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In the beginning there was nothing.  Then, depending on your mindset, there was either a big explosion or some omnipotent entity did some serious DIY work.  Either way, eventually there was rock music (took a few years regardless of your evolutionary viewpoint) and rock music dominated most of the 70s.  Stadiums got sold out by the likes of Zeppelin and as the end of that decade came about a couple of now legendary acts like Motorhead and Priest had already become well established with their heavier style of rock - music that we all know to be heavy metal. As the 80's rolled around the NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal - just in case anybody has their head up their arse) was already gathering pace nicely.  If we speak of a "first wave" then Saxon are an inevitable necessity in any such conversation.  Although I have read reviews that suggest they were early progenitors of speed metal (the fuck?) Biff and the rest of the Barnsley Bikers took the melody of...

It is not often that here in the realm of Eminent Silence I am actually stunned into silence.  Rare indeed is it for a release to leave me speechless and reduced to little more than gaping jaws as my only sign of human interaction or response.  The fact is that when, earlier this month, my ears were first feasted upon by the two tracks premiered from Altarage's upcoming full length "Nihl" I got goose bumps.  I had no idea why Altarage had not appeared on my radar until now but thank fuck in the name of all that is unholy that they did. Stunned though I was by the cavernous, murky depths of the two teaser tracks that plagued my head for days afterwards, I was still completely unprepared for how utterly monstrous the full product actually is.  This ladies and gentlemen is death metal for the year 2016.  Forget all that you know, indeed dismiss every common notion of the genre that you hold because Altarage have no rule book. There's no particular form here, just...