Category Archives: Heavy Metal
Metal ballads?
The metal ballad is an oxymoron to some. The intransigence we associate with metal has a hard time being reconciled with the painfully self-conscious and melodramatic nature of the traditional ballad. Metal is all intrepid thrust, the epitome of the … Continue reading →
Posted in Heavy Metal, Thoughts
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Tagged Armored Saint, Isolation, Metal Ballads, Queensryche, Raising Fear, The Lady Wore Black
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Ares Kingdom – In Darkness At Last (2014)
Ares Kingdom have always been the natural successors to the Bathory sound on Blood, Fire, Death, which makes the criticisms leveled at them on account of their speed metal roots a little hard to understand, especially when said Bathory album … Continue reading →
Posted in Heavy Metal
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Tagged alex blume, Ares Kingdom, Chuck Keller, In Darkness At Last, mike miller
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Judas Priest – Invincible Shield (2024)
It feels churlish to call the new Judas Priest disappointing. It makes all the right noises, the band feels rejuvenated, Halford’s in top form, and the music makes no concessions to modern trends, at least none that the band themselves … Continue reading →
Metal as tactile sensation
Tactility is associated with the sense of touch or that which is physically and intimately tangible. This would naturally seem at cross-purposes with music which, other than the medium producing it, exists on an altogether different plane than the material. … Continue reading →
Posted in Heavy Metal, Thoughts
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Tagged Consciousness, heavy metal, Keep It True, manilla road, Tactility
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The death of the heavy metal hero
As the people who created the music we love reach the end of their lifespans, we are left to ponder: will we ever see their like again? There are aspects of their lives and careers that are part of the … Continue reading →
Retrospective: Saracen – Heroes, Saints, and Fools (1981)
One wonders whether the NWOBHM can be tied down to a specific style of playing or if it is more a statement of attitude and energy that separates it from run-of-the-mill rock ‘n roll. More likely than any such clear-cut … Continue reading →
Into Oblivion – Winds of Serpentine Ascension EP (2020)
Winds of serpentine ascensionRend these ashen cloudsThat mar the visage of our daysAnd make our linens as shrouds The zealot casts asunderOur Gods graven in stoneWords that once sanctifiedAre to our lips forsworned Our grain is not ours to eatOur … Continue reading →
Posted in Heavy Metal
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Tagged blackened death, heavy metal, Into Oblivion, winds of serpentine ascension
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Cóndor – El Valle del Cóndor (2018)
As in language, so in music, the possibility of meaning becoming lost in translation is immense; especially so when the music is more parochial than the norm and the interpreter comes from a milieu altogether different from the creator. Such … Continue reading →
Posted in Heavy Metal
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Tagged Colombia, Condor, el valle del condor, folk, heavy metal
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Iron Maiden at 40
Iron Maiden‘s self-titled debut turned forty this April 14. Forty years is but a decade shy of half a century, a long passage of time by any measure, one that has seen the world change beyond recognition, and yet this … Continue reading →
Retrospective: Dissection – Reinkaos (2006)
Over the last fifteen years, Dissection‘s returning, and final, album Reinkaos has acquitted itself honorably alongside other neither-fish-nor-fowl albums like Megadeth‘s Youthanasia, Metal Church‘s Hanging In The Balance, Savatage‘s Edge Of Thorns, and Armored Saint’s Symbol Of Salvation. Symbol Of … Continue reading →
Old Disgruntled Bastard 