2011 So Far (Metal Edition, Part 1)

Across Tundras – Sage

I’m happy these guys have a label behind them and the opportunity to grow their audience with better distribution and bigger tours. I think this is a safe record, a solidifying of the sound they created on last year’s Old World Wanderer. I can’t imagine putting this on before that record, but that says more about the quality of Wanderer than something lacking with Sage. It’s a fine introduction to their heavy western sound.

Argus – Boldly Stride The Doomed

I was just introduced to this album in the past week, but I feel strongly that it is one of the best traditional metal albums I’ve heard in a year full of them. There’s more than a bit of Maiden in their sound, with galloping rhythms and a busy bass mixed too far forward. But they have their own thing and don’t come across as imitators.

Black Spiders – Sons Of The North

Working on the anthemic hard rock end of the metal spectrum, Black Spiders write songs about drinking, fighting, fucking and Kiss. Big riffs, ripped jeans, sing along choruses and probable stds included.

Blood Ceremony – Living With The Ancients

Did you ever want to hear a female fronted Jethro Tull cover Black Sabbath? You should. Blood Ceremony’s second full length doesn’t ape the aforementioned bands, but sounds like a long lost contemporary. If you told me this was from 1971 I would nod in agreement; from production to instrumentation to cheesy witchcraft culled from the pages of Man, Myth & Magic it screams 70s Britain. Love it.

Bullet – Highway Pirates

If you wanted more from the idea of mixing Accept with AC/DC than the song “I’m A Rebel” (performed by the former, written by one of the elder Young brothers for AC/DC but never released), go get this record. The teutonic stomp and edge of classic Accept with the swing and swagger of AC/DC, and the singer even sounds like the middle point between Udo and Brian Johnson. These Swedes do rocking right.

Cauldron – Burning Fortune

Not to be left out of the retro metal goodness, these Canadians won me over when I found out they had recorded a cover of Black ‘N Blue’s “Chains Around Heaven” for their debut. I enjoy this record today, but would have been nuts for it in the mid-80s. For the best glimpse into the band and their mentality, please read Adrien Begrand’s excellent interview posted at Popmatters.

Grayceon – All We Destroy

I’m a sucker for cellos in metal. This trio of guitar, cello and drums don’t sound like anyone else. They mix folk, doom and black metal moments together with mostly clean,  but occasionally blackened, female vocals to create moods as much as songs. Not that there aren’t memorable passages, or lyrics that don’t catch and hold, but there is a feeling to their work that I can’t pin down. If any of that sounds intriguing, or if you just want to know what the hell I’m describing so poorly, check out “Shellmounds” on youtube.

In Solitude – The World, The Flesh, The Devil

More retro goodness, again from Sweden. This time, the main influence is the great Danes, Mercyful Fate. With King Diamond recovering from serious heart surgery, it’s great to have bands paying homage to that classic sound while not being a tribute band. Another group taking Fate into their own hands is Portrait, whom I like but not as much as In Solitude.

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