FOR THE LOVE OF METAL
The best music always comes from the heart, always takes you on a different journey each time you listen to is. Northern Oak have achieved this to lasting effect with Monuments and I couldn’t praise them more for it.
Korpiklaani are a band of the wild that produce music far from an animal call, but a signature sound that summons fans – those who appreciate progenitors shaping the credibility of a once scoffed metal sub-genre through an innovative tribute to culture.
As it’s still unforeseen where Opeth are heading to next, Heritage stands out as an eccentric anomaly in their catalogue. But this doesn’t diminish the quality of the album one bit. Heritage is a fantastic album, although it’s not without its flaws. However, those flaws have nothing to do with Opeth’s decision to become preoccupied with prog. They are simply slight musical missteps, and who hasn’t stumbled when finding a new path?
Rodrigo y Gabriela’s new album 11.11 challenges a lot of preconceptions of metal heads and metal music. While the instrumental, largely acoustic album cannot be traditionally considered as a ‘metal,’ the duo of Rodrigo Sánchez (lead guitar) and Gabriela Quintero, (rhythm) definitely has roots in classic and thrash metal. They started perfoming together after they both left a thrash metal band in Mexico, and while the music they do now is has a foundation of Spanish-influenced traditional folk, their faster and at times, gritter rhythms and rapid time changes serve as an homage to their metal foundation.