Eyehategod, Left Hand Path #007, Dark Tranquillity, and more

This recent quote from Frank Urbancic, coordinator of counterterrorism for the US State Department, got me thinking.

“This is not the kind of war where you can measure success with conventional numbers. We cannot aspire to a single decisive battle that will break the enemy’s back, nor can we hope for a signed peace accord to mark victory.”

It reminded me of Orwell’s 1984, in which the world is perpetually at war. Here is an excerpt from the outlawed book within the book by Emmanuel Goldstein, the manufactured enemy of Big Brother.

“War, however, is no longer the desperate, annihilating struggle that it was in the early decades of the twentieth centary. It is a warfare of limited aims between combatants who are unable to destroy one another, have no material cause for fighting and are not divided by any genuine ideological difference… To understand the nature of the present war — for in spite of the regrouping which occurs every few years, it is always the same war — one must realize in the first place that it is impossible for it to be decisive.”

That, in turn, reminded me of Eyehategod’s “Peace Thru War (Thru Peace and War),” of which Lair of the Minotaur does a blistering cover on the For the Sick compilation, which I’ve reviewed for Stylus.

Lair of the Minotaur – Peace Thru War (Thru Peace and War)
The Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound – Occult Roots
Dark Tranquillity – The Lesser Faith

#007 of Stylus’ Left Hand Path is up, featuring reviews of Akimbo, The Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound, The Funeral Pyre, Gospel of the Horns, Mortuus, Necros Christos, Tyrant Throne, and Watain, among others. In the column, Stew Voegtlin interviews Israel-based black metal band Tangorodrim.

At Metal Injection, I’ve reviewed Chaotica by Behemoth, as well as new albums by Dark Tranquillity and Extinction of Mankind.

Nachtmystium has signed to Century Media?!

Sound of the Beast author Ian Christe has a new blog called Bang! Bang!. He’s posting old demo tapes, and those of you who read his old Demo-Lition blog will remember how awesome that was.

Man, Polish metal week nearly polished me off. Remind me not to review 14 albums in a week (plus two more and a DVD for other sites) ever again. But I learned about a ton of cool Polish bands, including some I didn’t write about. I hope you found some you liked, too.