We’ve got the old- and new school battling it out this week, particularly within metalcore and death metal, with some interesting prog outfits off to the side, minding their own business.
Burning Witches – The Dark Tower
Genre: Heavy/power metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Epic-style traditional heavy metal with forceful vocals and a bit of a sinister streak. It has all the right ingredients, although don’t deliver all that much beyond what you might expect.
Currents – The Death We Seek
Genre: Metalcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
This is heavy and aggressive metalcore borrowing some punishing vocal and instrumental brutality, as well as atmospheric grandeur, from deathcore, and adding on to it with djent-y, percussive riffing and electronic melody. All the elements found here feel very familiar to the point of being well-worn, but the way they are combined in order to create an immersive dynamic is a solid feat of songwriting.
Curse Of Cain – Curse Of Cain
Genre: Metalcore/electronic metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A sci-fi-themed, electronica-boosted mix of metalcore and modern melodeath.
Dawn of Existence – Ancient Arts
Genre: Melodic death/black metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
This one finds a good tonal mix between old school melodeath and black metal, but the rest is mostly a bit of a mess.
Deathstars – Everything Destroys You
Genre: Industrial metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
As expected, this is mildly gothic/emo, hard rock-y industrial metal with catchy riffs and arena-oriented melodies.
Drain – Living Proof
Genre: Hardcore/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Knuckleduster hardcore with a layer of thrash metal barbed wire wrapped around it. The rhythms tends towards more simplistic punk rock stuff, but also erupts with aggression.
Enforcer – Nostalgia
Genre: Heavy/speed metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
The title certainly wasn’t chosen randomly for this one. This might very well have come out in the 80’s, and has most all of the speedy riffs and high pitched vocals you’ll crave.
Extermination Dismemberment – Dehumanization Protocol
Genre: Brutal/symphonic death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A very precisely executed and well produced brutal death metal album, a little short on groove and a consistent rhythm approach.
Finality – Technocracy
Genre: Technical thrash/power metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
Speedy and fairly groove-oriented thrash with an epic core, although the melodic work and production are fairly weak.
Godslut – Procreation Of God
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
If only the rest of the songs could have matched the first two, which are thrashy, crisp ragers, instead of tripping along on staccato blast beats for most of the remainder, then this could have been truly awesome.
Haunt – Golden Arm
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Haunt keep doing their thing with occult-style, retro heavy metal. It makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but some of the sections on here feel pretty tired.
Heimland – Forfedrenes Taarer
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Bread-and-butter Norwegian black metal with a good dose of melancholic folk atmosphere.
Herod – The Iconoclast
Genre: Progressive sludge metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
This one has all the fury and force of a tempestuous ocean, and at the same the dark, mystical atmosphere of its calm-yet-crushing depths as well. Every part of the vocal and instrumental execution are allowed to erupt to the full extent of their potential, and flow well past the point of their full power – dying off and bleeding naturally into the calmer, darkly melodic parts. And thus, despite its contrasts, the album feels extremely well connected.
Highlights: “Obsolete” and “The Edifice”.
Hyeena – Freedom From The Default
Genre: Metalcore/hardcore
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
Fairly flat and uninteresting rhythm wise, and with uninspired melodic work.
Intöxicated – Sadistic Nightmares
Genre: Speed/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A good time of raspy, thrash-riffed speed metal with plenty of tasty guitar work and adventurous drumming.
The Modern Age Slavery – 1901 | The First Mother
Genre: Deathcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Pumped-up, lightly symphonic deathcore tapping into the visceral sounds of death metal and grindcore, delivering loads of aggression and some killer riffs.
Muskeg Charnel – Decomposition Part 3: Rigor Mortis
Genre: Black/death metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Muted and supremely gloomy black metal dipping into death brutality at certain points.
Nadir – Extinction Rituals
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
A transcendent black metal album, in that it rests on a core of traditional elements, but plays relatively unbound by its conventions. You’ll hear death, thrash and traditional heavy metal, with subdued melodic and symphonic elements. And instead of the directionless melting pot you might expect, you get a progressive album, not quite to the experimental degree of Ihsahn or Enslaved, but still very much cohesive and purposeful.
Highlights: “Iron Lung” and “Extinction Rituals”.
Nightmarer – Deformity Adrift
Genre: Technical death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Like a ravenous beast in the dark, this album prowls your darkest dreams, lurking behind every corner and chasing you down till the last ragged breath leaved your lungs. Dissonant and harsh, this is not for those looking for melody in their death metal. Instead you get towering mounds of threatening atmosphere and murderously precise rhythm work.
Spinebreaker – Cavern Of Inoculated Cognition (EP)
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
This is classic, murky death metal that somehow sounds even more old school being driven by rebellious hardcore rhythms. And that devil-may-care attitude infuses it with an infectious energy that contrasts the gloomy, morbid tone, yet somehow without breaking it. It’s great.
Highlight: “Spectral Forge”.
Teeth – A Biblical Worship Of Violence
Genre: Metalcore/hardcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3,5/5
A near-unbelievable output of violent aggression, like an electrically charged tsunami of barbed wire.
Tygers Of Pan Tang – Bloodlines
Genre: Heavy metal/hard rock
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
A genuinely solid marriage of old school metal and modern hard rock by these veterans.
Unearth – The Wretched; The Ruinous
Genre: Metalcore
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
If you’re a fan of the classic melodic metalcore sound of the mid-2000s, then consider this album a nostalgic adrenaline shot. It’s very close to an all-of-the-good – none-of-the-bad situation, where you get the familiar rhythmic elements, the shred and the belting aggression, with less of the anthemic tendencies and hardly any of the overly soft chorus sections. So good to hear this sound still alive and well, and delivered with such enthusiastic force.
Highlights: “Into the Abyss” and “Call of Existence”.
Vintersea – Woven Into Ashes
Genre: Progressive extreme metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
A shifting and churning progressive album that exists very comfortably within the extreme sphere of metal, while also delving into lulls of melancholy.
Vvon Dogma I – The Kvlt Of Glitch
Genre: Progressive/electronic metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
A wildly creative conglomeration of modern prog elements and atmosphere-generating electronica. You get dissonance, groove, epic melody and tons of nerdy technicality that aims to prod every nook and cranny of your brain.
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 