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Mister Samhain’s Metal Favorites of 2021

Another year of metal has now came and gone. 2021 had some great releases, including familiar faces and old banner men. But not Iron Maiden, Shinjitsu – jiu jitsu – Shengoku … whatever, that album was ok. I didn’t include Maiden on this list. But this list does have other stuff I thought was awesome.

1. Hooded Menace – The Tritonous Bell

2. Spectral Wound – A Diabolic Thirst

3. Kommodus/Pan-Amerikan Native Front – Immortal Ceremonies Continue reading “Mister Samhain’s Metal Favorites of 2021” →

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Mister Samhain’s Colorado Metal Favorites of 2021

I tell ya, 2021 wasn’t exactly an amazingly vast improvement over 2020. How many shows got cancelled or postponed? Sure, a lot went on as well, but I didn’t go to any. I had tickets for Priest, but that got cancelled because of Richie Faulkner’s heart condition. So now I got that re-rebooked concert to look forward to. But I haven’t seen anything local. That’s mostly my bad, but it’s been a busy year for Mister Samhain. Bought a new crypt to keep, and the daily grind takes up a lot of time, plus I watch a lot more movies than I listen to albums. But I did listen to plenty of local metal here in Denver and these were my 2021 favorites!

Stormkeep – Tales of Othertime

Flight of Sleipnir – Eventide

Khemmis – Deceiver Continue reading “Mister Samhain’s Colorado Metal Favorites of 2021” →

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Necropanther is back with “In Depths We Sleep,” an EP from the sea

The last time we saw Necropanther in a full length release, they had put out Doomed City, their album themed around the sci-fi movie “Logan’s Run.” Like their previous album’s, they’ve all been themed on sci-fi classics: “Dune,” “The Terminator,” then “Logan’s Run.” Now Necropanther is back with In Depths We Sleep … which is about the English folk tale of Seth Davey. Not sci-fi at all. Probably the furthest thing from it. Nothing with technology, fantastical themes, space, or dystopian fear. Just, water and whaling. This is part of series of EPs Necropanther has been doing where one band member controls the creative vision. In the case of In Depths We Sleep it was guitarist/vocalist Paul Anop.

So what we get is another sweet slice from Necropanther and their Skeletonwitch type sound. Now, I may be in the minority and I’ll admit I wasn’t into Doomed City, something about the sound just didn’t grab me. But I do enjoy In Depths We Sleep and am happy to hear something I like from them again.

Continue reading “Necropanther is back with “In Depths We Sleep,” an EP from the sea” →

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Mister Samhain’s Best Metal Albums of 2020

I’ll admit I did not deep dive into non-local metal again this year. I had all the time in the world during the stay-at-home period, which lasted nearly four months for me, but I used most of that for learning video editing, starting an indie horror review YouTube channel (Corner Room Creep Show) and watching an insane amount of movies. Maybe that should be my New Years resolution: listen to more metal. That’s not a bad one and it’s one I feel like I can live up to, not the usual bullshit of eating healthy or all the usual lame ones everyone says they’re gonna do. In the mean time, here’s my super cutting-it-close, low-quality, low calorie Best Metal Albums of 2020 list. I trimmed the fat of blurbs and pictures this year, you’re welcome. Feast on the list!

Continue reading “Mister Samhain’s Best Metal Albums of 2020” →

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Mister Samhain’s Colorado Metal Favorites of 2020

We all know 2020 has been a shit show of a year and the local metal scene suffered without shows for us to go to and tours for bands to go on and spread the good word that Denver has some killer groups. Colorado still does, they were just all forced to crush the year from home through Bandcamp (especially band fee free Fridays) and selling merch n shit online. I know I did my part as evident from all the digital albums, vinyl, tapes, shirts, and patches I had sent to the house throughout the year since I couldn’t get them at shows.

So without blabbing more about how 2020 was the big bummer for live music, here was the shit outta Colorado that I think ruled.

1. Akhlys – Melinoë

Dark, evil, well produced and atmospheric, Naas Alcameth returned in 2020 with a new Akhlys album, Melinoë, and of course it was going to be a very strong contender for my favorite album out of Colorado for the year. And just like Aoratos last year, it was no surprise to me that the new Akhlys was damn good. While songs like “Solmniloquy” and “Ephialtes” were enough to get them the top spot on my local albums list, it didn’t top last year’s Aoratos which took the top spot on my overall albums of the year list as well. I am now, once again, waiting for more from Naas Alcameth and his not so merry band of black metal minstrels.

2. Velnias – Scion of Aether

In Colorado’s metal landscape Velnias stands on their own as the standard bearer for blackened folk metal, maybe Wayfarer comes close, but Velnias carries the flag with their unique sound. They’re a band that has released very little over the years, going eight years without much of any new material -save for a single- until 2020. But when they speak, it should be heard and Scion of Aether was one album I was ready for this year. Continue reading “Mister Samhain’s Colorado Metal Favorites of 2020” →

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Akhlys is back after five years in Hell with “Melinoë”

A year wouldn’t feel complete anymore without a release from Naas Alcameth and that’s why we can be thankful for the new Akhlys album Melinoë. While we continue to see releases almost yearly from one or more of Naas Alcameth’s bands, we haven’t seen one from Akhlys since 2015 in The Dreaming I, but you know you’re gonna be getting some of the evilest, well produced (by Dave Otero again) and layered music of the year when he puts something out. Last year he gave us Aoratos – Gods Without Name, which was my overall favorite album of the year. So for 2020 we got a whole new five track album of Akhlys.

Don’t ask me to pinpoint the exact differences in sound from Nightbringer to Aoratos to Bestia Arcana to Akhlys. Only Excommunion has a sound truly of it’s own, the rest of his bands have only some slight variations, and I hate to make the comparison, but it’s like how you can barely tell the difference between a Slipknot or Stone Sour album. The sounds have bled into each other so much that they could swap tracks and you’d never be able to tell which one should’ve been with the “other” band. Maybe Bestia Arcana would be the other “odd one” out. Nightbringer Continue reading “Akhlys is back after five years in Hell with “Melinoë”” →

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Wayfarer turn in their best yet with “A Romance With Violence”

Hey, it’s been awhile! With Halloween in the books and end of the year lists quickly approaching, I figured it was a good time to get back into writing about albums because Denver actually has some releases out and I’m behind on that. So, to kick things off again, Wayfarer got Fall going for us with their new album A Romance With Violence. Their fourth album came out October 16, so I’m damn near an entire month late on this.

Immediate first impressions were Wayfarer has definitely matured their sound some more since we last heard them over two years ago on World’s Blood. I feel they have been on a pretty constant uphill climb in quality album-over-album. Wayfarer has progressively gotten better with each release and A Romance With Violence continues that trend. If you’ve been into Wayfarer thus far, then I don’t see how you could disagree that this is their best album yet. While some of their Denver brethren have continued making great music, even if it isn’t better Continue reading “Wayfarer turn in their best yet with “A Romance With Violence”” →

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Keep the Denver metal scene alive (and buy some shit)!

As I sit here trying to come up with the need to create content, I feel as though it is increasingly difficult to write about much of anything on brand for Kvlt of Brewtality. If you’re reading, you likely know this blog is all about Denver metal and indie horror. Ya know what we are lacking a lot of around Denver though? The metal scene. Especially because this blog is focused on me writing my thoughts on new albums/EPs, reposting about shows and sharing pics from them. And what helps sustain metal? That scene, which is largely absent of it’s usual churning of shows and human interaction. Sure, we’ve had new albums since the pandemic came blowing in and robbing us of shows. But it’s stymied the feel of the metal scene because we’ve largely all been absent from each other. At least in-person.

Gone is that sense of urgency and ways to fill the void between new albums. No shows, no tours coming in, or our scene bannermen going out on tour either. We didn’t get a truly proper release show for new albums from Pile of Priests, In the Company of Serpents, Primitive Man, Earthdiver or Seed of the Sorcerer, Womb of the Witch.

Continue reading “Keep the Denver metal scene alive (and buy some shit)!” →

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Ketchup blood and pharmaceutical induced killing sprees: Interview with “Valley of Carnage” director Damian Bishop

Even in the middle of a pandemic, cool shit still found a way to be created. Damian Bishop and the guys of Dungeon Entertainment are high school buddies that decided to make shitty shot-on-video movies (SOV) together and produced Valley of Carnage, a 12 minute short about Dennis (Anthony J.K.) who has a really bad day after taking too many of his meds and pretty much going on a killing spree after a game of Candy Land. The trailer for which was initially banned by YouTube!

SOV is a relative sweet spot for me as I love trash movies, especially of the psychotronic, micro-budget variety we get in Valley of Carnage: drug rage, crazy, hilarious dialogue, murder, shoddy green screen work and ketchup blood. All filmed in EP mode. And Damian for giving us classic lines like “Suck my dick you hippie! You tell God I’m coming and I’m bringing the pain.” That’s. My. Shit.

I roped Damian, the director of Valley of Carnage, for an interview to talk about the short, shooting an SOV movie with your friends during the Great Pandemic of 2020, and their follow-up, Death Hike.

Ok, Damian, first off, what’s your background and why does it now involve making SOV shorts?

For background, I’m 26 and from Pennsylvania. I’ve been a DVD/VHS collector for almost all of my life. From a young age I’ve been into the horror stuff. As I got older -and the collecting became more intense- I found myself in a place where the only thing I really had left to cross off the list was the SOV stuff. To back up a second, my whole life -scattered throughout- I’ve seen Continue reading “Ketchup blood and pharmaceutical induced killing sprees: Interview with “Valley of Carnage” director Damian Bishop” →

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