TESTAMENT: "NATIVE BLOOD"
ARKHAM WITCH: "ON A HORSE CALLED VENGEANCE"
I could not find a video for this one, so here is another song from Arkham Witch.
MORTALICUM: "THE ENDTIME PROPHECY"
GOJIRA: "EXPLOSIA"
WITCHCRAFT: "IT'S NOT BECAUSE OF YOU"
Showing posts with label arkham witch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label arkham witch. Show all posts
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Top 40 Metal Albums of 2012: 30-21
It has been a very long time coming for this release. The band released its first album way back in 2004 and there have long been promises of a new one coming soon. I myself have known about this for about four or five years now and anxiously awaiting it. Of course it did not quite live up to the hype, but it is still an extremely impressive release all the same. An incredible blend of a variety of metal styles into a surprisingly beautiful final product.
Everyone's favorite gothic metal nutballs, Cradle of Filth have once again released an album in October of this year. Just like clockwork. The sound is a little different this time around with more of an emphasis on aggressive riffwork than on albums past. Cradle of Filth has also focused on decreasing their song lengths making this a much tighter and punchier release than some of their more long-winded efforts to date. It is easily one of the band's best albums in years.
Enslaved has received a surprising amount of criticism on this release. I do not personally buy into all that much as this album has once again strongly impressed me. It is not as dynamic as some of their other more recent releases, which is why it is in this position instead of closer to the top, but it is impressive in its own way. Enslaved is a band that continually puts out terrific album after terrific album, and this one is no different.
Napalm Death has built one hell of a long career out of simply making eardrums bleed. Their politically charged lyrics are sometimes lost in the cacophony of noise that they make but their anger is plain and obvious. I have not always been the biggest fan of Napalm Death, but over the last couple of years they have become one of my favorite groups. This release certainly shows why it is that the band has been able to last as long as they have.
Simply put, this is the best album that Aborted has put out, likely ever. The Belgian bashers have long been attempting to add some measure of experimentation and more mainstream-influenced sounds into their brutal style. On this release, Aborted abandon all of that and simply play to their strengths. This is brutal and unrelenting grinding death metal the way that it should be.
Departed Electric Wizard bassist Tas Donazoglou wasted no time in putting together his next musical project. Fans of his former band will likely not find a whole lot to compare it to as this is a band looking towards other metal influences to guide his style. Satan's Wrath is built upon the legacy of early Slayer, Bathory, Hellhammer, Possessed and other band at the forefront of extreme metal. This is a tribute album with original material and it is one of the most impressive debuts of the year.
Nachtmystium lost me for a little while. Their last album was far too progressive without enough of their prior black metal style for my tastes. This album saw a return to their original black metal sound while also working to mix in the progressiveness that the band had been experimenting with. What resulted was one of the band's best albums in their discography. This album even saw a return of the band's black metal logo.
This will not be the only traditional metal release that will be seen on this Top 40 release. There were a number of terrific albums released this year dedicated to the early heavy metal masters. Arkham Witch utilize a variety of styles on this album from doom metal to thrash metal to hard rock. One thing stays the same throughout though, their ability to write damn catchy songs.
Sinister was once one of the most brutal death metal bands going. They emerged from the Netherlands in the late 1980's and put out a couple of terrific and powerful death metal classics early on. They faded a bit over the years but apparently never really lost their edge. This is the best album Sinister has released in a number of years. The brutality and power that once coursed through the band's veins is back with a vengeance.
There have been a lot of great death metal albums released this year from unexpected bands. Chaos Inception is a recent project of Quinta Essentia guitarist Matt Barnes. Just like his other band, Chaos Inception's biggest strength is the highly original and impressive riffwork. It is a masterful death metal release that proves that there is still a lot of life left in the genre that many have believed has grown stale.
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Reader Submissions: Arkham Witch: Legions of the Deep
Arkham Witch is a very traditional-sounding metal band combining 1980's style metal with doom metal. Oftentimes, the band sounds like a cross between faster-paced Reverend Bizarre and Iron Butterfly. Think about the Reverend Bizarre covering "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" and that's probably an accurate representation of Arkham Witch's style.
This is a very entertaining and varied album with a lot of highlights. The album features some slower-paced and epic, plodding doom metal tracks (e.g. "David Lund"), some mid-paced, crunching stoner doom tracks (e.g. "Infernal Machine"), and some angrier, fast-paced tracks that border on thrash metal (e.g. "On a Horse Called Vengeance"). The variation in the individual tracks make this a highly interesting album. It is never boring and captures and holds attention. The album sounds like it would have made a terrific soundtrack to 1970's horror b-movies. And yes that is a compliment.
The instrumentation is well-done, with a heavy, crunchy sound to the riffs. The production is clear and allows all of the individual instruments to come out cleanly. Arkham Witch does a terrific job of catching the sound and feel of heavy metal in the late 1970's and early 1980's.
The only complaint that I have is with some of the spoken vocal lines. Particularly with the mostly forgettable "We're from Keighley". The opening line in that track is regrettable and mars an otherwise highly impressive album. But then I just rewind it to the rocking "On a Horse Called Vengeance" and all is forgiven.
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