Metal Injection announces their second annual Metal Injection Festival, ft. Jinjer, Converge, God Forbid, 3 Inches Of Blood, Hanabie and many more bands! 31 bands, 3 stages + 2 days of rock and metal that runs the gamut between death metal, djent, metal core, hardcore, doom, rock, gothic metal, thrash, industrial, slam and more! Taking place in Brooklyn, NY at Meadows and Brooklyn Monarch from September 21-22, 2024! Early Bird Tix now on sale in limited quantities. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Wretched
Jack Black Picks The Most Metal Album Cover Of All Time
Comedian and musician Jack Black is best known as one half of the duo Tenacious D which has a new album coming soon. As a guest on the Good Mythical MORE vlog hosted by YouTubers Rhett And Link, Jack was asked to choose the most metal album cover of all time from a selection of Amon Amarth, Iron Maiden, Ronnie James Dio, Manowar, Molly Hatchet (?) and Wretched. Watch the video and see where he landed. Tenacious D’s new album, Post-Apocalypto, is coming this November 2nd, 2018, Continue reading
Abysmal Dawn – Obsolescence
Whisper it softly around these parts so as not inflate the head of one of our sterling writers, Richie HR, but he is right. In his recent review of Annihilated’s XIII Steps To Ruination (Unique Leader) here he commented about how “Average is the new bad, and it’s far, far worse than rubbish ever was”, casting light on the fact that we are inundated with decent, OK, average, not bad, it’s alright metal (especially Death Metal) these days. Passing muster isn’t the same as it was, and if you were ranking on a Bell Curve (curb your tittering at the back), what would have passed for decent would now be at the bottom, as the overall level has come up.
There are also way more Death Metal bands per head of metal fan than any other genre, and far too many average, going nowhere bands. Labels used to be a filter for this sort of stuff, but it now seems even those labels that should know better have gotten into the conveyor belt mentality of it all (and Relapse really should know better, having gestated some of the cream of the DM crop). We have a sea of the unimaginatively named Wretched, Annihilated et al producing the unimaginative; the differences between them each are minimal, very few of them have any identity or any chance of releasing anything essential. Good Death Metal is great, and there still is good new Death Metal out there. Average Death Metal is mediocre and uninspiring.
So, it’ll probably come as no surprise to hear, Abysmal Dawn, Obsolescence (Relapse), sound a lot like a lot of other bands. It’s a bit technical, predominantly chuggy, Death Metal, with vocals more bark than growl. It’s inoffensive (which is another problem… ) and has good cover art. Their version of Dissection’s ‘Night’s Blood’ is several shades shitter than the original (aren’t they always). They aren’t as good as, let alone better than, the bands they were influenced by, which probably includes Malevolent Creation, Pestilence and The Black Dahlia Murder.
Other than that, it’s not shit. It’s not brilliant, either. It’s dictionary definition meat and potatoes meh Death Metal. And one thing Death Metal should never be is staid enough to be ‘meh’.
5.0/10
STEVE TOVEY