blondiemacfilthy

Just a dude who's been passionate about metal for a decade-plus and loves writing about it. That's about it, really.
Classics Appreciation

Classics Appreciation: Saint Vitus – Saint Vitus (1984) Review

There aren’t a ton of doom metal bands more revered than Saint Vitus, and it is for good reason. Of Black Sabbath’s disciples in the 80’s, they are perhaps the most honest and soulful of the bunch, if not exactly a 1:1 copy of the original masters. Rather, what Vitus did is that they applied the atonality, loose song structure, and just pure griminess of American punk to the emerging doom metal format at a time in the 80’s when the early bands were forging their own styles and defining the subgenre on their own terms.

By blondiemacfilthy, ago
Classics Appreciation

Classics Appreciation: Solitude Aeturnus – Through the Darkest Hour Review

People like to point the finger at Candlemass as being the originator of the idea of epic doom metal as being “slowed down power metal”. This isn’t entirely unfair since, y’know… they were the band who got the band rolling on the subgenre to start with. That being said, I’d argue that it’s more generally applicable to Solitude Aeturnus a bit more than the Swedish band.

By blondiemacfilthy, ago
Classics Appreciation

Classics Appreciation: Candlemass – Epicus Doomicus Metallicus Review

When it comes to metal, you have the usual rung of classics, and then you have the albums that are epochal in nature. The works that, regardless of whether you enjoy them or not, are the ones that fundamentally altered the landscape of the genre and for everything after them, for better or worse. Candlemass’s debut is, naturally, one of these albums – an album so blatantly influential that it spawned the subgenre in its own title.

By blondiemacfilthy, ago
Into the Coven

Into the Coven: Necromantia – Scarlet Evil Witching Black Review

Necromantia are one of the more curious and immediately striking bands in black metal. The Hellenic BM scene was, outside of a couple outliers in the Scandinavian countries (eg Dissection, Immortal etc), the most traditional heavy metal of the bunch – after all, it is why RiG has a big ‘ol primer on the scene. Of the big bands, Necromantia is perhaps the most musically “traditional metal” of the bunch, while also being musically one of the more radical bands of their brood.

By blondiemacfilthy, ago
Relisten

Relisten: The Night Eternal – The Night Eternal Review

Over the last few years, there has been a small sect of bands in traditional metal that fused the muscle & melody of the genre with a sense of gothic austerity. Taking inspiration from groups like 70’s Priest and Mercyful Fate’s 80’s output, these bands took the austerity implicit in the early works of those groups (EG Sad Wings of Destiny, Melissa etc), and made it a more explicit part of their approach.

By blondiemacfilthy, ago
Classics Appreciation

Classics Appreciation: Fates Warning – Awaken the Guardian

Fates Warning’s previous work, The Spectre Within, was a masterpiece which essentially set the standard by which most metal – almost certainly all prog metal after it – should frequently aspire to (and often never does). Following up such an album is a tall task for anybody; almost nobody could. Fates Warning weren’t like any other band in metal – not now, and sure as shit not back in the 80’s either – and as such they proved capable of following it up with something even more monumental.

By blondiemacfilthy, ago