Death metal moves in from all fronts to dominate the week, going both high and low, and filling in the vanguard as well as the core of the advance.
Aberration – Refracture
Genre: Death/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Dissonant, bleak and hostile death doom that feels like the inevitable advance of the collected darkness of the world.
Altar of Betelgeuze – Echoes
Genre: Doom metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Some Finnish doom with brutal vocals, and leaning into wooly heaviness rather than epic melody. It seems to pick up a bit as it goes along, as if it lacks the patience to stick with the traditional, sluggish approach. You get a bit of clean vocals as well, which is nice for variety, but is as of yet not among the band’s foremost strengths.
Apparition – Disgraced Emanations From A Tranquil State
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Here’s your weekly dose of cavernous, old-school-leaning, doom-infused death metal. To me it’s a bit too similar to others of its ilk, of which you’re not exactly spoiled for choice these days. But they’re clearly invested in their sound, and there are traces of exploration on here, suggesting that there’s still parts of this murky cave system to be revealed.
Atrexial – The Serpent Abomination
Genre: Black/death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A black metal album in all but force, this rolls over you like an all-enveloping storm cloud. Once you’re in, the experience feels more or less the same throughout, with a few glimmers of light piercing through in the form of acoustic, longing melody.
Avralize – Freaks
Genre: Metalcore/industrial metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
A distinctly modern metalcore album doing a good job of balancing harsh, djent-y brutality with am industrial-electronica feel and melodic clean choruses. It’s a bit too pop-oriented and lacking intensity in the middle chunk of the album for my taste, but it does have some outstanding highlights.
Brodequin – Harbinger Of Woe
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Ignoring the fact that the first few seconds of drum-n’-riff pummeling on each song on here sound close to interchangeable, this is a beast of a non-stop-force, riff-centric death metal album. It’s extremely rhythmic, almost industrial in this regard, but still flows well, partially thanks to a solid bass end. The vocals are distinctly deep-guttural, which I personally more monotonous than anything else, but objectively it’s an interesting offset to the instrumental ferociousness.
Highlights: “Theresiana” and “Suffocation In Ash”.
Civerous – Maze Envy
Genre: Progressive death metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5
This is one that I didn’t see coming. At first it feels like you’re in for a rather typical death-doom sound with some atmospheric elements, but the band gradually tears apart your expectations by way of repeated sledgehammer blows. The unnerving backing melody transports you to a place of terrifying revelations, and the progressive rhythm approach keeps you guessing for what’s about to happen next. It doesn’t have the strongest first third, but it’s still massively impressive how the experience only keeps building in excellence the further in you get. It’s thunderous, contemplative, classic and unpredictable all at once.
Highlights: “Geryon (The Plummet)” and “Labyrinth Charm”.
Critical Defiance – The Search Won’t Fall…
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Dirty, primitively produced thrash with loads of aggression and some classic heavy metal swagger.
Deception – Daenacteh
Genre: Symphonic death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Deception has come a long way as a band, and leaning into the symphonic end of the death metal spectrum clearly suits them very well. While not exactly complicated, the technicality on “Daenacteh” is absolutely pronounced, and expertly executed. There’s purpose radiating from both vocal and instrumental delivery, and they’ve clearly strived to craft something that’s not instantly label-friendly. A vibrant and varied experience with a forceful impact.
Highlights: “Iblis’ Mistress” and “Be Headed On Your Way”.
Fall Of Serenity – Open Wide, O Hell
Genre: Melodic death/black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A darkened melodic death metal album out of Germany. They’ve got an experienced, crisp sound going on, with easy-to-follow riff paths and strong melodic elements. The rhythm transitions aren’t the most organic, but they make up for it with tasteful amounts of groove.
Furor Gallico – Future To Come
Genre: Folk metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Setting aside thoughts on the slightly odd concept of an Italian band doing Celtic folk, this delivers pretty much what you’d expect, mixing lots of traditional instrumental work with a clean/harsh approach that feels very familiar.
Hamferð – Men Guðs hond er sterk
Genre: Doom metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5
This is doom metal that rolls like a temperamental weather system over land and sea alike. Where a lot of funeral-leaning doom bands push the melody into the fringes of their sound, on this one it very much feels like the driving force. As it should be, because it’s clearly very well considered and mature, like an aged spirit. While you get strong elements of black- and death metal on here to up the drama, the clean vocals get to be star of the show, without the result feeling any less heavy or dark. Most impressively, even as it mostly embraces the slow burn tempo of doom, overall it feels like a collection of individually realized experiences, rather than a single long one all blended together.
Highlights: “Ábær” and “Marrusorg”.
Hammer King – König und Kaiser
Genre: Heavy/power metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Hammer King is one of those bands that does the into-glorious-battle, anthemic metal approach really quite well. There’s just enough aggression in the riffs and playfulness in the melody to keep it engaging, song after song, even as there’s no big surprises on the way.
Hashtronaut – No Return
Genre: Stoner/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A surprisingly atmospheric stoner album, with a dark twist to the tone, and enough fuzz to make weed plants start growing from your ears.
Hideous Divinity – Unextinct
Genre: Technical death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
What’s this, tech death with some actual room for atmosphere? In fact, parts of this album slows so much down you could even consider it doom. And yet, when the drums get going, there’s no mercy to be had. There’s a part of me that wishes the slower, more conceptually focused parts meshed better with the all-out instrumental assaults, but there’s no denying that this mixed approach makes the album feel a lot more dynamic, and the ominous, horror-themed tone ties it all together.
Highlights: “Mysterium Tremendum” and “The Numinous One”.
Inner Whiteout – Bottom Seeker
Genre: Metalcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
It’s not often you find a metalcore record where your biggest note is more melody, please. I feel like this one bridges the gap between classic and modern metalcore quite well, and they’re on the cusp of something really engaging.
Keygen Church – Nel Nome Del Codice
Genre: Electronic/symphonic metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
This is one of those sounds that is clearly metal, even as the instrumental approach suggests otherwise. The “riffs” are of the synthetic “8-bit”-kind, the drums feel just about as artificial, and the only vocals are those of a backing choir. And yet the tone and musical intent is straight out of a dark, classic doom project, with a symphonic, “church of less-than-holy-saints” cloak thrown on top. It’s quite fun.
Khold – Du Dømmes Til Død
Genre: Black metal/black n’ roll
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Is it really time for another Khold record already? Feels like only a few months ago that we got “Svartsyn”, which I enjoyed a great deal. If you know the band’s style, then you won’t skip a beat heading into this one, although the black n’ roll approach is particularly pronounced on here, to the point where the black metal seems content to have seeped into the cracks of the framework.
Leaves’ Eyes – Myths Of Fate
Genre: Symphonic metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Epic, Norse mythology-themed melody draped across simple rhythms and inflated by a symphonic production.
Mastiff – Deprecipice
Genre: Sludge metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Massively heavy sludge with a death metal-like tone to to the riffs, and hardcore rhythms. It’s dark, sometimes quite noisy stuff, that just wants to crush your spirits.
Omnivide – A Tale Of Fire
Genre: Progressive/technical death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A proggy new tech death outfit that lands on the slightly milder and melodic end of the extreme metal spectrum. It’s clear they have a bunch of ideas for incorporating playful instrumentality, and lots of it works well, but the overall cohesion leaves a bit to be desired.
Perpetua – Resurgence
Genre: Melodic death/groove metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A slightly metalcore-leaning, groove-oriented young melodeath band, very much in the same vein as their fellow countrymen in Bleed From Within. There are traces of Gojira and Sylosis as well, although a bit more maturing remains before they have a clear identity of their own.
Take & Take – Disillusion
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2/5
An unfortunately highly uneven prog release showcasing a laudable appetite for variety and a fun approach to technicality, but also bringing to light some shortcomings as far as vocals and songwriting go.
Thornbridge – Daydream Illusion
Genre: Power metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Fairly by-the-numbers power metal, but every now and then some real genre joy shines through and the band delivers some seriously feelgood melody.
Unshine – Karn Of Burnings
Genre: Folk metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
A Finnish doom-like folk metal band with a great sounding production and a mild psychedelic tinge to their sound that works very well, although the whole thing is brought low by simplistic rhythm work and stagnant melodies.
The Wizards – The Exit Garden
Genre: Heavy/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
This is one of those albums that manage the feat of combining the comfort of familiarity with the fun of creativity. You get cheeky, traditional metal instrumental work padded down by a seriously wooly doom-toned finish, and melodies that dream of the next great adventure, even as they strive to finish the one that they’re currently on.
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 