A compact week carrying few mighty headliners, and a lot of smaller aggressors, with hardcore getting ample representation.
Âscent – Gamma
Genre: Progressive metal/rock
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
The prevailing notion I want to attribute to this album is “understated”. Not in the way that it lacks character or variation, but it prefers to take things mellow, even on tracks with names like “Party” and “Hades”.
Attractive Chaos – Tame & Conquer (EP)
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
Fairly bread-and-butter sounding female fronted melodic metal. It gets into some slightly heavier, more interesting sections in the latter half, but it doesn’t fully make up for some of the more creatively barren stuff that’s on here.
Cemetery Filth – Senses of Detriment (EP)
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
You know damn well what this is. There’s no mistaking it with that name. It’s got some pretty cool, spacey solo sections to go with the… cemetery filth, and it’s not even a tonal clash. A little disorganized, but not totally clunky.
Dark Tranquillity – Endtime Signals
Genre: Melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
It’s been a little while since the last DT album, but then the band hasn’t been in the habit of releasing new material frequently for quite some time. As long as this coincides with the kind of consistent quality they’ve been able to maintain, you won’t hear me complaining. On “Endtime Signals” we get them balancing their trademark solemn melodies and evergreen knack for controlled aggression better than I can seem to remember for quite some time. You still get some doom-leaning, all-mellow tracks, and in a few instances I wish they would just return to that awesome riff line they played a little earlier, rather than staying in that chorus-style limbo rhythm for the rest of the song. But it’s obvious that they keep trying to do new things, incorporating a bit of prog, a bit of groove, a bit of thrash, and are still able to masterfully tie everything together with their impeccable tonal consistency. And then throwing in some of the best solos they’ve ever done for good measure.
Highlights: “Unforgivable” and “A Bleaker Sun”.
Extinction A.D. – To The Detested
Genre: Hardcore/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
If you think the idea of mixing New York Hardcore with the rougher end of thrash and 90s groove metal (Pantera) sounds like just the ticket, then there’s no way in hell you’re not gonna dig this. It’s bursting at the seams with that bare-chested, shorts-wearing, uncontainable kind of energy, and completely unapologetic about serving up a non-stop buffet of stompy, squealy riffs. A bit one-dimensional? Sure. Are you gonna care? Absolutely not.
Highlights: “Impervious *(Unrepentant)” and “Shepherding Swine”.
Gel – Persona (EP)
Genre: Hardcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Hey, hardcore should be allowed to be catchy too. There’s no shortage of aggression and attitude on Gel’s latest EP, but it feels surprisingly orderly, almost a bit industrial , and goes straight to the point with its relentless, crusty riff parade.
Highlight: “Martyr”.
Horns & Hooves – Spectral Voyeurism (EP)
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
An intriguing spin on classic raw-like black metal, infusing it with a frantic, near-psychedelic, retro-punk kind of vibe, that I’m (clearly) struggling to properly define.
Left To Suffer – Leap Of Death
Genre: Deathcore/Metalcore
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Highly sappy-melody-oriented metalcore with a deathcore Hyde-like second personality. It’s well produced and vibrant, mixing in a lot of popular music genres. But to me it just screams trend surfing.
Starer – Waking
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Melodic, far-reaching black metal with a semi-bleak tone, like a gale across a mostly barren landscape, revealing patches of struggling vegetation among the dust and rock.
Thermality – The Final Hours
Genre: Melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
This thing so strongly radiates 90s In Flames that I’m forced to call it slightly derivative, but at the same time I don’t want to complain about getting more of that stuff. It’s not the most mature thing you’ll hear this week, and they’ve got a bit to go on delivering lasting impressions, but it’s a solid foundation to build on.
Trench – Between Inverted Worlds
Genre: Deathcore/hardcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
A conceptually charged, heavy and dystopian-feeling extreme metal project melding elements of deathcore, hardcore, progressive death- and industrial metal. The influences of these exist mostly in the nuances, as the album sets its own pace, stepping hard on the aggression pedal while mostly moving at a fairly moderate pace, with glimpses of bleak melody in between.
Highlight: “PATH OF PAIN”
Vile Rites – Senescence
Genre: Progressive death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Very much following the vibe of its cover art, this feels like a massive, writhing entity in the oceanic deep, expressing its wrath in between the surges of the currents, in the form of doom-laden, sinister atmosphere. But when this thing goes on the hunt, it’s merciless, striking with predatorial determination. The album employs melody and dissonance in equal measure, without letting either side assert dominance, prioritizing a sort of in-between, slightly unpredictable tone.
Highlight: “Shiftless Wanderings”
Yosemite In Black – In Pursuit Of
Genre: Hardcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
A fierce, rhythmically pounding hardcore album with more than a bit of grindcore energy. Both riff tone and vocal style exude hateful harshness, but the band has little interest getting into any sort of chaotic knots, instead pulsing out the brutality like a revving engine.
Highlight: “Robber Baron”
Ulvehunger – Retaliation
Genre: Black metal/black n’ roll
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Raspy, war-prepared black metal that’s not afraid to open the taps on a few groove riffs and solos. It’s cold and jagged, but not overly hostile, placing it in an area between Khold and mid-career Satyricon.
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 