![Record(s[es]) o’ the Month(s) – October & November 2022](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/2211-FB_Splash_4x.jpg)
December is upon us. Smoke rises from the mountain of doom, Listurnalia™ is simply across the nook and Metal Druhm rides to AMG HQ in a useless try to get the Report(s) o’ the Month again on observe in 2023.
I, too, would love a number of issues to get again on observe in 2023, I admit it. However I truthfully by no means positioned Metal Druhm as an optimist. He at all times refers to his mighty stein as “half-empty” in our Beers ov Zoom! And he appears so crushed down once we chat about deadlines in any other case. Right here, I lastly thought I’d cured him of hope. I assume there’s at all times subsequent yr…
October and November’s Report(s) o’ the Month each function German(ish) progressive dying metallic bands. However that’s the place the similarities finish. These two bands have deeply totally different sounds and approaches to what it means to be progressive dying metallic. October’s winner, Obsidius’ Iconic, lastly answered the query: “Do we actually want one other Obscura-branch making music within the fashion of Obscura?” which I had been pondering since phrase that Rafael Trujillo, Linus Klausenitzer, and Sebastian Lanser left to kind Obsidious. Thankfully, the resounding reply to that query was: “sure, apparently we did.” Although, it’s additionally value noting that Obsidious sounds lots much less like Obscura than I had anticipated. Slightly, Obsidious’ debut jogs my memory fairly a little bit of Gorod’s good Æthra, with its melange of vocal types and its technical brilliance. And sure, all of the musicianship on Iconic is genuinely good throughout the board. However in case you love guitar, Iconic is value listening to for Rafael Trujillo alone. I can’t consider one other guitarist in dying metallic whose work is that this easy, so persistently artistic, stunning and, most significantly, entertaining. Listening to Trujillo’s guitar solos is at all times an journey in true virtuosity. That genuinely subsequent degree guitar work—combined with good compositions and a band that enhances Trujillo’s brilliance—makes Iconic one thing particular. It’s tech, it’s prog, and it defied my expectations large time.
November, however, supplied up a really totally different view of progressive dying metallic that pushes into the epic, the orchestral and the dramatic. “Like Disillusion’s prior work,” wrote GardensTale “Ayam is not possible to understand absolutely on a single spin. The music is solely not direct sufficient for that; although there’s a spectrum of wonderful hooks and riffs, and a glut of really incredible solos, they aren’t the focus. There’s an arc to every particular person track. An preliminary temper is ready up, and thru its adjustments in tempo, texture, and instrumentation, the composition” takes listeners on a journey. Ayam is moody, with its clear elements evoking Riverside, whereas its heavier materials ranges afar; however at all times seems like Disillusion. And “by combining the most effective of the band’s previous and current and wrapping each in that wondrous, impeccable, adventurous songwriting, executed with unfailing precision, Ayam has turn out to be a transcendent expertise” that, based on L. Saunders, finds “Disillusion using a artistic peak, a testomony to their resilience and willingness to beat setbacks and push boundaries. Ayam is a triumph on a number of ranges, a shocking progressive metallic opus that finds Disillusion on the peak of their powers.”
Runner(s) Up:
De Profundis // The Corruption of Advantage [October 14, 2022 – Transcending Obscurity Records]: De Profundis needs to be one of the underrated bands in dying metallic. And 4 years after I received all up in a tizzy about The Blinding Mild of Religion, the remainder of the dying metal-loving writing corps right here at AMG has heard the decision. Launched in mid-October, The Corruption of Advantage finds London’s best dropping one other slab of riffy dying metallic and TheKenWord defined, “The Corruption of Advantage melds the filthy sounds of US dying metallic—particularly that which spawns from the swamps of Florida—with a contact of the polish and melodic sensibility frequent to many Swedish initiatives, olde and new. Rhythmically, this report spans the deathened gamut, adopting the identical pointed oscillations we see in technical dying metallic licks, whereas concurrently carving out deep OSDM grooves.” The efficiency being old enough college with nods to Dying and a bass-heavy strategy makes The Corruption of Advantage a sound each basic and their very own. Don’t make the error of sleeping on De Profundis once more.
The Providing // Seeing the Elephant [November 4, 2022 – Century Media Records]: We’re in a brand new period the place the foolish kids who listened to nü-metal unashamedly as a result of they didn’t know any higher have grown as much as be adults who found Gothenburg’s legendary metallic scene by way of the New England hardcore scene. As a man who scene policed something remotely nü-metal adjoining throughout my youth/younger maturity, I discover this to be a disturbing development. But, good issues can come from virtually any scene and The Providing has most actually completed the work of integrating the downtuned groove and ease of the nü-era into one thing far more attention-grabbing and fewer cringe. The place the Korns of the world whimpered and whined, The Providing gives spectacular vocal harmonies; the place the Bizkits supplied up a dearth of attention-grabbing guitar work, The Providing brings its axes to play. With nice manufacturing and tight composition, Seeing the Elephant transforms its deeply uninteresting and unimaginative supply materials into one thing higher by affiliation. And whereas his grades ought to at all times be taken with a grain of salt, Holden4.5 might have been on to one thing when he ejaculated: “With a second fashionable metallic masterpiece underneath its belt, The Providing has established itself as one of the thrilling bands in heavy music.”
