Here’s an exciting double review of Warduna’s latest release, Birna. Prepare your unworthy tenderloins for the Valkyries, poser!
Not Metal
Dax Riggs – 7 Songs for Spiders Review
“It’s a weird fact of life to experience this, but ask anyone with creative tendencies, whether dabbling or full-on submersion, what their biggest fear is, and many (if not all) will tell you that hating the very thing that gives you life and joy will be at the top. Burnout murders the love one has for everything they enjoy making, and sometimes the elixir one needs is time and distance away. That time and distance could be days, or it could stretch to months or years. Dax Riggs, the influential voice of his eponymous band as well as the frontman for the recently-reactivated legendary Louisiana sludge beast Acid Bath, took 15 years away from the music world shortly after the release of 2010’s Say Goodnight to the World, and seemingly lived up to that album’s title by disappearing off the face of the world.” Dax’s back!
Forndom – Moþir Review
“I remember perfectly where I was the first time I heard Forndom’s music through the album Faþir. Very early in the Covid-19 pandemic, Faþir was a peaceful harmony at the onset of an extremely troubling time. In part because of that emotional connection—and because it is an exemplary album—it remains in my regular rotation four years later. The ambient, Nordic folk musings of Ludvig Swärd continue to offer incredible catharsis in times of joy and sorrow. To say I am excited to be reviewing the follow-up and third full-length album from the project is a severe understatement.” Of empires Forndom.
Hours of Worship – Death & Dying Vol. II Review
“When it comes to metal, “depressing” can mean a number of things. There’s funeral doom depressing—melodramatic, with heartbreaking melodies and savage growls. There’s DSBM depressing—hopeless, with listless refrains and inhuman shrieks. Then, there’s something like the music of Hours of Worship, which, now we come to it, isn’t metal at all.” Enjoying of deep sadness.
40 Watt Sun – Little Weight Review
“”If [Warning’s Watching from a Distance] was the act of capturing a funeral march, and The Inside Room was the first few hours of sadness that lingers after the wake wraps up, then Wider is the first year of longing and sadness that follows.” This is how Grymm characterized the trajectory of Patrick Walker’s projects in his review of 40 Watt Sun’s sophomore album. The metaphor has stuck with me ever since, as great metaphors tend to do. 2022’s Perfect Light, then, slotted in beautifully as the first hope that the grief may pass, a first feeble ray of sunlight through a blanket of grey clouds. It appears Mr. Walker’s mental state has been improving, but how does that affect his music?” Crawl to the light.
The Mercury Impulse – Records of Human Behaviour Review
“Drone is an exceptionally difficult genre to analyse. By its very nature, it resists structure, memorability, and conciseness; its forms are indiscrete; monotony is a feature. Chicago duo The Mercury Impulse intensify and deepen this trait by channelling their drone through a noisy medium with a subtle undercurrent of dark ambient. Debut Records of Human Behaviour thus stands as a kind of mood music indifferent to musical norms and tangible emotions.” Alienist entertainments.
Lord Buffalo – Holus Bolus Review
“Four long years ago, just at the onset of the Great Plague, in the face of uncertainty and anxious hand-wringing, I found myself agreeably distracted for the briefest of moments by Lord Buffalo’s sophomore LP Tohu Wa Bohu. These Austin, Texas boys culled fruit from the darker corners of Americana music and spat out an oaky mélange of gothic country-psych rock that spoke to the sullen farm boy in me. The Plague has since waned to a sniffle, but there’s still plenty of uncertainty and anxious hand-wringing when one surveys the news headlines. Can Lord Buffalo once again pull me away from doom scrolling long enough to fall under their Middle American spell?” HERD!
Haunted Plasma – I Review
“There was something about Haunted Plasma’s debut, I, that just drew me in. Partly that art, which literally draws one’s eye inward towards its centre, a square of bright, unnatural light, the exit from a tunnel of clouds of similarly strange hue. Partly also its constituents—a trio of members from Oranssi Pazuzu, K-X-P, and Aavikko, plus guest vocalists—and blurb, promising music that would play upon the genres of krautrock, techno, and more, for a psychedelic and novel twist on electronica. This is not metal. But in its unusual, genre-defying progressiveness, it could be said to embody the spirit of the genre’s avant-garde offshoots.” The meaning of I.
Kati Rán – Sála Review
“Neofolk is a special style of art. It encompasses the achingly simple to portray stunning complexity. Everything is done with earnest emotion, and often the onus is on the artist not to simply entertain, but to transport the listener, through time, through places, and through very states of being. When I first learned of Kati Rán and her debut full-length release Sála, I was heartened by a single line in its promo copy: “Recorded in a barn in Húsafell, Iceland”—and I didn’t read further.” Barn razing.
The Dread Crew of Oddwood – Rust & Glory Review
“We’re no strangers to “pirate metal” ’round these parts, are we? There’s just something about the enduring and relatable ideals of pirate-themed music that we at Angry Metal Guy universally love, commenters, readers, and writers alike. I’ve opened my review with this entirely uncontroversial statement as a way to share with you my own excitement when I received the promo copy for Rust & Glory, the fifth full-length release for the U.S.-based pirate musicians that make up The Dread Crew of Oddwood.” YAAARR’s revenge.
