Mage Commander

Reviews

Mage Commander Moon Worship cassette

I remember this one-man-band’s demo tape for two things: the rad anarchist frog, and Rotten Ron absolutely roasting it. Have you ever walked into a Guitar Center during one of their big sales events? Shredders from all walks of life and every subgenre creep out of the sewers to show off their technical prowess (usually by playing the intro to “One” by METALLICA). Imagine that sound on a tape, and you’d have MAGE COMMANDER. Rudimentary, angry hardcore with constant thrash leads. Not crossover, or thrash itself, or blackened punk—three-chord USHC with intertwining solos, bent notes, and finger-tapped phrases tangling around very simple punk. It’s just an odd mix that is never compelling enough to rise above to being an odd mix in a good way. I admire the tenacity of sending in a full-length when the demo was not well-received, but it’s unfortunately destined to stay in the bedroom studio. The frog is cool, though.

Mage Commander Demo 2023 cassette

Oh Jesus. I could be totally wrong, but this reeks of a one-man bedroom project where some technically knowledgeable human decides to put down the video game controller, make self masturbatory guitar music (debatable), and put it out to the world in hopes of gathering praise or in a sadistic attempt to force one’s art (debatable) down people’s throats. Sure, you could say this about much of the great black metal music of yore, but this ain’t that, my friend. If you check online, you can even see videos of this talented soul self-stroking his stringed member over a video game rhythm section, and it’s very much a Guitar Hero version of thrash metal punk with some prog moments. Message to our readers: “If you feel the overwhelming urge to put your homemade laptop music on a viable punk format and send it in, please don’t. Thanks and goodnight. -RR.”