The fire and fury dies down a bit this week, to allow some time for reflection and new ideas to sprout, from gloomy and vibrant sources alike.
Avdagata – The Faceless One
Genre: Melodic black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A burst of technical black metal that draws its melodic inspiration from east of the norm, without truly standing out beyond the instrumental performances.
Before The Dawn – Stormbringers
Genre: Melodic death/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Melodeath built up with rudimentary rhythms and predictable melodies, although topped off by a not-insignificant dash of Finnish epicness.
Calico Jack – Isla de la Muerte
Genre: Power/folk metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
This is Italian pirate metal with an emphasis on the folk influences. It could do with some maturing, but will definitely appeal to both the comic- and epic-loving part of the fan spectrum.
Coffin Mulch – Spectral Intercession
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Rough and musty old school death metal with an undead hardcore drive that allows it to separate from the cemetery pack.
Death Ray Vision – No Mercy From Electric Eyes
Genre: Hardcore/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Thrashy hardcore with plenty of riff goodness that brings to mind the grittier, rock n’ roll side of Avenged Sevenfold, although consistently keeping it a step more punk. It does, however, tend towards the anthemic more than is probably healthy.
East Of The Wall – A Neutral Second
Genre: Progressive/avant-garde metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
A moody and cool progressive album with elements of sludge, a bit of doom and traces of grunge. Retro-synthetic, sometimes disharmonic melodic elements keeps it interesting beyond the expected instrumental haphazardness, and odd rhythms work as a sort of structure as the music shifts from different tonal landscapes.
Eiter – Gewalt
Genre: Grindcore/black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Why not introduce a bit of groove to a blackened grindcore album? It ups the fun factor without compromising the aggression.
Grafvitnir – Into The Outer Wilderness
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Like death’s whisper on the wind, this is skeletal, snarly black metal building up to strongly realized Scandinavian folk atmosphere.
Khanate – To Be Cruel
Genre: Drone/doom metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Screeching, spoken-word vocals intermittently interrupt this near-standstill crawl through a melting, collapsing apocalypse of a soundscape.
Melted Bodies – The Inevitable Fork Vol. 2
Genre: Experimental metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Unhinged alternative metal that mostly defies all genre conventions. Lots of energy, completely devoid of focus, and bravely exploratory.
Night Legion – Fight Or Fall
Genre: Power/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Shred-happy power metal about… death and disaster? It sure doesn’t sound like that, more like amped up classic heavy metal.
None – Inevitable
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
If you’ve ever struggled with dark thoughts and a destructive mentality, this is music that will speak to you. The album title fittingly alludes to the feeling of surrender in the face of forces beyond your control, which is chillingly recreated in the melodic atmosphere on here. And there’s a sort of comfort in the recognition of this mental state that is both cathartic and unsettling. The washed out, icy guitars and hissing vocals expertly complements the rest.
Highlights: “Never Came Home” and “A Reason to Be”.
Orelisk – The Underworld Obscura
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A wailing theater of horror, this is musty black metal uncovered from the collapsed basement of a haunted house.
Raven – All Hell’s Breaking Loose
Genre: Heavy/speed metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Bringing the sensibilities of heavy metal-meets-thrash-for-the-first-time back from the 70s/80s, with all of its speedy enthusiasm (fantastic drum work on this one) and dated quirks (falsetto vocals…).
Serpent Of Old – Ensemble Under The Dark Sun
Genre: Death/black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
This is blackened death metal leaning into crushing doom, yet never quite content to slither about in the same space for too long, allowing prog-inspired fluctuations in the rhythm to lead the way in and out of the abyss. It’s devastatingly heavy, with a bleakness to the tone, yet pulsing with a fury that could crack bedrock.
Highlights: “Unsaturated Hunger and Esoteric Lust” and “From the Impending Dusk”.
Static Abyss – Aborted from Reality
Genre: Death/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
A batch of not-too-serious doomy death metal filth that invokes feelings of abyssal horror, but also drunken underground stop fests.
Thornafire – Leprosario Lazareto
Genre: Technical death/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A rather fresh take on thrash/groove-flavored death metal, with a local flavor to the (semi)melodic approach, and some light instrumental experimentation.
Virgin Steele – The Passion Of Dionysus
Genre: Heavy/power metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
A quirkily produced, tale-telling piece of romantic, theatrical heavy metal. It’s not bombastic or cheesy, although not exactly restrained either, with a subtle progressive approach that clearly distinguishes this from most of its peers.
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 