Album Review: "Arch Stanton" by Karma To Burn

Arch Stanton

The guitar instrumental album.

Being a person who attempts to play the guitar and growing up when I did, I love the guitar instrumentalists: Vai, John 5, Satch, Dinner Music For The Gods, and Buckethead.

I'm also sure there's another hundred thousand I'm  not familiar with whom I'd love if I had the chance to hear them.

It's well documented that I love instrumental guitar, but I also greatly enjoy the symphony, blues guitar, and even some jazz.

Vocals and lyrics aren't the basis of a song for me, so I can appreciate the gorgeousness of simply hearing someone playing an instrument. Having said all that, I know that most people in the United States cannot appreciate instrumental music and require vocals or it's not a song.

I just don't get that.

Album Review: "The Deathmass Cloak" by Ghoulgotha

The Deathmass Cloak

I started this silly blog because I was kind of old and I wanted to show the people of my generation that there is still quality new music being made.

The day in late 2011 when I noticed that all of the CDs in my car were from 2011 was kind of an eye opener.

As for what I'm reviewing today, it doesn't get any newer than this. Today we're listening to the debut record of San Diego's Ghoulgotha. These are the best kinds of records. Will they be like Slayer and continue down the same kind of path?

Completely change like Metallica or The Black Keys? There are many different things that can happen. It's exciting.

Ghoulgotha's final line up was created in the summer of 2012 and they immediately put some music to tape with the two song demo, No Peace To Rest In. Now we have the full slice.

Album Review: "Duin" by Condor

Duin

This is another one of the it's a smaller world reviews.

Today's artist, Condor, is from Colombia, South America.

Aside from Sepultura, Sarofago, and other Brazilian metal acts, how many South American extreme metal bands can you name?

Well, I can also toss out Maze of Terror from Peru, but I'm kind of at a loss for the rest of the continent off the top of my, but I'm pretty sure that these pages have seen other brutal metallers from south of the Tropic of Cancer.

Condor has only been in existence for a short time, since 2012. Their debut record, Nadia, was hailed as a masterpiece.

The members are veterans of other bands. Antonio Espinosa and Andres Felipe Lopez are both from Vertebrae. Alejandro Solano is also a member of Personal Device. The band is rounded out by Francisco Fernandez.

Album Review: "Death's Not Dead" by The Crown

Death's Not Dead

Again we return to my personal favorite metal subgenre: Death Metal.

Our subject today is not from my native shores of the United Sates of America, but from far across the pond in Trolhattan, Sweden.

There must be something to the long winter nights that turns their young people really, really metal.

The Crown is hardly a new band, though this is their third name. Their first, Crown of Thorns had to be dropped following an injunction by the American band of the same name.

Then some legal wrangling and they're back at it. Though, it's been 15 years since their last album and many years after their original breakup, this album features four of the five original members, only guitarist, Robin Sorqvist lacks the original pedigree, but let us move onto the music.

Album Review: "Third Beastial Mutilation" by Stormvold

Third Beastial Mutilation

Honestly, I'm really surprised at some of the music that comes my way.

I do have personal policies when it comes to what I'll review and what I'll check out even. There are things that I've looked at them and thought...no...no way in hell..haha

When I saw the title Third Beastial Mutilation, I have to be honest, it seemed fairly certain to me that this music would be too offensive to be published here.

I didn't give it much of a perusal and didn't read the presser that accompanied it too closely. When music has a title like this, it's typically not that good.

In metal, offensive titles are the same thing as selling sex instead of music.  Well, I listened to this album and I realized that it's far more than just a title, and the artwork doesn't jive with what I normally take as intentionally offensive music, so I listened to it.

Album Review: "Reign of Ungodly Creation" by Decimation

Reign of Ungodly Creation

Today we continue with albums that have been released that slipped through my fingers over the last couple months.

This Fall  has been one of the best I can remember for metal, and especially extreme metal.

Hell, this has been a great year for music all around. In this day and age where an album can be recorded for mere pennies and then distributed all over the world for less...

It honestly is a great day to be alive.

But, on today's album review. Decimation is a veteran band who've been at this for over 15 years. During that decade and a half, they have carved out their own brand of death metal.

Reign of Ungodly Creation is the follow up to 2010's Anthems of an Empyreal Dominion. They are quite literately loquacious aren't they?

Interview: Lenny Burnett of Zero Down Talks "No Limit To The Evil"

Recently I had the opportunity to review Zero Down's latest album, No Limit To The Evil, out now.

I have to say that I absolutely loved this record. 

What I really reacted to was how Zero Down refers to themselves as a traditional metal band.
As we all know, in the last 20 years or so, we'll blame thrash metal for beginning this, metal has really splintered into very different subgenres. 

Many folks seem to act like the subgenres are wholly separate entities instead of just different kinds of metal. It's pretty funny. No one would say that Kiss is Arena Rock whereas Led Zeppelin is Blues-Rock and it mean something more than something to say, but here we are.

Lenny Burnett took some time to talk to me about that and other silly things I decided to ask him....

Album Review: "I" by Olde

I

Here's another review sent to me by the artists.

By now, it seems like this feeling would have gotten tired, but here we are!

Olde is from the fabled Canadas, across the St. Lawrence Seaway, as is their label, Hypaethral Records.

Much like Germans and David Hasselhoff, I love Canada and have a hard time saying no to one them, especially if they speak the dual languages of their home and native land.

Or watch Degrassi Junior High. I love that show. I have no idea about these fellows though....

So, Olde is a doom/stoner metal band, but they've taken a new approach to the genre. As we move on with the review, we'll get into what they are and what they are not.

Album Review: "Battalion" by Humiliation

Battalion

It's always nice to hear new music, quality music that is.

Today we're living in a smaller world thanks to the magic of the internet. Cross cultural sharing is so much more common today than it was just 20  years ago.

Think of the death metal scene 20 years ago. 80% of the bands I think of as death metal from 1994 are all American and most of them are from Tampa, Florida.

Flash forward to now and we're looking at many more death metal scenes besides just that one scene and the grindcore scene from England.

Today's review subject is a brutal metal band from the other side of the planet. Humiliation  hails from the small nation of Malaysia. I cannot name a single other band from Malaysia, though I'm sure they exist. In 1994, would we have even given a second thought them? Probably not.

Album Review: "Occupation Poetry" by Signalfeide

Operation Poetry

I prefer to always be reviewing albums that are about to come out, but I don't always have that luxury.

Case in point, I've been getting emails from some bands lately that want me to check out their material. Well, I think it's safe to say that after nearly 240 different albums reviewed, people can get a good idea as to my taste and what's going to move me.

So, I get excited when I receive an email directly from the artists themselves and I have a trio of them that need to be heard. Our mission here is "Music you need to hear."

There's nothing about release dates listed there. So yes, this album is out now and can be purchased today.

The email I received from the enigmatic J.N. referred to Signalfeide as a pagan act. Really, what in the world does that mean? I mean Huntress and King Diamond, I guess are pagan metal...but this is so far removed from them...

Album Review: "Death Angel" by Dreadlords

Death Angel

The best thing about running this little blog is when I get to hear something that's totally unlike anything else in this world.

And that is just what I'm listening to today.

This album features Blues and Americana.

Both of these genres are having rebirths the likes of which most people never saw coming. Pokey LaFarge, The Decemberists, and hell even Robert Plant are playing Americana and Blues.

Today's review subjects hail from Pennsylvania and come from two different bands, T.O.M.B. and Panther Modern.

 The Dreadlords are Brian Zimmerman on banjo, Samantha Viola on drums, bells, and other ritual instruments, and J. Gannon on vocals. Really, it's a strange line up of instruments for some very strange music.

Album Review: "Silent So Long" by Emigrate

Silent So Long

Again, we're reviewing music from Germany. Home of Per Mertesacker, Mezut Ozil, Lucas Podolski, and the rest of the World Champion German Footballers.

This feels like about the eleventh German record I've reviewed this Fall.

I also already made my David Hasselhoff joke, so that's right out. Can I take a moment to congratulate Per, Mezut, and Lucas for their World and FA Cup double?

Well, this record shockingly has nothing to do with my soccer fandom. (I know right?) Today's album is the side (solo) project of Rammstein's Richard Kruspe.

I'm  no going to give the same mention I gave when reviewing Mark Tremonti's solo record, but moreso. I do not like Rammstein at all. I have nothing kind to say about their music. More than that, I do not like electronic music, typically.

Album Review: "Hollow" by My Shameful

Hollow

One of my favorite things about metal is the ridiculous amount of sub-genres of metal that there are.

I am well on the record for having poked at the sheer amount and prideful tendencies that go with them. A friend of mine is very much about these sub-genres and how much they mean....

I get a giggle out of them really. I do. It's very funny to me. If you ask this old guy, metal really only comes in about three varieties, heavy, speed, and extreme.

Now I've rambled, but here's the point...in the presser I received about today's review, My Shameful, they were referred to as doom metal with death metal tendencies.

So, I'm picturing this as cyborg metal. Robots rising up to play metal and mating with humanity in order to achieve a more perfect version of metal that's played by musicians partially made of metal.

Ok, I have really gone off of the deep end here, so let's continue....

Album Review: "No Limit To The Evil" by Zero Down

No Limit To The Evil

Today we consider Seattle based traditional metallers, Zero Down.

This is another one of those times when I'm first hearing a band as I listen to their record for review.

Before really going further, let's discuss the term traditional metal. What precisely does that mean?

When I was growing up, I'd have called this album metal. In the end it's not overly fast, so it's not Thrash/Speed Metal. It's not hyper brutal, played at 1,000 MPH, and not overflowing with blast beats or growls, so it's not death metal.

They don't sing about fantastical worlds and cram in 100 guitar solos, so it's not power metal. No growling, anti-church themes propped up by a keyboard, so it's not Black Metal.