Metal Music
Mid-month Metal Masterpiece 37: Immolation – Failures for Gods
Immolation was always kind of an oddball band. They were somewhere in between brutal death metal and a more melodic style that focused on weird guitar harmonies and slower mid-paced sections. Gorguts would probably be the closest analog style-wise, but honestly Immolation really rests in a category by itself. And though they may have (arguably)…
Read MoreMid-month Metal Masterpiece 36: Graveland – Carpathian Wolves
National Socialist Black Metal is a touchy subject, even (especially) among black metal fans. And while I fall into the camp that an artist’s personal ideological beliefs should have no effect on your enjoyment of their art, I do understand if someone thinks listening to something like Buchenwald Oven’s demo is going a bit far.…
Read MoreMid-month Metal Masterpiece 35: Sodom – In the Sign of Evil
Sodom, even more so than Kreator (covered here a few months ago), was probably the most brutal of the early German thrash bands. Their music always towed the line between thrash and death metal (especially on their later albums which embraced death metal more whole heartedly), but the album I’d like to talk about today…
Read MoreMid-month Metal Masterpiece 34: Necros Christos – Black Mass Desecration
Despite my continued protestations that I’m not all that into death metal anymore, I’m actually pretty ok with bands that play “old school death metal” (OSDM) like today’s band. Sure, the brilliantly named Necros Christos might kind of sound the same from demo to demo (and album to album), but damned if it’s not a…
Read MoreMid-month Metal Masterpiece 33: Varathron – His Majesty at the Swamp
Sometimes “black metal” is a difficult genre to pin down. While 90% of black metal pretty much either sounds like Emperor or Immortal, there is quite a lot of diversity to be found in the other 10%. Sure, it’s mostly all metal, and probably indistinguishable from more typical black metal to the casual listener, but…
Read MoreMid-month Metal Masterpiece 32: Valkyrie – Deeds of Prowess
The older I get, the more my tastes in metal have relaxed. Back in the day (late 90s) I would have scoffed at even a hint of clean singing in my metal. An album like the Dutch band Valkyrie’s 1986 masterpiece Deeds of Prowess might not have made me run screaming from the room, but…
Read MoreBattle Vests of the KVLT & TR00 1: My Black Metal Patch Vest
Are you looking for a custom designed battle vest, but don’t have access to a high quality print shop? Contact me HERE, and we can discuss possibly working on a unique, custom designed vest, featuring only the bands and patches you choose! Check out my other posts in this series for more examples of my…
Read MoreMid-month Metal Masterpiece 31: Kreator – Pleasure to Kill
I try to split these MMMM posts evenly between black, death and thrash metal bands. And, for those keeping track at home, today should obviously be a death metal day. However, as Chet in Jock Blog and Barbara Stanwyck in Ball of Fire are so fond of saying, “on account of because” tomorrow I’m going…
Read MoreMid-month Metal Masterpiece 30: Xibalba – Ah Dzam Poop Ek
One of my favorite things about black metal is how each region of the world has their own take on the style. Russia loves flutes and lots of em. Poland loves having Rob Darken write the keyboard intros for every band that has ever released a demo. France loves shitty productions. Spain loves worse productions.…
Read MoreMid-month Metal Masterpiece 29: Iron Maiden – Somewhere in Time
The most common question one asks when it comes to Iron Maiden is not whether or not they are a great band, but rather, whether or not they are the greatest band. No other band had quite dominated the 1980s with so many brilliant albums as Iron Maiden did. How great is Iron Maiden? Well,…
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