Heavy Pod Is Heavy Cast! This week we mainly discuss a few cool things, little salt. Xoth, Wilderun, Mike Shinoda, Ashbringer, and “if Opeth wrote Dream Theater’s On the Backs of Angels”. And the exodus of Children of Bodom members. Then, cool people time with a more in depth discussion of The Outer Worlds and Disco Elysium. Plus, some ruminations on games as art and Death Stranding. Finally, a brief bit about the new show For All Mankind. Enjoy!
Heavy Pod Is Heavy Cast!This week I keep finding new ways to irritate Eden, and you can guess how if you watch this Adam Neely video. We also talk about Dream Theater, Numenorean, Children of Bodom, Allegaeon, a cool thing Jared Dines did, After the Burial’s upcoming album, Warforged, Mycelia, Woe, and the passing of Dick Dale. Also cool people time with Baba is You, Metro Exodus, The Division 2, Captain Marvel, The Favourite, Suspiria, and Annihilation. Enjoy! (also stay for the outro, sorry not sorry)
Each month, we always seem to come to the same conclusion when it comes to our Editors’ Picks column: Friday release days open the floodgates and unleash a seemingly endless stream of quality new music. But while some of our Editors and Contributors sit down gleefully each week to dive into this newly stocked treasure…
Heavy Pod Is Heavy Cast!
Lot of good stuff this week! New Born of Osiris album, new material from Crystal Lake, Maximum the Hormone, Astronoid, Downfall of Gaia, Shokran, Arcadia Libre, Children of Bodom, In Flames, and Grimes. Also a full pro shot live show of Trivium without Matt Heafy. Then we discuss a Decibel article about bands who successfully changed memorable vocalists. Then cool people time with Artifact, Bodyguard and Isinona. Enjoy!
Alice in Chains – Rainier Fog Alice In Chains have always had a timeless quality to them. Although their style is invariably attached to the “Seattle Sound” of the early 1990s, outside of Facelift (1990), they’ve always felt like they were more borne of the scene than beholden to it.…
Last week, I had the extreme privilege of receiving Hoth’s new record, Astral Necromancy. It is a wondrous album that takes up a unique niche in metal: blackened melodic death metal. It’s a unique blend of death metal stylings and black metal themes all set within an established space opera…
Amorphis has had an eclectic career, to say the least. The Finish melodeath pioneers have been responsible for some of the most memorable and the most forgettable melodic death metal the genre has to offer. While modern times may have seen them become overshadowed by their countrymen in Insomnium and Children of Bodom, yet few have traversed a stylistic spectrum as wide as Amorphis. The near three-decades since their inception has seen the band go through significant line-up changes, all while incorporating sizable aspects of folk, progressive, doom and even power metal into their ever-evolving sound. Now with thirteen studio records under their belt, finding an entry point into their oft-overlooked yet not inconsiderable career can be a daunting task. So, in celebration of the release of their new record Queen of Time, here’s a look at 8 of the most definitive and rewarding moments of their career.
One of the things I love about having the opportunity to review albums is checking out bands that are just gaining a foothold beyond their local scene. Greensboro, NC metalheads, Undrask, are one of those bands I probably wouldn’t have learned about if not for having a copy of this album slid over to me by the Heavy Blog editors—but I’m glad it did.
There’s just something so fucking great that sort of gets released in my mind whenever I hear a really well-done melodic death metal record. It’s like an energy behind the music; the feeling of the artists behind the music is so palpable that you feel like you could grab it…
I’ve been on a power metal kick lately. Oh, you’ve noticed have you? What with writing about Blind Guardian recently (and Iron Maiden, the power metal precursors), I’ve been dusting off old CD’s. These pieces of plastic were the adornments of my teenage years, confused and lost in the same generic haze that envelops most people at that age. It was a good time, I must say. I had just discovered so many great bands: Dream Theater, Pantera, Metallica, Opeth, Children of Bodom. And Edguy. I was at the perfect age for their antics, particularly those of their earlier albums, then fresh off the press. Before they had turned up their personas to eleven, before they had signed to Nuclear Blast and released their massive Hellfire Club, Edguy was a brave band, doing many different things within their power metal classification. Mandrake is the perfect example of that, featuring a dark perspective on what power metal should be doing along with plenty of 80’s pop influences. From the first track, I was hooked, my Blind Guardian saturated ears opening up completely to this new-yet-familiar sound.
