Hot food, cold beer and blistering metal
Looking beyond the fact that 2019 was another great year for metal— I will never get tired of saying that— what is even more heartening to me is the fact that four of my Top Ten Metal Albums of 2019 were debuts; new bands just coming out of the gate put out some fantastic metal... Continue Reading →
New year, new studio! Old Man Metal charts the Top Ten Metal Albums of the Year for 2019 in a New Year's Day Twitter countdown on the sixth episode of his solo podcast. Great new crossover, thrash, death metal, black/speed, black/thrash and death/thrash from Enforced, Wraith, Usurper, Legion of the Damned and more... including his riches-to-rags search for a new studio courtesy of recently-added green screen and chromakey capability.
Old Man Metal combines metal and beer on the fifth episode of his solo podcast, taking a look at new metal albums from Enforced (crossover/thrash from Virginia), Possessor (stoner/sludge from London) and Wraith (black/speed/hardcore from Indiana), including some in-depth song analysis and video clips built using Winamp, the MilkDrop visualizer and OBS Studio... all while drinking a pint of Tropical Lightning IPA from Wilmington Brewing Company. Featuring the last footage ever shot in the original closet studio.
Possessor - Gravelands (2019) 4/5 stars Gravelands is the fourth LP from London's Possessor: six tracks of ace stoner/sludge bookended by an intro and an atmospheric reprise whose common aural element— crackling flames— is a great metaphor for the overall driven feel of this album. From the opening Motörhead bass chug, there is no letup... Continue Reading →
Maat - As We Create the Hope From Above (2014) 4/5 stars Maat play excellent Egyptian-themed death metal, largely in the vein of Nile: multi-tempo, very demanding technical death metal riffing combined with Eastern-flavored thematic rhythm guitar work and leads, both of which are often played over drumming that is running at a very different... Continue Reading →
Lowest Creature - Sacrilegious Pain (2019) 4/5 stars. Lowest Creature play a straightforward style of metal that sees compelling mid-tempo thrash and crossover riffs bolted together into uncomplicated verse/chorus structures, driven in alternating fits by D-beats and thrash-style drumming, with well-placed uptempo sections, hangs and sick mosh parts to build and release tension. Well-done thrash... Continue Reading →
Legion of the Damned - Slaves of the Shadow Realm (2019) Four out of five stars. Primarily mid- and up-tempo thrash riffing, with the neck-snapping riff and tempo changes you expect from good thrash, played against the occasional tremolo-picked death metal passage. The drumming follows suit, again being primarily drawn from thrash, with double-bass runs... Continue Reading →
It's a bit over halfway through the year, so I thought I'd take a quick look at the frontrunners in the perennial race for Album of the Year. So far, the Top 5 is a battle between death metal (2 albums) and black/thrash (2 albums), with death/thrash staking out a piece of territory as well.... Continue Reading →
Old Man Metal combines beer and metal on the second episode of his solo podcast, with an ASTMO beer review of 2016 Founders KBS barrel aged imperial stout and a quick look at barrel aging and cellaring big stouts, followed by a survey of the top 5 new metal albums in the running for Metal Album of the Year 2019: Ravenous Death (black/death), Warfist (black/thrash), Okkultist (death metal), Legion of the Damned (death/thrash) and Usurper (black/thrash). Includes an update on new podcast gear and the upcoming Benchmade Nakamura episode.
Join Pulpit of Doom co-host Old Man Metal on the premiere episode of his solo podcast as he looks at five of his favorite songs from 2018: hardcore/black/thrash from Poland's Mentor, old-school Swedish death metal from Feral, a blend of old-school Swedish and American brutal/tech death metal from Finland's Wrathrone, the title track from Unleashed's 2018 release The Hunt for White Christ, and some sweet Russian black/crust/death courtesy of Hekata... including some in-depth song analysis and video clips built using Winamp, the MilkDrop visualizer and OBS Studio.
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