As iron-willed as God Hates Us All, Christ Illusion brings back the smarter breakdowns, riffs that don’t always revolve around the low E, and different tunings.
Mixing the savage rage of The Code Is Red with the angular and experimental sounds of the underrated Diatribes, there’s never a dull moment on Smear Campaign.
It’s taken years for people to decide Dance of Death wasn’t so hot and Brave New World was good. Most are putting this with Brave New World, and I agree.
Perhaps the greatest Viking metal band of them all, Amon Amarth present us this three-DVD set featuring five full concerts plus additional backstage material.
Miles from NY hardcore; think of Refused with the Energizer bunny up their rectums and you’d have a clearer idea of what Sweden’s The Smackdown sounds like.
Includes the debut three-song EP, the split with Indecision (their best songs ever), the split with Another Victim, and more. They were ahead of their time.
This not only introduced a multi-faceted, technically melodic metalcore band to the world, it predates The Dillinger Escape Plan and countless rip-offs.
Deicide’s best album since Serpents of the Light. Hell, maybe it’s even better. An absolutely essential album after so many years of plopping out mediocrity.
Complicated rhythms, machine gun guitars, double-bass drums, and the operatic vocals of also guitarist Oddleif Stenslaf who aspires to Nevermore’s Warrel Dane.
Sprawling and expansive, yet it retains certain classic elements. Doom, enhanced by cavernous vocals, creates a sort of controlled black metal symphony.