AVATAR – Avatar Ages Livestream [Part II – Age Of Illusions] (January 16th, 2021)
Sweden’s prime purveyors of theatrical prowess with a modern metallic edge seem undaunted by the tumultuous time that is the present. Having served up a…
Author Jonathan Smith
Jonathan Smith
Jonathan is a long time contributor to The Encyclopaedia Metallum website under the pseudonym hells_unicorn and has written for The Metal Observer on and off for the past 10 years. He was previously a lead guitarist in the Philadelphia-based folk metal band Frost Giant and played Dave Murray’s parts for the Philly-based Iron Maiden tribute band Tailgunner. He is currently the guitarist and principal songwriter for the nascent symphonic power metal project Ominous Glory.
Dread Sovereign – Alchemical Warfare (Album Review)
Medieval pursuits of virology commence. Being original doesn’t necessitate reinventing the wheel. In fact, bringing some freshness into the equation could consist in simply doing…
AVATAR – Avatar Ages Livestream [Part I – Age Of Dreams] (January 9th, 2021)
Fortune may favor the bold, but in this day and age where live concerts are indefinitely on hold and live streaming is the rule, the…
Alta Reign – Mother’s Day (Album Review)
Enter the wrath of Mother Nature. The old adage of better late than never has become something of an understatement of late, as a number…
Pitch Black – Death & Disbelief (Album Review)
Accessible thrash begets modern disbelief. Modernity is something of a vague concept when applied to metal, and can be best understood as an assertion of…
Amiensus – Abreaction (Album Review)
Epic torrents arise from an unconscious experience. It’s a difficult task, being an American band attempting to hold a candle to the colossal accomplishments of…
Mörk Gryning – Hinsides Vrede (Album Review)
The dawn of a new darkness rising. The 2nd wave of black metal is commonly regarded as a Norwegian phenomenon given the infamy surrounding certain…
Cursed Blood – Taker of Life (Album Review)
Darkness arises from the thrashing depths. The link between death metal and hardcore is not as tenuous as some might suspect, and while the two…
Johansson & Speckmann – The Germs Of Circumstance (Album Review)
The master of yesterday and today. Rogga Johansson is arguably the busiest man in death metal these days, juggling dozens of currently active projects and…
Glacier – The Passing of Time (Album Review)
An arctic blast from American metal’s past. If the prior decade has taught anything, it is that the ebb and flow of trends has a…
