As we start to slow down with the approach of Christmas, there are still some major titles to explore. Alternative and doom metal in particular are having a surge this week.
-(16)- – Into Dust
Genre: Sludge metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
This album manages the golden feat of delivering both familiar, pleasing genre elements as well as stimulating variations on the formula. There’s never any doubt that this is crushing, raspy sludge to its very core, but they change it up with groovy fun, a bit of hardcore speed ramps and the occasional rhythmic acrobatics display. The tone is nice and dark, which contributes to making it feel lead heavy all the way through, but it never gets stuck in a mire of heel dragging ponderousness, which helps the progression immensely and leaves you wanting more at the end.
Highlights: “Misfortune Teller” and “The Floor Wins”.
Amon Acid – Cosmogony
Genre: Doom/psychedelic metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Think doomy psychedelia with a bit of a middle Eastern vibe, and chances are good you got this one nailed down before you even start. The guitars are just the right level of fuzzy, the vocals slightly muted and the tempo mid to low. A tad predictable, but still quality.
Astrosaur – Portals
Genre: Progressive/doom metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5
This album gives me some of the same vibes as I got from Enslaved’s Utgard (absolutely love that album), but this is even less genre bound than that. It feels like undertaking a cosmic journey, and certainly not one zipping soundlessly through the vast nothingness. There are events to behold and places to visit. You get a host of different flavor inputs – heavy riffing, adventurous shreds, utterly organic rhythms, tons of atmosphere, dissonance and harmony, darkness and light. It’s all instrumental, but you hardly notice, cause this music speaks.
Highlights: “The Deluge” and “Reptile Empire”.
Aurora Borealis – Prophecy is the Mold in Which History is Poured
Genre: Death/black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Very intense and and direct blackened death metal that sounds a bit like some of Behemoth’s early stuff sped up. It borders on technical, and is indeed well performed, but sounds thematically a bit nondescript, and the tone could have been better communicated by them slowing down every now and then.
Avandra – Prodigal
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A bit of an odd mix leaves this mostly serene progressive album with vocals obscured behind bass, distracting effects and instrumental work, and riffs that feel a bit naked. The atmospheric parts are quite beautiful, but the intense ones feel like they utterly lack direction.
Blood Of The Wolf – IV: The Declaration Of War Eternal
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
What this bands gets the most right about this album is their sound, or rather their style. With Vader-like vocals and mildly thrash inspired, malicious-toned riffing, this homes right in on that crunchy dry sound that the likes of Endseeker employ very effectively. Now they just need to write some slightly more memorable songs.
Candlemass – Sweet Evil Sun
Genre: Doom/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
This is classic Candlemass in most of the ways that matter. You get all of the gloomy, musky-medieval-cellar tone, the driving crunch-fuzz riffs and the classic metal, ghost-story vocals on top. There are little to no surprises, but what actually detracts from the experience is how clean it sounds. With little to no background atmosphere/noise spill, the riffs and drums take on a staccato quality that makes nodding along to it feel just a little robotic. Other that that, all is well in the land of doom.
Disturbed – Divisive
Genre: Alternative metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
Apart from the album title sounding like the band is either goading its critics into making puns about the predicted reception of the album, or just being butthurt about the feedback they’ve been getting on their more recent shift in sound, there isn’t all that much to remark about Divisive. It’s a slight turn towards the heaviness of the past, but really only on the surface. At its core this is accessible hard rock in wolf’s clothing. The riffs are as catchy as ever, even downright tasty at times, but the melodies are fairly bland, and some of the harmonies simply do not work.
Doomsday – Depictions Of Chaos (EP)
Genre: Thrash metal/hardcore
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
All aboard the riff train! If this doesn’t give you an energy boost, you’re most likely in a coma. And deaf. This is strutting thrash with the attitude turned up to street punk. It’s highly endearing, and every aspect of the music matches the enthusiastic tempo flow perfectly. The squealing guitar bends kick in at just the right moments, and the drum fills bolster every single transition that might otherwise feel clunky. Any fan of lively metal should have fun with this one.
Highlights: “Depictions of Chaos” and “Poisoned Disorder”.
Foehammer – Monumentum
Genre: Doom/death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
At times this thing sounds like some engine of hell played in super slow motion. In parts the engine gets to rest, and the lingering bass acts as the backdrop to some sinister atmospheric parts. The hectic drum work demands a lot of attention throughout, as the only energetic part, which highlights the fact that not a lot else is going on.
Jaded Heart – Heart Attack
Genre: Heavy metal/hard rock
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
Melodic heavy metal with hard rock rhythms and semi-operatic vocals that fail to completely harmonize with the instruments.
Kill Ritual – Kill Star Black Mark Dead Hand Pierced Heart
Genre: Thrash/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
With an album title like that you start hoping for something strutting with youthful exuberance, or at least a bit og humor. Sadly, you get neither. This is thrash bordering on heavy metal, with slightly messy arrangements and a very run-of-the-mill sound.
Rising Steel – Beyond The Gates Of Hell
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Now for some good old fun heavy metal with a larger than life theme, catchy, thrash-like riffs and some pretty sweet solo work. The vocals are appropriately high pitched and slightly rusty and you can tell the whole band is just working to get you in the groove and nodding along.
Scars Of The Flesh – In Darkness Alone
Genre: Melodic death/black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Not exactly a full-length, containing only five original songs and four covers, it’s still enough to get a good taste of what this band is about. You get blackened melodeth aplenty, with just a touch of a modern, deathcore feel. It’s structured and fairly tight, for now lacking the maturity to bring it all together into something that can truly stand out, but the potential is absolutely there.
SteppenDoom – SteppenDoom
Genre: Ambient doom/folk metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
If The Hu is a tad too lively for you, but you really enjoy throat singing, then this might just be for you. This is dark, ritualistic, bordering on mournful doom with a strong Mongolian folk influence. A lot of it is funeral doom slow, but instead of it sounding sinister, it feels more like a chant. Foreboding, but not evil.
Tallah – The Generation Of Danger
Genre: Nu/alternatve metal/hardcore
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5
This feels a lot like what Slipknot’s first album might sound like if it was made today. It’s got the same shake-you-madly-by-your-collar rhythms and demented vocal style that follow the intensity of the music perfectly, as if the instruments do nothing but project the emotions behind them. Even the drums sound the same. You get a fair bit more hardcore and deathcore influences on here though, and the band have their own quirky melodic tangents that they switch into at opportune moments, which gives this its own character. It’s heavy, its energy is infectious, and it keeps on doing new things all the way though. A very easy recommendation.
Highlights: “Shaken (not stirred)” and “Dicker’s Done”.
Threshold – Dividing Lines
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Melodic, expansive prog metal of the near-symphonic and shred-y kind. They’ve got some good hard rock groove in the riffs, and the synth work is vibrant. For a prog album it’s a bit straightforward, but it’s very well produced, and sounds inviting if you’re looking for a clean, uplifting, guitar driven experience.
Visceral – The Tree of Venomous Fruit
Genre: Experimental death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Without doing any research, this strikes me as a concept album. The tone and rhythms is chaotically organic throughout, without growing completely wild. There is a fair bit of dissonance, and both vocals and instruments sound hostile. It falls a bit in between the chairs of plain weird and standard dark death metal, not really standing out in either regard, but it’s still a bold attempt for a first album.
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 