As the metal engine coughs into life after its eggnog-induced slumber, all sorts of weird and wonderful things tumble out of its delivery system.
Ahab – The Coral Tombs
Genre: Doom/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
On this you’re in for some progressive slow doom with elements of death metal. It feels heavy and purposeful, like it wants to tell you a tale of the ages. Especially the melodies sell a sense of gloomy adventure. Although, for an album thematically set to the dark and strange world of the ocean abyss, I would have expected a bit more atmosphere. The tone is suitably solemn, for sure, but it doesn’t quite manifest a feeling of the pressure of the deep, or the sounds of creatures vast and tiny moving around out of sight in the blackness, that could have made this a truly immersive experience.
Beyond The Black – Beyond The Black
Genre: Symphonic metal/hard rock
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A clean, smooth and rather straightforward symphonic metal experience with some nice melodic moments. The rhythm is quite predictable, ad although the lyrics aren’t offensively clichéd, they’re not exactly a breath of fresh air.
Crom – The Era Of Darkness
Genre: Heavy/power metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
A traditional heavy metal album that’s half playful, cheeky power metal with fantasy tendencies and half folk-leaning, slightly solemn epic ballads. There’s enough character in here that they successfully output a sound of their own, and even though the tonal approach to each song is a bit all over the place, there’s plenty of entertainment value for the adventure hungry.
Defy The Curse – Horrors Of Human Sacrifice
Genre: Death/sludge metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A naughty, crusty death metal record that seems serious on the surface, but is far too fond of bouncy rhythms to be taken with a straight face. This is fairly simple fun, with some fairly mild death metal brutality mixed with sludgy groove. There aren’t too many standout moments, and the sound could have been dirtier, but never gets boring.
Eisregen – Grenzgänger
Genre: Death/black/folk metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A rather haphazard mix of blackened death, playful folk metal and Rammstein-esque industrial. In a few ways it approaches the devil-may-care character of Finntroll, with snarly vocals, mock-spooky atmosphere and strong rock n’ roll vibes. While a bit silly, the entertainment value is not to be underestimated.
Gyaos:Diabolical – In Accordance With The Prophecy
Genre: Thrash/industrial/black metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A riotous, blunt instrument assault of blackened thrash with an industrial delivery. There’s clearly a message in the madness, and in that regard it feels a bit like a hardcore record. Variety is not this one’s strongest suit, and after a little while it gets hard to tell the songs apart.
HolyName – HolyName
Genre: Metalcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Solemn, modern metalcore ready to well over you in waves of djent-fueled aggression and near-meditative stretches of introspective, calming melody. Whether the two mix well is debatable, but the tone is very consistent. If you enjoy the sound and the message, then you’ll probably appreciate all of it. If not, you might very well find it kind of forgettable.
Obituary – Dying Of Everything
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5
Some times you just want a band to know instinctively what you want them to sound like (no, not always). No need for any big surprises. Obituary is one of those bands, and their intuition doesn’t fail them this time around either. While this is the classic, axe-swinging meat grinder all the way, they found some room for groove, which’ll have you pendulum-banging your head through one song after another. The tempo is mid to low, but it never feels like there’s glue in the gears, even when they slow things down to near-funeral doom in select sections. It’s smooth, perhaps a bit too much so, but the fact that these guys can still whip up such a shining example of how to make a distinct-sounding old school death metal album, without putting the recording mic inside a cardboard box, is just such a positive reinforcement of the rock-solid state of the genre today.
Highlights: “My Will to Live” and “War”.
Polar – Everywhere, Everything
Genre: Hardcore/alternative metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
This album feels a bit like tearing open an old wound. There’s rawness and hurt, and a fair bit of anger. They play around with the rhythms a fair bit on this one, although the soundscape remains fairly familiar to those well traveled in this particular musical territory.
Screamer – Kingmaker
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
A peppy, modern-retro heavy metal offering from Sweden. It’s got some of the epic, bold elements of the likes of Manowar, but also some of the sass and simplicity of the Hellacopters. The overall sound feels fine-tuned and honed, so there should be little question of the commitment to the niche. It’s definitely a feelgood album brimming with new-school nostalgia, throwing itself into catchy, rousing melodies and playful guitar work, albeit with a tasteful amount of restraint.
ten56. – Downer Part 2
Genre: Deathcore/nu metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
An interesting melding of deathcore brutality, hip-hop rhythms and a small dose of R&B melodic sensibilities. Mostly it’s fairly artificial-sounding, pounding heaviness, like glitching, computer-controlled heavy machinery lashing at you. Some personality gets lost in the processing of it all, but it’s great if you just want something to shake your eardrums and sound modern while doing it.
Turmion Katilot – Omen X
Genre: Industrial/disco metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Here’s your slice of rave-ready, snarling, Finnish blackened-ish disco-industrial metal, cause why the hell not? Sure, it doesn’t make a ton of sense (or does it?), but that’s hardly the point. If you’re like me, who wants your silly metal to still be heavy and aggressive enough that you can un-ironically headbang to it till you’re drunk enough to go improvise dance moves in the moshpit, then this should get you going.
Highlights: “Pyhä Kolminaisuus” and “Isä Meidän”.
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 