A fairly broad spectrum week showcasing some of the best that a good handful of subgenres have each respectively produced so far this year.
Allochiria – Commotion
Genre: Avant-garde sludge metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
What feels like an emotionally raw, even fragile, sludge output with elements of indie rock and some progressive elements.
Austere – Corrosion Of Hearts
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Autumnal, sweeping black metal that’s all about the mournful melodies.
Cadaveric Crematorium – Zombology
Genre: Death/groove metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
Rather dry and a bit flat sounding brutal death metal with a healthy dose of groove injected at somewhat irregular intervals.
Crown The Empire – Dogma
Genre: Metalcore/screamo
Subjective rating: 1.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
On-the-nose emotional on the one side, then the massive noise walls of harsh screams and slamming instruments hit.
Danava – Nothing But Nothing
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
This is like Zeppelin, Sabbath and early Maiden collided and somehow merged into one. You couldn’t get a more faithful injection of 70’s metal and hard rock without an actual time machine. And it’s blatantly obvious how much fun they’re having with it. Early metal enthusiasm meets prog restlessness and is grounded by the groove of early doom for a highly pleasing result that commands you to get up and move.
Highlights: “Let The Good Tmes Kill” and “Enchanted Villain”.
Defiled – The Highest Level
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Raw-to-the-bone death metal using some experimental rhythms that come off a bit more messy than was probably intended. A bit too much filler, but lots of cool sections.
Elvenking – Reader Of The Runes – Rapture
Genre: Power/folk metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Sure, all the stadium riffs and sing-along choruses are there, the mood is great, but the melodies don’t always quite land.
Enforced – War Remains
Genre: Thrash/hardcore
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Looking at the album cover, this is exactly what you hope it might sound like. Ripping aggression, a Slayer-like, menacing tone and just inexhaustible amounts of fuck-off energy. They give you both pedal-to-the-metal speed riffing and groove-laden breakdowns, and achieve a highly successful balance between caveman-instinct-pleasing bad-assery and actual message-conveying musical craftmanship.
Highlights: “Aggressive menace” and “Ultra-Violence”.
Erdling – Bestia
Genre: industrial metal/hard rock
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Dark, arena-oriented hard rock with some synth-laden industrial heaviness. Not very original, but catchy.
Existentialist – The Heretic
Genre: Symphonic/blackened deathcore
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
What might have been a satisfying shot of darkly majestic and brutal deathcore lost in an incredibly messy mix.
Exit Catacomb – No Escape from the Catacomb
Genre: Black/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A catchy, speed/traditional metal detour for a core black metal sound that lacks a little maturity before it’s fully there.
Fardeaux – The Den Has Become an Abyss
Genre: Black/death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
A terrifying descent into an abyss where reality itself shakes with thundering, organic rhythms and a demonic rasp hurls unholy incantations at you. This blends the fury of earlier Behemoth with some of the experimentation and disturbing atmosphere of Blut Aus Nord, and even though the result might be a little uneven, you’re in for quite the experience if you stick around.
Highlights: “Declining To Haj-Hjem-H…” and “Le Rituel Du Double”.
Fatuous Rump – I Am At Your Disposal
Genre: Brutal death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Over-the-top in its brutality and broken-garbage-disposal gurgling vocals, it’s actually quite entertaining.
Fires In The Distance – Air Not Meant For Us
Genre: Melodic death/doom metal
Subjective rating: 5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5
Following up 2020’s fantastic Echoes from Deep November, Fires in the Distance brings us a somewhat colder, but just as moving surge of slightly up-tempo doom-styled melodic death metal. This one feels a little more focused than their debut album, incorporating more classic Gothenburg-y melodeath elements, but retaining all their signature approaches of flowing transitions between rumbly riff heaviness to piano-led, gentle melodies that feel like trickling streams of healing energy in your mind. I’d be surprised to find a better meld of controlled brutality and elegant beauty this year.
Highlights: “Wisdom of the Falling Leaves” and “Idiopathic Despair”.
Graveworm – Killing Innocence
Genre: Symphonic gothic/black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
A full-sounding, dramatic and aggressive symphonic black metal album with plenty of gothic sullen atmosphere.
Ignea – Dreams Of Lands Unseen
Genre: Symphonic/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Utilizing catchy, fairly straightforward progressive-style rhythms with some death metal chugging aggression backing sublime clean vocals and immersive melodies with folk elements, this one is a recipe for success. And the execution certainly follows through.
King Potenaz – Goat Rider
Genre: Stoner metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
This one’s all about the mood, that being a slow moving stoner groove train with super fuzzy doom riffs and slightly laid back vocals.
King Yosef – An Underlying Hum
Genre: Industrial metal/hardcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
As a noise-leaning, industrial hardcore record full of aggression and electronica backed, harsh riffs, this is certainly on to something. Then it kind of fizzes out into a much more contemplative and artsy version of itself.
Lucifuge – Monoliths of Wrath
Genre: Thrash/black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
This one feels like a Venom/Exodus collaboration project from back when both of those bands were starting out. Lots to love on here.
Lunar Chamber – Shambhallic Vibrations (EP)
Genre: Technical/progressive death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
A far off-toned, horizon-gazing tech death EP that floats about in a sky of periodical technical aggression and quirky turns of atmospheric melody.
Mistral – In the Throes of Losing Love
Genre: Avant-garde black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Some of the sharp edges of black metal protruding from a core of moody, artsy and atmospheric indie, in a combination that some people like to describe as post metal.
Necronomicon – Constant To Death
Genre: Thrash/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
A mostly mid-tempo thrash affair with an old school heavy metal take on a dark magic-feel for the whole thing. It sounds a bit too much like a lot of other things.
Old Dirty Buzzard – What A Weird Hill To Die On
Genre: Heavy/sludge metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Very dirtied, stoner-groovy heavy metal that kind of just does its own thing.
OSM – Plagued By Doubts
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A heavy progressive output that radiates potential. There’s a real flair for the dramatic, and the technical execution is stellar, although some of the buildups and transitions can get a little tedious.
Pustilence – Beliefs of Dead Stargazers and Soothsayers
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
An unhinged, slightly flail-y death metal album that has a lot of the elements of a solid old school banger, but struggles a bit to land something truly cohesive.
Redshift – Laws Of Entropy
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
Some fresh-faced, at times aggressive prog that feels more progressive for style’s sake than the result of true inspiration.
Runemagick – Beyond the Cenotaph of Mankind
Genre: Doom/death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
This is a steam roller of a death-doom record, both in terms of tempo and heaviness. Good atmosphere, although you can be forgiven for not easily telling the songs apart.
Sentinel Sirens – Orbithon Wave
Genre: Thrash metal/punk
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
Fairly stiff, but speedy thrash with a monotone kind of punk vocal style that detracts somewhat from the musical impact.
Sleepsculptor – Divine Recalibration
Genre: Mathcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
This is mathcore borrowing some deathcore heft to really let those percussive riffs and breakdowns land. At times experimental, there is still a bit too much tunnel-vision technical aggression on this one, but it’s a solid effort.
Spotlights – Alchemy For The Dead
Genre: Avant-garde doom metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
This record might at first strike you as an overly introspective, primarily shoegaze-y affair, but give it some time to grab a hold of you and you won’t be disappointed. Stylistically existing in a sort of dark dream state, you flow between melodic and dissonant approaches and turbulent storm fronts of doom heaviness. The transitions are so smooth that these moments are often upon you without warning, without feeling the least bit jarring. Let it draw you in, and you’ll be happy to stay.
Highlights: “Algorithmic” and “False Gods”.
Terrnoct – Icon Of Ruin
Genre: Technical/progressive death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Technical death metal trying to incorporate a few too many styles in one, the prominent ones being prog, symphonic and groove, also with a pinch of melodic and thrash.
Vadiat – Spear Of Creation
Genre: Death/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Dark, rumbly death metal that mostly exists within the doomy deeps, but occasionally lashes out with some tasty thrash licks and a bit of melody.
Valgrind – Millennium of Night Bliss
Genre: Death/black metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Slightly blackened death metal trying to be technical in a semi-chaotic way that the production can’t really keep up with.
Vaultwraith – Decomposing Spells
Genre: Black/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
While the enthusiasm is there, producing some fun, occult-sounding horror-themed black metal, the skill level of the performances and subsequent mixing isn’t quite there yet.
Wallowing – Earth Reaper
Genre: Doom/sludge metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Intimidating in its noise-tinged, percussive assault on the senses, this doom-tempo, sinister sludge album is a bit of an cosmic horror 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 