As we finish off September, get ready for a dozen shades of aggression – raw, fuming, raging, deranged, whacky and measured.
Adorior – Bleed On My Teeth
Genre: Death/black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
An untamed, mildly deranged sort of blackened death metal experience. It takes that raw, in-it-to-shock-you value of early Venom and ramps it up with some savage riffs and squeals. It’s not overly chaotic, but does feel a bit like it’s possessed, which is as it should be, as is that album cover.
Highlight: “Bleed on my Teeth”
Arkona – Stella Pandora
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Harsh, Polish black metal backed up by a thundering low end and piercing, melancholic tremolo melody that run straight through the tracks, carving out depth where there would otherwise be a fairly straightforward black metal approach. It’s not particularly complicated, but well produced and focused on the task at hand.
Highlight: “Prometeus”
Bewitcher – Spell Shock
Genre: Black/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
This is probably about as colorful as black metal can get before it cracks and gets silly. But even though this scores high on the fun factor, it doesn’t feel like it’s stretching any limits, cause these guys know what they’re doing. With the groove of Motörhead and melodic style of Kvelertak, the album is just a really good time, without trying to reinvent the formula.
Highlight: “Out Against The Law”
The Black Dahlia Murder – Servitude
Genre: Melodic/technical death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
It’s great to hear the guys back and ripping. This is tight, aggressive, suitably technical melodeath, and really just sounds like TBDM should sound. That being said, while certainly delivering the goods on paper, I’m not able to connect to this album. The melodic approach feels disjointed, like the rhythm elements rage on top of a slightly hollow, slightly aimless current of emotion.
Highlights: “Mammoth’s Hand”
Crypt Of Reason – Stargazer
Genre: Doom/death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
An atmosphere-rich death-doom album that lives just on the flip side of the conventional, trying out progressive rhythms and the occasional touch of disharmony.
Cyborg Octopus – Bottom Feeder
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
I was pretty psyched about these guys’ last record, 2022’s “Between the Light and Air”, then went a little back on my assessment on later listens, finding it to be a bit too unhinged and stylistically all over the place. On this one, the band has matured, and their style seems a bit more refined. It’s still wild though – a vibrant mix of metalcore, thrash, deathcore and melodic prog, very much still in an experimental and playful mindset.
Highlight: “Afterburner”
Endonomos – Endonomos II – Enlightenment
Genre: Doom/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
A patient, darkly minded death doom experience that feels like muttering forbidden incantations with your eyes closed, transporting your mind through barely visible corners of the abyss. It’s go some very strong, epic-natured melodies and a smooth, rich production.
Highlight: “Hostile”
Fâché – Violent Au Volant
Genre: Grindcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
The title of this album translates to “Violent Driving”, so this is basically… roadrage grindcore. Which is exactly what this sounds like. 35 songs that barely make up 23 minutes of runtime. It. Does. Not. Let. Up. Terrible production though.
Heriot – Devoured By The Mouth Of Hell
Genre: Sludge metal/deathcore
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
This is a beast of an album. Ominous-toned sludge that perfectly balances deep, doom-tempo malevolence and artillery-barrage deathcore. Some of the rhythms are straight up hardcore, but with the impact of falling boulders. There’s a great, crusty tone to the guitars as well, for that added feeling of corrosive brutality. They even manage to fit in some atmosphere.
Highlights: “Harm Sequence” and “At the Fortress Gate”
High Parasite – Forever We Burn
Genre: Gothic metal/rock
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
Goth metal that tries both the groove-laden black ‘n’ roll-path as well as the more accessible hard rock route. It works well melodically, but it’s not original.
Ingurgitating Oblivion – Ontology Of Nought
Genre: Avant-garde/experimental death metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5
This is gonna be my biggest divide between subjective and objective rating yet. It’s a nigh-on masterpiece of hair-raising chaos and dissonance. This is not a slow descent into madness – it straight up drops you into the raging maelstrom, which hungrily assaults you with a cacophony of impression, like getting a million fragments of your memory played back to you at once. Personally, I don’t know that I’ve ever had an album frustrate me this much. There’s absolutely nothing to hold on to, and even when I finally, slowly feel myself connecting to a song, it abruptly ends with two minutes of near-silence. But hey, it made me feel something. Strongly. This album is an immense achievement, and I never want to listen to it again.
Highlights: Find your own, I got nothing.
Marche Funèbre – After The Storm
Genre: Melodic death/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A death doom record with an inviting sort of sound, going slow and gloomy, yes, but also leaning into epic, folk-derived melody that brings to mind several Finnish contemporaries.
Obsidian Mantra – As We All Will
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Modern death metal out of Poland that, despite a depressive, black-leaning tone, hits you with loads of vigor and plenty of groove. Its main problem is that it keeps getting stuck on the build-up riffs, and rarely really lands on something solidly satisfying.
Highlight: “Cult of Depression”
Oceans – Happy
Genre: Progressive metalcore
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Oceans really maturing as a band on this one, sounding cohesive, locked and loaded. They’re also definitely branching out into contemporary popular music genres, and getting fairly accessible on the singles, but they know how to bring the anger, and make it sound authentically emotional.
Highlight: “BREED CONSUME DIE”
Odium Humani Generis – Miedzyczas
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
This is semi-atmospheric black metal that, for the subgenre, sounds almost rather gentle. It’s definitely still cold and using harsh vocals, but with a pleasantly smooth bass end and flowing melodies.
Ripped To Shreds – Sanshi
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
After impressing me greatly with 2022’s “Jubian”, Ripped to Shreds are back with more crunchy, no-mercy death metal. This time they lean even further into the old school vibe, especially with the vocal approach, and also bring a more pronounced Bay Area thrash side to the fore. It starts off fairly wild and bloodthirsty, then gradually settles into more of a groove-focused approach towards the middle. Some of these riff sections are so savagely primal that you’ll feel like the whole world starts tilting back and forth to the rhythm, in anticipation of your inevitable headbanging.
Highlights: “孽鏡臺 (Visions of Sin, Mirror of Darkness)” and “殭屍復活 (Horrendous Corpse Resurrection)”
Torrefy – Necronomisongs
Genre: Black/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A clearly not-too-serious blackened thrash project that rages on like an undead racing driver. It does have moments of prog-like ambitions, but its rhythm transitions are probably what they succeed the least at.
Triskelyon – Shattered Elysium
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2/5
A thrash/heavy project that clearly tries to bridge a few different subgenres, like prog and even a bit of death. I applaud the ambition, but it’s unfortunately a bit of a mess, and the production does not do them any favors.
Turbokill – Champion
Genre: Power/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
Sing-along heavy metal with a very power-esque, over the top vocal approach and epic tonal quality.
Vicious Blade – Relentless Force
Genre: Thrash/hardcore
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Crossover thrash with boundless energy and a wicked, slightly blackened edge. It’s got that hard-headed, crowd-rousing, no-way-but-forward hardcore rhythm approach and tops it of with snarly vocals, a malevolent tone, and galloping, pulling-at-the-reigns riffs. While never really slowing down, It might be a tad too controlled for some, but I appreciate a rhythm structure that allows for some mid-tempo grooves.
Highlight: “Relentless Force”
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 