One of the common phrases in metal that I have absolutely no interest in challenging is that power metal is pretty much dead. Don’t get me wrong, there are still a few interesting albums being made each year but the genre seems to have abandoned any attempts to expand, modify,…
Recently, I’ve been handed a term by a friend and I’ve found myself using it a lot. That term is “Pringles metal,” which they used to describe death metal stalwarts Cannibal Corpse, who have built a 30-year career on a credo of reliability and a penchant for turning out an…
Victorius’s previous offering, the six-track EP DIsnosaur Warfare: Legend of the Power Saurus [sic] (2008), is one of the best power metal releases of recent years. Although fluorescent ’80s nostalgia had long been driven into the ground already (as we’ll discuss further below), by tapping into the less-exploited dinosaur market…
Welcome back to the Pit, fellow moshers! We’re back to tell you about the thrash you need to know. Josh and I actually had a tough time this quarter. While there really aren’t enough releases to do this bad boy monthly, there were way too many good releases this quarter.…
There are two things I know about power metal: that all the best power metal bands are Australian, and that all the best power metal is simply thrash metal in disguise. If there’s any doubt concerning either of these axioms, one listen to Fallen Idols—the fifth full-length from Sydney’s Lord—should…
The anxiety of waiting for a sophomore album from a band that put out a great debut is unlike anything else on the planet. There is no other cocktail that blends excitement and trepidation in quite the same measures, and the more one loves that first taste, the more potent…
Power metal! Love it or hate it, it’s easy to agree that there are very few bands who can justify its sound in 2019 without adding some sort of embellishment to it. For some, this addition comes in the form of progressive ideas and flourishes, making the music more complex.…
The more music I listen to, the more I appreciate EPs. It used to be that I didn’t have the patience to listen to EPs, as much as that sound counter-intuitive. Something about their shorter run-time just annoyed me; I felt like I couldn’t sink my teeth into the music…
This month, I thought I’d do something a little different. Eight months ago, I met the most wonderful woman. We’ll call her Hilldawg. She’s the best thing ever in so many ways. One of those myriad ways is not only does she support my work with Heavy Blog, but she’s also a metalhead herself. We’ve had great times just introducing each other to music we love. Some of it is slammin’ (like when she told me Roots Bloody Roots is her favorite record and I remembered Sepultura was a band), some of it is less so (I’ll never get her into Municipal Waste). But we appreciate each other’s particular tastes.
In celebration of their fantastic second album, Beyond Celestial Echoes, we caught up with the members of the Greek four-piece Sacral Rage to delve a bit deeper into the albums that changed their lives and which continue to play a vital role in the sound of one of modern music’s most…
