Happy Metal Boy

I honestly did not have my hopes set very high for this short little release when I saw that Austin Lunn was giving us a pair of leftovers from the previous two Panopticon studio album sessions; and what a fool I feel like for my doubt. When it comes to artists going back through the archives and pulling out some old artifacts, it usually sounds like demo scraps that should have stayed where they were left, even if polished up a bit for an official release, and it’s usually very clear why said tracks were left off whatever album(s) originally. Well it is clear why Austin chose not to include these songs on either  Autumn Eternal  or either side of his double album last year; the two songs (especially the first song for which this release is named) are both rather stylistically and thematically distinct and work a bit better on their own than forced into an album in which they might not flow as well. The second track, “The Labyrinth”, is a folky, acoustic guitar-driven p...

After a slow 2018, releasing only an EP, Deadspace have returned to quickly stake their claim on 2019’s metal landscape. 2018’s  Mouth of Scorpions  found the band recapturing their creative glory after the mild slip that occurred from  Reaching for Silence  to  The Liquid Sky . The band certainly weren’t bending any rules or pushing any boundaries of the kind of ambient black metal they played, but  Mouth of Scorpions  at least found them sounding more vital and less camouflaged into their genre than the previous year’s LP did. Based on what that EP presented of Deadspace last year, I had a few hopes and expectations for whatever full-length project was to come next from the industrious Aussies. I was hoping the band would remain revitalized and carry the momentum of the EP’s emotional potency over into this year’s LP. Conceived as the thematic and stylistic sequel to 2015’s  Promise of Oblivion ,  Dirge  ended up taking a very diffe...

Earlier this decade King 810 was forcing themselves into headlines with their unapologetic delivery of the kind of nu metal that the genres detractors thought had finally died for good, while being hailed (by some) as the next Slipknot and the riot leaders of the 2010’s nu metal uprising while supporting them on the tour for their long-awaited fifth album. With the name of the band being derived from the area code they came from, its members have been very vocal about how their upbringing in what has often been referred to as the murder capital of the U.S. has inspired their music. Their stage production has been no more restrained, with police tape and prop guns serving as a staple element of their presentation to represent the violent environment the band emerged from. While the band’s dedication to their musical tributing to their hometown has been respectable, doing their part to raise funds to mitigate their town’s water sanitation crisis for example, the sound they’ve channeled ...

For better and for worse, this one has been a long time coming. If  Sempiternal was the irritated throat fans brushed off as nothing, then  That’s the Spirit  was their first terrifying handful of blood coughed up after ignoring diagnostics, and  amo  is the progression of the untreated pop infection in Bring Me the Horizon’s lungs that has progressed beyond treatment. For fans uneasy about the band’s direction in 2015, this album is no easy pill to swallow. I’ve been rather critical of a lot of bands aping Bring Me the Horizon’s more try-hard anthemic metalcore style since the success of 2013’s  Sempiternal , but for Bring Me the Horizon themselves, I’ve actually had at least a little bit of appreciation for the boldness and ambition with which they have seemed to try to push their brand of metalcore since their 2010 album  There Is a Hell, Believe Me I’ve Seen It. There Is a Heaven, Let’s Keep It a Secret.  But with that appreciation of what th...

Despite its relative geographical closeness to the genre’s famed originating scenes in Norway and Sweden, when it comes to the prominent music of the UK, black metal isn’t often what first comes to mind. Nevertheless, the advent of the internet and the magnifying glass of Bandcamp and other DIY music platforms have opened windows into teeming underground music scenes near and far, one of them being the UK’s black metal underground, which Barshasketh have made some tremendous waves within over the past few years. The band have struck early this year with their self-titled fourth album, a harrowing voyage through sardonic, abyssmal, blast-beat-laden black metal dissonance. Combining the fierce instrumental thickness of a band like Gorgoroth with a well-tempered balance of the raw aggression of, say, Watain, Barshasketh do well to maintain these contemporary strengths while twisting their approach to come from a slightly more DSBM angle, giving them indeed a sound worthily uniq...

Cover albums are usually the type of project that bands love making. It’s a nice, often nostalgic break from the mental toil of writing a batch of new songs, and a chance for a band to pay tribute to the artists that inspired them to pursue music in the first place. Whether through whatever discussion the band partakes in surrounding the album or just their animated performances of the songs they used to air guitar to in their youth, you can tell how excited band members get for the chance to do albums like these. The writing is all done for them, and it’s confirmed, in their minds at least, to be gold-status material. All there is to do is just go out there and perform it. The only thinking really involved is over the degree of creative liberty a band decides to take with any song, and there is merit in both the true-to-the-original approach as well as wild reinterpretation, when done conscientiously. Arch Enemy have covered quite a few songs throughout their career (some of which ...

One of the most animalistic bands leading the charge of this decade’s nu metal revival, Cane Hill just a year ago delivered their sophomore slab of meaty Korn/Slipknot-esque nu metal after their relentless debut LP,  Smile , in 2016. To be getting an EP from them already this year, especially one of this nature is a bit astonishing. The band had been teasing toward this project near the end of last year with a few singles, and the samples they provided had me pretty interested. Kill the Sun  is a sharp left turn from the band’s raw nu metal aggression into grungy acoustic waters with little to hint back at the rabid fury of their previous albums. Laden with smooth clean singing and smoky alternative acoustic rock moodiness, the six tracks that make up the very  Jar of Flies -inspired  Kill the Sun remind me a bit of Godsmack’s one-off acoustic EP, which comes with a foul premonition. As much as I was eager to hear more of this brooding side of Cane Hill after he...