This is a “quality not quantity” week with a few exceptionally strong releases across the spectrum, although with a surprising emphasis on stoner.
Church Of Misery – Born Under A Mad Sign
Genre: Doom/stoner metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Fuzz-tone to the bone. Church of Misery takes that Paranoid-era Sabbath sound, adds a bit of Lemmy-ish rusty charm and then trusts in the artistic integrity of its members to add the necessary signature character on top of that (which they certainly do). It’s bluesy, groovy, even a bit grungy, and feels 100% genuine. A stellar doom/stoner release with a killer theme (pardon the pun).
Highlights: “Beltway Sniper (John Allen Muhammad)” and “Freeway Madness Boogie (Randy Kraft)”
Creeping Death – Boundless Domain
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
This is death metal so crisp and sharply honed that your can practically feel it carving unimpeded through layer upon layer of flesh. It’s right on the edge, peering over the borders of thrash and groove, without really crossing over, but perhaps picking up a whiff of an influence here and there. A little more speed, a little more flair, but apart from that this is snarling, bared-teeth death metal with the killer instinct to back it up.
Highlights: “Vitrified Earth” and “Creators Turned Into Prey”.
Elder Devil – Everything Worth Loving
Genre: Hardcore/black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
hardcore occasionally ramping up into deathcore and leaning partially on a black metal “everything-will-die”-mood, although seemingly lacking a good progress plan.
Fifth Angel – When Angels Kill
Genre: Heavy metal/hard rock
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
A hard rock-riffing, shred-y modern heavy metal record with few ideas but solid vocals.
Frozen Land – Out Of The Dark
Genre: Power metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Full-on power metal showing off some serious guitar chops and solid, fun songwriting, though lacking a bit of drive and consistency of quality.
Helleruin – Devils, Death And Dark Arts
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Straight black metal leaning tastefully on the melancholy tremolo, and although definitely in the “raw”-territory, not hiding the result behind a wall of low-fi noise.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation
Genre: Stoner metal/progressive hard rock
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 5/5
King Gizzard’s escapades can be a little confusing at times – effortlessly and deliberately steering clear of expectations and doing whatever the heck (it seems) they feel like in the moment. A new season of the year – a new Lizard Wizard. Which makes it all the more of an event when they release an album like this, with a stylistic consistency as solid as bedrock. This is stoner through and through, but with a supercharger attached, and a stunt driver behind the wheel. Some of the riffs are pure thrash metal, and it seems the band has unlocked the secret recipe to the perfect amount of prog digression. Putting this record on will feel like an event over and over and over again.
Highlights: “Gila Monster” and “Converge”.
Memorrhage – Memorrhage
Genre: Nu/industrial metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Mixing hardcore, hip-hop, industrial electronica and a bit of grindcore might sound like an overload, but it’s actually surprisingly straightforward.
Methedras – Human Deception
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
Thrash metal flirting with modern melodeath, and it’s aptly aggressive, although not quite landing the big, lasting punches.
Rise To The Sky – Two Years Of Grief
Genre: Melodic doom/death metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A combination of classic, funeral-like death doom and solemn, melancholy melodic sections that function a bit more as a backdrop than they probably should.
Sammath – Grebbeberg
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Violent and intense, rough-around the edges black metal, just as ordered. They certainly go at it with purpose, although it feels like something you’ll have heard before somewhere.
Saturnus – The Storm Within
Genre: Melodic death/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
These guys are obviously experienced in the meld of epic death doom and sweeping melodies, and if their style is something you have come to love, then this is the stuff you’ve been craving. They do take their sweet time though…
Thy Catafalque – Alföld
Genre: Avant-garde/folk metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
For those of us who are fans of metal music that refuses to stay within set boundaries, or even those limits created by your own expectations from listening to the first few minutes of the album, Thy Catafalque know how to deliver. To my memory this is a slightly darker and more black metal-influenced than their last album, Vadak, and the start of the album leads you to thing that it’ll be heavy from start to finish. But no, further in, the atmospheric breaks become wilder, longer and more frequent, which, by contrast, makes the returns to extreme metal riffing feel all the more impactful. It’s playful, melancholy, bright, aggressive, straightforward and mysterious all at different points in time, which feels just a bit like life, really.
Highlights: “A földdel egyenlo” and “Néma vermek”.
Varmia – nie nas widzę
Genre: Black/folk metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
A raw and aggressive take on blackened folk metal, with several elements that bring to mind bands like Behemoth. It’s not quite pitch black, with several traditional folk interludes, but also a bit heavy handed when the two styles meet.
Vile Ritual – Caverns Of Occultic Hatred
Genre: Death/black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Brutal, cavernous, monstrous death metal that like to settle into a slow, doomy pace and a really dark mood.
Witchskull – The Serpent Tide
Genre: Stoner/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A heavy, galloping stoner trot allies with a doom tone and a distinct vocal style to create something that’s both groovy and feels a bit occult.
Wooden Shadow – Eternal Land Of Wrath And Mourn
Genre: Melodic black/folk metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
Finnish melodic black metal that, surprising no one, has a lot of lively guitar work and a certain forest-y feeling to it, but, along those lines, also suffers a bit from lack of originality.
World Eater – An Insidious Remedy
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Sinister-toned, young death metal that’s trying to achieve some of that horror factor without getting corny or retro about it along the way. It works well while lively and aggressive, but still needs a bit more work to keep the slower sections interesting.
Highlights: “Gridworm” and “Scorched Quadrant”
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 