The forces of doom and damnation have a firm grip on this week, but this is in absolutely no way a dull reign.
AmMify – Lost, Not Hiding
Genre: Cinematic metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
Slow and understated builds to epic and symphonic, but it never reaches truly spine-tingling levels.
Apes – Penitence
Genre: Hardcore/black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
This feels a bit like someone throwing a big, heavy, musty-smelling tarp over you, then proceeding to beat the crap out of you with a baseball bat in your near-blind and disoriented state. The vocals sound utterly hateful, like Gaahl at his most malevolent, and even though the rhythm work can get a bit repetitive, they usually lead to some ground-shaking grindcore/hardcore riffs that will get you headbanging hard.
Cadaverous Condition – Never Arrive, Never Return
Genre: Death/doom/folk metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A mostly mid-tempo death doom album that’s heavy on banger-friendly, groove-laden riffs. It’s doesn’t have the most impressive depth to it, but for simple, sullen rhythmic brutality it’s really satisfying, at least the first half.
Crypt Sermon – The Stygian Rose
Genre: Doom/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
When a band is this genre confident, you’re absolutely fine with knowing pretty much what you’re gonna get. We’re gonna go on an adventure, and not a bright and benevolent one with rainbows and glittering waterfalls. This is a journey traveled in the gloom of perpetual dusk, but at a purposeful and bold pace. It’s the kind of soundscape you can’t help but visualize, and that’s the idea. Full of dark majesty, galloping riffs and organic melodies, it’s exactly the experience you’re looking for.
Highlights: “Glimmers in the Underworld” and “Heavy is the Crown of Bone”.
Dendera – Mask Of Lies
Genre: Melodic metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
Easily digestible modern melodic metal with a slight edge of aggression.
Downfall Of Mankind – Purgatory
Genre: Symphonic deathcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Theatrically inclined deathcore that still leans heavily into the hallmarks of the genre, with punishing breakdowns and percussive riffing. The melodic sections are not their strongest suit.
Embryonic Autopsy – Origins Of The Deformed
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Brutal death metal themed around the miracle that is childbirth, although “miraculous” isn’t exactly the angle they’re going for (shocker). It’s heavy and fast, with some great (guest) solos on offer. The very flat guttural vocals kind of kill some of the feeling of dynamism in the music.
Fellwarden – Legend: Forged in Defiance
Genre: Atmospheric black/folk metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
A dark, austere chant of ancient legends carried on a dry wind, this is atmospheric black metal mixed with epic folk melody and driving classic metal energy, without ever feeling upbeat or even particularly optimistic. The snarling vocals has a lot of force behind them, matching the sweeping quality to the music very well. The songs are long, and could probably do more within their runtime, but you never really feel like the progression gets stuck either.
Flagman – Tastes Incredible
Genre: Alternative/experimental metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Hoooly… this is a trip. Think System of a Down at their whackiest and add a couple of notches. At it’s best it’s very entertaining, and actually has the whiff of some of SOAD’s greatest works, but the consistency is not quite there. Yet?
Fórn – The Departure of Consciousness
Genre: Sludge/doom metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5
EDIT: This album ended up on my list of releases for this week, when, in fact, it was released all the way back in 2014. Probably due to the 10th anniversary reissue of the album. In any case, I failed to realize. The review still stands, but obviously it will not contend for album of the week.
It’s not the easiest thing to grasp, what makes a great piece of funeral-tempo metal. I think perhaps the foremost quality it needs is presence. It doesn’t need to move fast, because you don’t dare, or are simply incapable of, ignoring or running from it. This album has that petrifying effect on you. Like an entity vast beyond comprehension, blotting out the entirety of the sky, you find yourself rooted to the ground staring up at its inconceivable, dark mass shifting in very slow pulses that send tremors through the very air. And you know that by moving you will lose any semblance of balance and simply fall limply to the ground. This thing is heavy beyond reasoning, but also carries with it gentle, entrancing melody. And somehow it’s barely over 32 minutes long. It feels a lot longer, in the best possible way.
Highlights: “Dweller on the Threshold” and “Suffering in the Eternal Void”.
Golgotha – Spreading The Wings Of Hope
Genre: Melodic death/doom metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
A fairly tame and muted, doom-styled melodeath album from these veterans.
Impact Approved – Way Of The Warrior
Genre: Melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
Modern, spirited melodeath with fast riffing and an anthemic melodic quality. Not the best production, and vocals aren’t quite up to snuff.
Lucifer’s Hammer – Be and Exist
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Full-on retro metal in production, style and performances. It exudes nostalgic joy, but lacks punch, and the harmonies aren’t rock solid.
Malignancy – …Discontinued
Genre: Technical death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
This album simply… does… not… settle… down. Depending on your proclivity for this kind of unpredictable, ever-restless technical death metal, you will either love it or find your mind drifting off a bit as you realize there’s nothing to hold on to for more than 5 seconds at a time. In any case, you can’t deny that it does sound great, with a focused production that makes sure that every riff, squeal and drum beat hits just right. And how in sync this band has to be in order to get from A to B through this madness is nothing short of mind boggling.
Mythologik – Blood In The Sky
Genre: Thrash/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Modern thrash metal that manages to be both heavy, precise and melodic, with a nice, sharp production. The squealy vocal style might be a bit of an acquired taste, but it works well enough for the style.
Paradise In Flames – Blindness
Genre: Symphonic black/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Brazilian blackened death metal that goes all in on the orchestral treatment. It does feel like something that should be experienced in a grand theatre, accompanied by some form of visual storyline of epic thematic proportions. There’s not a ton f nuance underneath the surface, but the obvious splendor offers plenty to dazzle you for the duration.
Perchta – D’Muata
Genre: Folk/black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
A breath of fresh air in the form of this Austrian blackened folk metal project. The pagan nature of the melodies, the rite-like feel of the vocals, conjures the impression that you’ve stumbled upon an ancient, dark ritual deep in the woods. And yet it’s much bigger that what would fit in a single little clearing. It stretches out, simultaneously harsh and beautiful, across valleys, lakes and mountains alike.
Highlight: “Hebamm”
Questing Beast – Birth
Genre: Progressive/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
This stuff has a lot of potential. Chugging heavy metal riffs, playful rhythms, the occasional heavy surge, plenty of groove. The vocal harmonies need some work, and the energy gets a bit lost in atmosphere and interludes, but it sounds really good when it works.
Rezn – Burden
Genre: Psychedelic doom metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Already back, you might think, but this album was actually recorded at the same time as their 2023 release, “Solace”, and now unleashed as a sort of second part to the experience. Having absolutely loved its twin, I am pleased to repost that this offers an equally enveloping and immersive experience, although a bleaker one. It still feels vibrant in the way that only psychedelia-tinged music can deliver, but the shoegazing qualities of doom has gotten the upper hand here. In this way it actually loses a tad of the distinctiveness I felt last time, and finds more equivalents in the current musical landscape. But let that not take anything away from the fact that this is a spellbinding album.
Highlights: “Collapse” and “Bleak Patterns”
RivetSkull – Absence Of Time
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
This hearkens back to that very early Judas Priest-like heavy metal sound that just wanted to deliver tasty riffs and solos, epic melodies and a good bit of biker rock groove.
Sibiir – Undergang
Genre: Blackened hardcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A mix of hardcore, sludge, thrash and black metal that pulls in slightly different directions at times, wanting to be a bit rhythmic, a bit chaotic, mostly down-to-earth but also slightly larger than life. It’s pretty cool when it all works out though.
Ulcerate – Cutting The Throat Of God
Genre: Progressive death metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5
This music has no easily definable shape, other than that of a storm, which is described mostly by what it does to everything in its path. The intensity and brutally aggressive quality to it can loosely be described as death metal, but certainly in no traditional form, as it shifts and morphs endlessly as it moves along. And somehow this doesn’t feel the least bit experimental. This is simply how it’s supposed to sound, with a very clear sense of direction, and yet it seems to find its way as it goes along. It’s dissonance and melody fighting tooth and nail in an almost impossibly concerted way, not really sounding “technical” and not letting up, as if this conflict upholds a vital balance.
Highlights: “To Flow Though Ashen Hearts” and “Transfiguration In and Out of Worlds”.
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 