The darkness has a strong hold over this week, but the forces of light, creativity and weirdness are constantly tugging at the Reaper’s cloak.
Arhat – Secrets Of Ancient Gods
Genre: Groove/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A Ukrainian groove outfit that incorporates middle-eastern melodic elements. There is a slight mismatch between the ferocity of the vocals and the sometimes dance-friendly symphonic metal-like rhythms, but the energy is really good.
Beaten To Death – Sunrise Over Rigor Mortis
Genre: Avant-garde grindcore
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
This is one of those records that’s gonna run you over completely, and you just gotta sit back and let it happen. It’s hostile, but in an entertainingly bonkers way, where it seems to forget why it’s mad every now and then. It shifts from pure chaos to rhythmic chugs, to punk, hardcore and indie with a Scandinavian edge, very much in the vein of Kvelertak. Each song introduces a new flavor, which keeps it interesting, and only occasionally does it get so unhinged that it doesn’t seem like they know what they’re doing.
Highlight: “Mosh for Mika (Waddle Waddle)”
Carnwennan – Lotus
Genre: Doom/sludge
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Funeral doom in all but harshness, this is mostly a very slow burn that balances dark and gloomy atmosphere with the howling aggression of sludge. At its best it delivers peaks that truly deserve the sluggish buildups, and at its worst it delivers very little.
Cloven Hoof – Heathen Cross
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
A mostly classic NWOBHM-style album that starts of very promising, with upbeat, galloping rhythms and plenty of invigorating rhythms. A bit of that gets lost along the way, with the songs sounding slightly more generic towards the end, but the entertainment factor endures.
Fight The Fight – Shah Of Time
Genre: Progressive metalcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Opting for a much bigger and “trendy” sound than on earlier releases, this is also far more ambitious than before in terms of atmosphere and compositions that head into progressive territory. It’s got elements of death, groove and symphonic metal, but keeps these influences reigned in to a point where they don’t become unmanageable.
Four Stroke Baron – Data Diamond
Genre: Progressive/electronic metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Learning that this album was originally meant to be two EP’s with each their distinct style, I went in fearing a very disjointed experience. But, fortunately, it is not so. While it’s clear that they’ve gone out of their way to subvert expectations and take the listener out of the comfort zone, they never really lose control to the point where it’s not easily regained with a determined rhythm shift. Not every song delivers the mix of djent-like, groove-laden riffs and wild electronic melody quite as well, but the ones that do are far in the majority, and not once does this feel repetitive.
Highlights: “The Witch” and “People In My Image”
Hellbutcher – Hellbutcher
Genre: Black/speed metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
An album perfectly described by its cover art. This is the hordes of the underworld charging, flapping and skittering off to battle in as epic a fashion as is permittable while still giving off an air of evil. The eagerness on this project is nothing short of stunning, heaping onto you with relentless abandon a torrent of speed riffs, blistering solos and barking snarls. There’s the occasional dip in energy, but you can rest assured that they pick it back up momentarily. It’s all the elements you want out of a shred-y blast from the past, without any of the pretentiousness.
Highlights: “The Sword of Wrath” and “Possessed by the Devil’s Flames”
Lock Horns – Red Room
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
A riff-driven prog album with enough of that dehumanizing mathcore style to it that the rhythm approach gets to dominate the experience. But it’s also fairly light on its feet, and using very subtle melodic elements and a good bit of groove, the music takes on a shifting personality that ensures variety.
Nightrage – Remains Of A Dead World
Genre: Melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Swedish melodeath that balances a modern and old school style, with obvious traces of the classic Gothenburg sound, without leaning too hard on it. The overall feel is strangely mellow, perhaps partially thanks to the lows-friendly production, but also clearly from the band dialing back the hostility, if not the heaviness, in favor of epic melody lines.
Reliqa – Secrets Of The Future
Genre: Melodic metalcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
With super-precise instrumentation, a talent for catchy-yet-interesting melodies and a superb vocal performance, this band’s strengths are obvious. The album, however, would benefit from being a lot leaner and more focused.
Rhapsody Of Fire – Challenge The Wind
Genre: Power/symphonic metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Combining the fantasy storytelling mastery of the likes of Blind Guardian with a bit of the classic riff happiness of Primal fear, and the vibrant instrumentality of Dragonforce, Rhapsody of Fire puts the full power of their awesome musical arsenal on full display on this album. This appeals just as much to those only interested in the music as to those also embracing the concept behind it. Its drama and theatricality is tastefully measured, but the band’s stellar performances leave no doubt that their hearts are fully in it.
Highlights: “Challenge the Wind” and “Diamond Claws”.
Saving Vice – Good Days, Dead Eyes
Genre: Melodic metalcore
Subjective rating: 1.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Leaning into some dark alt-metal vibes and offering some heavy, deathcore-style intensity highs, the sappy, soft melodic sections makes this completely unbearable for me.
Shrapnel – In Gravity
Genre: Alternative metal/metalcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
For those of you going into this one expecting thrash, sorry, you ain’t gonna find much of that on here. Think more along the lines of guest vocalist Scott Kennedy’s band, Bleed From Within, except less heavy, more emotionally laden and varied in its stylistic influences. It’s strong, if a bit understated.
Supermodel Taxidermy – At What Cost
Genre: Thrash metal/hardcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Old school, blunt crossover thrash swinging at you with brass knuckles. It’s nothing you haven’t heard before, but the attitude and tempo is just right.
Swampbeast – Offering of Chaos, Lamenting In The Blood of Man
Genre: Death/black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
“Subtle” is not really the word you would think to use to describe this absolute abomination of an album, but there is an elusive, insidious quality to the way that the darkness seems to have crept in and permeated what would otherwise be a brutal, if somewhat progressively minded death metal album with old school leanings. Disorder and hostility has been allowed to flourish, but the core of the beast is still strong enough to tug its infernal mass in whichever direction it ultimately chooses, delivering some crushing riff breakdowns along the way.
Highlights: “Bestial Sanctuary” and “Fate Relinquished”
Thou – Umbilical
Genre: Sludge/black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5
Abandon all hope, ye who listen to this. The core of Thou’s monumental sound is clearly sludge, but also strong elements of grunge, and a bit of doom and thrash metal. The progression through the album is pretty straightforward, but it’s all about what you’re in for along the way. A noisy veneer wraps the thundering mass of the abyssal tone like a finely meshed spider web, only to be penetrated by the sharpest rasps of the bitter vocals. The tempo feels deeply organic, ebbing and flowing like a black sea carrying you to who knows where in the dark.
Highlights: “House of Ideas” and “The Promise”.
Varices – The Undoing
Genre: Melodic death/groove metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
Light-footed and groove-infused modern melodic death metal. They’re on to something here, but the songwriting is still pretty uneven.
Witherfall – Sounds Of The Forgotten
Genre: Progressive/power/gothic metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
Shred before dishonor! Extremely ballad prone, the progressive rhythm tendencies and instrumental technicalities become more of a gimmick on here, and the obvious effort put in has most of its energy sucked out of it by weak, ponderous melodic sections.
Wormwood – The Star
Genre: Melodic black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
This is the sound of death inviting you to row along the river of night and eternity. It will be a voyage of as mush serenity as a heroic struggle through the rapids, and a highly rewarding experience in total. The folk-inspired, melancholic melodies are the stars of the album, and even though they slow down the progression a tad, the dedication to, and sheer talent for, this particular style of black metal demonstrated on here is nothing short of commendable. There’s no reason why this shouldn’t find an audience among doom fans as well.
Highlight: “Stjärnfall”
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 