A week that brought out some strong opinions from me, with a couple of the biggest names in progressive and melodic extreme metal headlining.
Amiensus – Reclamation Pt. II
Genre: Progressive black/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
This is certainly not one for the black metal purists, and not really for the prog nerds either, but for all of us in between, what’s offered is a well-balanced mix of progressive black, melodic death, and doom metal. There are style influences to be recognized in most parts of this, so it’s not truly unique, but for fans of melancholically melodic extreme metal with a dark folk vibe, there’s lots to appreciate.
Highlight: “Decaying God Child”
Anciients – Beyond The Reach Of The Sun
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5
Calling this straight progressive metal feels almost misleading, but so would tacking on “death”, “doom”, “folk”, or any other subgenre for that matter, even though all of the ones mentioned are present as layers in the music. Opeth is probably the closest comparison I can come up with, considering the lush, darkly mystical melody, but this also dreams of the cosmos, and every now and then goes on spirited explorations beyond the familiar and earthbound. The balance between the gentler, almost heavy/doom-esque sections and heavier, melodeath-approaching parts feels completely organic, like they’re letting each track evolve as it must. A mature and highly rewarding effort.
Highlights: “Melt The Crown” and “In The Absence Of Wisdom”
Avmakt – Satanic Inversion Of….
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
You ever get that question from non-metal people, “what’s the difference between death metal and black metal?”, and start to wonder which two tracks you could play to best showcase the divide between these two subgenres? This is the sound you want to represent black metal. A million, tiny cuts in the dark, as you flail through frigid, Scandinavian woods.
Deceased – Children Of The Morgue
Genre: Death/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Not being familiar with Deceased, their “mild” variant of old school death metal might take a little getting used to, but if the sound speaks to you, then you’re getting some genuinely lively stuff here.
Dionize – Lighthouse
Genre: Stoner/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
This one deserves a better production. It’s a delightfully varied (for the subgenre at least), if not a bit unfocused, mix of groovy, southern-style stoner, doom, and some sludgy vocals. And it’s from New Zealand!
Ellende – Todbringerin
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5
Given that the messenger is an obvious, ominous representation of the netherrealm, I can’t imagine a warmer, more comforting delivery of the message of death, without shying away from any of the grim actualities involved. Ellende follow up their fantastic 2022 release “Ellenbogengesellschaft” with another gripping, impressively complete and stylistically confident masterpiece of atmospheric black metal with doom-like sensibilities. Apply a bit of patience, then sit back and let this oddly encouraging embrace of sorrow wash over you.
Highlights: “Ballade Auf Den Tod” and “Verachtung”
Erronaut – The Space Inbetween
Genre: Stoner/psychedelic metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Sure, to casually attentive ears, this is same old, same old. But it’s well produced, and introduces some modern, almost prog-melodic elements that helps separate it from its peers.
Leprous – Melodies Of Atonement
Genre: Progressive metal/rock
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Alright, I’m not gonna sugarcoat this: To me this sounds like Leprous making music from a monstrously inflated sense of self importance. There’s absolutely no hiding the immense talent behind this, and production wise it sounds as sublime as ever. But god damn are they taking your attention for granted, and when the intensity ramps up it’s usually surfing on rather uninspired, overly electronica-induced melodies. What’s more frustrating is how they all seem to almost comically restrain themselves for lengthy sections of time. as if they consider their maximum technical effort to be harmfully potent. There’s understated, and then there’s holding back. This will inevitably be a subjective take on the album, which is, objectively, quite solidly crafted, and those who are sold on their current sound probably won’t be disappointed.
Lee McKinney – To Those Who Know Pain
Genre: Shred/progressive metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
It’s modern, vibrant, progressive-minded shred. That’s pretty much all you need to know.
Nails – Every Bridge Burning
Genre: Grindcore/hardcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
This is a spike-covered fist down your throat of crusty riffs, detonation beats and bile-spitting vocals. It’s a sub 18-minute, eardrum-scouring blast of heavy grindcore with punk abandon, roaring hatred like an engine from hell. With such an uncompromising sound, you’re either gonna be completely locked in from start to finish, or start to find it a bit repetitive after a while, but given the short runtime that might not be until several repeat listens in.
Highlight: “Give Me The Painkiller”
Norna – Norna
Genre: Sludge/doom metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Nihilistic and dilapidated – this is the feeling of this harsh, semi-progressive doom project, like a dark incantation taking a painfully long time to utter.
Oceano – Living Chaos
Genre: Deathcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Ultra-precise, djent-percussive deathcore with a backdrop of solemn, grand melody. The clash of artificial and organic is definitely not their strong suit, but they manipulate their instruments with practices mastery, and infuse enough emotion into it to conjure some real personality.
Teeth – The Will Of Hate
Genre: Technical/progressive death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
An album that I really wanted to love, partially due to that sick album cover, but ended up falling a bit short of adoration for. Mainly because this is dissonant, hostile, otherworldly death metal, and so I should feel terrified, or at least intimidated, but in the end I wasn’t left with much more than the expected admiration for the technical prowess of the band. It’s not at all overproduced, and does not overuse its rhythmic approaches, feeling focused and disturbingly well controlled, while still retaining a veneer of that core death metal grime.
Highlight: “Apparition”
Thrown – Excessive Guilt
Genre: Hardcore/metalcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Hardcore with metalcore-like, synthetic backing melody, going hard on the beats and delivering some good grooves, but you can’t help but feel that most of the force comes from the production, not the performances.
To The Grave – Everyone’s A Murderer
Genre: Deathcore/brutal death metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Talking about all the force coming from the production.., This is brutal deathcore almost entirely comprised of dissonant chugs and breakdowns, with some horror atmosphere thrown on top.
Vast Pyre – Vast Pyre
Genre: Doom/stoner metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
An abyss-lurking doom record with some stoner groove to the riffs, which, honestly, feels like a bit of a distraction. Personally, I feel the same about the rough, nearly spoken-word vocals, but that might be a matter of taste.
Wintersun – Time II
Genre: Symphonic folk/power metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Fist off – be prepared that at least 16 minutes out of the 48 min 40 sec runtime of this album is purely atmosphere and acoustic transitional melody. Expected? Second then – the production is absolutely massive, and so the core sound of melodic extreme metal is cushioned almost beyond recognition in between layers and layers symphonic elements both instrumental and synthetic. No problem? Thirdly – Most of the choruses are rather repetitive and stretch out far beyond the necessary, for the purpose of soaring high as long as can be gotten away with. On par? Then enjoy the Finnish grandeur in all its… grandeur, that, when it hits right, will indeed wow you with its uncanny melodic affinity and complete dedication to the epic.
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 