A week that’s over before you know it, but throwing some real nuggets of brutality at you as it passes.
Acid Mass – Worship
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
“To hell with everything!” seems to be the prevailing thematic notion behind this punky, slightly low-fi thrash metal record. That’s not to suggest that their performances are in any way lacking. This is speedy, high energy stuff with tons of spit-in-your-face spirit and a favorable attitude towards cool licks and solos. Definitely something to check out if you’re a riff junkie and don’t absolutely need your metal to carry that massive punch you get from a big, clean production.
Highlight: “Hell From Above”
Asenblut – Entfesselt
Genre: Melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
This is vey much like modern Amon Amarth, unfortunately at their least imaginative. Riffs and melodies are a dime a dozen, but at least it’s not over the top anthemic, and when they really try to go heavy, they mostly succeed.
Barbarian Hermit – Mean Sugar
Genre: Stoner/sludge metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
I wouldn’t go so far as to describe this as progressive, but it sort of lives in its own in-between world where slow, wandering melodies and groovy chugs are are equally natural parts of the progression.
Carnophage – Matter Of A Darker Nature
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Expect an interesting blend of different death metal subgenres on this one, and a melodic tone that subtly distinguishes it from the morbid masses. It’s definitely on the modern side, with strong elements of tech and brutal, but the production and riff tone leans towards the old school. Without getting experimental, it eagerly tries out a plethora of different approaches, which doesn’t do wonders for the flow, but keeps you guessing for what you’re gonna get next.
Convictions – The Fear Of God
Genre: Metalcore
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Rather typical modern metalcore of the heavy, djent-chugg-juxtaposed-by-electronic-melody-and-soft-vocals variant. Yes. I realize I’m being dismissive, but I just don’t find anything inventive here.
Gravemind – Introsphere
Genre: Metalcore/groove metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Massively percussive, djent-riffed modern metalcore switching between dissonant chugs, lighter grooves and moments of mellow melody.
Mister Misery – Mister Misery
Genre: Melodic groove metal/hard rock
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Catchy, pop-melodic, metallic hard rock that delivers some surprisingly cool grooves, whenever they let off on the anthemic pedal.
Mourners Lament – A Grey Farewell
Genre: Doom/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Not one to easily appreciate with the balmy summer afternoon sun streaming through your window, this is sullen, husky doom with some death metal knots of slow-burn vehemence, rolling through like a nearby rockslide. Perhaps a bit too sluggish for its own good, if you set aside the time, you’re in store for some solid, austere melodic sections with the feel of slowed-down old school melodeath.
A Night In Texas – Digital Apocalypse
Genre: Technical deathcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Apocalypse indeed. Its gist near-perfectly encapsulated by the album art, anyone even remotely familiar with tech death and deathcore will know more or less what this album is about. It’s sci-fi warfare described with as much appetite for violence as the grand, dystopian spectacle – complete with artillery-crash breakdowns and ever-changing rhythms of high-rate mechanical weapons fire. It’s at its most interesting when a little more stripped down and centered around Slipknot-like grooves, which adds much-needed character for the inevitable, brutal cacophony to build on.
Rise Of Kronos – Where The Gods Return
Genre: Death/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Sure, this has the surface aggression of death metal, but a lot of the main rhythms and riff lines are straight out of classic heavy metal and even rockabilly. That makes is quite accessible for a growling, thundering hate machine, which in one way is enjoyable, but also strips it of a lot of the brutal impact it probably intends to deliver.
SulfuriS – Corpus/Animus
Genre: Groove/sludge metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A kind of rough-around-the-edges groove metal project with some definitive Scandinavian melodeath-flavored moments, but not in the sense of scale or heaviness. Rather, they do their own, down to earth thing and play around with a host of different riff approaches and fairly straightforward rhythms much more reminiscent of a slightly progressive, sludgy hard rock project. It’s interesting, although technically a bit stiff.
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 