Temple of Night, Bloodless Child, Jinn Arcana, & What Remains @ Tail of the Junction (Dec 21, 2019)

     Last night was the Winter Solstice so I decided to celebrate with some killer local black metal! With an undying cold and savage bitterness, black metal is music for the frozen soul and provides the perfect soundtrack for such an occasion. Keeping true to the evil themes the bands also put on a food drive and unwrapped toy drive during the show to donate to local charities. I love metalheads... The show was at a small bar in the west end called Tail of the Junction, which is cool spot for a drink and catch some tunes. The bars unforgiving brick walls were excellent for the sound and set an appropriate backdrop for the mood.

     The night opened with Totonto's What Remains, as they rocked out with some high energy tunes and some wicked proggy guitar parts. They had a lot of spunk and delivered some quality jams. Next up was Jinn Arcana who almost gave the bartender a god damn heart attack when they opened their set with a 3 minute prayer to the dark gods complete with hoods, skulls, the satanic bible, a dagger, and the ominous chime of the cymbals from the bands drummer. Jinn Arcana play some down tempo raw as hell material laced with moments of dank unholy grimness.

     Things cranked up a notch as Bloodless Child from London, Ontario set up and unleashed their blackened death metal madness on the group of gathering metalheads and bar patrons just trying to watch the hockey game... They played as a trio for the show with one insane drummer and two guitar leads. They were relentless with brutal riffing and kicked some serious ass! The ambulance flying by at high speeds during their set synced up a little too well.

     Temple of Night were my main reason for coming out to this show. They are an emerging black metal band from Niagara Falls who play an insidious mix of atmospheric and symphonic black metal with a more traditional tone in their song structure and overall aesthetics. They opened with their single "Secret Lord of All" and followed it up with two songs that I was hearing the first time. Temple of Night were absolutely dialed instrumentally and they had incredible stage presence with enough fog and cloaked corpses to make a graveyard jealous. On top of the swarming guitars and devastating and complex drumming, the vocal range provided is impressive with savage growls and shrieks backed up by live orchestral vocals from the keyboardist. Where so many bands would go the route of backtracks, Temple of Night show what they are made of and give the full live experience. The set was short with the band still gearing up towards a launch off demo or EP hopefully in the near future. In the meantime enjoy some of their tunes below and check out a few photos from the night! Cheers to all the bands that played and all the metalheads who came out to celebrate the longest night of the year!

Temple of Night

Bloodless Child

Jinn Arcana

What Remains

-Metal Yeti /../;,,;/../

Heavy Metal Yeti's Best Metal Albums of 2019!

*Favourite Album Art*
Mizmor - Cairn

    Well here we are again. Our lizard brains stuck inside our primate bodies have circled the nearest star as our metal hearts keep beating and craving more delicious depravity. I think there will be no argument that 2019 was a landmark year for both mainstream and underground metal music. While the last few years have been blazing with awesome material, the stars aligned this year and we got a flurry of new and exciting bands and a heavy dose of annihilation from old favourites and legends to shake things up. Possessed, Nocturnus, Nile, Devin Townsend, Amon Amarth, Candlemass, Dream Theater, Darkthrone, Baroness, and Bodom all put out albums. We even got a bloody TOOL album!

    A lot happened this year in the realm of metalheads. 2019 was the year of 100 Batushka's, as a seeming endless stream of drama climaxed with Bartushka cancelling the Hospodi tour and Team Panihida landing some heavy blows in response. The excitement didn't end here. Arch Enemy made a bunch of photographers mad,  Dee Snider fought some Australian political asshats, black metal became even more of a cartoon thanks to Belzebubs, Slipknot fired their drummer and got new masks, Tool upset pop fans, Metallica got kinky again, and Chris Barnes is probably still angry about something as you read this. All the while over we are one step closer to the singularity with an AI dubbed Relentless Doppelganger currently streaming self generated technical death metal on youtube that makes Archspire sound like Baby Metal.

The Toronto metal landscape has changed forever with the local gems Coalition and Stained Class closing their doors for good. The global metal landscape will also never be the same with Slayer playing their "final" live show and bringing an entire era to an end. Fuckin' Slayer weren't the only bands to call it quits with Brain Drill also hanging up their instruments, but all in all we gained more bands than we lost this time around the sun. I also want to extend a massive cheers to the metalheads we lost along the way; RIP Timi Hansen, Bruce Corbitt, Karl Bareham, Larry Wallis, Shane Bisnett, and all the rest off to Valhalla. Cheers to the metalheads still fighting the good fight and especially to the ones who need the support of their fans and friends!

    I went to a lot of live shows this year! Every show that caught my attention I made an effort to make it out. Sleep is for the dead. I took my son to his first Iron Maiden concert, I moshed with an alien to Blood Incantation and two thonged menaces at Rivers of Nihil / Nekrogoblikon, and I saw Between the Buried and Me TWICE! There are too many memories to list here but a few of my favourites shows of the year belong to Cryptopsy, Alien Weaponry, Tool, Chainbreaker, & Tomb Mold! It's been a wild ride full of amazing music and some gnarly mosh pits with good friends!

    You will see that most of my list is death metal peppered with a few other genres. It was a tough choice for top spot, but my favourte album of 2019 goes to SMOULDER! Not only do they have some of the most kick ass cover art of the year, the riff from Sword Woman has been stuck in my head for over a year. Times of Obscene Evil and Wild Daring is not to be missed by any self respecting metalhead! Tomb Mold takes the silver as my favourite death metal release and 1349 the bronze for slowly managing to turn me to the even darker side. Check out all of my favourite releases of the year below and make sure to check out the ones you haven't heard yet! Thank you to anyone that takes the time to read this and I hope you have a metal as hell 2020! Metal Yeti /../;,,;/../

1. Smoulder - Times of Obscene Evil and Wild Daring

Epic Doom Metal - Cruz del Sur Music

https://smoulder.bandcamp.com/

2. Tomb Mold - Planetary Clairvoyance

Death Metal - 20 Buck Spin

https://www.facebook.com/tombmold/

3. 1349 - The Infernal Pathway

Black Metal - Season of Mist

https://1349som.bandcamp.com/

4. Blood Incantation - The Hidden History of the Human Race

Atmospheric Death Metal - Dark Descent Records 

https://www.facebook.com/astralnecrosis/

5. Equipoise - Demiurgus

Technical Death Metal - The Artisan Era 

https://equipoiseofficial.bandcamp.com/

6. Kaleikr - Heart of Lead

Progressive Death Metal - Debemur Morti Productions

https://kaleikr.bandcamp.com/

7. Witch Vomit - Buried Deep in a Bottomless Grave

Death Metal - 20 Buck Spin

https://www.facebook.com/WebsOfHorror

8. Flub - Flub

Technical Death Metal - The Artisan Era

https://flub.bandcamp.com/

9. Gatecreeper - Deserted

Death Metal - Relapse Records

https://gatecreeper.bandcamp.com/

10. Chainbreaker - Lethal Desire

Speed Metal - Hells Headbangers Records

https://chainbreaker-canada.bandcamp.com/

11. Iapetus - The Body Cosmic

Progressive Metal - Independent

https://iapetusband.com/

12. Blut aus Nord - Hallucinogen  

Atmospheric Black Metal - Debemur Morti Productions

https://blutausnord.bandcamp.com/album/hallucinogen

13. Desecravity - Anathema

Technical / Brutal Death Metal - Willowtip Records

https://desecravity.bandcamp.com/

14. Cloak - The Burning Dawn 
Black Metal - Season of Mist
https://cloakatlanta.bandcamp.com/

15. Spirit Adrift - Divided by Darkness

Doom Metal - 20 Buck Spin

https://spiritadrift.bandcamp.com/releases

16. Nile - Vile Nilotic Rites

Technical Death Metal - Nuclear Blast

https://www.facebook.com/nilecatacombs

17. Plaugebringer - Diabolos

Technical Death Metal - Independent

https://plaguebringercanada.bandcamp.com/

18. Xoth - Interdimensional Invocations

Death/Black Metal - Independent

https://xoth.bandcamp.com/

19, Revel in Flesh - The Hour of The Avenger

Death Metal - War Anthem Records

https://www.revelinflesh.com/

20. Duskwalker - All They Know Is Fear

Heavy/Death Metal - Independent

https://www.facebook.com/DuskwalkerOfficial

21. Hath - Of Rot and Ruin

Progressive Blackened Death Metal - Willowtip Records

https://hathnj.bandcamp.com/

22. Possessed - Revelations of Oblivion

Death Metal - Nuclear Blast

https://possessedofficial.com/

23. VLTIMAS - Something Wicked Marches In

Blackened Death Metal - Season of Mist

https://www.facebook.com/VLTIMAS/

24. Allegaeon - Apoptosis

Technical Death Metal - Metal Blade Records

https://allegaeon.bandcamp.com/

25. Traveler - Traveler

Heavy Metal - Gates of Hell Records

https://travelermetal.bandcamp.com/album/traveler

26. Musmahhu - Reign of the Odius

Blackened Death Metal - Iron Bonehead Productions

https://ironboneheadproductions.bandcamp.com/album/musmahhu-reign-of-the-odious

27. Memoriam - Requiem For Mankind

Death Metal - Nuclear Blast

http://www.memoriam.uk.com/

28. Demiurgon - The Oblivious Lure

Death Metal - Everlasting Spew Records

https://demiurgon.bandcamp.com/

29. Ossuarium - Living Tomb
Death Metal - 20 Buck Spin
https://ossuarium.bandcamp.com/

30. Devin Townsend - Empath

Progressive Metal - HevyDevy Records

https://www.hevydevy.com/

Honourable Mentions:  Cerebral Rot, Venom Prison, Alcest, Tribe of Pazuzu, Shadow of Intent, Veilburner, Runespell. Hannes Grossman, Hammerfall, Entheos, Amon Amarth, Mystifier, Barnoness, Children of Bodom, Mayhem, Idle Hands, Devourment, Cult of Luna, Diabolic Night, Hellripper, Jinjer, Mgla, Haunt, Woorms, Numenorean, Bask, Mgla, Oosing Wound, Fetid, Mizmor, Bewitcher, Death Angel, Cattle Decap, Insomnium, Fuming Mouth, Vastum, False,

If you're looking for even more new music to check out, here are my AOTY lists from previous years!
2018 - https://heavymetalsasquatch.blogspot.com/2018/12/heavy-metal-yetis-best-metal-albums-of_9.html
2017 - https://heavymetalsasquatch.blogspot.com/2018/03/heavy-metal-yetis-best-metal-albums-of.html
2015/2016 - https://heavymetalsasquatch.blogspot.com/2016/12/metal-yetis-best-metal-albums-of-2015.html
2014 - https://heavymetalsasquatch.blogspot.com/2014/12/heavy-metal-sasquatchs-top-fourteen.html

- Metal Yeti /../;,,;/../

Cattle Decapitation @ The Opera House (Dec 4, 2019)

     Cattle Decapitation are one of those bands that have always turned heads. From their unapologetic album art, to their lifestyle choices and lyrical content, they strike a chord with the unsettling reality we find ourselves living in. Metal has always been about looking into the eyes of the demons that haunt us and harnessing that power. Cattle Decapitation expose a modern frustration with our current societal trajectory. Their latest release, 'Death Atlas' warns of the ends of humanity and helps provide the tools to process the situation. The only way we can fix out problems is by facing them head on!

     Last night was Toronto’s turn for the stacked Genocidal Tendencies Tour. Unfortunately, this tour has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Full of Hell had their van and gear stolen and last night Author & Punisher couldn’t make it to the show due with break down issues. None the less the devastation must go on. I just missed Vitriol, but I arrived at the Opera House right as the legendary Atheist took the stage. They’re old school death metal and hardcore attitude was great to get the energy up for a Wednesday night. It was nice to bask in some good old Florida death before cranking up the notch for a more modern headliner.

     Cattle Decap showed a lot for love to Canada during their set and the fans reciprocated. They opened with the first several songs off 'Death Atlas', “Anthropogenic: End Transmission” and “The Geocide”. They did have a mix of older songs with “A Living, Breathing Piece of Defecting Meat”, “Forced Gender Reassignment”, “Mammals in Babylon”, and “Plaugeborne” absolute crowd pleasers to be expected. You can tell an new album is damn good when even with the material so fresh, the crowd sings loudly and rages in the pit to all the right parts. 'Death Atlas' is another fantastic release from this killer band. Cheers to the bands that played, the ones that wished they could, and all the crazy animals in the pit! Check out some photos and video from the night below!

Cattle Decapitation 

The cattle were decapitated and it was awesome! 🔥🐄🔥 pic.twitter.com/sscGA8aYvX

— Heavy Metal Yeti (@HeavyMetalYetii) December 5, 2019

Atheist

-Metal Yeti /../;,,;/../