This week is a triumph of darkness, casting all else in shadow, with only the most massive of the brighter, progressive forces able to stand their ground and break through.
Black Curse – Burning In Celestial Poison
Genre: Black/death metal/grindcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
If you ever for some reason feel like blackened death metal has gotten too tame of late, then there’s this stuff for you. It’s an over-distorted, endless attack wave of demonic hornets, captured with a low-fi production, but retaining an abyssal bass rumble to properly herald the approaching doom. The grindcore aspect to the music makes for a constantly revving engine of hatred, giving off a rabid hostility even in the mid-tempo sections. Listen closely, and feel any notion of benevolence being scorched from your mind.
Highlight: “Flowers of Gethsemane”
Embrace By Dark – Extrasensory
Genre: Folk/progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
This is not a traditional release in that it slips neatly into a specific subgenre, neither is it notably experimental. There are traits of folk, symphonic elements, some simplified melodic death metal, and a progressive attitude to rhythms. It sounds like it’s on the cusp of something, but doesn’t quite become anything more than the sum of its parts.
Fit For An Autopsy – The Nothing That Is
Genre: Deathcore/metalcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
The tech-melodic deathcore chug machine that is Fit For An Autopsy is back. This time they’re scaling the intensity back a bit in favor of a slightly more atmospheric and dynamically progressive approach. It hits hard as always, and effortlessly blends catchy grooves and metalcore-like harmonies in with the thundering heaviness. It’s good, but to me it doesn’t sound as distinct as on their last two releases. Even on a casual listen you’ll be able to pick up a lot of archetypal tech and djent elements, and the overall slight lack of punch is indeed felt. Still, it’s a quality release with good replay value.
Highlight: “Savior Of None/Ashes Of All”
Gaerea – Coma
Genre: Melodic/atmospheric black metal
Subjective rating: 5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5
Further expanding their sound, beyond limits you would think impossible to transcend considering the excellent balance of 2022’s “Mirage”, Gaerea har created something stunningly expressive. It takes melodically driven, atmospheric black metal and lifts it to a plane beyond any obvious tethers to either the contemporary or the past. Even the most simple, single notes on this album seems to flow and reverberate the air from horizon to horizon, and when the full fury of the band erupts, it shoots up beyond the atmosphere and sends shockwaves through your mind. Everything feels both perfectly natural and imposingly intentional, with an unbelievably rewarding flow and dynamic range.
Highlights: “Hope Shatters” and “World Ablaze”
Ghosts Of Glaciers – Eternal
Genre: Atmospheric black/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
This is an instrumental album, taking your down a winding stream into the gloom of the underworld, It’s a journey that involves roaring rapids as much as serene passages through vast, echoing chambers. The dark is your friend on this one, and it feels strangely uplifting.
Highlight: “Leviathan”
Gigan – Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus
Genre: Technical/psychedelic death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
This is the kind of cosmic horror where you find yourself in an impossibly helpless situation, assailed by hostility both sentient and not from all possible angles. The band uses dissonant technicality and trippy atmosphere to describe scenarios that probably feel a bit like being sucked into a black hole – while on acid.
Haliphron – Anatomy Of Darkness
Genre: Symphonic death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
You think “symphonic death metal” and this is probably the first kind of sound your brain conjures up. It’s got the right kind of mood, and is sufficiently heavy, but there are few surprises and standouts.
Hate Angel – Extinction Ritual
Genre: Black/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
As with the review above, this seems like the prototypical example of the melding of its two subgenres, namely black- and thrash metal. The tempos are all fast and furious, with snarly vocals and a cold tone. It’s probably great live, but a bit one-dimensional in your headphones.
Iotunn – Kinship
Genre: Progressive/melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Not gearing up for the epic space expedition of its predecessor, this album will still take you on an expansive journey. IOTUNN has returned with a more grounded, mature sound, with more coherent melodic sections that harmonize better with the clean vocals. The importance of which should not be understated, considering the importance of said vocals as both storytelling device and foremost tone setter. The dark-adventure melodies sounds exquisite, and the band offers up both more traditional melodeath- and folk-derived rhythmic sections as well as mercurial, progressive ones. It all adds up to a well-balanced and highly immersive experience that will tickle all the right parts of your brain.
Highlights: “Kinship Elegiac” and “The Anguished Ethereal”
Living Gate – Suffer As One
Genre: Psychedelic death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
This is old-school-inspired death metal that sways around the place like a deeply drunk madman. It’s imposing in sonic stature, unrefined in all the right ways, and occasionally gets into a crushing groove, but mostly it’s content with moving aimlessly from one state to the next, hurling around brutality as it goes.
Loudblast – Altering Fates And Destinies
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A veteran death metal band with a crisp and dry sound, using some thrashy riffs and solos. It’s a very long album that unfortunately brings very little new to the table, and offers a fairly poor flow. It’s nice and sinister though.
Mindless Sinner – Metal Merchants
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Old-school heavy metallers offering more of what they’re good at – 80s, biker-style, epic-leaning roadster metal. The vocal harmony is so-so, but the instrumental music has that undeniable, classic charm.
Pounder – Thunderforged
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
Rowdy, high-energy heavy metal with a slight thrash flair mixing classic metal themes with poorly veiled innuendos. Fun, but melodically it hardly works at all.
Schammasch – The Maldoror Chants: Old Ocean
Genre: Avant-garde black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Schammasch is not what you would call a predictable band, but if you’re familiar with their work then at the very least you know you’re in for something dark and atmospheric, probably with big contrasts. On this album they sound like they’re on a journey through ancient myths. While some of their earlier material has sounded modern and technical, this is much more folk-inspired, almost relaxed in comparison, but still dramatic and bold. There is less pure, harsh black metal in here, which feels like the right choice for creating something that exists in its own, isolated universe, bringing as little attention as possible to its outside influences. A few of the melodic sections might feel slow for some, but they do supply some fitting gravitas.
Highlight: “Chrystal Waves”
Sentient Horror – In Service Of The Dead
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Crunchy, morbid death metal with no-quit energy, rampaging across the graveyard, calling up a crowd of moshing undead, no doubt. It’s heavy, grindy, but armed with thrash-like agility and a penchant for cheeky solos. Innovative is certainly not the right word, but for a fan of reinvented OSDM, it hits right in just about every single way.
Highlight: “In Service of the Dead”
The Spirit – Songs Against Humanity
Genre: Progressive black/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
This is a band that has its roots firmly lodged in the classic black metal wellspring, showcasing a real affinity for recognizing and building on the key musical aspects of the genre. The same kind of affinity that allowed bands like Emperor and Darkthrone to maintain their trademark black edge while stylistically mutating and moving in new directions. What The Spirit offers up is a mix of busy blast beats and tremolo with thundering riff sections, with a highly creative variety of transitions in between, never quite content to arrive by the same path.
Highlight: “Room 101”
Thaw – Falling Backwards
Genre: Black/noise metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Leaning so far into industrial, doomy ambience that the way back may never be found, this is avant-garde black metal with a mystical, dystopian expression, like being trapped inside a complicated, smoke-filled machine.
Devin Townsend – PowerNerd
Genre: Progressive metal/rock
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
So, what’s Devin gonna do this time? Rock ‘n’ roll? Well, yes. And then he’s gonna do Devin. Lots and lots of Devin. There is nothing not unmistakably Devin Townsend on this album, and that in itself is a stamp of quality, but also a note to take for the prog enthusiasts that like to be surprised. Yes, there is a notable amount of groove on here, but like a big hard rock album there’s also a strong proclivity for ballad-y, anthemic choruses, and overall melody-drenched songs, which, if you stripped back the massive production, wouldn’t hold a great amount of substance. All that being said, for what it is, and many will rightfully love it for what it is, it sounds damn fantastic and radiates aspects of the amazing personality that went into making it.
Highlight: “PowerNerd”
Turmion Katilot – Reset
Genre: Industrial/electronic metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
If you haven’t heard Turmion Katilot before, the rave-ready techno metal with raspy Finnish vocals is a thing to experience. On their quick follow-up to last year’s Omen X, the band leaves behind some of the heavier metal aspects in favor of more electronica-styled beats, which leaves the metalhead in me a bit disappointed. The rowdiness is very much still there though.
Waste – In Decay
Genre: Deathcore
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Furious djent-percussion with beat- and breakdowns aplenty. The staccato rhythms give it a rap metal vibe, just stupidly heavy.
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 