Post-Millennial's Guide To Metal (And Some Other Stuff)

Could it be? Is PMMetalGuide really reviewing a power metal album, after the site's negative opinions regarding the subgenre as a whole? Well, you're in luck, because there are exceptions to every rule we set, and groups like  Judicator  and  Unleash The Archers  are the perfect example of this. I was stunned in 2018 when I heard The Last Emperor . I'd never heard a "trve" power album that I actually enjoyed, and as a sucker for Medieval history tracks like "Take up Your Cross" and "Antioch" charged forward into battle with speeding fury and soaring force. So as our strange year enters its downswing, we have a hearty plate of tasty new Dark Age jams to talk about, under the banner of  Let There Be Nothing .  Now, my experience with this style is somewhat limited, so a cautionary warning to all power metal aficionados reading this article. For once, I am going to start with my biggest critique(s) of this record, rather than save it un

Sad metal, and music in general, is something that truly amazes me. Most metal is angry, hateful, or just plain anti-something, but every so often you find those wiggly waves that hit the perfect mix between catharsis and solemnity. Most sad music I listen to comes from the more "rocking" side of the music spectrum, with artists like Have A Nice Life  and Godspeed You! Black Emperor , wherewith the weight of the world on my shoulders, I contemplate everything my life has amounted to, the inevitability of death, memories of my forgotten past, etc. From here, my relationship with the harsher palette enters, and with it, new feelings of turmoil and trepidation. On one end, we have artists like Oathbreaker  and Frontierer , both of whom invoke in me a violent agitation that spurns me to tears on the mere destruction of my willpower. The other side, however, is a complete self-renouncement of myself; A complete loss of feeling, where a cold numbness can caress my body, my mind,

Don't get me wrong, I love Merzbow , but it is extremely difficult to keep up with his output. For those uninitiated, the one-man Japanese noise artist, according to RateYourMusic as of the writing of this article (it has only increased since), has released 906 different projects. This includes 367 studio albums, many live albums, EPs, compilations, and guest appearances and collaborations. While the complete accuracy of this data may be able to be questioned, Masami Akita is a machine when it comes to output. This, however, does not result in everything he puts out being good, or bad, or even listenable at all. It is so difficult to decipher the discographies of Buckethead  and Frank Zappa , who similarly have hundreds of releases under their belts. What often, at least to me, is the case is that a lot of this material isn't worth listening to at all. Of all of the artists that continue to consistently release high-quality music year after year, Boris  is probably the m

One genre I feel I haven't explored enough is shoegaze. I love big names like  Slowdive  and  My Bloody Valentine , as well as subgenres influenced by the droning guitars and feedback-laden walls of noise like doomgaze and blackgaze. After much research, I can identify the other big names in shoegaze, like  Ride ,  Swervedriver ,  Cocteau Twins , and many more, yet until this past week, I have never heard of  Hum.  From what I can tell, they were a pretty big deal in the 90s, even seeing some moderate success on charts with a hit single or two. Performing on MTV, The Howard Stern Show and much more,  Hum  completely flew under my obsessions with  Tool ,  Slipknot ,  Nirvana , and all of the other 90s group that defined my music taste in the early years of its exploration. The strange thing, however, is that their early stuff was way less shoegaze-based than  Inlet,  and more  Smashing Pumpkins  meets  Deftones  with fuzz turned up to 11. Listening to their 1995 release  You&

A metric ton of amazing music came out this past Friday. This includes, but is not limited to: A new full-length Pyrrhon  album, a  Bell Witch  and Aerial Ruin  collaboration record, and the official release of Im Wald . While it is relevant that the two other groups I just mentioned probably should be getting this review slot, as the two artists made up PMMetalGuide's top two albums of 2017, I will be talking today about this Swiss one-man project and the unfortunate circumstances surrounding its initial release. The debut was 'officially' released last week, and this is pretty important. It was leaked earlier this year, to the dismay of Wintherr himself. The pressure to release a project after it has been leaked is arguably one of the greatest plights an artist can go through, and I am sorry to see it happen with this group. I do not condone listening to music before it is released, and it is extremely disappointing that the small community who were given access to the