Ready to get carried away? We’ve got a good dose of atmospheric and symphonic music this week to expand upon the heavy. Some of it superbly immersive, some not quite getting it right. Let’s see if we can sort them apart.
Anvil – Impact Is Imminent
Genre: Heavy metal/hard rock
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
We set off with some heavy, rowdy rock n’ roll from these veterans. Long story short, it’s decent fun, but sounds a bit stale – lacking in energy and relying on old tricks.
Assumption – Hadean Tides
Genre: Death/doom metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Here we got some fairly understated death metal of the dark, slow paced variant. Their approach is somewhat in line with funeral doom – trying to conjure an eerie, solemn atmosphere. Which they do, but unfortunately lacks any real standout features for the subgenre.
Blut Aus Nord – Disharmonium – Undreamable Abysses
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5
This album is an experience. You’re taking a deep dive into a dark and harrowing world, like consciously exploring a nightmare. It almost feels interactive, as the soundscape sucks you in and inspires you to visualize your own version of this frightening journey that you unwittingly embarked on by pressing play. While the immersion is sublime, I find myself wishing for a little more variation, broadening the spectrum of emotions I get to tackle throughout the duration of the album. Jump into “That Cannot Be Dreamed” and “Chants of the Deep Ones” and see where they take you.
Bog Body – Cryonic Crevasse Cult
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 3/5
An absolutely bass-dominated experience, so much so it’s almost comical. Which is a shame, because it drowns out some otherwise stand out moments of raw riffing and frigid atmosphere.
Brandy And The Butcher – Lucky Foot
Genre: Stoner/hard rock
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Some punky stoner rock that I feel is let down slightly by its production, sacrificing instrumental power for vocal clarity. I like the attitude on this one, but it’s not quite matched by the overall intensity, instead turning to more groove-oriented rock riffs.
Cave In – Heavy Pendulum
Genre: Progressive/expansive sludge metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
This feels like what could be if Mastodon went in a slightly different direction. There is definitely a lot of the same tone and level of creativity on here. The album feels spacey in theme and ambitious in scope – perhaps a little over-ambitious. I don’t strictly think the 70 minute runtime was necessary, and some trimming might have made it more focused. That being said, they manage to cover a wide array of approaches to describing an impressively cohesive vision of a sonic landscape. The riffs are nice and sludgy and there is great variation in intensity from both vocals and instruments. Check out “Searchers of Hell” and “Blood Spiller”.
Come To Grief – When The World Dies
Genre: Sludge/doom/death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A hostile and gloomy album to go with the end of the world. It’s heavy, with raspy, fierce vocals and slow, steady beats. It’s pretty right on theme, and I like the tone and production of it all, but once you’ve heard a couple of songs you’ve kind of heard it all.
The Dark AlamortÉ – Lunacrium Thepsis
Genre: Atmospheric/melodic death/black metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5
After the most typical atmospheric black metal opening you can imagine, this thing gradually expands into full bloom to reveal its true, bleak colors – exploding with haunted grandeur and anguished fury, tempered only by moments of mournful melodies. There’s a definite black metal darkness permeating the entire listening experience, but especially the second half of this 77 minute behemoth is almost purely melodic, atmospheric death metal. And they visit a range of styles – groove, technical, industrial, deathcore, and more. It all sounds modern without trying to be trendy. The vocals remind me of Fleshgod Apocalypse, and so does some of the more symphonic parts in the way that they’re so well molded in with the brutality. I also hear influences like Rivers of Nihil and a bit of the Gothenburg sound on here, but in the end they’ve managed to make it all their own. It might be a little longer than necessary and it might not be ideally structured, which is two of only a very few things keeping me from giving it top marks, cause there are so many songs on here I freaking love. Do yourself a favor and listen to “Tempest Barren Furor” and the title track “Lunacrium Thepsis”.
Evergrey – A Heartless Portrait (The Orphean Testament)
Genre: Progressive/symphonic metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
A larger than life record bursting at the seams with grand melodies, wicked solos and chugging prog riffs. There’s a bit of aggression backing up the slightly Michael Bolton-y vocals, chanting and soaring synth harmonies, which suits it rather well. It’s massively overproduced in order to sound big, muting the riffs, processing the vocals and adding all sorts of digital glitter. Which bothers me, but probably not the fan base.
Geezer – Stoned Blues Machine
Genre: Stoner/psychedelic metal/rock
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Here’s a bit of cool, heavy stoner rock for you with a slight touch of Rob Zombie to it. It gets a bit spacey now and then, which is to be expected, and is made by people who are very clearly comfortable with the genre.
Gronibard – Regarde Les Hommes Sucer
Genre: Goregrind/comedy
Subjective rating: 3
Objective rating: 3
A record that pairs grindcore with comedic vocals and basing it all around immature humor. It has some real musical merit though, with some pretty sweet, heavy riffs. If you don’t mind you extreme metal very, very silly, then go for it.
Helsott – Will And The Witch
Genre: Folk/melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A very firmly folk metal oriented sound that’s built around fairly straight hard rock rhythms. It leans into the rousing melodeath territory of the likes of Amon Amarth every now and then, but doesn’t seem to aspire to the same heaviness. The theme is clearly supposed to be the wild west, but that really doesn’t become apparent in anything but the lyrics.
Lucer – The New World
Genre: Progressive/symphonic metal
Subjective rating: 1/5
Objective rating: 2/5
Some very simple, anthemic hard rock with few other apparent ambitions than to achieve commercial success.
Luminous Vault – Animate The Emptiness
Genre: Industrial/black metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Here’s some black metal where it seems a computer has been put in charge of setting the rhythm, and the humans fill inn with tremolo riffs, hoarse screaming and a bit of atmospheric melody. The potential for something more listener friendly is there, as they tease some great black n’ roll riffs every now and then, but never really keep it up.
Malevolence – Malicious Intent
Genre: Groove metal/hard/metalcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 4/5
A valiant effort at marrying groove metal and hardcore, while adding some metalcore harmonies for a smidge more accessibility. And while they’ve thankfully not gone for the type of sugar-sweet choruses you get in the more baby-faced end of the metalcore spectrum, these clean parts still remind me of the likes of Five Finger Death Punch, which I don’t think works too well for them. As far as the heavy parts go, it’s a constant back-and-forth between bangin’ grooves and riffs specifically designed to start circle pits or stompy breakdowns. Some might find that this works well together, I think they leech energy off of each other, leaving a slightly schizophrenic result. The execution is great though.
MNRVA – Hollow
Genre: Doom/stoner metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Another band this week channeling a bit of that Rob Zombie punky madman-vibe. Unfortunately it’s not really matched my any sort of antics on the instrumental side. It’s nice and fuzzy-heavy, but a bit predictable.
Mortal Thrall – A Path To Fire
Genre: Atmospheric/avant-garde black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
A record where every song seems to take on a slightly different variation of the same overall tone, which makes for a very consistent sounding result. The melodies are of the atmospheric, slow-burn variant, and most of the time backed up by the staccato drums and tremolo picking you expect from the subgenre. Some of it does end up feeling a bit repetitive. The vocal style hits a very suitable level of harshness and they do mix it up with some rhythm variations.
OPHE – Somnium Nocte Mendaciis
Genre: Noise/avant-garde black metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
Some dissonant, fairly low-fi black metal with a vocal style that sounds mid-regurgitation, working with protracted, disturbing melodies and a good bit of spoken-word parts.
Organ Trail – Appetite For Dissection
Genre: Grindcore/death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
This is a fast and furious, classic pairing of grindcore and death leaning heavily into tongue-in-cheek morbid territory. That’s pretty much all you need to know, really.
Predatory Light – Death And The Twilight Hours
Genre: Black/gothic metal
Subjective rating: 3.5.5
Objective rating: 3/5
A somewhat subdued, slightly doomy black metal album of four songs, channeling a bit of Tribulation spookiness. They’re on to something here, but even with some solid ingredients they don’t quite manage to conjure up something larger than the sum of its part.
Rod Rodrigues – Tales Of A Changing Life, Part.1
Genre: Instrumental progressive metal/shred
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
What I imagine must be a total chill album for prog enthusiasts. This is pure guitar wanking, but done to mostly upbeat, carefree rhythms and melodies that gets you in a good mood.
Sadist – Firescorched
Genre: Progressive death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
A death metal record that gets up to all kinds of instrumental antics, with kinds of an 80s spooky-synth theme running throughout. It’s genuinely adventurous, and even though some of the prog tangents are a little distracting, it makes for a varied listening experience. Unfortunately, it’s quite badly produced, robbing it of most all of its beefiness.
Sadistic Ritual – The Enigma, Boundless
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
This is thrash with elements of early black metal, and just a bit of grindcore relentlessness. It still retains a decent bit of melody, which is one of its strong suits, as well as delivering riff focused sections with enough of a hook to get your head moving. It’s pretty aggressive all the way through, with a vocal style that wouldn’t be out of place in classic death metal, but they contrast it with a slightly melancholy tone that even works its way into the lively guitar solos. Check out “Murmur” and “Area Denial”.
Septicflesh – Modern Primitive
Genre: Symphonic death/gothic metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Septicflesh is golden proof that symphonic and gothic-tinged metal can still be brutal. This is music for dark, cavernous halls covered in tapestries and frescoes depicting unholy scenes of death and damnation. It’s almost over-the-top grandiose and ceremonious, but grounds it in some solid death metal riffing and demon-roar vocals. It’s an ambitious effort, trying to blend the majestic symphonies and raging brutality, and to me they only partially succeed. The melding of the two, and transitions from parts where one side dominates over the other, could be a lot smoother. One side wants to flow, the other wants to stomp, and the resulting dance is a little unbalanced.
Space Of Variations – Imago (EP)
Genre: Metalcore/nu-metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Some fairly heavily processed metalcore varying between hiphop beats, synthetic melodies and deathcore heaviness. It definitely feels like an attempt at making standalone hits rather than a cohesive EP.
Spheric Universe Experience – Back Home
Genre: Progressive/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
This is classic, spacey prog metal with a strong tendency to slip into ballad-y realms. The obligatory instrumental antics are in place, but it’s traditional, uncomplicated melodies driving the music.
Texas Murder Crew – Wrapped in Their Blood
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
Here we got some heavy-for-the-sake-of-it death metal that’s all about slamming guitars and staccato rhythms. There’s hardly any variation on here, so this is solely for those looking for a fix.
Thy Kingdom Will Burn – The Void And The Vengeance
Genre: Melodic death/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
Calling this death metal is a bit of a stretch, even though it bears a lot of the hallmarks of the melodic side of the genre. What it lacks is heaviness, which might very well be a conscious choice, but the melodies alone are not strong enough to carry it, and also aren’t a good match for the harsh vocal style.
Vaamatar – Medievalgeist
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Some black metal that sounds like it takes at least part of its inspiration from classic horror movies. You get your typical frantic drumming and tremolo in here, and a fairly muted production, but also moments of levity with rock n’ roll rhythms and more protracted, doomy parts with somber melodies.
Zinny Zan – Lullabies For The Masses
Genre: Hard Rock
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
This is slightly blues-y, rusty hard rock that’s much more cruising than pedal to the metal. It has a bit too much ballad-y material, and doesn’t exactly radiate energy, but has just enough hooks and attitude to make it worthwhile for the right listener.
As always, if you think I’m completely off on an observation, unfairly dissed your favorite band or need to give an album another shot, do feel free to express yourself in the comments section below.
The Metal Dispatch 