Fun versus rage, rough versus polished, dark versus dreamy. Pick you side or embrace it all.
Acid Mammoth – Supersonic Megafauna Collision
Genre: Doom/stoner metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
This feels like a record for heavy psych purists. Everything about it is in tune with the hallmarks the subgenre, from the fuzz to the vocals to the pacing.
Alpha Wolf – Half Living Things
Genre: Metalcore/nu metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
While this is definitely the kind of modern metalcore where most of the instruments are used in a percussive capacity, that goes pretty well with the hip-hop/nu-metal second personality that exists on here. It’s aggressive and tight, with some great grooves in there if you pay attention.
Attic – Return of the Witchfinder
Genre: Heavy/gothic metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A band that is doing its best to invoke early Mercyful Fate, certainly as far as King Diamond’s vocal style is concerned. For me, it’s terribly distracting and sounds periodically off-key, others might find it well in tune with the musical style, which is solid classic metal with a gothic feel and some sparse black metal instrumentation,
Austere – Beneath The Threshold
Genre: Black/gothic metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
This might fall under what some would call depressive black metal, although, while the themes and tone certainly come from a very morose space, there are other aspects that dare look up and out of the gloom. The melodies have a dreamy, although darkly contemplative quality to them, and the rhythms allow you to dwell on them in a way that feels cathartic. There is also force and aggression on here, moving the experience far away from that of a passive state of gloomy introspection.
Highlights: “The Sunset of Life” and “Of Severance”.
Bilwis – Hameln
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Ever so slightly low-fi black metal with a wispy quality to it, feeling slow even when the blast beats kick in, and with far-reaching, folk inspired melodies.
Diabolic Oath – Oracular Hexations
Genre: Death/black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
An untamed, malicious beast of a blackened death metal album. The abyssal low-end comes crashing over you like an earthquake, and a lot of the time it feels just that cataclysmic, with a dark veil of nihilism hanging overhead and blotting out the sunlight. Still, you get a surprising variety in rhythm, and the band knows how to reign in the beast for momentary reprieves from the rampage.
Drungi – Hamfarir Hugans
Genre: Doom/black n’ roll
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Purposefully primitive, blackened doom metal with a rock n’ roll kind of straightforward progression, and some punky attitude to top it off.
Erra – Cure
Genre: Progressive metalcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 4/5
If you’re into Spiritbox, then this hits in a fairly similar way. It’s melodically charged, modern metalcore with a mix of djent and groove in its riff style, a playful attitude to rhythm shifts, and a good bit of electronica-infused atmosphere. The clean choruses are kind of typical of the subgenre, but the lyrics are well written and for the absolute most part this feels vibrant and creative.
Highlight: “Cure”
Filth – Southern Hostility
Genre: Deathcore
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Deathcore with a strong influx of hip-hop, both in terms of rhythm and lyrics, that’s all about percussive technicality and pummeling aggression.
Friends Of Hell – God Damned You To Hell
Genre: Heavy/doom metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Low-key doom metal with an occult thematic and more light-hearted drum and vocal output.
Furze – Caw Entrance
Genre: Black/psychedelic metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Fairly unhinged low-fi, traditional black metal with an Arthur Brown-esque workover of psychedelic nuttiness.
Horndal – Head Hammer Man
Genre: Sludge metal/hard rock
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Horndal’s 2021 album “Lake Drinker” was a bullseye for me, so I’ve been looking forward to their next release ever since. I’m delighted to find that, although the band’s rough “Scandi-punk” sludge style is instantly recognizable, they’re trying something slightly different on this one. They’ve clearly made an effort to up the spooky-factor, and as a whole this feels like a cohesive concept album. It doesn’t hit quite as hard this time, but certainly makes a statement as to the band’s ability to meld their musical style with strong storytelling.
Ingested – The Tide Of Death And Fractured Dreams
Genre: Deathcore
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Ingested are back with their signature blend of technical and melodic deathcore. Fans will absolutely not be disappointed. Even though there’s a lot of details and different influences on here, it still feels like a no-nonsense affair, and all the core deathcore elements are thoroughly represented, just not overly relied upon. Guest appearances by Sylosis and Chimaira make for a big plus in my book, and the band openly flirts with several subgenres of death metal, like progressive, brutal, technical, and even a little blackened. It makes for a thrill ride of a vital, furious, and carefully conducted experience.
Highlights: “Expect to Fail” and “Pantheon”.
Iron Monkey – Spleen & Goad
Genre: Sludge metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Sludge doesn’t get much more dirty than this. This has the energy of a punk band out of their mind with indignation, fueling lead-heavy, ground-dragging riffs with a pinch of stoner groove, and an outright rabid vocal performance. It’s music with purpose, not something you put on in the background.
Ischemic – Condemned To The Breaking Wheel
Genre: Doom/death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Death doom that is at its strongest when leaning into its grindcore-level savagery or slowig it down into a somber melodic trudge, not quite as much when going for atmospheric black metal.
Korpiklaani – Rankarumpu
Genre: Folk metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
There hasn’t been a ton of folk metal releases so far this year, so this feels like it was needed, to re-establish an equilibrium of sorts. No doom or gloom to be found on here, but also not the complete silliness that tends to ensue when the Finns go full-on folk. Korpiklaani has thoroughly justified its use of so many different instruments on here, by writing sections that highlights the strengths of each. It doesn’t write an entirely new chapter in the book of the genre, but satisfies in just the right way.
Locrian – End Terrain
Genre: Experimental metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
How much ambience is too much ambience on an experimental project? In my book, Locrian has crossed that line on here, but the ethereal soundscape they move in, in between rushes of more intense, noise-infused sections, is calming and mentally stimulating.
Shred Rogers – The Circle
Genre: Heavy metal/shred
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
A project that presents itself as “family friendly metal”, although it feels much more like an ordinary shred (hence the name, I suppose) project built around what used to be child-oriented tunes. The innocent fun kind of drowns in the effort to exhibit technicality. The idea is nice, though.
Temple Of The Fuzz Witch – Apotheosis
Genre: Doom/black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
This blackened doom project is just cool. They clearly want to retain a sinister edge, as long as it doesn’t come at the expense of their love for towering, fuzzy groove. It’s at its best when they just give into the riffs and stoner vibe, cause they’ve got plenty of snarly heaviness to go with it. It would be really exciting to hear them lean more into a Witchery-style blackened thrash kind of style.
Trocar – Extremities
Genre: Grindcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Highly disturbing, brutal, and at times industrial grindcore. The oppressive tone and vicious quality to the vocals should be enough to unsettle the faint of heart, but if you’ve got the stomach to hold on and take it in, you’ll be rewarded with a surprising depth hidden beneath the layers.
Witch Vomit – Funeral Sanctum
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
This is one of those death metal sounds that so selectively incorporates other genre traits that the result feels like a completely natural evolution of the core style. You get just enough melodic black- and death metal to subtly expand an otherwise fairly traditional OSDM sound into something more darkly sinister, like out of a classic horror story. And it’s not just in the atmosphere – it’s ingrained in the technical approaches of the instrumentation, as well as the vocals. Maybe this is what an early offshoot into melodeath might sound like if it originated in the US?
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 