A bountiful week favoring more extreme or dark lean-ins to classic heavy metal.
After Earth – The Rarity Of Reason
Genre: Melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
If you enjoy the direction that In Flames and Dark Tranquillity were taking in the early 2000s, then you should pay attention. This album feels like a slight modernization of that mid-life Swedish melodeath style, without selling out to trends or toning anything down. You get ultra-heavy riffs, classic death metal vocals and lots of dark, doom-laden melody, without sacrificing the momentum.
Highlights: “Undermine My Suffocation” and “Legions”.
Blight House – Blight the Way
Genre: Death metal/grindcore
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A weird, abrasive, disharmonic, yet kind of laid back death metal/grindcore album with a strong horror theme.
Cales – Chants Of Steel
Genre: Melodic black/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
While certainly on the track of an attractive mix of black metal sharpness and the epic scale of folk and heavy metal, the composition is a bit too messy to fully enjoy on this one.
Cyhra – The Vertigo Trigger
Genre: Pop metal
Subjective rating: 1.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
At times catchy riffs, but they let themselves get utterly bogged down with primary shool rhyme lyrics and sappy ballads.
Fall Of The Albatross – Rite
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Like free form jazz, this is technically mezmerising, but feels like too much of a jam session to get a good grip on for the average metalhead.
Godthrymm – Distortions
Genre: Doom metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Heavy and deep, with a contemplative and grand approach to melody, this is doom that conveys a wide spectrum of dark emotion.
Horrendous – Ontological Mysterium
Genre: Progressive death metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5
This is one of those “why not both”-type albums where an eclectic combination of flavors really hits the sweet spot. Grindcore-style mad vocals, chugging thrash riffs and grooves, heavy prog rhythms, a threatening death metal tone and plenty of light-footed classic heavy metal playful melodic work. How the hell does it all fit together? Who but Horrendous knows. On top of it all, there’s an organic structure and pace to the album that makes it an experience that keeps pulling you in and demanding your attention, while dealing out the insane genius in manageable portions.
Highlights: “Ontological Mysterium” and “The Death Knell Ringeth”.
Invultation – Feral Legion
Genre: Death/black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A menacing, at times overwhelming blackened death metal album that pummels you with landslide rhythms and a pitch black tone.
Nocte Obducta – Karwoche
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
Classic black metal treated with a contemplative, doom-laden atmosphere and traces of traditional folk music.
Nott – Hiraeth
Genre: Deathcore/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Hellishly heavy, unleashing all the power of modern death metal and deathcore, but slowed down to the crushing pace of a titanic atlas stone rolling across the earth an flattening all in its path.
Orbit Culture – Descent
Genre: Melodic death/industrial metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Orbit Culture have grown into a bit of a beast in the last few years, as they really hit their stride with 2020’s Nija, and the rampage continues unabated on this one. It feels a bit more refined, but you still get the same slamming riffs, rhythmic vocal delivery and dark, booming melodies. It doesn’t necessarily feel fresh, but certainly loaded with energy and confidence.
Highlight: “Alienated”.
OXX – The Primordial Blues
Genre: Experimental metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Enjoy being treated as a ragdoll in the hands of a cocaine-aided performance artist? It this album gets you, it’s not gonna let go. The rhythms are the mad intricate kind you’d expect from mathcore, but fleshed out with genuine depth, purpose and atmosphere. Adding the gut-punch of sludge brutality, the combination hits with quite unexpected potency.
Highlights: “The Song of the Rivers” and “The Hypostasis”
Ringworm – Seeing Through Fire
Genre: Hardcore/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Rage! In copious quantities. Ringworm is back with more scorched, thrash-riffed metallic hardcore. It might just be me, but their death metal side seems to show a bit more than usual as well. It’s relentless, super aggressive, but allowing for some wicked solo work as well. If you’re looking for moshpit material, look no further. I’d book a dentist appointment for after, just in case.
Highlights: “No Solace, No Quarter, No Mercy” and “Thought Crimes”.
Sanguine Glacialis – Maladaptive Daydreaming
Genre: Symphonic gothic metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
As grand as you might expect from symphonic gothic metal, with some real punch from heavy riffs, and bite from black metal vocal snarls.
Skálmöld- Ýdalir
Genre: Folk/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
A highly successful marriage of classic heavy metal rhythms, riff styles and tempo with the epic tones and battle-ready force of Nordic folk metal. This is not one of those tavern-stompers that’s all sing-along choruses and chant-ready melodies though. The band has taken its concept seriously and poured real effort into crafting something solid that works perfectly well beyond the beer-drenched fields of summer festivals.
Highlights: “Veðurfölnir” and “Ýdalir”.
Spirit Adrift – Ghost At The Gallows
Genre: Heavy/doom metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5
Once the classic/doom metal meld is done right, it can invoke so much of what is great outside the extreme metal sphere. You get the heavy, yet eager riffs, dark tones creating the perfect backdrop for groovy-yet-measured solo work, and the creative space to move between solemn reveries to up-tempo, triumphant highs. All of that rings true for Spirit Adrift’s newest offering. Everything works together to create a warm, punchy sound that both rocks and tickles the mind.
Highlights: “Barn Burner” and “Siren of the South”.
Unblessed Divine – Portal To Darkness
Genre: Atmospheric death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Death metal that seems to strive to break into some doomy, atmospheric realm using brute force.
Warmen – Here Are None
Genre: Power/death/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
If you wondered where the sundered remains of Children of Bodom’s spirit might have drifted off to, the answer is here. This is all power metal melodies, catchy riffs and adventurous solos.
Worm Shepherd – The Sleeping Sun
Genre: Symphonic deathcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Deathcore doesn’t get much more grandiose than this, with a mix of towering doom, gurgling brutal death metal and slamming, dissonant riffs.
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 