A conflict between the unconventional and the traditional is taking form this week, as old school and trusted recipes measure their worth against the free-form and restless ways of the progressive and experimental.
Alcest – Les Chants De L’Aurore
Genre: Avant-garde/atmospheric metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Whether you’d want to say that this album feels like a daydream, or that it’s daydream-inducing, I’d say both are accurate. Velvety, ethereal melodies, gentle instrumentation, even to some degree when the distortion kicks in, and what feels like highly organic song structures, aim to transport you to a place of benevolent memories and endless sunrises. For me personally, the tone is the big turnoff on here, landing in some indefinable gray area in between melancholy, hope and aimless contemplation. But that doesn’t mean it won’t work for you.
Highlight: “L’Envol”
Ancient Entities – Echoes of Annihilation
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
This falls a bit in between a few different chairs – not nailing the precision of tech death, being too “clean” and rhythm adherent for brutal or old-school, and a bit too gurgly and messy for a more general, modern style.
Anthropophagus Depravity – Demonic Paradise
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Double bass pedal madness! This is brutal death metal from Indonesia with some highly athletic drum work. There’s not much in the way of variation, but the style is pretty spot on, so if brutality’s your thing, you’ll enjoy this.
Cainites – Revenant
Genre: Gothic/melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A horror/gothic themed, toned-down melodeath project. Sure, you get some nice, rhythmic chugs now and then, but for the rest it’s all about the vibes. For me it’s far too muted and stylized.
Construct Of Lethe – A Kindness Dealt In Venom
Genre: Avant-garde/atmospheric death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
This is one you’ll need to give some time to sink in, cause it can be quite hard to get a good initial grip on. The death metal core is very hard to ignore, with thundering riffs, raw howls and technical precision, but the rest is all about transporting you to a place of nightmarish abstraction. There’s not a set or specific quality to the atmospheric elements, incorporating as much ambience and instrumental contributions as synthetic elements, but the result feels unique.
Derelict – Versus Entropy
Genre: Technical death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
Semi-heavy tech death that likes to play around with its rhythms. There are some really cool riff sections in here, although it’s not the most coherent stuff you’ll ever hear.
earthtone9 – In Resonance Nexus
Genre: Alternative metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
It’s so incredibly refreshing to hear a band in this genre that doesn’t sound exactly like every single one of its peers. This is heavily groove-laden alternative metal that strikes a clearly practiced and mature balance between emotionally charged “clean” parts and chugging, hardcore-esque aggression. Sure, it’s not incredibly innovative, but it’s very catchy in the best possible way, and dances around a minefield of clichés without setting off anything but a few firecrackers.
Foreign Hands – What’s Left Unsaid
Genre: Hardcore/metalcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A shot of nostalgia taking you back to the very early 2000s, to the origins of metalcore as it started departing from hardcore. If you told me that this has changed much since then I’d have to insist on a thorough explanation, but it’s stylistically confident and energetic.
Horseburner – Voice Of Storms
Genre: Progresive stoner/sludge metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Like an oasis in the desert, this takes the dry character of basic stoner metal and morphs it into something far more nuanced and exotic. Even though its got a punchy heaviness, with the rough edges of sludge, and some of the deeper, moodier aspects of doom, for the most part it’s exploratory and light on its feet. This duality of a more carefree, classic prog-like side tugging on a far more grounded core works surprisingly well, which is a credit to the band’s songwriting skills.
Hyperdontia – Harvest Of Malevolence
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
We’re not exactly wanting for good death metal these days, and yet, here’s some more. This is of the old school variant, mostly high tempo and energetic, and just the right amount of murkiness in the production. Because of its sort of upbeat character, despite its obvious gore-loving brutality, it really is one to put a smile on a genre fan’s face, and feels like it would be a blast live, with plenty of galloping riffs and playful solos.
Kittie – Fire
Genre: Groove metal/hard rock
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Full disclosure, I never really listened much to Kittie in the past, so now that they’re back I had very little idea of what to expect, but I was still excited at the prospect of a veteran nu/groove metal band returning to form. And return to form they do. This feels like it pulls as much from past as it settles into the present, going heavy on the groove and accessible aggression. There is, however, a certain blandness to the songwriting that cannot be ignored, steering them dangerously far towards the more generic realms of melodic hard rock.
Kvaen – The Formless Fires
Genre: Melodic black/folk metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
This is pretty much a showcase of all the things that makes Swedish melodic extreme metal so damn good. The ability to make something this grand and majestic sound this sharp and wicked is a special talent indeed. What you get is melodic black metal deeply steeped in Scandinavian folk, somewhere perfectly in between (and thankfully avoiding the extremes of) the haunting tribute to the stark and unforgiving forces of nature and the chest-beating battle chants of viking worship. This is done with obvious love of the actual music, pouring on awesome riffs, thundering rhythms and soaring solos.
Highlights: “The Wings of Death” and “The Ancient Gods”.
Portrait – The Host
Genre: Heavy/doom metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A huge portion of darkened heavy metal galloping towards you. It captures the spirit of the genre quite well, and should be pleasing to fans, but also sounds like a band running a bit low on tricks, and those vocals are not for everyone.
Rendezvous Point – Dream Chaser
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
With unmistakably immense talent manning all stations of this vibrant prog metal project, there is never any doubt along the way that you’re in safe hands. Reminiscent of the likes of Haken, but brighter and more inclined towards electronica, this isn’t exactly what you’d call heavy, but that’s not really the point. It’s bold, often taking the rhythms and melodic elements well outside metal’s comfort zone, and to an open-minded listener the result should feel quite liberating, and really rather fun.
Highlight: “Utopia”
Replacire – The Center That Cannot Hold
Genre: Technical death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Here’s some tech death that’s constantly on the attack, and seemingly with the desire to catch you off guard as often as possible. There’s some brutally aggressive turns on here, but they’re never allowed to last for very long.
Seven Spires – A Fortress Called Home
Genre: Symphonic/folk metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Seven Spires offers up a surprisingly varied experience on their latest album, trying out a number of different approaches, all within a fairly sedate, yet symphonic framework. The vocals switch switch from harsh to angelic to suit the intensity of the music, which swings by gothic, folk, power, and even doom metal. You don’t get to many points that blow you away with its forcefulness, but there’s a feeling of thematic progression throughout that lets you take part in a darkly epic story if you so choose.
Sumac – The Healer
Genre: Experimental sludge/doom metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Normally I would reward artistic intent and creative effort in my subjective rating, even though I don’t personally vibe with the result. But in this case I will leave that to my objective rating, because even though I can absolutely appreciate these guys’ ability to manipulate their instrumental output into something with immense character, that will be truly mesmerizing for the right listener, I get close to zero out of this. It’s highly disorganized, full of dissonant noise, progressing what feels like mere millimeters across several minutes at a time, and when the heaviness comes crashing down, it’s so utterly… joyless. All of which are obviously intentional, and as a whole this feels like a complicated set of natural events that will insidiously shape the landscape around it for the foreseeable future.
Highlight: “New Rites”
Wage War – Stigma
Genre: Metalcore/industrial
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Mostly style over substance, this is loud, dance-beat metalcore with deathcore-like surges of aggression and highly pop-oriented melodic choruses.
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 