Metal Music
Mid-month Metal Masterpiece 70: Heavy Load – Metal Conquest (1981)
Sweden is a land from which much metal hails. And, while they (or, more specifically, Bathory) invented black metal, their early 80s metallic history is not quite as deep or varied as England, the country that made metal what it is today. However, one band stood out as not only one of the earliest, but also…
Read MoreMid-month Metal Masterpiece 69: Vulcano – Bloody Vengeance (1986)
South American black/thrash/death is known for a few things. The music is incredibly fast and raw, the drumming sounds like someone kicked the drum kit down a flight of stairs, and, overall, it’s about as nasty as 2 Live Crew wishes they were. This of course leads to some bands of varying talent surviving the test…
Read MoreMid-month Metal Masterpiece 68: Urfaust – Geist ist Teufel (2004)
As my tastes in black metal have (de)evolved over the years, I have realized that there is definitely a certain sound that I have apparently been seeking this entire time. Its exact qualities are always just out of reach, but they most definitely involve some kind of combination of lo-fi folk buried beneath layer after layer of extremely oppressive…
Read MoreMid-month Metal Masterpiece 67: Metalucifer – Heavy Metal Chainsaw (2001)
Retro metal has been a thing for a while now, and, honestly, I’m just fine with bands mining the good ol’ days of 80s heavy and speed metal in an attempt to recapture even a tenth of the glory of that hallowed time. Japan’s Metalucifer (a side/passion-project of the almighty Sabbat’s frontman Gezol) is both…
Read MoreMid-month Metal Masterpiece 66: Depravity – Silence of the Centuries (1993)
I’ve been going around lately saying that about the only death metal I listen to any more is Incantation and the legion of bands they influenced with their focus on dark, evil, atmosphere over, like, actual songwriting. Well, that’s not entirely true, I guess I also still appreciate bands that mix old school aesthetics with a…
Read MoreMid-month Metal Masterpiece 65: Absurd – Death from the Forest (1993)
Aspersions have been cast, in my general direction, regarding the content of this feature. SOME have claimed that the word “masterpiece” is being used far to freely. After last month’s album, it was even suggested that this feature be renamed “Atrocious Production and Questionable Talent.” Well, if you thought that Deathslayer demo was shitty, you…
Read MoreMid-month Metal Masterpiece 64: Deathslayer – Cry of the Swords (1984)
I’ve discussed this many times before on this feature, but elitist metalhead snobs LOVE finding bands like Deathslayer. This New York based group recorded two demos in the early 80s and then just kind of disappeared. But, thanks to a song of theirs ending up on a “New York Metal – 84” compilation LP, and thanks…
Read MoreMid-month Metal Masterpiece 63: Abhorer – Zygotical Sabbatory Anabapt (1996)
Zygotical Sabbatory Anabapt is one of those albums that tends to get overlooked because it came about 6 years too late. By 1996, this kind of first wave black death stuff wasn’t exactly wowing people the way Blasphemy’s Blood Upon the Altar did. Of course, Abhorer was no simple Blasphemy clone, their own album, “Rumpus…
Read MoreRE-ZORK VI: Brian VS The Manowarrior
In the early days of computing, before Graphical User Interfaces were commonplace, nerds still needed games to play on their primitive computers. Thus the text based interactive fiction game was born. While the Zork series wasn’t the very first instance of such a game, it was unquestionably the first success in interactive fiction, and phrases…
Read MoreMid-month Metal Masterpiece 62: Xasthur – Nocturnal Poisoning (2002)
I may joke about Xasthur making the same album over and over again, and that may also be entirely true, but, regardless of whether or not Malefic (the sole creative force behind Xasthur) “Vivaldis” things or not, Xasthur is easily one of my favorite black metal bands of the last fifteen years. And, like the…
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