"Inferno" by Marty Friedman

Oh Marty Friedman! おひさしぶりです! 

It has been a long time since I've personally thought about Marty Friedman.

I won't speak for you though. The last album he played on that I own I think is Cryptic Writings from 1997. I did see him perform with Megadeth on the Ozzfest in either 1997 or 1998, I forget precisely which year.

Well, where has Marty been for the past 14 years since leaving Megadeth? He has relocated to Japan and started  a solo career where he has released seven albums preceding this release.

I believe my favorite title from this era would have to be Tokyo Jukebox 2.

"Regicide" by Hour of Penance

About two months ago, when I was being interviewed for NPR, I discovered there was an album forthcoming with the title Regicide.

Just reading the title of that album, I knew that I had to hear it.

Emails were sent, approval was granted, and here we are. The album is by an Italian death metal band called Hour of Penance. Formed in 1999, Hour of Penance has released five previous albums and do not appear to be ready to mellow out.

Death metal has really returned with a vengeance in the current era. Aside from the newer deathcore, hyperdeath, symphonic-hyper-ultra-melodic-thrash-deadly-death metal, there has been a resurgence in American, if not Tampa Bay, style death metal. It warms my heart to see and hear that the extreme metal I grew up with has not been forgotten.

"Back to the Camper" by Bob Wayne

Would you believe that for the first time at Glacially Musical we are reviewing a country record?

Well, I assure you that it's a fact.

However, Bob Wayne doesn't identify as a country music singer. I think this might be why.... It's really hard to blame anyone for not wanting to be associated with that absolute claptrap.

Bob Wayne, the Renegade Carnie, considers himself to be an amalgamation of all sorts of musical styles, metal, rock, punk, and yes country, but to me this is a country record through and through.

I would imagine that this would give some people pause, but this is more Johnny Cash, George Jones, and Hank Senior than Blake Shelton, Carrie Underwood, or Taylor Swift.

"Future Former Self" by Chappo

Before you read anything, please click the album cover to the left. It's one of the coolest covers I've seen in a long time and seeing it for the first time today all blown up...well it's just awesome and you need to see it big.

Now that you've been properly wowed by the cover, let's move forward. Do you remember our friends from Chappo? These fellows are from Brooklyn, NY and make some sort of music that's kind of hard to make out what it really is.

There's some Doors in there. There's a little Jimi Hendrix in there, but just a little. Then there's the vocalist and there's really no telling what that man is doing or who his influences were. It doesn't feel like this band is a sum of anyone else's parts. Very often, we can listen to a band and pick out why sound like this, or why they used that drum fill, or how they got that guitar sound, but Chappo defies that.

"Cursed Redeemer" by Miasmal

 For our consideration today,  here is the latest release from Gothenburg, Sweden, Miasmal.

Formed in 2007, they recorded their first demo in 2008, released their debut EP in 2010, and their debut LP in 2011.

Cursed Redeemer is their sophomore album and their first for Century Media.

Miasmal lives in old school death metal.

Upon first listen it's not entirely apparent that they are not from Tampa Bay.

Their sound, their feel, and their anger are very reminiscent of old school, Florida styled death metal.

"Calculations of the Ancients" by Super Massive Black Holes

This is another Canadian metal band. For some reason, I never consider The Great White North when thinking of finding new metal bands.

Every time I have been north of these United States I have found the Canadian people to be polite, friendly, and not really all that angry.

I suppose I'd be less angry to if I knew that every sixer of Molson Export Ale I bought went to help pay for my health insurance...

Here we have their debut record. This is the chance to jump onto a bandwagon that has yet to even be built! Don't miss out.

It's really hard to describe what sort of band this is, which is great. In the end, they are a metal band, but not a garden variety of any sort....unless you're a fan of Tosin Abasi...

"Splinters" by Vallenfyre

Vallenfyre is a side project.

Paradise Lost's primary songwriter, Greg Mackintosh, started the group a few years back. Today we we have their second full length album.

The group was the "natural" reaction to Mackintosh losing his father. He put his feelings into verse and into chords.

Mackintosh is joined by Hamish Glencross of My Dying Bride on rhythm and lead guitar, Scoot of Doom on bass guitar, and Adrian Erlandsson also of Paradise Lost and more on the drums.

Vallenfyre has looked to the past for inspiration: Napalm Death, Bathory, Hellhammer, Celtic Frost and more, but more is added to the pot to make the band something different than any of those bands.

"Sweet Talk Intervention" by Mach22

For your approval, I have put forth the debut album of Mach22, a hard rock band from Philadelphia, PA.

It's with a bit of hesitation that the label "hard rock" is used, because this band is arena rock through and through, but at this stage of the game, it is not easy to see them packing a 15,000 seat arena, or even a 7,500 seat arena.

(Rockford, I'm looking at you and the Big Orange Box.)

The band is self releasing this album.

Bands that take it on themselves get a large amount of respect from me, and honestly, their albums always get special consideration from me. This album was recorded in Nashville, Tenn. and produced by Jeff Labar, so there's the arena rock cred.

"Mystification" by Manilla Road

This is a classic edition of Glacially Musical. Shadow Kingdom Records is re-releasing (again) the sixth album by Manilla Road, the most metal band ever to come out of Wichita, KS.

This is my first experience with this band. The trio was started by Mark "The Shark" Shelton in 1977 while he was still in high school. They would go on to record nine albums before going on hiatus in 1990.

"Mystification" is their sixth album in a very impressive catalog of music that has been recorded in both incarnations of the band.

Am I the only one who can't help but think of those brown papers from elementary school? Manilla paper? Seriously though, this album is a classic record for a band that deserves more renown than they have.

"Walking Through Hell" by Hidden Intent

Until very recently, I was rather unaware of the thrash metal movement going on in the Australian continent and islands.

It would appear that thrash metal was placed on a boat circa 1992 and finally copies of Kill'Em All have been circulated to every single guitar store in Sydney, Melbourne, and New Zealand.

So, this is another Australian metal band, Hidden Intent. Hidden Intent formed in 2011 by lead bassist/lead vocalist (very thrash), Chris McEwen, who's supported by guitarist Phil Bennet, and lead drummer Jay Rahaley.

It's very clear that this very powerful power trio has an equally powerful sense of humor as that's how the credited themselves, but the little vignettes and the final track, Bass Wankage, kind of seal it up. These days in the music biz, if you don't have a sense of humor, what do you have?

Interview With Master's Paul Speckmann & Concert Review

From The Master Website by Adamovsky.

On April 23rd, Master played at the Fubar on Locust Street in St. Louis.

This is a band that has been around from the beginning of death metal. The band originally formed in 1983 and since then, Paul Speckmann and cohorts have been blasting out their brand of death metal, which has aged very, very well.

Walking into the Fubar, I found Speckmann sitting at the far end of the bar drinking a Budweiser. I realize now I should have asked him about Budvar Beer. He was wearing a Master hoodie. His long hair and beard both greying now.

He's speaks with a slight tinge of the dialect often heard in Eastern Europeans now and is quite funny. Throughout our conversation and the night I often laughed.

What I found most striking about Paul Speckmann wasn't his hair, his out and out metalness, his Explorer styled bass, his musicality, but his drive. He is driven because he loves what he does.

As he and I discussed Master has released 12 studio albums. I can name three other death bands that have such a catalog: Cannibal Corpse (12), Napalm Death (15), and Deicide (11). Strong company indeed.

Eponymous by Vampire

Here's a band from Sweden. It's a bit hard to believe that death metal records still come out of Sweden, but here we are.

Like Ghost, Kiss, and others, Vampire's identities remain a secret and horror is a very big theme in their writing. Mystique as a thing that can never hurt a metal band.

Remember, there was nothing worse than seeing Ozzy Osbourne taking out his garbage after the mystique was gone.

This album was a recorded in a fully analog studio between September and October of 2013. The place is owned by pop musicians and rarely do they ever work with metal bands. Due to their recording in an old fashioned studio, the music has a warm feel to it that modern day equipment just cannot touch.

"Another Scheme of the Wicked" by Invertia

Up for our consideration today is an album by Invertia, who are described as industrialized black metallers. Typically, when hearing a description like this, I begin to wonder about the band, because that's awfully specific.

The pair in question, Dave Coppola (guitars and vocals) and Tim Winson (drummer and programming), are from New England. This is a first.

Seriously, how many black metal bands can you name from  New England? I'd think that all the lobster and picturesque vistas would keep someone from growing so angry.

It was with a slight bit of trepidation that I approached this album. More often than not, programmed drums and the like tend to lead to albums with blast beats that are so heavy, so fast, and so brutal that the average human being can not hear all of the thuds....

"Warranted Queen" by Arum Rae

Arum Rae (formerly known as White Dress) a singer from Brooklyn, NYC, via Austin, via Boston, and more. Nothing in her story is simple.

Born in New York City, relocated to Austin, and received a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music. This where she learned to play guitar. This is where she learned the inverse of the lesson that so many guitar players learn, you must play and sing in order to never rely on others, but she sang first, instead of the inverse.

She has toured extensively with some very major players including Willie Nelson and B.B. King.

It's a good thing she changed from white dress, because frankly that's a pretty common term for the google and finding information on her in that stage of her career is darned near impossible!

"Beautiful and Treacherous" by Dinner Music For The Gods

For our perusal today we have a cd of instrumental guitar music. Some of my favorite guitarists have forewent vocals on their albums, John 5, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, and more.

Who are these people?

No idea.

Beyond their names, the fact that a pair of brothers with the surname Pappa handle the lead guitar and bass guitar...well there's nothing else to explain about who they are, where they are from and all that jazz.

Speaking of jazz though, this album, like most instrumental guitar records, is not precisely metal. It's not precisely rock. They call it a fusion of just about every genre of music that can be named, and then toss in a few that don't even have guitars in them....and you'd be getting close.