This is a fun and colorful week, where thrash, industrial, power, psychedelic doom, and melodic extreme metal are just a few of the flavors on offer.
Azell – Death Control
Genre: Sludge/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Oppressive, aggressive sludge rolling over you with the sedate tempo of patient doom. It’s stylistically strong and consistent, but probably won’t surprise you at any point.
Clarion Void – Failure In Repetition
Genre: Progressive sludge/black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A conceptual album that takes the misanthropy of black metal and layers it delicately over the rough edges of sludge. It’s dark, but not relentless or immovable. It feels alive, almost curious, as it cautiously explored a shifting landscape at varying levels of boldness.
Clouds Taste Satanic – 79 A.E.
Genre: Doom metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Clouds Taste Satanic are already back with more long-form, mildly psychedelic, instrumental doom for you to sink your consciousness into. Like with last year’s “Tales of Demonic Possession”, this feels like passively taking part on a multidimensional journey, experiencing the wonders of passing objects and phenomena from the safety of a stable, sheltered platform. A bit of patience is required, but you’ll be rewarded with an experience that’s soothing and stimulating at the same time.
Highlight: “Collision”.
Defocus – There Is A Place For Me On Earth
Genre: Metalcore/industrial metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Serious and technically sharpened djent-based metalcore that takes on a detached, industrial mood. Melodically it’s a bit soulless, but the whole thing feels like the successful product of a very purposeful overall composition.
Devastator – Conjurers Of Cruelty
Genre: Black/speed metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Blackened speed/thrash metal led by forceful and commanding vocals and a tight rhythm section. It’s very much on theme, although doesn’t stand out particularly well among its peers.
Bruce Dickinson – The Mandrake Project
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 4/5
As long as you accept that the instrumental part of “The Mandrake Project” is in essence an atmosphere-generating, toned-down vehicle for the vocalized storytelling, you can start to appreciate what it’s really all about. Dickinson shows off the full and ever impressive range of his vocals, matching the overall mood perfectly, which actually shifts quite a lot throughout, making for a surprisingly eclectic experience.
Highlight: “Mistress of Mercy”
Fathomless Ritual – Hymns For The Lesser Gods
Genre: Progressive death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
This is one of those “wait, what?” kind of experiences where, just as you think you have the band’s style nailed down, you discover a different side to the music buried beneath layers of murk, Thickly blanketed with gutter-style vocals and an edge-dampening production you get some surprisingly groove-centric rhythms, and a restless and adventurous progression.
Firewind – Stand United
Genre: Power metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Time for some old-school, shreddy power metal built around pure riff happiness. This is like a goodie bag of strong and entertaining performances crafted into a solid selection of individually outstanding tracks.
Hands Of Goro – Hands Of Goro
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
An intentionally messy and structurally inconsistent, rebellious traditional metal elements that, in a way, brings together the bitter rivals of NWOBHM and punk, without the result being just Motörhead. It’s instrumentally playful, with some rock n’ roll grooves, but in an impulsive way that all but eliminates predictability.
Messiah – Christus Hypercubus
Genre: Death/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
If you like your metal raw and crispy at the same time, get yourself a generous helping of this. Messiah serve up tonally and thematically blackened death thrash that prioritizes speed and ferocity over heaviness, resulting in a dressed-down and direct approach that really suits the band’s style. It’s not the album with the most individual standout moments, but while clearly having a very established idea of how they should sound, the band dares to attach from a multitude of angles, keeping it interesting throughout.
Highlights: “Soul Observatory” and “Christus Hypercubus”
Ministry – Hopiumforthemasses
Genre: Industrial metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Ministry’s latest is a driving album that utilizes a relatively uniform, carefully cultivated sound, free from too many bells and whistles. Most importantly, it’s very clearly still protest music, with each track standing proudly up for or against something. The stylistic confidence of the music very successfully bolsters th
at of the projected attitude, and there’s a strength and urgency behind the compositions and delivery that grabs a hold of you and pulls you in.
Highlights: “Aryan Embarrassment” and “New Religion”
Negative Prayer – Self // Wound
Genre: Death metal/punk
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Busy, dark and heavy death metal with the haphazard energy and disregard of punk strongly infused into its rhythm section.
Northern Genocide – The Point of No Return
Genre: Melodic death/symphonic metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Perhaps a bit heavy handed, fans of melodic Finnish death- and symphonic metal should not disregard the entertainment factor of the massive pile-up of playful musical and electronic contributions on this album.
Saturnalia Temple – Revel In Dissidence
Genre: Doom/sludge metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Heavy, raspy fuzz spelling doom and darkness as it rolls in over the land like ponderous storm clouds.
Suicidal Angels – Profane Prayer
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
The guys in Suicidal Angels speak thrash with such a fluency that you’d think they did a degree in it. It’s a pure. old-school-leaning experience that feels both practiced and natural. It’s not the wild speed and enthusiasm of a fresh band, nor the conceptual or slightly experimental approach of veterans looking to shake up their sound. But it’s aggressive, tonally on point, and energetic. Most of all, it’s satisfying.
Suldusk – Anthesis
Genre: Folk/blackgaze
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
The majority of the album is dreamy, serene melody wrapped in folk atmosphere, with the bitter bite of melancholic black metal elegantly woven in to lend an edge to the dramatic highs.
Surgical Strike – 24/7 Hate
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Thrash metal that’s all speedy riffs and solos, and quite proficiently so, but lacking a bit in substance, which adds to the risk of feeling slightly repetitive.
Volcandra – The Way Of Ancients
Genre: Melodic black/death metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Volcandra first got my attention with their 2022 EP “Border World”, partially because of its Half-Life reference, but certainly also because of the quality of the music. This time they’re back with a full-length themed around another one of my all-time favorite video game franchises, namely Diablo. The band does the melodic/aggressive balance in a way that brings to mind Black Dahlia Murder, although with a clear shift towards epic black metal. It’s technically sharp, refreshingly free from symphonic elements, and does the fantasy concept without needing to resort to whimsy.
Highlights: “Fouled Sanctity” and “Seven Tombs”.
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, why not pop a comment down below?
The Metal Dispatch 