Phhhhheew! The year end crush dominated me over the last couple weeks. This year I really fell behind in listening to new music. I caught up recently but the records I loved earlier in the year had time to grow and stick with me, thus staying higher up the list. With the formation of our new RADIO SHOW I should have plenty of new motivation to keep up with the new releases week to week.
I've found a bunch of really cool stuff over the past couple weeks that I unfortunately have not had enough to to digest. A few were some really solid demos, so lets take a look...
I love old school Speed Metal. I haven't heard too much of that this year but the couple that I did were really solid. One of those was a demo by a band named Vulture. That album cover looks like vintage Exciter but the music inside is a bit more ferocious. High Roller Records continues it's tradition of bringing us new bands putting their spin on classic sounds.
VULTURE Victim to the Blade
Keeping with the old school sound comes Angel Sword. With the name and album art I'm sure you can guess whats coming. With epic fantasy subject matter and Art akin to bands like Attacker, you better throw on the chain mail before these guys start swinging their axes.
ANGEL SWORDRebels Beyond the Pale
Dem Magic Circle boys are at it again. After the acclaimed Magic Circle records they had a side project everyone was drooling over with Stone Dagger. Then DeTore played on that Sumerlands album that is a consensus top 10 choice for 2016. Not to mention past projects in Hardcore with Rival Mob, Doomriders and Battle Ruins. Lets also not forget they are behind more extreme acts like Torture Chain and Innumerable Forms. They can do it all and they've done it again. This is really just straight up old school rock but I don't care, it belongs here.
DEVILS DAREDemo 2016
I can't believe this one is a demo. Funeral Doom is a niche within a niche within a niche but I happen to love it. It's hard to construct these ridiculously long songs and keep them interesting as slow as they are. Temple of Abandonment shows a veteran savvy known to only the top echelon of the genre such as Ahab. Pay these guys the dollar they are asking for over at their bandcamp page.
One part of music I love is wading through bullshit to find treasure. Whether it be digging through used CD's, vinyl bins or sampling shit online, nothing quite matches that feeling of finding a bargain or finding the band you can attach yourself to as the guy who discovered them among your peers. Yea, I'm that guy. In 2013 I found quite a few that I'll be patiently awaiting more material. Now, I know this is "No Clean Singing" but I've included a couple awesome clean singing demos in here. Let's get to it. In no particular order...
Kêres - The Wanderer's Path Demo XX
This is their 3rd demo (according to Metal Archives) and I'm not sure how they haven't landed something with one of the underground Black Metal labels like Fallen Empire. Either way, I'm hoping past and future material becomes more readily available soon because it's on par with any other Black Metal band out there.
Throaat - Puke On Your Grave
New York is home to a few of my favorite bands. Villains, Negative Plane and now Throaat. Throaat play an amalgam of BlackDeathThrash n' Roll and even have some keyboards involved at times. Somehow they even manage to make it all catchy as hell. 2nd press of the cassette is still available on their Bandcamp, go support!
Panther - Speed Bitch Motor Fuck
As you can probably tell, Panther is Speed Metal, Punk n' Roll. They remind me of a band like Midnight without quite the songwriting chops. Lot's of this kind of stuff is coming out lately and I couldn't be happier about that. Grab the live version of their demo on cassette over at their Bandcamp or download the studio version for free.
Sangus Legio - Vengeful Brutality
Black Thrash with a Crust Punk flavor from Rhode Island. I've seen these guys live with bigger acts a couple of times and they eat their lunch every time. 2 free downloads over at their Bandcamp.
Stone Dagger - The Siege of Jerusalem
This is just classic traditional Heavy Metal by Brendan Radigan, vocalist extraordinaire with metal bands like Magic Circle, Hardcore bands like The Rival Mob, Oi! bands like Battle Ruins and about 75 other bands. Top quality song writing if you're into this kind of stuff.
Possession - His Best Deceit
Possession is a band who reminds me a bunch of Brazilian cult favorites Sarcofago, especially the wild eyed drum performance. This might be the most fully formed demo on my list despite the band only being together for a year or two. These guys are ready for a full length right now. If BlackDeathThrash is your thing than check it out.
Ranger - Combat Metal
Ranger has received big buzz as of late so I'm assuming a lot of you have heard this one. If not get ready because Exciter and Razor had a baby and it's coming to eat you're flesh. They also released an EP off the strength of the demo and it's great so pick that up also.
Arnaut Pavle - Arnaut Pavle
So your sick of inconsequential Darkthrone releases with inside metal references? What's that? You want old Darkthrone back? Well here you go.
Eternal Champion - The Last King of Pictdom
More clean singing for that ass. When I first heard Eternal Champion I could not stop listening. I'm generally not a fan of any genre with "epic" in the title but this is genuinely epic heavy metal. This might actually be my favorite demo this year.
Bones - Demo 2013
Bones is a band in the same category of Mold only slightly less...moldy. Just awesome old school Death Metal. It's a great mix of Hellhammer and Autopsy. Just listen to "Curative Conversion". Beautiful.
Mold - Cremated Alive
Moldy, rotted, cobweb covered old school Death Metal. Nothing new school about it. If I didn't know better I'd think this was a long lost demo from years past. If anybody can find a physical copy somewhere let me know in the comments because this shit kills.
Well that's it for me. Bandcamp has become a wonderful tool for metal. Whether it's bands, fans like myself or bloggers like the people here, it's hard to imagine some of this stuff getting recognized without it. So keeps your eyes peeled, you never when you'll stumble onto the next big thing.
Grownman and I are back with another column giving our opinion on randomly generated songs that I have stored on my computer. It's simple. I have so much goddamn shit on my computer that I don't listen to, I figure I'll find a piece of charcoal that could be a diamond eventually, no? Anyway, nothing to under the radar here this week but lets commence with the opinions shall we?
AGALLOCH - IN THE SHADOW OF OUR PALE COMPANION
THE MANTLE
2002
GROWNMAN SAYS:
Before I even give my impressions on this, I'll say that I'm a big fan of Agalloch. Their album "Marrow of the Spirit" is one of my favorite albums of the last few years. I've really gotten into this style of Black Metal that integrates folk music instrumentation and often celebrates the power of nature in it's lyrics. This is a great track and has a bit more clean singing than their latest stuff. They definitely have a very distinct sound. I can tell this band by the fantastic drumming alone. I'm gonna invest more time into listening to their earlier work like this.
FORK TONGUE SAYS:
There's something about Agalloch in the cooling and cold months that makes we want to bundle up, grab my noise cancelling headphones and just walk until the city lights can no longer be seen. To sit under the stairs, watch my hot breath hit the cold air and just experience nature. Often times in snow storms I'll sit in front of my house with a cigar and some whiskey and just listen to Agalloch. There are no better times for me. That's the pinnacle. Solitude, music and the elements. Not much else needs to be said.
JESS AND THE ANCIENT ONES - SULFUR GIANTS
JESS AND THE ANCIENT ONES
2012
GROWNMAN SAYS:
What is this? Sounds like Ghost fronted by Pat Benetar. Hell I don't mind this at all. I'll have to say this is
less pretentious than GHOST that's for sure. Yeah I know a lot of people are huge fans of Ghost and that retro Blue Oyster Cult sound. I never found anything particularly interesting about Ghost other than the whole get up they perform in. I have the same feelings about Kiss. Now Jess and the Ancient Ones is pretty cool. The beginning of this song is very sweet. There is an intentional sincerity that's devoid of the ironic "look at me I'm doing retro" shit. The song takes a turn to a more familiar and dated sound later on when the vocals kick in. The lead singer has a decently strong voice that's confident and feminine. The tone of this song in particular has some Pink Floyd'ish elements (say momentary lapse of reason era). I'm not sure what the song is really about and from the peanut gallery's comments on youtube I'm judging it must have something to do with pagan ideals. I'm neither for or against and I think personally when it comes to hearing a band for the first time I look more at song structure and musicianship. So I say this was definitely worth the listen and even got me to look at a few of their other songs. (The final bombast of this song does remind me of the Botchamania theme so I'll give this extra credit)
FORK TONGUE SAYS:
I'll be the first to tell you I'm a sucker for this trend of female fronted occult retro rock. There's a ton of it (male also) and a lot of it is pretty damn good. Rock n' Roll needs a kick in the balls and a lot of this stuff is on target, Bruce Lee squared. Jess and The Ancient Ones are the stand out to me because of the strong vocals. I'm normally not huge on female vocals but Jess has the chops and just enough rasp ala Janis Joplin. Lot's of big riffs here and I love organ on pretty much anything. They also released an EP this year which I also highly recommend. Oh, and the first Ghost album is incredible.
MAGIC CIRCLE - MAGIC CIRCLE/CLOVEN IN TWO
MAGIC CIRCLE
2013
GROWNMAN SAYS:
Listen to that sound. So brutally crisp. Another band I love and I appreciate even more with each listen. To think these guys came from a hardcore band. Magic Circle probably represent the Sabbath sound best of all current bands out there. Each lyric is delivered heartfelt. To think these guys are still underground while bands like Red Fang get all the spotlight is a travesty. There are two styles of Sabbath inspired bands. The soundalikes and the bands that's tap into whatever demonic muse Black Sabbah came across once they left the confines of that bluesy Earth period. Magic Circle know that muse very well.
FORK TONGUE SAYS:
Full disclosure. You'll be seeing this high atop my Best of 2013 list. Also, this was put out by Armageddon Shop which is 15 minutes away from my house and run by Ben Barnett of Dropdead.But honestly, there is no bias here. This is an incredible album. I really don't hear much Sabbath other than on occasion when the singer gets a little nasally like Ozzy. What I hear more here is the NWOBHM influence of someone we've covered in these pages before; Pagan Altar. Granted it's mostly in the riff department but the riffs and vocals carry this album equally. By the way, these dudes are in Hardcore bands like Rival Mob and Doomriders all the way down to Death Metal bands like Innumerable Forms. All quality stuff. And for good measure, singer Brendan Radigan just released this doozy of a solo project on the world 2 days ago. Bonus, check it out.
