Angry Metal Guy - Metal Reviews, Interviews and General Angryness

Novareign – Shifting the Axis of the World Review

By Grin Reaper on July 16, 2026 in Reviews, Power Metal, 0 comments

“Eight long years after releasing their explosive debut Legends, Novareign returns with long-awaited follow-up Shifting the Axis of the World. In his glowing review of Legends, Doc Wvrm heartily compared Novareign’s potent shredfest to DragonForce’s unabashed technical prowess while simultaneously praising the Los Angeles power-proggers’ songwriting chops. And he wasn’t wrong—for over an hour, Legends unites anthemic, massively addictive power metal hooks with fret-scorching fireworks. Yet with such an incendiary debut comes dreadfully high expectations, and with such a long wait between releases and a couple of lineup changes, Novareign direly needs a worthy successor.” SuperNova?

Doomcult – Sacrifice All Life Review

By Steel Druhm on July 16, 2026 in Reviews, Death Metal, Doom Metal, 12 comments

“Little Dutch doom-death band Doomcult have been lurking around for 10 years, releasing three albums that haven’t earned them a large slice of mainstream notoriety. Starting life as the solo project of one J.G. Arts, Doomcult has been a vehicle for expressing J.G.’s adoration for the classic Peaceville-era sound made famous by My Dying Bride, Anathema, and Paradise Lost. Early albums played out like a love letter to the 90s Gothic-doom sound, with long, meandering compositions wallowing in chronic sadboi dysfunction. Fourth release, Sacrifice All Life, finds J.G. still running the show, but this time he brought in a vocalist to help round out the sound.” Cult of peace(ville).

Protest the Hero – Within Review

By Andy-War-Hall on July 15, 2026 in Reviews, Metalcore, post-punk, Progressive Metal, 79 comments

Protest the Hero are back with a new album and so we gave Within a double review. Why? We don’t even know.

If These Trees Could Talk – The Hidden Hand Review

By Killjoy on July 15, 2026 in Reviews, Instrumental Metal, Post-Metal, 16 comments

“If These Trees Could Talk strikes me as a mildly ironic name for an instrumental group. But, then again, post-rock has the potential to be one of the most expressive musical genres when done correctly. This grove in Akron, Ohio, has been mostly silent for the last ten years since 2016’s The Bones of a Dying World, aside from a lone single in 2024. This probably explains why, despite their popularity, I was unfamiliar with If These Trees Could Talk until now, as I only developed a fondness for post-rock a few years ago.” Ent times.

Record(s) o’ the Month – April 2026

By Steel Druhm on July 14, 2026 in Record o' the Month, 127 comments

April is back and wants it’s accolades regardless of what your summer plans are. Give it what it wants and no one will get hurt (much).

Emptiness – Nowhere Speaks Review

By Thus Spoke on July 13, 2026 in Reviews, Black Metal, Experimental Metal, Industrial Metal, Post-Metal, 19 comments

“Emptiness, nothingness, absence, non-being: such evocations of negation abound in extreme metal, often justifiably given the visceral analogy between dense dissonance and existential dysphoria. Among the acts walking this walk, Belgium’s Emptiness proudly stalk, with the blurb for seventh full-length Nowhere Speaks explicitly stating that it is “entirely unconcerned with making its listener comfortable.”” Comfort is killing you.

Stormhammer – Wrath of the Hammer Review

By Dr. A.N. Grier on July 13, 2026 in Reviews, Power Metal, 10 comments

“It’s been a long time since Stormhammer dropped 2019’s epic Seven Seals. Having snuck its way into my top ten that year, Seven Seals proved to be one of the band’s best records, and one of the best power metal records of 2019. With a diverse vocal range, Matthias Kupka lent his voice to that record better than the other eighty vocalists mic-ing it for Stormhammer. It helps that the band put together a fluid record for a change, merging the blasty with the powery and the epic with the sappy. So, what have these German cheese grinders been up to for the last seven years? Oh, you know, hiring a new vocalist.” Hammer time?

Yer Metal Is Olde: Stratovarius – Episode

By Baguette of Bodom on July 12, 2026 in Yer Metal Is Olde, Power Metal, Progressive Metal, 36 comments

“Considering how difficult making a record is, I’m always impressed by bands who reliably churn out great material every few years. I don’t know what Stratovarius were on between 1994–1998 that resulted in not one but five high-quality albums, one each year. Right in the middle of that magnificent streak sits their magnum opus Episode.” Olde Episodes and Strato-powers.

Spread the Disease – The Darkness. The Dread. The Suffering. Review

By Samguineous Maximus on July 11, 2026 in Reviews, Black Metal, Hardcore, Metalcore, 13 comments

“Once upon a time, Spread the Disease was a frenetic Canadian metalcore band playing a brand of skronk-heavy, screamo-adjacent murder music laced with electronic and black metal influences. Their 1998 debut, We Bleed From Many Wounds, is something of a classic among chaotic metalcore devotees, while 1999 follow-up The Sheer Force of Inertia is respectable in its own right. Yet life has a habit of getting in the way of intense musical pursuits, and after those two albums, the band called it quits. Years later, Spread the Disease has reunited and returned with an intimidating slab of aural annihilation: the ominously titled The Darkness. The Dread. The Suffering., which purports to expand upon the black metal elements of their earlier work.” Suffering from a disease….

Saidan – Fangdriller: Scars Beneath Memory’s Wrist Review

By Grin Reaper on July 10, 2026 in Reviews, Black Metal, Melodic Black Metal, 71 comments

“Saidan’s Fangdriller: Scars Beneath Memory’s Wrist wasn’t an album I’d initially planned to review, but when my Dear Friend said he wasn’t able to make the time, I carved some out. Brainchild of vocalist/guitarist/bassist Splatterpvnk, Nashville, Tennessee’s Saidan plays black metal at once scathing and ultra-melodic. Visual Kill, and specifically Dear Hollow’s blurb about it, introduced me to Saidan’s charms. Since then, I’ve kept Visual Kill in regular rotation and hotly anticipated their next release.” Reanimated anime metal.