A week that has pretty much everything. No matter if you like it dark, weird, fast, slow, complex, straightforward or epic, there’s a flavor for you in here.
Aviscerus – Visceral Depths
Genre: Progressive death/groove metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Being the first attempt at a full-length concept and style, this is more than just pretty good. You get groove riffs, low death growls and a rhythm that restlessly refuses to settle. A bit more of a cohesion vision when putting it all together might have been beneficial, but that will doubtlessly improve with maturity.
Black Spell – Season Of The Damned
Genre: Doom/psychedelic metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
The kind of music that just has to be accompanied with black and white hypnotic patterns and floating skulls. This sounds mostly far out there and like you’re listening to it underwater, and when it’s heavy it’s pretty raw and punky for a doom record.
Bonecarver – Carnage Funeral
Genre: Symphonic deathcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
The soundtrack to the infernal torture factory has arrived. This is gleefully chaotic, grandiose deathcore that could have benefited from a fuller sound. There is little doubt that this belongs in the fires below, although the tone is a bit nondescript in favor of deep-dissonant guitars for the sake of brutality. The playing is impressively precise though.
Borders – Bloom Season
Genre: Metalcore/electronic/rap metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Wriggly-toned, electronica-infuses, rap-driven and with some heavy, djent-dissonant riffs. Other than that… heck, all the song titles are written in all caps. You know exactly what you’re getting.
Casket Robbery – Rituals Of Death
Genre: Death/groove metal/grindcore
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
If you’re just looking for some madly furious, flesh ripping metal, then look no further. This one brings the murderous riffs on a runaway conveyor belt of rolling bass drums, and snarls at you with a vocal style like that of a rabid wolverine. You shouldn’t expect much rest, but there is enough groove and ominous tone embedded in there for your mind to cling on to. Mosh away to “Worm Food” and “Old Ones”.
Chelsea Grin – Suffer In Hell
Genre: Deathcore
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Get ready for a beatdown. This is pretty much everything you’d expect and demand from this violent deathcore unit – djent-heavy guitars, animalistic vocals and some truly excellent instrumental flourishes. There’s a spooky mood prevailing throughout, which ties well in with the theme. The rhythms have a progressive flair to them, and build up to some seriously monumental highs, considerably strengthening the album’s impact. Check out “Forever Bloom” and “The Isnis”.
City Of Industry – Spiritual West
Genre: Avant-garde hardcore
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A stark and hollow-eyed hardcore sound that feels a bit like a nihilistic poem. It’s definitely a more artsy listen, with sad melodies veiled behind dissonant guitars and wail-shouting, monotone vocals. Feels a bit like a too-realistic nightmare.
Constellatia – Magisterial Romance
Genre: Black/ambient metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
This feels like mild, avant-garde black metal riding atop a slow moving cloud of relaxing ambience – something you’d expect to find in the chillest parts of a Devin Townsend album. The mix is not at all a jarring one, but it does feel like the two sides are trying to accomplish unrelated things.
Destroyer of Light – Panic
Genre: Doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A mostly rather soft doom record centered around crawling grooves and slow, gloomy melodies, with slightly disharmonious vocals. A few songs are absolutely worth your patience, but far from all of them.
Detherous – Unrelenting Malevolence
Genre: Death/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
This one is just fun. Death metal roughness and grime zooming ahead on a relentless thrash train, drums hammering like mad and riffs ripping in and out of grooves. It feels a little unhinged at times, both in a good and less-so way, but it”ll still provide solid entertainment.
Dirt Forge – Interspheral
Genre: Atmospheric sludge metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Here’s one to sink into. You wouldn’t necessarily think that sludge lends itself particularly well to atmosphere, but Dirt Forge has hit just the right level of doom tone that everything blends beautifully. Deliciously crispy riffs melt into silky, mystical, and ever so slightly psychedelic currents. The bass plays a vital part in boosting these slower parts with character, making them move without necessitating distinctly progressive rhythms. Add on top perfectly rusty vocals and playful fuzz-riffing reminiscent of Mastodon, and you’ve got yourself a winner. Give it a go with “Highest Low” and “Left in the Lurch”.
Dream Unending – Song Of Salvation
Genre: Atmospheric/ambient doom/death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
A very two-sided experience, this album lures you in with a melding of melodic death doom and dreamy atmosphere, then leaved the two separated, with the latter taking over the middle and the heavy, livelier parts confined to start and finish. The immersion is sublime all across though, and you can’t help but marvel at the mildly restrained guitar and rhythm work. The tone feels otherworldly – in a half-dreamed alternate reality way, rather than giving spacey vibes. And the overall interplay of elements is some of the best you’ll hear. Get a taste of both sides to this album with “Ecstatic Reign” and “Secret Grief”.
Drudkh – Всі належать ночі (All Belong to the Night)
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Get ready to have a heavy cloak thrown over you, through which no light penetrates. This is atmospheric black metal that takes its sweet time building up, releasing bass-driven melancholic melodies as they go and culminating in well-crafted clashes of blasting drums and soaring guitars. It all very well controlled and shaped for endurance, as a casual listen will not reward you with much of what this band is about.
Encryptment – Dödens Födsel
Genre: Grindcore/hardcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A crusty riot of a light grindcore album, that’s headed nowhere but forward – straight into your face. You get some real bangers on here, and a bit of filler, but you’ll still enjoy yourself all the way through.
Forlesen – Black Terrain
Genre: Ambient doom/black metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A mostly very slow moving album that feels like a 28 minute buildup to the third song, which is a sudden outburst of dissonant black metal aggression, and then a subsequent 18 minute cooldown. Which makes it neither particularly relaxing or exhilarating, but a shadowed, melancholic somewhere in between.
Epica – The Alchemy Project
Genre: Symphonic/death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Epica has always had a bit of a mean streak for a symphonic band, but on this collab project, that streak has grown to a whole separate personality, thanks to a whole bunch of heavyweight guests. Fleshgod Apocalypse and God Dethroned being two of the meanest, but then you also get heavenly melody with Myrkur and Charlotte Wessels, rock ‘n roll groove with Shining and quite a bit more on top of that. Some of the style meldings work better than others, but as a bag of mixed sweets, this is pretty rewarding. A couple of highlights being “The Final Lullaby” and “The Great Tribulation”.
Féleth – Divine Blight
Genre: Technical death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Bordering on several variations of death metal – mainly melodic, technical and progressive – this feels very much like a young band trying to nail down their style. They’re already technically gifted – bringing to mind Sylosis in some of the more ferocious parts. There’s still a bit to go in crafting strong song identities, but you get treated to a host of impressive bits throughout.
Fell Ruin – Cast in Oil The Dressed Wrought
Genre: Death/black/doom metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A weird mix and slightly stumbling performances sadly take center stage on this rather interesting mix of progressive, stark and blackened death doom.
He Is Legend – Endless Hallway
Genre: Progressive groove/sludge metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Packing djenty prog, groove and a bit of dirty sludge on top of that Load/Reload southern hard-rocky twang might not be the first thing you’d think of for a success recipe, but these guys have got it working pretty damn well. It’s at its best when there’s a well up of aggression and experimentation, and less characteristic when the more streamlined alternative/neo-grungy sound gets to shine through, but as an alternative to some og the more extreme prog/groove albums out there this is something unique, cool and quite vibrant.
Inverted Matter – Harbinger
Genre: Progressive death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
An exploratory death metal album that’s not afraid of some twists and turns, even as it admirably clings to the same, classic death metal tone throughout. The production is quite muted, as if they put a lid over the whole thing, which might have worked better for a typically straightforward, morbid death banger, but robs this one of some fidelity.
Kampfar – Til Klovers Takt
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5
A triumphant blast of folk-saturated Norwegian black metal. You can practically feel the heat and smell the smoke of burning torches lining the late night stage. This one fully embraces the infusion of pagan, ritualistic elements, without letting go of its aggressive core. It sounds like the guys in Kampfar set out to create something that could rival the grandest of dark classical pieces with this one, and in many ways they’ve succeeded. This would not feel out of place being played from a towering cliff outcrop, resounding down the fjords and stirring primitive emotions in the hearts of people for miles around. And yet it requires not a shred of bombastic, symphonic elements to do so. Take it all in with “Urkraft” and “Rekviem”.
Lamentations – Passion Of Depression
Genre: Progressive death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
A very on/off intensity type of progressive album, with acoustic bliss getting violently interrupted by jackhammer drums and roaring death vocals to erratic rhythms. There’s a lot of instrumental talent to unwrap along the way, and if you’re fine with letting the music take you wherever whenever, you’ll have quite the trip. For some, the contrasts might be a little too dominant, but there’s a delightful amount of detail to discover if you’re feeling adventurous. Start with “Anew” and “Sombre”.
Mantric Momentum – Trial By Fire
Genre: Power/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
This is slightly gritty power metal that at its best radiates energy and brings to bear some truly awesome riffs and solos, but gets a bit stale and traditional, particularly with its rhythms, on the songs where it feels like they’re taking a bit of a breather.
MMXX – Sacred Cargo
Genre: Doom metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
A melodic doom collaboration project not too far off Paradise lost. You get darkened melody meant for drifting across empty, fog bathed landscapes, and folk-inspired knots of heavy riffs and mournful vocals. It’s beautiful, well performed and quite serene, but, each song is a bit too content staying the course set from the start, and you don’t much in the way of surprises or considerable variation.
Munroe’s Thunder – The Black Watch
Genre: Power/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 1.5/5
Objective rating: 2/5
Power metal aspiring to me a meld of Primal Fear catchiness and some medieval themed heavy metal, but stumbles off the start line with a poorly harmonized vocal performance and bland arrangements.
Ring Of Fire – Gravity
Genre: Neoclassical/power metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
This one certainly has the extravagant instrumental work you’d expect from neoclassical metal, but some of the grandeur gets lost in some fairly run-of-the-mill, power metal inspired arrangements and clichéd lyrics.
Skin Failure – Radillac
Genre: Thrash metal/hardcore
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
This is just as fun as you’d expect it to be with a title like “Radillac”. What you get is aggressive thrash metal with lots of attitude and personality. There is some dissonance, but it’s not front and center. The rest is pedal-to-the-metal riffing, a mix of clean and throat-rending vocals, and a couple of fairly pointless interludes. Some very slight psychedelic undertones provide a bit of extra character. Check out “Meat Pond/Down By The River” and “Giv’r By The River/As Bridges Fell (Metal Alarm Call)”.
Snipers Of Babel – Gabriel
Genre: Melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A melodeath album of substantial size, that mixes in a bit of groove, a bit of hardcore and some symphonic elements. The good songs are fairly strong, with some real headbanging value and interesting tone. But there is way too much filler on here.
Warkings – Morgana
Genre: Power metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5
Grab your sword and shield and let’s fucking go! Warkings seem to be one of the few bands to understand that power metal can be heavy. You get some of that rowdy folk metal energy, but mostly a very epic mood and a theme centered around Arthurian legend, powerful clean vocals with the occasional harsh switch, and several different flavors of riffs. On top are some excellent female vocals playing the part of Morgana, and they blend beautifully with the rest of the music. There are a bunch of standout songs on here and very little filler. Get hyped with “Monsters” and “Cry Thunder”.
Zeke Sky – Intergalactic Demon King
Genre: Progressive/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
A bit of a mixed experience, this one. The album is saturated with highly competent playing, classic prog style, and a good mix of aggression and power metal-oriented, slightly spacy, epic mellowness. On some songs though, the arrangements simply don’t work. So as a whole, this works best as a more casual listening experience.
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 