One man’s trash is another’s treasure as the saying goes. For those unfamiliar with the Channel 4 Sunday phenomenon that was the old man calling ,Scrapheap Challenge, allow me to elaborate. Two teams of engineers, brought together to run into a scrapyard and create something out of nothing. Following the same formula, Sepultura return in 2017 after their celebratory Roots run to find their “scrap” to combine both ideas from an esoteric sense along with those of a mechanical nature to create the conceptual Frankenstein’s monster that is Machine Messiah.
Album Review : Pain Of Salvation – In The Passing Light Of Day
Giving a renewed sense of life, death can be one of the most unforgiving teachers in life. Educating both mind and body in not taking what we are given for granted. Being diagnosed with a flesh eating bacteria, Pain of Salvation‘s Daniel Gildenlöw recently had a brush with that most callous of entities. Surviving the ordeal the man and band have returned to deliver In The Passing Light of Day. Fueled by resolve from Gildenlöw’s experience the record is a self affirmation of identity.
Album Review : Black Anvil – As Was
Traditional values are something that have been revered as much as they have been questioned. With its bedrock being the emergence of the early nineties movement of Mayhem, Burzum, Black Metal is one of the most steadfast in the genres of Metal. However as the years have gone by there have been some chinks appear within its seemingly impenetrable armour. Enabling more experimentation, you could argue a new wave of Black Metal was initiated. Allowing for grander songs, far reaching soundscapes with sprawling melodies. Advocates of this new progression in Black Metal are one Black Anvil. Releasing their Relapse debut Hail Death in 2014, elements of the genre were not only expanded but questioned and now the band return with their latest flurry of questions for this most studious of masterminds with As Was.
Album of the Year #24: Serenity – Codex Atlanticus
All lists must come to an end. It’s been difficult to choose 24 of the years best, as musically 2016 has been beyond phenomenal. We close out the shortlist with Serenity’s Leonardo da Vinci inspired ‘Codex Atlanticus‘.
Album of the Year #22: Haken – Affinity
I don’t really know why I didn’t listen to Haken sooner. In perfect honesty, ‘Affinity‘ was the first album I had ever heard by the progressive sextet, but one listen to this album and I was eternally hooked.
Album of the Year #20: Zhrine – Unortheta
Iceland seems like an appropriate place for black metal as a dark and barren tundra. As you would have it, one of the best black metal albums of the year has come from the island.
Album of the Year #18: Rage – The Devil Strikes Again
The Devil Struck Again in 2016. And he struck hard.
Album of the Year #16: Equilibrium – Armageddon
A band that has absolutely mastered the art of epic metal certainly deserves to be shortlisted for the album of the year whenever new music is released unto the earth. 2016 is no different with the release of Equilibrium’s ‘Armageddon‘.