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Category: Bands That Made Me Heavy

From The Archive: Dark Tranquillity – Character

Filed Under: Albums You Should Hear, Bands That Made Me Heavy, From the Archive

Nov.23, 2011

From The Archive

The discovery of a new band is always exciting. Will it be something you’ve heard countless times? An experience that leaves a bad taste in your mouth? Or is it a treat from which you cannot stop consuming? I wanted to take a trip back in time to reminisce about bands/albums that not only introduced me to heavy music, but kept me coming back for more…

From The Archive: Dark Tranquillity – Character

Dark Tranquillity - Character

Two weeks ago I started reflecting on certain melodic death metal bands that were a major gateway for me into the genre itself. Seeing as how I started this trek, I feel it’s best to continue and cover other bands/albums that fit this mold. In the coming weeks I will cover a few of my favorites, but for todays installment I’m going to take a look back on Dark Tranquillity’s 2005 full-length album, Character.

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Tags: Character, Dark Tranquillity

From The Archive: Black Sabbath – Paranoid

Filed Under: Albums You Should Hear, Bands That Made Me Heavy, From the Archive

Nov.16, 2011

From The Archive

From The Archive: Black Sabbath – Paranoid

Black Sabbath - Paranoid

In regards to the recent news of legendary metal band Black Sabbath reuniting with plans of a world tour as well as writing a new album, I figured now would be the perfect time to reflect on one of their most popular albums, Paranoid. Just a quick note, I’m in no way going to debate the pros and cons of the Ozzy era or the Dio era of Black Sabbath, because when you get down to it, both are different entities of the same band and each have had their highs and lows. Anyway, the reason I’m choosing to discuss Paranoid and neither their debut album or Master of Reality (both of them classics), is because Paranoid was my introduction to Black Sabbath…

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Tags: Bill Ward, Black Sabbath, Geezer Butler, ozzy osbourne, Paranoid, Tony Iommi

From The Archive: Dimension Zero – Silent Night Fever

Filed Under: Albums You Should Hear, Bands That Made Me Heavy, From the Archive

Nov.09, 2011

From The Archive

From The Archive: Dimension Zero – Silent Night Fever

Dimension Zero - Silent Night Fever

Continuing right along with my tread through melodic death metal, last week covering Soilwork’s Natural Born Chaos, an album many fans know about, I decided this time I would go over a band that isn’t obscure but rather less talked about than other melo-death bands. A side project of former In Flames guitarists Jesper Strömblad and Glenn Ljungström, Dimension Zero formed back in 1995, but not until 2002 did they release their debut full-length album; the fast, brutal and intense, Silent Night Fever.

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Tags: Dimension Zero, Silent Night Fever

From The Archive: Soilwork – Natural Born Chaos

Filed Under: Albums You Should Hear, Bands That Made Me Heavy, From the Archive

Nov.02, 2011

From The Archive

From The Archive: Soilwork – Natural Born Chaos

Soilwork - Natural Born Chaos

Around the time I was being introduced to melodic death metal (melo-death for all those hip to the lingo), all the usual suspects were accounted for; At The Gates, Dark Tranquillity, In Flames, Arch Enemy and so on. Now I could easily write up an article for each and every one of these bands, seeing as how they all played a part in my musical journey, but for this weeks installment, I’m going to discuss another well known melodic death metal band by the name of Soilwork and what I believe to be their best album, Natural Born Chaos.

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Tags: Natural Born Chaos, Soilwork

From The Archive: Tempest – Passages

Filed Under: Albums You Should Hear, Bands That Made Me Heavy, From the Archive

Oct.05, 2011

From The Archive

From The Archive: Tempest – Passages

Tempest - Passages

Now I know the majority of the bands/albums I discuss for this article are from my years of growing up and listening to heavy music, but I feel this one time I need to make an exception for a band I only just started listening too. Why? Because they blew my god damn mind, that’s why. While doing my routine rummaging of the internet looking for bands, I stumbled upon Tempest, and little did I know that this Canadian outfit was about to take me by storm with their mesh of post-metal/rock and hardcore music that enveloped itself in a dark outer casing of despair and crust. Suffice to say, it was pretty much love at first listen.

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Tags: Passages, Tempest

From The Archive: Killwhitneydead – Nothing Less, Nothing More

Filed Under: Albums You Should Hear, Bands That Made Me Heavy, From the Archive

Sep.28, 2011

From The Archive

From The Archive: Killwhitneydead – Nothing Less, Nothing More

Killwhitneydead - Nothing Less, Nothing More

Every now and then I find myself needing a break from all the technical and serious music I listen too on a regular basis. Now I’m not saying I go outside and listen to the sound of nature (although that is relaxing to do from time to time), but rather, I tend to listen to bands that are simply having fun with their music. One band in particular that I enjoy from time to time, also dabbles in heavy music, but there’s more of a comedic and outlandish approach to it. Hailing from Greensboro, NC, metalcore outfit Killwhitneydead have been dishing out their brand of music that combines a mixture of metal and hardcore styled riffs with harsh/death metal style vocals. But what sets them apart from other metalcore bands, is their use of audio samples from popular movies and television shows that aren’t just thrown in for the hell of it, but are actually an integral part of the bands music.

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Tags: Killwhitneydead, Nothing Less Nothing More

From The Archive: Mastodon – Leviathan

Filed Under: Albums You Should Hear, Bands That Made Me Heavy, From the Archive

Sep.21, 2011

From The Archive

From The Archive: Mastodon – Leviathan

Mastodon - Leviathan

From the moment I discovered Mastodon’s first EP Lifesblood hidden in a rack of CDs, (unbeknownst to me that it was actually their debut release through Relapse Records and that it came out that very week, it must have been fate), I became an instant fan. Mastodon is one of those bands that constantly progressed with their sound, as each album kept raising the bar even higher from the album that preceded it and in doing so, gaining more notice and praise in the media. And despite their ever-growing popularity, which can easily get to a bands ego and have them do things they wouldn’t normally do, they stuck to their formula and continued to write stellar albums without comprising their sound or integrity. And if I had to pick a favorite album out of their entire discography, which turns out is pretty tough to do, it would have to be their 2004 album, Leviathan.

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Tags: Leviathan, Mastodon, Moby Dick

From The Archive: Old Man Gloom – Christmas

Filed Under: Albums You Should Hear, Bands That Made Me Heavy, From the Archive

Sep.14, 2011

From The Archive

From The Archive: Old Man Gloom – Christmas

Me again. Dan’s finishing up a few other things so I’ve gladly taken the opportunity to waffle on about something close to my heart, Now, I know the weather’s getting colder and the leaves browning, but it’s still way too fucking early to start talking about Christmas, amirite?

Wrong. It’s always a good time to talk about Christmas.

I am of course, however, talking about an album. What kind of metal blogger would I be if I compromised the integrity of Dormition’s fine column to instead ramble about egg-nog and Santy Claus?

I’ve rambled about sludge supergroup Old Man Gloom a few times now, but not really given you any depth on them or their legacy. Well, here’s me rectifying this, because this record is absolutely amazing.

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Tags: Aaron Turner, Caleb Schofield, Christmas, Gift, Kurt Ballou, Nate Newton, Old Man Gloom

From The Archive: The Sawtooth Grin – The Cuddle Monster

Filed Under: Albums You Should Hear, Bands That Made Me Heavy, From the Archive

Sep.07, 2011

From The Archive

From The Archive: The Sawtooth Grin – The Cuddle Monster

The Sawtooth Grin - The Cuddle Monster

There are only a handful of grind bands that I actually listen too, and thanks to a friend of mine who I worked with a few years back, I was able to add another band to that list. Hailing from Montrose, New York, and playing a fusion of grind/tech and mathcore, The Sawtooth Grin are one of those bands that are just plain out of control. Their 2004 album, The Cuddle Monster is a spazz-induced and noise filled fury of speed and technicality with some very interesting riffs that fans of the genre will latch onto, but will leave others scratching their heads. It took a bit for me to get into them, seeing as though I’m not an avid listener of grind, but after a few play-throughs, I found myself thoroughly enjoying the hell out of The Cuddle Monster.

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Tags: Cloacal Kiss, The Cuddle Monster, The Number Twelve Looks Like You, The Sawtooth Grin

From The Archive: Deadguy – Fixation on a Coworker

Filed Under: Albums You Should Hear, Bands That Made Me Heavy, From the Archive

Aug.31, 2011

From The Archive

From The Archive: Deadguy – Fixation on a Coworker

Deadguy - Fixation on a Coworker

I’ve been meaning to write about this band for some time, and with the recent posts from our good friend and fellow heavy blogger, Disinformasiya, where he discussed Five Reasons Why Metalcore Isn’t Total Shit, it got the ‘ol brain a thinking. If it wasn’t for certain bands of the past that combined the speed of metal and the ferocity of hardcore, would the term “metalcore” even exist, and would we have the many abominations of bands that fill the genre today? Who knows. What we do know, is that this genre exists and there are a few standout bands amongst the sea of shitty ones, but for the bands today that actually matter, they owe at least a part of their sound to Deadguy, the hardcore/metal outfit born from the ashes of the equally important hardcore/metal band Rorschach…

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Tags: Botch, Deadguy, Fixation on a Coworker, Kiss It Goodbye, Rorschach, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Unsane