Back some years ago, when I was in the thralls of my Hair Metal Kick, one band would always stand apart, the reason was cause when their hit song came out…it fit so well with the girl downstairs I was trying to win over and get to go out with me. That song was “Seventeen” and the band was Winger. Kip Winger and his band of merry men stormed the barracks that is known as The Culture Room in Ft. Lauderdale, FL this past week, and boy did they play to the crowd.  

Review of the new album Consume by Arizona metallers Lethal Dosage!  

ITS MATH METAL TIME! HA! Gotcha! Its only the name of a sweet upcoming album from a technical thrash (a VERY ironic phrase) band called…. ALGEBRA! And don’t worry if you can’t conjugate a fraction, it’s only hard on your ears! And there will be a test later.  

The golden age of Hip Hop and the second wave of brutal metal bands kind of coincided in the late 80s-mid 90s, and we got some badass bands from it, and many now legendary Hip Hop artists (real artists, not this trash we have today. People with talent, not a computer). One of the bands that perfectly twisted these two influences was the OG Ice T fronted Body Count. They have a street pedigree that reads like a reap sheet, and they wear their influences on their sleeves like prison tats. The new release, Manslaughter, is absolutely no exception.  

This past Month has seen many awesome new releases, some by established bands and several newcomers putting out stellar records. One of the former, the haunting Musk Ox from the chilled wilds of Canada, has dropped the neofolk Woodfall album on top of us, like a powdered snowbank.  

Bigfoot> The Thing, The Myth, The Legend.  

Here’s a bit of a different speed of The NAM, so you guys don’t think I am just fukll of hate or disappointment, or anything like that. I’m not your dad, so there’s no need for this to be an awkward place for anybody. That’s between you guys. So, I thought I’d start doing genre spotlights for my favorite sub-genres of metal! Doesn’t that sound like fun??? WELL ITS GONNA BE! Now stop crying and listen up, its all about the Sludge today!  

Ok, starting off the bat, this is not my normal type of jam. No distortion, no fuzz, no gritty blues and not a single open D/C#? Hardly even music! barely even civilized. The album I speak of is the new one from Anathema, the new Distant Satellites.  

A review of Tekeli-Li by French Black Metal band, The Great Old Ones!  

This Tuesday, a quite lovely little album from Darkest Era happened to grace the world with its presence. I am, of course, talking of Severance. It’s a bit more traditional than some of the other releases of late, in that its simply a great metal album. Specifically, because I know some of you HAVE to have a genre, its a Melodic release, similar in fashion to Rhapsody of Fire or Iron Maiden, and a few others. Nothing but fine singing, metal riffing, and some epic Celtic musicianship.  

As you might have seen from a certain big time British publication about all things metal and rock, The lead singer and guitarist of the band Gojira, Joe Duplantier, admits to purposely avoiding writing great songs to be recorded. Due to being “selfish”, in his own admission. I take severe umbrage at this, for many reasons. And what are those reasons? well, reader who i just made up to question everything I type (I might name George…), I shall expound posthaste!  

Ok, so who do you feel is the MOST METAL of them all? Ozzy the Prince of Darkness and Grandfather of MEtal, Lemmy of Motorhead, Dio (May he rest in the halls of which he sang), maybe even Billy from Testament or Randy Blythe from LoG? All of these frontmen are brutal and vicious singers in their own ways, and I am not saying none are contenders, but I submit this name to you, oh questioning readers: Christopher Lee