We kickstart February with a compact delivery of seriously high quality content. Doom dominates at the top, showing off the full extent of its versatility, each record pulling you into a separate, vast universe to explore it at a haste-free pace.
All Out War – Celestial Rot
Genre: Hardcore/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
This is the kind of aggression where you start to wonder where they find the time to breathe. Once this starts, it goes full tilt until the point where someone probably cut the recording studio power and hauled the guys back to their padded cells. It’s got the classic spiked-bat hardcore mentality pulsing manically throughout, and so no matter if they dip into death metal, black metal or old school metalcore, there’s that let-the-world-burn energy overloading everything with chaotic exuberance. It’s unrefined, and probably not for those who prefer groove to raw energy, but it’s wake you up, that’s for sure.
Carathis – The Moonstone Temple (EP)
Genre: Black/gothic metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Black metal bands messing with the formula tend to be a lot of fun, or at least quite charming. This one falls somewhere in between, with what feels like a carefully cultivated “fun fair of the damned” flair to the tone, which invites you in to a world of endless trails of candle wax and spider webs. While it’s certainly not a dead serious kind of album, there are some genuinely solid melodies casting a tragic majesty upon the proceedings. The production is suitably low-fi, and the instrumental work focused rather than flamboyant.
Highlight: “The Prayer”.
Clouds Taste Satanic – Tales of Demonic Possession
Genre: Doom metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
A 4-song double disc album clocking in at 1 hour and 19 minutes playtime. Yes, it’s doom, and yes, it’s instrumental. If none of those things are deal breakers, then I see no reason why you won’t thoroughly enjoy this. It’s certainly long-form, but it’s not trying to be slow for slow’s sake. It’s not trying to depress you with an overwhelmingly gloomy tone or hypnotize you with a droning, repetitive rhythm. This is like a laid back journey atop the back of some massive beast plodding along at its own pace, taking you through shifting landscapes and events both monumental and insignificant, solely as an observer, with the perfect doomy guitar tone as your trusty companion.
Highlight: “Spirits of the Green Desert”
Elderseer – Drown In The Shallowness
Genre: Doom/melodic black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
This feels a bit like an old Dark Tranquillity album slowed way down. There’s the heavy riffs, the melancholic, sweeping melodies and the rasping growls. Add to that a slightly husky production finish and you’re most of the way there. The tone is great, although the style of playing on here doesn’t quite suit the tempo.
Endorphins Lost – Night People
Genre: Hardcore/grindcore
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A bloodshot, hoarse-throated gale of thrashing guitars and wild drumming. It certainly delivers on energy, and if you just want some music to stomp on you, you’ve got your thing right here.
Fvnerals – Let The Earth Be Silent
Genre: Ambient/cinematic doom metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Welcome to the horror of pitch black, unfathomable eternity closing in on you. There’s no escape from this cavernous soundscape that is created around you. At some points of the experience that feels fine, and at others it feels suffocating. It’s both subtle and grand, with a ritualistic, threatening tone that stretches out into uncaring endlessness, and then collapses on top of you with the crash of heavy riffs. If you’re fine with this being the prevailing idea for the whole album, you’ll probably love the immersion on here.
Highlights: “Ashen Era” and “Barren”
Memoriam – Rise To Power
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Saw-toothed death metal that isn’t afraid to ride the thrash train for a bonus speed boost. It’s what you’ve come to expect from Memoriam, with war-themed lyrics, characteristic hoarse vocals and a slightly sanded-down finish. At some points it feels like they slightly overestimate the groove that they’re able to conjure up on here, adding the odd guitar squeal to otherwise fairly flat riff sections. But for a grinder of a old school death metal record with medium low focus on melody it certainly feels like it’s earning it’s place on the contemporary scene.
Mithridatum – Harrowing
Genre: Progressive black/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
If dissonance is your thing then you’re getting seriously indulged with this one. It’s certainly not at the level where it’s just chaotic noise, but it constantly chooses to stay outside of reach of harmony, like it’s mocking your desire for a moment of clean melody. The rhythms swell and fade as they see fit, giving the flow of the album a life of its own. And it does move, never leaving you feeling stuck, although there doesn’t seem to be any obvious destination in mind.
Osiah – Chronos
Genre: Deathcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
It gets clear pretty quickly that the band is just out to rip and tear on this one. They throw themselves headlong into breakneck rhythm sections, punctuated by thundering bass and topped by eerie guitar work. There’s not a ton you won’t have heard before, but there’s still lots of goodies for fans of heavy technicality.
Rexoria – Imperial Dawn
Genre: Power/folk metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Sparkly, shouting-from-the-top-of-the-crystal-tower power metal with some folky tendencies. The lyrics and melodies are predictably cheesy, and the rhythms about as straightforward as you get, but the band’s performances are top notch.
Sanguisugabogg – Homicidal Ecstasy
Genre: Death/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Having evolved slightly from their last album, the band now appears to have some purpose beyond grabbing a hold of your brain through your ears and shaking it violently. Don’t worry though, this is still fucking heavy, and still in it for the shits and giggles, but there’s a whole level of attention devoted to rhythm, and very suitably expanded range of gurgly vocals. All in all, the same half-ironic, mallet-swinging savagery as before, but now coming at you from slightly unexpected angles.
WuW – L’Orchaostre
Genre: Avant-garde doom metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
This is doom that takes on a slow, unpredictable stagger, only occasionally broken up by rushes of impatient movement. It feels mostly rather unassuming, but builds up to these moments of forceful expression, and the way it moves along between its different states is a bit like a free-form dance. Given the bleak tone, this is not a soundscape to get comfortable in, but rather an invitation to a different perspective on life.
Highlights: “Orchaostre 1” and “Orchaostre 5”.
Xandria – The Wonders Still Awaiting
Genre: Symphonic metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
This sounds confident, vibrant and exceptionally clean, without coming off as overpolished. The sound reaches far, carried on impressive vocal talent and solidly crafted melodies sprinkled with folk tunes. The album is quite front heavy as far as quality goes, which makes it harder to defend the massive runtime, but the epic scope is prevalent within each song from start to finish.
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 