New Triptykon!

At the bottom of this page are two new Triptykon songs. They rule. In fact, you can just skip my two cents and listen to the songs right now, leave a nasty comment chastising me for my neglecting of this blog, and never visit this page again, and that would be fine with me. Why? Because all that's important is that you hear new Triptykon music, end of story.

I'll be honest here; I initially dismissed this project when it was announced. I didn't care whatsoever. Then one day I heard "Goetia". After thoroughly punishing myself for my ignorance of the awesomeness that was Triptykon, I went out and bought a physical copy of the album, Eparistera Daimones (people still do that.) and it became what was easily my favorite album of that year. In fact, it's minimalistic and simple approach (no "shreddy" technical guitar wizardry to be found) became a huge influence on me as a guitarist. It showed me that you don't need to be Joe Satriani or Steve Vai to make good hard rock or metal, and in this case, Tom G. Warrior surpassed those artists in terms of depth and emotional content. I realize that comparing the music of Triptykon to Satriani and Vai isn't that great of a comparison, but let's move along.

Did these two new songs hit me in the same way that "Goetia" did four years ago? Not at all, however, they get me very excited about the future release of the album that will follow up Eparistera Daimones (titled Melana Chasmata) which had such a huge impression on me. Listen for yourselves, and are you guys as excited as I am?

100th Post!: Behemoth - The Satanist ALBUM REVIEW

Little needs to be said at this point about Behemoth frontman Adam “Nergal” Darski’s struggles with leukemia which led to such a lengthy delay between 2009’s Evangelion and 2014’s The Satanist. All that’s necessary to say is, “Nergal, welcome back.” Everything is just as you left it; not a single pentagram left without a severed goat’s head attached, nor a cross not properly inverted. And with the return of such a notorious, controversial, and brutally heavy band, we’re offered a noticeable stylistic shift from previous releases. This time, Behemoth roll back on the death metal and add in some old, fermented black metal ingredients into their metallic recipe for heavy, savory sonic satisfaction.

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When it comes to consistency in metal, Michigan metal crew The Black Dahlia Murder is one band that’s always been worth paying attention to, even worth buying in to. Over the course of six albums, the band has refused to compromise on their signature and unmistakable brand of melodious death metal, producing music where its purpose and conviction is undeniable. On their most recent album, Everblack, BDM sounds tighter and more focused than ever before doing what they have proven to be most adept a doing. Unfortunately, “doing what they’re most adept at doing” also entails the total avoidance of throwing any surprises at the listener.

Amon Amarth-Deceiver of the Gods ALBUM REVIEW

Must we apply a genre tag to every single little dervish that pops up in metal music? Apparently we must, as is evident from the two dozen or so metal genres and subgenres that have been created over the last four decades that fans use to categorize their favorite bands, whether the bands themselves approve of them or not. Some of the more, uh, interesting genre tags that have been concocted by fans include death-grind, powerviolence, death-doom, djent, blackened death metal and, of course, progressive/sludge/post-hardcore/tribal/ambient (the genre that Neurosis fits under according to metal-archives.com) and I can only wonder what people are going to call the new Altar of Plagues album with its black metal-meets-Godflesh sound. However, there are a blessed few bands out there in the metal world that defy categorization and fly above the stigma associated with certain sub-genres. Sweden’s Amon Amarth is one such band.