasn’t. Being a diehard fan of the Andreassen era—with albums like Mellom Skogkledde Aaser and Kvass—it was hard to accept his departure. Instead of trying to recreate the period before, Kampfar pushed on. With the release of Profan, they cemented themselves, once again, as the leaders of the pack. Over the last few years, they injected more atmospheres, and Viking-hardened cleans into the mix. With this year’s Til Klovers Takt, the band took a step back to evaluate everything they’ve achieved. Looking to the past and present, Til Klovers Takt gathers it all and puts it into the future. From the classic sounding “Lausdans under Stjernene” to the freakishly fast “Urkraft” to the epic closer, you can’t find a better album of this style in 2022. After the release of 2015’s Profan, I didn’t think the band could top the arrangements, songwriting, and calculated tracklist. I was wrong. And good on them for proving me wrong.

Honorable Mentions

• Autopsy // Morbidity Triumphant – I’m not much of a death metal fan, but when it comes to the filth and grotesqueness of Autopsy, I’m on board. I worship Autopsy’s entire discog, and Morbidity Triumphant joins its predecessors in vile glory.
• Exhumed // To the Dead – Exhumed, like Autopsy, is the kind of death metal I adore. Where Autopsy puts me in the mood for violent slasher flicks, Exhumed pummels me into pulsating soup on the operating table. After all these years, it’s incredible that they can still do that to me.
• Soulfly // Totem – This was an even bigger surprise for me than it was for you. After years of bashing these guys, I can honestly say I have an album of theirs I genuinely love.
• Falls of Rauros // Key to a Vanishing Future – I know this’ll be on many a list, and it nearly made mine. Falls of Rauros remain a significant player in the atmoblack world, and Key to a Vanishing Future cements that legacy.
• Xentrix // Seven Words – I’m not gonna lie. I gave up on Xentrix decades ago. But since their rebirth with a new vocalist in 2017, I’ve been listening. And this year’s Seven Words won’t get out of my head.

Disappointments o’ the Year

• Abbath // Dread Reaver – What looked like a promising release instead turned out to be a one-man show with nothing more than Abbath’s guitar and voice. Who needs to hear the rest of the band, right? To add insult to injury, slap on one of the worst productions of the year, and you get the Dreaded Reaver.
• The AMG Staff and Commenters: You’re all idiots.¹

Songs o’ the Year

You can’t listen to one without the other…

• Eruption – “Praise the Serpent Queen”

• Eruption – “Gone With the Floods”

The post Dr. A.N. Grier’s Top Ten(ish) of 2022 appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

I remember the end of 2015 like it was yesterday. There I was, putting my top ten together with ease and confidence and, at the same time, listening to Kampfar’s then-new album, Profan. Multi-tasking on my list, making Jørn puns, and taking notes for my review of Profan, I immediately realized I was fucked. It took only one spin of Profan to tell me I’d start from scratch. I should have known. I mean, what was I thinking reviewing a Kampfar album and not considering its inclusion in the holiest of all lists? For those of you posers that don’t know, Kampfar is untouchable in the pagan/black metal realm. And they’ve been ruling it with a bloody battle axe for almost 30 years. Now, they are back again to threaten my year-end list with Til Klovers Takt. But, unlike Profan or even Ofidians Manifest, Til Klovers Takt explores all that is Kampfar. It plays out more like a best-of-release than a standalone record. Each song explores songwriting structures from the band’s past and present. Yet, somehow, it’s brought together in a strategic tracklist. Welcome to pagan metal heaven.

Til Klovers Takt has all the modern flavors of Kampfar—including unhinged black metal assaults, melodic atmospheres, and vocal arrangements as big as Valhalla. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, no band incorporates these elements as well as Kampfar. While distant violins break your heart and blistering-fast guitars drive to the apex, bellowing Viking chants support Dolk’s desperate rasps. And that’s not one song; that’s all of them. Each track tries to one-up the other as the album approaches the inevitable epic climax. How the band does it, I have no idea. But the intensity always claps like thunder in the closer, finally breaking the tension built up for the last forty-five minutes. It satisfies my old bones better than any sexy massage ever could.

And, boy, does it get started in a hurry. Opener, “Lausdans under Stjernene,” wastes no time with elaborate introductions. Like Kampfar of old, it unleashes a tasty black metal riff that snaps your kneecaps and sprawls you on the floor. “Lausdans under Stjernene” is classic Kampfar in all its building, crushing, ominous glory. “Rekviem” also hits you where it hurts. But, approaching the album’s end, the layers begin to form. Those booming Viking vox drive the song from the background as Dolk delivers some seriously nasty rasps. As the song progresses, a new layer adds to the previous one. From gnarly atmospheres of churchy key work (that brings to mind Dimmu Borgir) to passionate string interludes, the song stomps to the mountaintop. As the guitars and drums approach their final build, the desperate vocals scream to the nighty stars.

While “Fandens Trall” has some truly remarkable guitar work—at times, venturing into old-school Mayhem territories—”Urkraft” and closer¹ “Dødens Aperitiff” are the best. “Urkraft” begins with eerie, distant vocals and booming bass before careening into a swirling mass of guitars and drums. This Primordial-esque plod eventually transitions to absurdly-fast guitars and blastbeats, supported by the increasing vocal presence. First, bombastic cleans support the rasps. Then, Viking metal chants bring the song to its mighty conclusion. As with so many Kampfar closers, “Dødens Aperitiff” pulls out all the stops. I can only describe the atmosphere as massive and damning. Even when the song halts to make room for clean guitars, doom fills the air. When it explodes into a maelstrom of guitars and drums once more, there’s no stopping it. The rasps spit like a rattler, and the cleans fill your ears with passionate pain. In its final minutes, I find myself pulled in. Taking my fingers from my keyboard, I can’t help but sit back in my chair and absorb it.

Til Klovers Takt also holds up to repeat listens. Not because you need to discover every nook and cranny but because you want to. As I said in my review for Profan, I will always be partial to older Kampfar. But this fantastic quartet continues to draw my attention away from albums like Kvass and Mellom Skogkledde Aaser and direct my attention to the new Kampfar. After a dozen listens, I have to put Til Klovers Takt alongside Profan. The atmospheres, intricacies, and calculating songwriting continue to blow my mind. I will never know how these guys continue to produce remarkable albums after all these years. For those looking for an album to fill a void in your year-end list, look no further.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Indie Recordings
Websites: kampfarornorway.bandcamp.com | kampfar.com | facebook.com/kampfarofficial
Releases Worldwide: November 11th, 2022

The post Kampfar – Til Klovers Takt Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

It’s been a little over five years since you poor bastards succumbed to the lousy writing, the horrendous cursing, and the pissed-off caricature that is Dr. A.N. Grier. In dog years, that would make me a little over thirty-five-years-old. Which, being that I’m pretty much that age in human years, means my age doubles.¹ Unfortunately, I’m not far off. I may drive like a twenty-year-old, dad-joke like a forty-year-old, but I’m as fit as a flabby sixty-year-old and as spry as a seventy-year-old. I have two cups of coffee and have diarrhea for the rest of the day² and, two beers later, I’m drunk. Yet, with Angry Metal Age comes Angry Metal Wisdom. As well as a lot of annual visits from old friends to the old-people home. This year, visits came from Darkthrone, Kampfar, Rimfrost, Sorxe, Stormhammer, Via Vengeance, War Curse, Reign of Fury, Second to Sun, and others. One visit I was most excited about was from Ars Moriendi.

Having already appeared on a Dok Tor top ten list, this French, one-man outfit is an underrated treasure. The Darkness has yet to find a more loyal follower. And Suffering has never had a better partner. Combining atmoblack with meloblack, distorted guitars with acoustic ones, and the horn/string-atmospheres of Sigh, Ars Moriendi is unfuckwithable. Twenty-sixteen’s Sepelitur Alleluia was passionate and powerful, mixing the gentle with the aggressive to produce an unforgettable quintet of tracks. Minus track order and the occasional lack of brevity, Sepelitur Alleluia would have landed in the top five of that year’s list. Where will this year’s La solitude du pieux scélérat—who flew by me before I could review them in time—land at year’s end? Well, let’s say, it’s found a home in the top five.

Interspersed with dark, religious soundclips throughout its six-track length, La solitude du pieux scélérat is a haunting concept. The thirteen-minute opening title track is a perfect representation of what to expect. After filling your ears with religious rhetoric, the full force of Ars Moriendi is unleashed. The guitars kick up a pace that the bass and drums scratch-and-claw to maintain. The vocals screaming, shrieking, and grunting through the torrent. The song breaks this sinister spell and morphs into downright gorgeous atmoblack that includes Sigh-like horns and an acoustic guitar outro. Harder, yet more beautiful than the opener, “Rien qu’un songe” is another all-encompassing Ars Moriendi piece that chugs with destructive force one moment and swallows you up in passionate, acoustic pluckings and clean vox the next.

And when you think you’ve heard it all, “Jusqu’à la 13e génération” and closer “Venefica Part.II – Per Flammae” go further. The former gives birth to a glimmering beauty before a headbangable beast snatches her up and mutilates her. It’s a dense piece with greater memorability and emotion than any on the disc. OK, I take that back. The sequel to the band’s 2003 demo is the king of builds and pain-stricken emotion. Like “Jusqu’à la 13e génération,” it’s a driving force meant to grab you, lock you up, and never release you. In once instance, it’s beautiful. In another, it’s hopeless and suffocating. It’s Ars Moriendi at their (his) finest.

Never have I been so thankful for our annual TYMHM pieces (except in the case of Amenra’s Mass VI). La solitude du pieux scélérat is a beautiful, devastating record with more passion than any record I’ve heard this year. And, here at AMG, it gets its chance to shine. And shine it will. Even if its rays are black as soot, penetrating deep into a heart littering the ground in a thousand pieces.

Tracks to Check Out: “La solitude du pieux scélérat,” “Jusqu’à la 13e génération,” and “Venefica Part.II – Per Flammae”

The post Ars Moriendi – La solitude du pieux scélérat [Things You Might Have Missed 2019] appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

Many writers with pen names (not only AMG writers) use their voice as an outlet—living through a character they’ve always wanted to be but could never be. For the longest time, that was me. The Dok Tor with the bloody hands was just for fun. But, lately, I’ve come to realize that this “writer” is stuck with Dr. A.N. Grier. It’s been five years since I created this monster and, boy, has he evolved. If you look to the early days of the moniker, my passion and sense-of-humor—if you will—were there. The two constants of the Grier character. Bad jokes, crude innuendos, and a shitload of bad language. There was something silly and childish about the Doc in the old days. He felt safe being a goof. He enjoyed passing on dick jokes and clickbait to any adolescent hoodlum that would lend her/his ear to it. Then something happened. The man behind the character realized he wrote for a website that accepted him for what he was; flaws and all. And I’m not just talking about the staff—the most supportive group of people I have ever known. No, not just them. I’m also talking about you, the reader. Name another site out there with writers hiding behind silly monikers whom you know better than your best friends. Name a site you dared to lean on, pouring your heart out in the comments, getting positive and uplifting responses when you needed them most. Name a site you’ve spent as much time debating, loving, and sharing music as you have on AMG. You can’t.

And, because of this, the care for one another is contagious. In previous years, I’ve thanked one and all for bringing me aboard, letting me contribute, letting me edit, letting me be grumpy, and letting me be me from one review to the next. I’ve spent years trying to feel the band more than listen to them. Understand their musical direction, rather than assume it. Judging a band for who they are and what they believe, instead of telling you who they are and what they believe. I’ve always thanked you all because it was the right thing to do. Because those whom I thanked were deserving of it. So, what do I do now? When thanking isn’t enough? For all the words I’ve written across five years and over three-hundred reviews, I don’t have one for you now. If I could pick such a word, it’d be between thank and love. So, thank you and I love you all.

Sorry for the banter and emotion. As many of you know, this has been quite a year for me. So, I had to say what had to be said.¹ It’s also been one hell of a year for the reviewer side of the Grier character. Like a father seeing his children grow up, one looks back to old memories, comparing them to the newest stages of development. The past proved growth for bands like Sorxe, Rimfrost, Stormhammer, Black Sites, War Curse, Reign of Fury, and more. But the present may prove different. Over-exertion, uncontrollable delays, heinous lineup changes, or a combination of all the above have taken a toll on some of my musical spawn. That said, the easiest way to Grier’s heart is writing an album he can enjoy over and over again. And many of them achieved that. Below is a list of the albums I haven’t stopped listening to all year.

(ish) Stormhammer // Seven Seals – Everyone names their hammers. No, that isn’t a sexual innuendo. I own four hammers that do as much for me as my pillow does for my cat. From smallest to largest, there’s Pinhead, Mjölnir, Hercules, and Thumper. Each serves a purpose and each is perfect for smashing shit. Or throwing at innocent people. Like pets, I’ve never been much for naming my hammers based on the obvious. For instance, naming your fluffy one Jack-kitty or Sledge-cat is pathetically bland. That’s like naming your hammers Jack-hammer or Sledge-hammer. See? Lame. That’s why I respect Stormhammer. I mean, seriously, what the fuck is a Stormhammer? I’ll tell you. It’s Dream Evil with the upbeatness of Sabaton, the sappiness of Evergrey, and the epicness of Blind Guardian. It’s a hammer whose vocals (no matter how many vocalists the band has employed) are the blunt-end of the tool/weapon. But, this time around, Stormhammer wrote songs as strong as any hammer handle. Not to mention the fact that they tied every track of Seven Seals together with needle and thread until it became the strongest eleven-link chain the band has ever crafted. It’s lathered in the Mighty Cheez Whiz, but it’s too much fun not to include in my top ten(ish).

#10. Pectora // Untaken – Steel dropped this on me out of the fucking blue.”Dude, you’ll like this,” he said. But, what he meant was, “Dude, prepare to get no work done and be late on every review for the rest of the year.” Because that’s what happened. This hopelessly addictive record that, at times, feels like Iron Maiden with James Hetfield at the mic or Dio with, well… Hetfield at the mic is the most fun I’ve had all year. From the epic build and heavy metal riffs of the opening title track to the Dio-ish “Haunted Memory” to the drawn-out closer, “The Arrival,” I can’t get enough of this little record. If I only had it on cassette (or owned a cassette player, for that matter), it would be even more fitting than it already is. This ’80s metal gem is more than welcome to shred and ruin my truck’s imaginary tape deck any time it wants. Without a doubt, this is my Debut Record o’ the Year.

#9. Gatecreeper // Deserted – Sharing duties between Gatecreeper and Spirit Adrift, this has been a huge year for Chase Mason and Nate Garrett. And a successful year, at that. Vocals for one and bass for the other. Vocals/guitars for the latter and guitars for the former. These guys are busy. Not to mention, one band is a combination of heavy and progressive, while the other is Arizona’s Swedeath secret. Like the debut, Deserted is full of crushing riffs and to-the-point song structures taken straight from the annals of Asphyx, Grave, and Entombed. But, this time around, Gatecreeper stretched out it’s bloody wings in hopes of grasping more than the typical sounds of ’90s Swedish metal. Instead of the expected balls-to-the-walls nature of Sonoran Deprivation, the band explores the darker, slower side of the genre. Even dropping bonus nuggets of the tank-battering Bolt Thrower and the melodies of Amon Amarth and Dark Tranquillity into the mix. Deserted joins the other records on my list as an album that pushes past comfort zones and reinvents a band’s sound.

#8. Ars Moriendi // La solitude du pieux scélérat – One of the two French black metal releases on my top ten list, Ars Moriendi is no stranger to how difficult it is to please Grier. This one-man outfit first graced my lists some three years ago. Pulling a black veil of my head and filling my ears with the saxy psychedelics of Sigh and the grandiose symphonics of Dimmu Borgir, 2016’s Sepelitur Alleluia was a blindside to the temples of my cranium. The black ferocity that lives within that album also lives in this year’s La solitude du pieux scélérat. Centering more on the melodic atmospheres of the band’s arsenal, Arsonist digs deep. Be it his variation in screams, shrieks, and cleans, or his perfect execution of acoustic or distorted guitar work. La solitude du pieux scélérat is a faultless addition to the Ars Moriendi catalog, with each song growing bigger and stronger as the album progresses. Mixing raw, black metal riffage, heartbreaking acoustic passages with Sigh-like horns/orchestrations, and builds that even Jesus would kneel to. It’s a mountainside ascension and the album finale is at the top.

#7. Second to Sun // Legacy – My list this year seems riddled with French-oriented black metal. Solo and duo outfits that either Sigh into your ears or have you praying to the Hand o’ Death. But, like last year’s list, no top ten is complete without my go-to Russian compatriots, Second to Sun. Kings of releasing vocal and instrumental versions of their albums, Legacy is no different. On release date, any new or old fan of the band could experience these seven gems with or without Gleb Sysoev’s gnarly throat work. To me, it’s not a matter of preference when choosing one of the versions of the disc. It’s an experience. Songs, like “Devil,” “Pages for a Manuscript,” and “Once Upon a Time in Russia,” are a different journey, regardless of the version. The instrumental journey is as strong as the vocal version but with a depth I can’t explain. Again, it’s something you have to experience. And experience you should. And experience you will.

#6. Black Sites // Exile – Like chums, Spirit Adrift, Black Sites’ newest opus left me shell-shocked. Expecting one thing and getting another can be a negative thing, depending on the outcome. In this case, the unexpected outcome is a positive shock that kept me on my toes and coming back for more. Upon first listen, each song from Exile had me thinking, “Oh shit, this is better than the last song!” It’s a continuous climb, with surprises over every ridge and around every corner. Not a single song is filler, resulting in an album that seamlessly combines what you’ll expect with what you won’t. “Feral Child” and “The Night They Came For You” are what you’d expect. The clean emotion and fist-pumping aggression of “Coal City” and closer “Dwell Upon the End”² being something you won’t. The latter two doing everything they can to lift you up to the heavens before dropping you into the Cellar of Sadness. Toss in the Type O Negative vocal approach to “Dream Long Dead” and the mighty Motörhead attack of “Focused Totality – The Psychic Knife,” and you’ve found the Most-Diverse Record o’ the Year.

#5. War Curse // Eradication – My first exposure to Cincinnati’s War Curse was 2015’s Final Days. Considered an EP by some and an LP by others, this short six-track disc of Slayer-meets-Metallica brutality impressed me so much I had to write a TYMHM piece for it. And I’ve never forgotten War Curse—waiting patiently for that day when the band would follow-up their lonesome debut. After trading vocalist Tarek Puska for Blaine Gordon, the band spent some time crafting their sound around the powerful voice of their new singer. The result was nothing less than spectacular. With a sound as old as the Testaments of thrash, Slayering beasts with Metallica steel. Eradication is a tribute to the past with a touch of the modern. It’s a killer record with thick licks, soaring solos, and riff changes a-plenty. Not to mention it houses two of my favorite thrash pieces of the year: “Polluted Minds” and “Sands of Fate.”

#4. Spirit Adrift // Divided by Darkness – After 2017’s Curse of Conception, I figured it would be difficult for Spirit Adrift to top it. And, sure enough, it was. It took me a few spins to realize that a dead-on attack on Curse of Conception, in hopes of one-upping it, would have been disappointing. That’s why Spirit Adrift did what they did. If you’re expecting Curse, Part II, the only song that resembles Divided by Darkness’ predecessor is the opening track, “We Will Not Die.” After that, the band gives the ole middle finger to your expectations. Sure, there’re plenty of Curse-oriented vox, harmonized guitar work, and progressive builds on Divided, but there are even more surprises than familiarities here. While “Hear Her,” “Living Light,” and “Born into Fire” stab forth with more gun-happy, ripping riffs than anything Garrett and company have done before, the Sabbathy front-half and classic ’80s back-half of “Angels and Abyss” is more than anyone could expect. And, when they close it out with the psychedelic, Pink Floyd-ish woo-ings of “The Way of Return,” you’ll learn, next time, to expect the unexpected.

#3. Exhorder // Mourn the Southern Skies – Reviewing an album like Exhorder’s Mourn the Southern Skies is an impossible feat. Releasing a new album after over twenty-five years means every metalhead on Earth has a fucking opinion. “It’s worse than Slaughter in the Vatican and The Law. *sad face* “It’s better than Slaughter and Law!” *yayayayayaya* “It’s better than Law but worse than Vatican.” Blah blah blah. Any way you spin it, you’re going to be wrong in someone else’s eyes. But the review for Mourn the Southern Skies was Grier’s review and this is Grier’s top ten. Which makes Grier the Law. Not a single person here could make a comeback as good as Exhorder did. Almost thirty years later, Kyle Thomas continues to write lyrics without anyone having a hand in editing, unleashing his no-fucks-given attitude on the world. And the band continues to write thrash as thick as the musty air of a Louisiana tomb. Mourn the Southern Skies is more NOLA than Down, every bit as compelling as Pantera, and boiling over with an energy that few bands can carry over in a couple of years, much less twenty-seven. Love or hate the style,³ Exhorder is back and I’m here to fuck shit up with them.

#2. Vous Autres // Champ du Sang – It’s funny and a little scary to think that if I had Vous Autres’ debut record a year ago, it might have been the soundtrack to my death. Though that dark place I inhabited twelve months ago is no longer my home, it’s a shack that dwells in the trees a hundred yards from here. No matter if it’s day or night, I can still see it. No lights illuminate it’s broken-shuddered windows and no smoke curls from its collapsed chimney. But, while it appears abandoned, I can still hear my labored breathing within its crumbling walls. Unfortunately, every time I listen to Champ du Sang, it holds my hand and leads me to the very doorstep of my nightmares—trapped, once again, within the walls of that shack-like tomb. Never to escape and left alone to die at my own hands. That’s the power of Vous Autres’ Champ du Sang. It’s a strange predicament because, while I want you to feel what I feel when I listen to it, I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy. That said, Champ du Sang is up there with Amenra’s Mass VI as one of the most depressing albums I’ve ever heard. And, for that, it deserves a top spot on my list.

#1. Rimfrost // Expedition: Darkness – *Inhales deeply* Finally, we are here. The history-making record that won’t leave my car, my phone, my work, my workouts, or my life. Rimfrost has been around for a while and, in all actuality, any one of their albums is as strong as Expedition: Darkness. Twenty-sixteen’s self-titled release was so good, it almost took top mark, landing in the #2 spot of that year’s list. It’s Immortal-isms, rich atmospheres, and the exhaustive number of riffs chained me to a rock, torturing me like anti-hero Loki. But, like the rest of my mind-numbing list, Rimfrost couldn’t settle with second best. While maintaining the Immortal-ish sound they’ve had since their start, the band split the belly open and stuffed it with more riffs, more solos, more melodeath, and more fun than they’ve ever done before. From “Rising of a Black Dawn,” the setup piece to “Damned Jaws,”⁴ to closer “At the Blessing of the Damned,” not a single song lacks the power of the one before it. Never before have I experienced an album that combines the fun (“Samhain” and “Voorhees”) and crushing (“Bloodnight,” “Dawnbreaker,” and “Damned Jaws”), with the moody (“Natten”) and epic (“Expedition: Darkness” and “At the Blessing of the Damned”), as seamlessly as Expedition: Darkness does. Here’s to a runner-up taking the gold. *drinks deeply*⁵

Honorable Mentions:

• Abigail Williams // Walk Beyond the Dark – Well, fuck… this came out of nowhere and I missed it. Which is a shame because this might be the best album Ken Sorceron has ever written. The best I can do is place it at the top of my honorable mentions so it gets some of the recognition it deserves.⁶

• Borknagar // True North – I spend a lot of time on the road these days. And True North is a perfect companion for the drives up north at sunrise—from cactus to pine trees, from the warm desert to the chilly forests. ICS Vortex is back to lend his voice to Lars Nedlund’s and the result is another outstanding release from a band that never disappoints. Icy, captivating, and well-rounded, there’s a lot to chew on here. And it only gets better with each spin.

• Sorxe // The Ark Burner – It was a struggle-and-a-half to place The Ark Burner in my honorable mentions, rather than in my top ten. But, let’s not kid ourselves, this was a massive year for metal and my HM list is as strong as my top ten. And having Sorxe—and its thick, Arizona sludge—in its ranks proves that to be true.

• Kampfar // Ofidians Manifest – If you were to ask me what my favorite part of Kampfar would be. I’d say the vocals. Those full-lunged bellows can’t be beaten by anyone. And they’re made even better and more powerful by the growing builds provided by the drums and guitars. When, on their game, the climactic, black/Viking atmospheres of Kampfar have no equal. The band has done it for years and, now, they do it again.

• Istapp // The Insidious Star – Twenty-nineteen appears to be a year of a few bombastic black/folk/meloblack/Viking releases for ole Grier. On top of groups like Borknagar and Kampfar, Istapp released their own exquisite slab of folky blackness. The Insidious Star is only the band’s third release, but it beat the odds: surpassing a sophomore release and keeping with the strength and fortitude of the band’s unforgettable debut. Istapp has a bright future ahead of them and this year’s release is another insidious star.

• Via Vengeance // Diestractions from the Truth – It’s true that I’m partial to the man and the sound behind this band. But that doesn’t mean that Diestractions from the Truth doesn’t come off as one of the best sludge records of the year. That said, don’t expect anything like Sorxe’s The Ark Burner. There’re a lot more twists and turns than you’ll ever expect from this one-man sideshow.

• Mayhem // Daemon – Every year that Mayhem releases something, a voice in my head says, “They’re back.” They never really left but few bands have to live up to the hype that Mayhem does; album-after-fucking-album. But this isn’t a typical Mayhem release. Daemon turns out to be one of their best. It combines every era and every element the band has created since their reign in the ’90s. So, I guess… maybe they are back?

• Devourment // Obscene Majesty – This will be a shocker for many of you,⁷ but I love Devourment. They’ve never let me down in their quest to kick, kill, and slam you into the ground. I suppose you’d have to like this style of chaotic slam/death to appreciate it. But, if you do, Obscene Majesty won’t disappoint.

• Blood Red Throne // Fit to Kill – While the Tchort-era of Blood Red Throne is still my favorite, Fit to Kill—with its heavy Hypocrisy flavorings and intense brutality—feels oh-so good. The band has been around for some time and have come a long way, regardless if you’ve heard of them or not. Fit to Kill is a brutal, technical bruiser that’ll have you spitting up or pissing blood every time you go to the bathroom. Don’t forget to wash your hands, you filthy fuckers.

• Darkthrone // Old Star – Take Mayhem, Enslaved, Gorgoroth, or Immortal’s sound from the ’90s and give it the Sanford Parker touch. I bet it would enrich and heighten every nook and cranny of their songwriting styles. Unfortunately, for all these other bands, Darkthrone’s Old Star did it first. Good luck trying to top that.

• Reign of Fury // Exorcise Reality – Reign of Fury has been through a lot in the last few years. Juggling lineup changes and delays around Exorcise Reality, I can’t imagine their frustrations. When it finally hit, Exorcise Reality wasn’t up to the standards of Death Be Thy Shepherd. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t slay. It pushes on like that friend that’s had way more shit in her/his life than you. It never misses a beat, moves on like nothing’s wrong, and gives its all without complaint.

• Aggressive Perfector // Havoc at the Midnight Hour – This album is so fun and absurd, that it can’t be ignored. If it hadn’t been for the roundedness of Stormhammer’s Seven Seals, this Hellhammer-meets-King Diamond beast would have been this year’s Ish. If you like these name-drops, don’t miss out on this one.

Disappoints o’ the Year:

Crystal Viper // Tales of Fire and Ice – If you’re a longtime fan of Crystal Viper, you know them for their Iron Maiden-esque song structures and Marta Gabriel’s gruff vocals. What you get, instead, from Tales of Fire and Ice is an over-abundance of melodic ditties and Brittney Slayes-ish (Unleash the Archers) clean vox. I came here to hear Crystal Viper but, instead, I got an UtA ripoff. Between the musical direction and the artwork switcheroo,⁸ this record became too infuriating to review.

Suidakra // Echoes of Yore – I get it. Let’s give the fans something they want, right? I don’t know which Suidakra fans wanted a full release of re-recorded classics from the band’s first five albums, but I wasn’t one of them. After the fantastic Realms of Ordoric, I’ve been craving more original pieces from the band. Instead, we get a bland, emotion-less acoustic record (2016’s Cimbric Yarns) and this year’s Echoes of Yore. Unfortunately, the band is going to have to work twice as hard to get my attention in the future. But, again, it’s clear I’m not the type of fan they’ve been catering to.

Songs o’ the Year:

Sabaton “The Attack of the Dead Men” – This one is dedicated to my children. While I enjoy this song, they LOVE it. Always requesting it when we jump in the truck on our treks across the State. To me, this song signals adventures with my partners in crime. Be those adventures of the innocent or mischievous kind, it’s difficult to know for sure.

Reign of Fury “The World Belongs to Me” – This has been a SHIT year, as many of you know. And while Reign of Fury didn’t quite win me over as they did in 2016, this song sure did. In a world of endless bullshit and frustration, there’s no need to let it bury you. Trust me, I know this is easier said than done. Regardless, fuck it all. This is our anthem, good readers. And this is our world.

The post Dr. A.N. Grier’s Top Ten(ish) of 2019 appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

I can’t remember the last time Kampfar disappointed me. Grier begins to count his fingers, evaluating every album the band has released since 1997. Oh, that’s right: never. “Why are you introducing a TYMHM this way?” “Are you trying to freak me out or bury my hope?” Maybe. But the real reason is that I’m a dick and I like to fuck with you all. It’s safe to say Kampfar has never disappointed me and never will. Sure, they, as well as every band out there, have pinnacle moments and mediocre ones. But, as a whole, I can listen to any Kampfar album at any time and I’m happy. And, though I’ve made it clear that the band’s older material is still my favorite, 2015’s Profan is proof that their big, bombastic, pagan/Viking sound has sunk its teeth into me. And, like its predecessor, this year’s Ofidians Manifest keeps this Pagan Train rolling.

Ofidians Manifest continues on the track introduced by Mare and Djevelmakt and honed by Profan – the post-Thomas era of accessible, powerful, Viking metal. The back-to-back openers, “Syndefall” and “Ophidian” cement this claim with rasping vox and ripping riffs that partner with seeping melodics and monstrous choruses. The belting of “as the rowers keep on rowing!” of the latter is enough to send chills up my spine and infect me with goosebumps. On the other hand, songs like “Natt” and “Skamløs!” light the frozen forests of Norway ablaze. A signal sent from one warrior the next, these two are black-metal berzerkers. “Skamløs!” never lets up its relentless attack, be it black, smoldering riffs or meloblack transitions. But it’s not without its beauty, as a gorgeous piano piece closes the track. There’s also tidbits of a piano in the mighty “Natt,” but these appear different. Acting as a bridge between the black-metal flurry of the first half of the song and the crushing black/death chug of the back, a short piano section teases you before it’s ripped from your grasp. As if someone were to say, “You like the piano? Fuck the piano.”

As on previous releases, Kampfar is big on guest appearances for their experimental excursions and Ofidians Manifest is no different. “Dominans” finds the creepy, powerful, and unmistakable vox of Agnete Kjølsrud adding depth and passion to the track. Without her voice, this track wouldn’t be as memorable as it is. “Eremitt” is another that borrows voices from the band’s Norwegian collective. This time, the voices lend their oomph to the song’s gigantic Viking choirs. If it wasn’t for the band’s irresistible urge to close the album with the biggest and boldest song, these two tracks would share the throne. But “Det Sorte” is a heart-wrenching masterpiece that’ll rip all traces of holiday happiness from your soul.

I’m on the fence on which is better: Profan or Ofidians Manifest. So, I won’t waste my time deciding. Instead, I’ll state the obvious: they’re a perfect pair. The songwriting, the vocal variation, and the strength that builds across these seven songs are why I loved Profan four years ago. That said, Ofidians Manifest’s added guest vocals result in some unique and memorable moments, in comparison to its predecessor. Regardless of who you feel sits atop the other, Ofidians Manifest is another great achievement in the band’s storied catalog.

Tracks to Check Out: ”Dominans,” “Ophidian,” and “Det sorte”

The post Kampfar – Ofidians Manifest [Things You Might Have Missed 2019] appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

Man, this has been a crazy year. Not only did I lose the place I was renting at the beginning of it, but I purchased a new home in the nick of time before being kicked out. The icing on the cake was that I had to move in a fucking snowstorm. Because that’s normal in late April. As you can imagine, all this made for one hell of a semester. Not to mention that I had to pick up an extra class halfway through and juggle close to 100 extra students. Then, being short of money to afford the new house I bought, I picked up a job writing an instructor’s guide for a textbook. “Oh, that’s cool,” I bet you’re saying. Remember that scene in Ghostbusters (the real Ghostbusters…) where Winston tells Ray, “If someone asks you if you are a god, you say yes!” Well, if someone asks you if you want to write a guide for teaching organic chemistry, you say hellafuckingno. I’m serious. Do yourself, and everyone around you, a favor. So, yeah, this year’s been nuts. Thankfully, there’s Angry Metal Guy—a solace for all metalheads to come together and be verbally abused and cat-tailed in the company basement¹.

There’s also been plenty of great albums this year to help me get through. Not only from one genre but across the entire metal stratosphere. The result is one of the oddest top tens I have ever had. I’ve got three bands that I’d consider the most-improved picks of the year: a power metal, a black metal, and a doom metal outfit. I’ve got debut albums, sophomore records, and the umpteenth release of seasoned vets. There’re death, black/post-black, black/Viking, progressive, sludge, accessible avant-garde, and one-man and two-man outfits. And you’ll find them all in America, Canada, France, Finland, Germany, Holland, Norway, Slovakia, and South Africa. On this list, you’ll find everything from soothing to shredding to downright depressing.

Like all my lists, my top picks happen to be the albums I can’t put down—no matter the score or who agrees with me. And, like each year before, this year’s list represents the Grier of 2017. The same Grier that thanks AMG, Steel, and Madam X for bringing me on board, the Grier that thanks staff (young and old) for their patience and for not taking my demeaning comments during the editing process to hard, and—as always—the Grier that thanks all YOU for your continued support. Yes, even those that think Jari is a god.

(ish) Attic // Sanctimonious – Alright, hold down your booing and hissing. You knew this was coming. Like I did in 2016, I’ve gone with another record for my “Ish” pick that wouldn’t normally make my top ten. It’s a record that I enjoyed as a palette cleanser between the more intense and involved albums on my list. It’s also another King Diamond wannabe! Which means it speaks to me like Satan to a crooked nun. Not only that, but Sanctimonious turned out to be a pretty decent disc. It has that great King Diamond vibe (full of organs and creepy atmospheres), a killer nun-themed concept, and all the falsettos you could ever want. It’s fun, it’s creepy, and it’s packed with genre-appropriate riffage and addictive choruses. It may never touch anything King has ever done (and, honestly, it has me pining more than ever for a new record from the master), but it’s the best Attic has to offer. Yes, the King is King, but fans of his style might get a kick out of this.

#10. Frostreich // Join the Wind – Until a few months ago, I had no idea Frostreich existed. I didn’t know this Germany outfit consisted of sole member Wynthar, I didn’t know he had three albums to his name, and I didn’t know I missed Frostreich’s newest release back in January. But, thanks to our vigilante readers, I present to you Join the Wind. If you’re a fan of post-black metal—its riffs, atmospheres, and the traditional angry, depressing, misanthropic lyrical content—Join the Wind might be for you. For many, that might be the greatest turn off of the century. But Wynthar’s take on post-black metal maintains the character of the genre without all the pretentiousness. Short songs, powerful vocals, lifting atmospheres, and subtle hints of Woods of Ypres melancholy make this one of my favorite releases of the year. Not only that but of the entire genre.

#9. Helheim // landawarijaR – And the black metal continues on Grier’s top ten. This time with an early-2017 surprise: Helheim’s massive landawarijaR. OK, so it’s not a surprise that this album is so good, considering these Norwegians are some of the best out there. Helheim plays the kind of metal made popular by Enslaved (even though Helheim and Kampfar have been here the whole time). But the biggest difference between landawarijaR and Enslaved’s newest record, E, is that landawarijaR doesn’t suck. It’s got those progressive song structures, those powerful layers of intertwined rasps and cleans, and those big Viking horns and tympanis the band has been using for years. Though not a single one of its seven songs are shorter than five minutes, its continuity and fluidity from one track to the next, make this fifty-five-minute record feel half as long. landawarijaR captures all the textures of its surroundings as it takes a raven’s flight through fjords, valleys, and mountains of the frigid north. A flight that is achieved with a blissful warmth that encapsulates some of the best parts of the band’s discography into this one release.

#8. Sinister // Syncretism – Rarely do you see a death metal pick show up on a Grier list. But here we are. It’s not because I hate the genre. It’s because I’m picky as fuck when it comes to death metal. But Sinister have what I need and Syncretism blows my fucking mind. These Netherlanders ain’t new to the scene, nor is their skill at removing hair, peeling skin, and polishing bone. These guys are pros and, boy, do they have a drink for you. So, go to your kitchen and pull out the blender. Open the top and toss in a healthy portion of Vader and Malevolent Creation, add a pinch of Behemoth and Dismember, and finish it off with some Cryptopsy and Vital Remains. Throw that shit back and let it fuck you up.

#7. Igorrr // Savage Sinusoid – Man, there’re so many ways to get fucked up these days. You can shoot, snort, huff, and drink heroine, cocaine, ether, and booze to your heart’s content (or lack thereof). You can shoot back some denatured alcohol (filtered through day-old sourdough) or, hell, you can even dip your cigarettes in formaldehyde and suck those motherfuckers down. But, dude, there’s another high for you. The cocktail requires you to fuck off a week’s worth of sleep, fire back six straight shots of espresso, and crank Igorrr’s Savage Sinusoid. Savage Sinusoid is this year’s fad—the acid trip of the year. Sure, it might have a plethora of sharp vocal shrieks, operatic female cleans, piano, accordion, saxophone, and mind-raping Nintendo effects, but it’s the band’s most accessible yet. Savage Sinusoid is an impressive record that’ll get you high every time.

#6. Havukruunu // Kelle surut soi – In the last few years, as Bathory remains a distant memory and Immortal fades from the scene, Rimfrost and Havukruunu have been regular substitutes for me. Not to say these two behemoths are copycat outfits. Far from it. Both bands have their own unique take on the aggressive black/folky character of their forefathers. But, between the two, Finland’s Havukruunu leans harder on I, Bathory, and Immortal than their Swedish counterpart. For the most part, this two-man outfit prefers the fast, loud, and iciness of Immortal—dropping riff-after-riff of thrashy black metal on a defenseless listener. But Havukruunu ain’t afraid of the folky/Viking stylings of Bathory (especially when delivered in their native tongue). The result is a well-rounded, headbangeable listen from the start to finish of Kelle surut soi. Though I yearn for Quorthon to rise from his grave and give us one more, Havukruunu is a more than capable substitute.

#5. Malokarpatan // Nodkarpatenland – Dr. Fisting said it best when describing the new Malokarpatan record, Nordkarpatenland: “I’m not even sure how to describe this, but it’s awesome.” And being one of Chicago’s greatest proctologists, the man knows a thing or two about being awesome. And, like myself, Fisting discovered this gem in time to make it known before 2017 concluded. I remember considering the band’s debut, Stridžie dni, for review in 2015, but passed on it for lack of interest. When I saw their second release come up in the promo bin back in October, I passed on it without even a listen. What a tragic blunder that was, considering this epic, folky, black metal band is the closest I’ve come to Mercyful Fate riffs since, well… Mercyful Fate. And, boy, does this sumbitch have riffs. Nordkarpatenland is a Slovakian mutt, bred with the likes of Bathory, Immortal, Iron Maiden, and Mercyful Fate. All topped with the old-school croonings of Nocturno Culto. Yet, there’s so much more. While Spirit Adrift and Unleash the Archers both deserve awards for 2017’s Most-Improved Bands, Malokarpatan takes the top prize. Don’t be like us doctors and let this one pass you by.

#4. Ophiuchi // Bifurcaria Bifurcata – I’m gonna level with you: I don’t know exactly how to pronounce Ophiuchi. But this fun, little black metal outfit, whose name rolls off the tongue like a Pokemon character, has got me hooked. If you’ve heard this one-man band’s four-track, forty-minute debut, you know there is nothing “fun” about it. If you haven’t yet, you’ll discover Bifurcaria Bifurcata to be South Africa’s answer to Tool and Cobalt. All the while, Ophiuchi tantalizes the songwriting with the heaviness and emotion of Primordial and Woods of Ypres. Bifurcaria Bifurcata is one of those records whose tracks appear too long, yet not a single one drags on longer than it should. When you need a riff change, it comes. When you need a mood swing, it happens. When you need more umph, it’s around the corner. There’re are doomy passages and expansive black metal atmospheres, there’re folky transitions and moody moments, and there’re builds-a-plenty. Bifurcaria Bifurcata is dark and brooding, with a unique character that makes it special. Of all the bands listed in my picks, Ophiuchi is the one I’ll be looking out for the most.

#3. Amenra // Mass VI – There are few bands capable of dragging me down into the sort of places Amenra does. And few Amenra albums do it with the kind of ease that Mass VI does. No joke, when I first heard “Plus Près de Toi,” my knees almost gave out on my walk to work. The entire day I taught classes with a smile on my face and answered questions cheerfully and without confusion. But, I was anxious. Anxious for my nighttime walk back to my car, knowing full well I’d finish Mass VI before I reached it. By the time I got to my trusty mom-mobile, “Daiken” was coming to an end. I sat behind the wheel of my cold, lifeless car for the next two minutes until it concluded. Then for another thirty, almost in tears. I haven’t been this struck by an album in a long time and, while I wish it wouldn’t happen again, I crave it. With an album capable of fucking this much with my emotions, there’s no way in hell I can’t put it on my top ten.

#2. Spirit Adrift // Curse of Conception – Well, it seems 2017 is the year of emotional picks for chipper ol’ Grier, as you’ll see soon enough. But, this one’s no ordinary Debbie Downer. Spirit Adrift’s Curse of Conception is special for a variety of reasons: Nate Garrett can play the guitar, Nate Garrett can write songs, Nate Garrett is a badass, and what you hear on Spirit Adrift’s Curse of Conception is Nate Garrett. While Curse of Conception has plenty of heartwrenching moments (like the closing minutes of “Onward, Inward”), it’s also a perfectly balanced meal of Pentagram, Trouble, and Black Sabbath. Everything a growing metalhead could need. The guitars are superb, the solos are otherworldly, and the songwriting is full and rich. The result is one of the tightest and best-conceived records of the year. It’s doom, it’s gloom, and it’s fucking good.

#1. Unleash the Archers // Apex – Of all the candidates for the AMG Power Metal Weenie title, I’m probably not your first choice. Though I dig me plenty o’ power metal classics, from many o’ power metal greats, my taste is almost exclusive to the German variety (with sprinklings of the American and Swedish kind). But Canadian power metal? I don’t think so. Hell, when I got the chance to review Unleash the Archers’ 2015 release, Time Stands Still, I couldn’t help but snicker at the goldmine I stumbled upon. Their whole gimmick was the perfect topping for nachos and I was going in face first. But the nachos fought back. “Am I actually enjoying this?” I thought. Time Stands Still never took home 2015’s Album o’ the Year, but the band showed massive potential. But, I had no idea the true potential this little power metal from Canada had. Apex floored me back in June and it hasn’t left regular rotation since then. It’s a powerful record, an impressive concept, and it blows everything the band has ever done clear out of the water. Not only do I love this album enough to make it my top pick but I’m honored to make it so.

Honorable Mention(s)

• Black Sites // In Monochrome – Dr. Fisting and I have been good friends ever since I started writing for AMG. Does that give this mention less weight than the others? Notafuckingchance. Why? Because, regardless of my friendship with the man, he’s still one hell of a songwriter and In Monochrome is fucking spectacular.
• Jarun // Sporyzs – Unfortunately, coming so late as it did in the year, I didn’t quite have the time to stack Jarun’s Sporysz up against the others on my list. That said, it had to make an appearance here. Even though they missed out on my top ten, don’t miss out on Sporysz.
• Vulture Industries // Stranger Times – Of all my 2017 picks, Vulture Industries has to be the most accessible and laid back. These vets of Arcturus-like avant-garde have been at it for a decade now—refining, stripping-down, and making their brand of metal sleeker with each release. It may be simple but that’s what makes it so special to me.
• Sorcerer // The Crowning of the Fire King – You can’t go wrong with a band whose lineup borrows from the likes of Tiamat, Therion, and Lion’s Share. Especially when said troop of musicians delivers this much quality Kamelot-meets-Candlemass-meets-Black Sabbath in one doomy place. The Crowning of the Fire King is big, it’s epic, and it’s devastating on the dry brush.
• Vintersorg // Till fjälls, del II – Vintersorg are one of my all-time favorite bands. And Vintersorg (the man) is one of my favorite singers. So, to no one’s surprise, I’ve been anticipating the much-hyped sequel to the band’s classic debut. Though there was a lot of worry going into it, Vintersorg came through and delivered an epic (and epically long) album.
  Mutoid Man // War Moans – It’s funny. I don’t get Ben Koller’s Converge at all. Never have and never will. But, somehow, I get Mutoid Man. Definitely not as strange as Igorrr’s Savage Sinusoid but War Moans is still hard to describe. It’s heavy one moment, gentle another, and weird when you least expect it. In the end, it’s catchy-as-hell and one smooth, slick ride.
• Witherfall // Nocturnes and Requiems – It’s crazy to think Nocturnes and Requiems almost didn’t see the light of day after drummer Adam Sagan (Into Eternity) passed away. Thankfully, Witherfall’s debut album emerged, engulfing us in the greatest of Nevermore, Savatage, and Symphony X-isms. This is wanking without the wank and the songwriting too full to ignore.
• Chelsea Wolfe // Hiss Spun – I honestly didn’t know how dark a mood I’ve been in until I started working on my 2017 Top Ten(ish). But here I am putting Chelsea Wolfe on my list. You want dark? You want simple? You want passionate? Do you want one of the creepiest album covers of 2017? Then, take a dose of Hiss Spun.
• Power Trip // Nightmare Logic – I’ve been lucky enough to see Power Trip destroy a couple stages this year. And, goddamn, are they good at it. With an album like Nightmare Logic as the fuel to their thrash war machine, it’s no wonder the destruction is so massive. Like all great thrash albums, this one has a couple classics (in the form of “Executioner’s Tax” and “Firing Squad”). And, when their choruses hit your ears, you better watch the fuck out.

Disappointment o’ the Year

Wintersun // The Forest Seasons – If you know me, you won’t find my Disappointment o’ the Year a surprise in the least. Like so many others, I’ve been waiting (rather patiently, I’d say) for the follow-up to 2012’s Time I — an album I rather enjoyed and was excited to see concluded. Instead, to my (and most everyone else’s) dismay, we got The Forest Seasons. After all the crowdfunding nonsense and all the shit that came spewing from Jari Mäenpää’s mouth, I still had hope that something spectacular would come out of it. That might very well happen in the future but it sure as hell didn’t happen this year. As a parting gift: If I wrote a Contrite Metal Guy – Mistakes Were Made article right now, The Forest Seasons would get a 2.0/5.0.

Song o’ the Year

Amenra ”Diaken” – Goddamn this song. I’m serious. This fucking song devastates me and I hate it for doing so. But, I’m going to give it one more try. This time, though, I’m going to the fill the bath, climb in, hit play, lower my head into the water, and see what happens.

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I’m not quite sure how it happens but I always seem to find myself buried in black metal at the end of the year¹. It’s not like 2015, where Kampfar’s Profan squeezed its way into my top ten at the last second, but there are some late gems from 2017. And two, in particular, involve the infamous Hoest. Last month, there was Taake’s Kong Vinter. This month, there’s the return of Norway’s sibling-driven Deathcult. With only one full-length under the bullet belts, this black metal three-piece (consisting of brothers Skagg and Thurzur, with bassist Hoest) are back with their long, overdue follow-up. But, this new record ain’t no Cult of the Dragon. The debut was a forty-minute exercise on worshiping Satan the old-fashioned way. With a plethora of household black metal names (including Svartulv, Vrangsinn, and Dirge Rep), Cult of the Dragon tore through eight songs of hate, blasphemy, and fist-pumping black metal as easily as I gulp down coffee. After ten, long years, the band is back with Cult of the Goat. But how will the Goat fare against the Dragon. A goat may not seem as menacing as a dragon, but shit gets real—real quick—on a goat farm.

And opener “Climax of the Unclean” proves that right away. It also proves the trio has plenty of tricks up their sleeves. After disrupting the cosmos with a slick bass lead, the song meddles in Darkthrone territory before emerging into a nifty guitar solo and a tremolo-plucked midsection of moody, Samael-like clean vocals. Then the build comes—taking us up through an atmosphere of melodic black metal encrusted with unsettling Gorgoroth-like background screaming. This eight-and-a-half minute piece sets the tone for the rest of Cult of the Goat. Where the band shines, though, is the album epic, “Ascension Rite.” Its eight-minute runtime delivers everything from classic black metal assaults to a ripping lead that sounds like the Munsters theme fucked by Satan himself. Then it’s off to another heavy, melodic build that cracks wide open with beautiful string accompaniment. It’s one of the longer songs on the album but all its riff, mood, and timing changes mesh like the zipper on a Ziplock bag.

But the surprises don’t end here. “Bloodstained Ritual” gets this old heart throbbing with a guitar lick straight from Mercyful Fate’s “Death Kiss” before it takes a hard left into Toxic Holocaust soundscapes—unleashing riffs and a “Hail Satan!” of the black/thrash variety. After returning to Darkthroney riffage, the song cuts sharp in the other direction. This time, traversing the bass-rumbling, throat-ravaging, guitar/drum-poundings of black ‘n’ roll. All this occurring in mere six-and-a-half minutes. Like “Bloodstained Ritual,” “The Oath” is a mixed bag of black metal tricks. It has monstrous riffs and crushing drum work that gives way to an eyebrow-raising rock interlude. This is different but it’s one of the more unique and surprising segments on the entire album. Then there’s “Laudate Hircum”—the instrumental closer that plays out like a fucked-up Christmas jingle. The xylophone rappings (that tiptoe around like a child’s boogie man) and the layered shrieks of agony make this one unsettling finale.

But the king of moans, groans, shrieks, and screams—all somewhere between agonizing and orgasmic—is the ten-minute “Devilgoat.” Unfortunately, this song proves there is a cap on how long a Deathcult song should be. Especially one that’s twice as long as it should be and lacks the diversity of pieces like “Climax of the Unclean” and “Ascension Ritual.” Though “Man Versus Beast” isn’t as weak as “Devilgoat,” it’s another piece that’s missing something. But, what it lacks the aggressiveness of a song like “Bloodstained Ritual,” it makes up for it with impressive bass work and a textured coating of orchestration.

After it’s all said and done, Cult of the Goat is far more adventurous than its predecessor. It maintains that same classic sound from the debut, but with more head-turning moments. But, with great power comes great responsibility. And, with great variety comes great length. While the debut album averaged four-minute songs, Goat averages close to seven-minute song lengths. That said, the only song that feels too long is “Devilgoat.” The others have enough (and sometimes more than enough) going on to keep them entertaining (if not downright enjoyable). In under a month, Cult of the Goat marks another solid album for Hoest and a fitting sequel to Skagg and Thurzur’s wicked Dragon.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 128 kbps mp3
Label: Soulseller Records
Websites: deathcultnor.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/deathcult
Releases Worldwide: December 15th, 2017

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