This week gets right in your face to let you know that January means business. Just, wow. Some excellent stuff heading your way.
A/Oratos – Ecclesia Gnostica
Genre: Melodic black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Black metal with a solemn, serious mood and classical melodies. Nothing that particularly stands out, but it’s consistently engaging and suitably dramatic.
Abhoria – Depths
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
This one reminds me of Satyricon when they’re at their most angry. Take away some of the black ‘n roll and add a bit of death brutality, and you’re not far off.
Andracca – To Bare The Weight Of Death
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Properly tremolo-driven, murky-production, classic black metal that leans into the tragic guitar tone. It feels ominously mighty at times, but lacks a bit of punch.
Boundless Chaos – Sinister Upheaval
Genre: Blackened thrash/death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
How about a slice of blood-dripping, charred, perfectly unpolished thrash that brings the malicious tone of Slayer and slightly unhinged laughing-cadaver-in-your-face attitude of early death metal? The drum and riff work on here is absolutely killer, the vocals sound like ripping dry sinew and you get plenty of enthusiastic solos,
Highlights: “Guillotine” and “Kromer’s Whistle”.
Dark Oath – Ages Of Man
Genre: Symphonic death/folk metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
On this record, Dark Oath shows you how to let massively epic and rousing, symphonically driven melodies dominate the songwriting without the result being a towering mound of cheese and silliness. The emotion in the tone is thoroughly cinematic, and so if you feel like being swept away by a wave of mythological drama, you should dive into this one.
Highlight: “Bronze I”
Disconnected Souls – Fragments Of Consciousness
Genre: Electronic metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Mildly disjointed, stylistically ambivalent electronic-driven metal conjuring up a variety of sonic landscapes.
Final Coil – The World We Ineherited
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Oddly dystopian and bleak-feeling prog metal, despite a warm tone and emphasis on ambient, soothing instrumental sections.
Horrorgraphy – A Knight’s Tale
Genre: Symphonic goth/doom metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
Darkly theatrical, almost like a gothic opera, but lacking a bit of the flair and stylistic confidence.
Kontact – Full Contact
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
It’s not often I hear a traditional metal project going this spacey and psychedelic without it crossing fully into prog, but here we are. I feels like the band is playing a bit with your expectations, all the while staying firmly within a well defined style realm. Although the tone and vocal style hover on the border of entertaining weirdness, the rhythms and solos counter it, keeping you grounded with their classic timelessness. A bit like early Ghost, really.
Highlights: “Heavy Leather” and “(Return of the) Astral Vampire”.
Lord Dying – Clandestine Transcendence
Genre: Progressive sludge/doom metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
This album feels like being guided through a dark, turbulent dream by a steady, comforting hand and an omniscient narrator. Balmy bass and gentle, folk-y guitars meet rushes of charging drums, rasping snarls and abyssal riffs, only to straighten out into steadily marching, groove-tinged classic metal sections with a warm, doomy undertone. This is a band with a lot of ideas on their mind, and the ones they were able to cover on here feel expertly realised.
Highlights: “I AM NOTHING I AM EVERYTHING” and “Final Push into the Sun”.
Master – Saints Dispelled
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
This is classic death metal somewhat reminiscent of Obituary, although spiced up with some lively, at times Motörhead-esque drum work and cheeky thrash riffs. While the instrumental approach is thoroughly old-school, the production is crisp and full, delivering the up-to-no-good tone in a suitably direct fashion.
Highlight: “Find Your Life”.
Ribspreader – Reap Humanity
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Apocalyptic meatgrinder-metal that churns the earth at mid- to low pace, without taking any unexpected turns along the way.
Resin Tomb – Cerebral Purgatory
Genre: Death/sludge metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
As a herald of hell’s arrival, this is a violent assault on your eardrums. The band calls it dissonant death metal, which it is to a certain point, but not more than adding an extra layer of hostility to the tone of it all, which is otherwise dark and fairly slow.
The Rods – Rattle The Cage
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
Classic, 80s style, fairly arena friendly heavy metal.
Saxon – Hell, Fire And Damnation
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
While you certainly shouldn’t expect any surprises as far as style is concerned, the NWOBHM veterans have delivered an impressively vital and solidly put together album this time. Inventive? No. Well considered and entertaining? Absolutely.
Scarlet Anger – Martyr
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
Aggressive, solo happy thrash metal with a Teutonic feel. While it’s got some really tasty riffs, the lack of flow in each song keeps it from being truly engaging.
Sgàile – Traverse the Bealach
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Scottish progressive metal with layers and layers of folk-tinged atmosphere. There’s plenty of heavy riffs and force throughout, but the overall approach still feels more relaxed, and the tone is like an uplifting rush of wind.
Sovereign – Altered Realities
Genre: Thrash/death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
This is extreme metal that makes a point of being challenging to the listener. It’s harsh, at times dissonant and chaotic, with a distinctly old school production, full of speedy thrash riffs and thundering death metal drums.
Upon Stone – Dead Mother Moon
Genre: Melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
A fleeting look at the album cover might lead you to believe that this is an epic, slightly silly traditional metal record, but behind the façade lurks a really rather aggressive beast of an old school melodeath banger. There’s plenty on here that brings classic At the Gates to mind, with slow, darkly majestic melodies seeping through the jagged riffs like the cold, ghostly essence of past greatness.
Highlight: “Paradise Failed”
Vemod – The Deepening
Genre: Atmospheric/progressive black metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5
Sometimes a work of music just touches you on a deep level, and it happens much quicker than you think should be possible for something that builds as slowly as this. The sweeping, haunting melodies on “The Deepening” feel as inevitable as the earth’s rotation, and the unmistakable black metal instrumental elements are pushed back to a level where they’re not oppressive, yet still very much defines the stylistic realm in which this album exists. Elements of dark, progressive rock bring nuanced flavor to certain sections along the way, without disturbing the overall flow. If you let this one in, it is sure to linger for a while.
Highlights: “Der guder dør” and “Inn i lysande natt”
Wasp Mother – Digital Pollution (EP)
Genre: Grindcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Slightly unhinged and lightly humorous grindcore that’s still, at least tonally, a tunnel drill to the eardrums (in a good way). It’s got a very creative progress, and gets a lot done in under 10 minutes.
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 