valdur

Every year is an interesting trip around the sun. New music comes and goes like the ebb and flow of time, and some albums hit us harder than others. 2018 for me was a very rich year in metal, yielding tons of great material from all over the heavy landscape. There was a lot I enjoyed, so sorting the wheat from the chaff for this year has been enjoyable and fairly difficult, which is a testament to all the bands putting out great albums this year. Below is my top 15 list for this year with a brief explanation with each album as to why I picked them. Feel the misery (wait, that wasn’t this year?!). Continue reading →

America is an evil country. Foreign policies abroad result in the deaths of thousands of civilian lives. Internally, the country accepts more gun violence and mass murder than any other fully developed nation on the planet. It is amid that darkness and decay that California based crusty black metallers Valdur arise to release their fourth full-length, Pathetic Scum—a very appropriately titled album as the band is angrier than ever. Pathetic Scum is an exercise in black metal—touching on the roots while combining influences from all eras of black metal with the crusty, almost punkish sound of California. Continue reading →