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

I've discussed black metal on this platform before, but I have yet to talk in-depth about "blackgaze" or "post-black" metal. I touched upon these genres on our year-end list when discussing MOL 's Jord , which was given an honorable mention by yours truly. For a quick recap, "blackgaze" is a genre tag that essentially takes atmospheric black metal, and infuses it with shoegaze and post-rock/metal influences. Bands founded by French mastermind Neige such as Alcest and Amesouers pioneered this style in the early 2000s. Oathbreaker and Altars of Plague notably revolutionized this sound, and Deafheaven has popularized and reinforced it since. After came a wave of innovative and fresh bands in the last few years. Together to the Stars is one of these newcomers. The Swedish two-man group independently released their debut last month to mass attention within the metal community. After initially piquing my interest, I waited on this album for a w...

Being relatively new to this whole metalhead thing makes for an interesting position in writing about it. In the scope of 5 years, I have learned a lot and listened to so much music. After hearing what the standards were, I branched off from the mainstream and delved into the more underground side of things. One of the first albums to catch my eyes and ears during that time was Soen ’s Lykaia . This Swedish supergroup was formed in 2010 by ex -Amon Amarth /ex- Opeth drummer Martin Lopez, ex- Death/Testament bassist Steve Di Giorgio, former vocalist of Swedish rock band Willowtree Joel Ekelof, and newcomer guitarist Kim Platbarzdis. While Di Giorgio and Platbarzdis had left the band by the time I heard their third album, I was regardless hooked on the intricate and heavy prog band. When learning about this band, the two bands that came up often in chatter when discussing their influences were Tool and Opeth . The latter being somewhat expected, seeing as Mr. Lopez was with the ...

Metallic Hardcore is a genre that I am not too well versed in, with the only band that keeps in my constant rotation being Converge. In fact, I can only name Hatebreed, Integrity, and Harm’s Way as other artists of the genre, and frankly I don’t even know if those properly fit into this category. So this is going to be an outsiders look on the side of that subgenre, but there is someplace else we must discuss. Nu Metal. Now I know, and I agree. Nu metal? In 2019? Honestly, I cannot name a band that still plays a true nu metal style today. Maybe Limp Bizkit is still doing the same thing? My only real interactions with the genre come from Slipknot , Deftones , and Disturbed , with the first two evolving far from this mid-90s genre tag, and the latter serving as a laugh inducing mess. So where does this connect with metallic hardcore. Well, it really shouldn’t in my opinion, and I didn’t think I would want to, or need to listen to something along these lines, but here we are. ...

             With the year coming to an end, the time has come to review everything that occurred in the last 12 months of our beautiful Gregorian calendar. And what a year it was. Ravaging wildfires in California and mid-term elections rocked the US, while Britain is still trying to actually leave the EU. On the brighter side of things, North Korea is being uncharacteristically nice to the rest of the world, and the US opened up its new embassy in Israel. Donald Trump is separating families at the US-Mexico border and his lawyer just got sentenced for using hush payments to aid the GOP in the election. So a lot has happened all over the world, but what about in metal?         But regardless, you might say, Adam, why are you beating around the bush so much? Well, to answer that I will say to you, this is my platform, I can speak as much as I want to. So let us discuss what exactly you will see in this...