This week we see a clash of light and dark, with strong forces bearing the banners of prog and retro meeting the shadowy legions of death and doom on the battlefield.
Ascend The Helix – Spiral Of Reflection
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A sound that tries to balance the dissonant aggression of djent and a dreamy, spacey atmosphere. The technique is good even as the result feels a bit hollow.
Auralayer – Thousand Petals
Genre: Progressive doom/stoner metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5
This is one of those where, halfway through the first song, you think that they can’t possibly keep up this level of fun throughout the whole thing. And yet, these guys have managed to do just that. Endless guitar shenanigans, incurably restless rhythm work, with a generous coating of vintage psychedelia. It’s not stupidly heavy, but makes up for it with that tangible thickness that you get with well-layered doom.
Highlights: “Monstrum” and “Faith To Reason”
Calligram – Position | Momentum
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
A black metal album with both atmospheric and more straight up savage qualities, as it dips into deep pools of sadness as well as chugging along with the momentum of an icebreaker.
Cavern Deep – Breach
Genre: Doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Slow, patient doom with the slight, fuzzy crackle of stoner tastefully fraying its edges.
Cel Damage – No Volume
Genre: Experimental grindcore/hardcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Frantic and slightly schizophrenic grind-strength hardcore that’s intent on nailing its message to the backside of your skull by way of the front side.
Chamber – A Love To Kill For
Genre: Mathcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Get ready for an onslaught of chug-loving, math-crunching metalcore with a piercing lead shrill that sounds like a hummingbird-operated dentist’s drill. The impact gets slightly diluted through repetition, but the energy lasts all the way through, and there are no unnecessary dips into momentum-killing melody.
Constant Hell – Constant Hell
Genre: Grindcore
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
There’s a point where brutality and rawness piles up to such a degree that it simply becomes impenetrable.
Crown Magnetar – Everything Bleeds
Genre: Deathcore
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Utterly percussion-oriented, dissonant deathcore that scores sky-high on technical brutality but to anyone not on the hype train can feel like a tedious train ride from one breakdown to the next.
A Dark Halo – Omnibus One
Genre: Progressive/melodic metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Sci-fi-tinged, heavily melodic and mildly progressive metal, it has some strong melody lines, but gets a little lost in an ocean of similar-sounding projects.
Deitus – Irreversible
Genre: Black/death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
No-fuss blackened death metal that pulls a fair bit from old school melodeath, and a small measure of Slayer-like thrash as well. This is not a deep, thoughtful or doomy affair, and even though there are parts giving into atmosphere, it’s at its most impactful when eagerly rushing into the next evil riff.
Highlights: “A Scar For Serenity” and “Straight For Your Throat”.
Desekryptor – Vortex Oblivion
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Scary, noisy death metal that rumbles up from some canyon of the damned. It’s got some nice, squealy guitar work and menacing melody work when it slows down a little.
Eleine – We Shall Remain
Genre: Symphonic metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Powerful, dark symphonic metal that borrows more than a little bit from Swedish melodeath. The melodies won’t exactly wow you with their originality, but they’re solidly integrated with the songs.
End Reign – The Way Of All Flesh Is Decay
Genre: Metallic hardcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Intensely metallic hardcore that draws from both black, death and thrash metal into an explosive and surprisingly varied start to the album, which unfortunately falters a bit from the middle onwards.
Evile – The Unknown
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Evile steps firmly on the brakes on this one, to bring you mostly mid-to-low tempo grooves with some nice wicked solos attached. I’ve seen the Black Album comparison being made for this, and it’s not unfair. I’d even go as far as bringing Load/Reload into the vibe chart.
Exsanguination – Burial Rites
Genre: Death/black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
A chugging express train ride of stylistically ultra-confident, crisp old school blackened death metal. There are clear nods to the classic Swedish death metal sound, and at its best this stuff is right up there. At a 22 min 30 sec runtime you’ll want to replay it immediately, possibly several times.
Highlights: “Coffin Dweller” and “The Pleasure To End All Pleasures”.
Inhumed – Feasted Upon Like Carrion (EP)
Genre: Melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
A rager of a brutal melodeath EP that brings to mind early Amon Amarth, but throwing out the epic storytelling in favor of bloody morbidity. There’s plenty to get excited for, as they display a surprisingly wide range of instrumental approaches, leaving perhaps a little to be desired as far as melodic coherency is concerned, but delivering big on groove and rhythmic creativity.
Highlight: “A Defiance Of Faith”.
LanzerRath – Metagalactic Domination
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Intentionally incoherent and spacey, mind-wandering black metal that still incorporates all the classic elements of a thin production, shrill screams and tremolo.
The Mighty Fall – Filmed On Location
Genre: Hardcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
A high energy hardcore release jamming in plenty of spicy influences, like groove metal, noise, punk and stoner. It’s a fun and engaging listen if you’re feeling riotous.
Nuclear Remains – Dawn Of Endless Suffering
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Obscenely muted and snare-happy brutal death metal that sounds like the death of everything that was ever clean or happy.
Preacher – Blur
Genre: Metalcore
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Young and spritely metalcore loaded with groove tricks, fairly positively toned melodies and with the aggression dialed down to a non-abrasive, yet energizing level.
Quiet Man – The Starving Lesson
Genre: Sludge/ambient metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Trippy and contemplative for log stretches of time, like all sound fading from an expansive outside scene, then broken by surges of aggressive sludge.
Radiant Knife – Pressure
Genre: Progressive/sludge metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Take some of the more chunky guitar-happy parts of Mastodon and marry them with a more technical approach to prog, and you get the general gist of this crisp, chugging sludge record.
Scream Maker – Land Of Fire
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A fresh-faced love letter to the melody-happy heavy metal of the NWOBHM era.
Tailgunner – Guns For Hire
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Tight and extremely source-aware, Tailgunner has delivered a triumph of retro-leaning heavy metal that nails everything that was impressive and joy-inducing about the best of the NWOBHM. Adventurous in a exploratory sense rather than in a cheesy sing-along way, you get solid songwriting that works on every level of musical contribution.
Highlights: “White Death” and “Rebirth”.
Vendetta – Black As Coal
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
Tasty riffs and scorched grooves aside, this is rather by-the-numbers thrash with banal lyrics and stale vocals.
Voyager – Fearless In Love
Genre: Progressive/electronic metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5
As a fan of predominantly extreme metal, so much of this album feels like a guilty pleasure, but the kind that you’d defend your affection for to the death. Deceivingly complex, it delivers expertly peaking waves of djent-y heaviness that are saturated with synth-backed, accessible melodies. The style of the thing is so confident and vibrant, with no heed paid to conventions but those of the band itself, with a musical maturity and sense of playfulness matching the likes of Devin Townsend.
Highlights: “Submarine” and “The Best Intentions”.
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 