No telling what you’ll get this week. This stuff is angry, sad, silly, too cool for school, old and rigid, and young and flexible. Be open to it all.
Barren – The Hanged Man
Genre: Doom/sludge metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
This is not the kind of doom that’s interested in taking you anywhere pleasant. In fact, it seems to revel in its prolonged use of piercingly disharmonic guitar melody and oppressive atmosphere. It’s unpolished, not very well produced, but interesting.
Bombus – Your Blood
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
If you can picture “rusty” metal, then you’re on the right trach for what to expect from this one. Bombus plays punk-infused, Scandi-hard rock-styled heavy metal, and on this one they’ve got a bit of a thick, dry stoner sound going. The vocals are Lemmy-like hoarse and raw, just more like the kind that’s one pointed finger away from getting some gang vocals started. Any one of these songs present great, but there’s a certain lack of energy, with several tracks feeling like they’re on a half-burn.
Brothers Of Metal – Fimbulvinter
Genre: Power metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
The Brothers (+ one Sister) of Metal want to bring you more over-the-top epic Viking power-daydreaming. There’s no point in pretending for a second that this is going to be grounded in anything but the desire to join in a collected fantasy in front of a massive stage, pumping fists, raising shields and headbanging helmets. It’s catchy, grand and surprisingly heavy at times, and fulfills its purpose with obvious enthusiasm.
Carved Memories – The Moirai
Genre: Melodic/symphonic death metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
The intent is all there for this band, going all in with a demonic-fueled, aggressive take on symphonic melodeath that manages a great balance between epic and dark. Unfortunately, it suffers from a shoddy production, and has some problems with messy rhythms and a few lacking performances.
Coma Hole – Hand Of Severance
Genre: Psychedelic doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Female-led psych-doom with a healthy dose of stoner groove, this is a project that manages a very focused sound – it’s riffs, beats and vocals, and that’s all you need. It all works very well together, waving and weaving through spaced-out melodies that go on and off the road to nowhere.
Dead Icarus – Zealot
Genre: Technical metalcore/groove metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
The new project of former Atreyu vocalist Alex Varkatzas has landed their fist full-lenght, and it’s… nothing like Atreyu, that’s for sure. Okay, there’s a good deal of metalcore in here, and Alex’s vocals are quite recognizable, but in pretty much every other way this is a different beast. Offering speedy and playful technicality nearly on the same level as bands like Ingested, and indeed starting the record with the very deathcore-like banger “The Unconquerable”, this definitely belongs in a much heavier and instrumentally advanced camp. They back the melodic elements up with groove metal aggression and highly catchy riffing, and quickly settle into a mid-level space of heaviness, which seems to fit them very well. Overall the album’s a bit unsure where exactly it belongs, but it’s an exciting start for sure.
Highlight: “Casting Spells”
Eldingar – Lysistrata
Genre: Black/folk metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A voluminous black metal album out of Greece, leaning ever so slightly towards blackened death, and incorporating several full-length tracks of pure traditional folk music. It makes for a slightly jarring offset, and when the heavier songs also have long atmospheric and slow stretches, a good deal of your listeners are gonna run out of patience. It’s quite varied, but not all of it seems to have a strong purpose.
Ephialtes – Melas Oneiros
Genre: Blackened/melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Enthusiastic, modern blackened melodeath with a mythical theme. After a short-ish intro it gets straight to the point and pretty much rages on unabated for the duration. It’s riff-focused, melodically driven, and with a darkly epic symphonic element to it that kicks in whenever the songs need a bit of elevation.
Everto Signum – Beastiary
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
This is raw black metal, not in the sense that it sounds like it was recorded via tin can telephone, but that it’s down to basics and rather primitive. It’s plenty aggressive, and with a rumbling bass end it presents as quite threatening. A few of the songs are a bit clumsily composed, but when they get into a groove and make the melody work, this stuff is top notch.
Grave Next Door – Sorry No Candy
Genre: Doom/stoner metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
Low-fi, old-school stoner with rusty, menacing doom riffs. It lacks depth, and so a lot of it can feel repetitive, and the vocals, which are a bit too prominent in the mix, don’t always hit their marks.
Lifesick – Loved By None, Hated By All
Genre: Hardcore/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
A spiked sledgehammer blow of a crunchy death metal-riffed, metallic hardcore album that’s so friggin’ heavy up front that the band seemingly has found no other way to top off each song than going into fairly standard, whole-body-banging breakdowns. If you’re more of a hardcore fan, and this is what you feel is the highlight of any song anyway, then all is good. I would have liked to se a few more creative and/or groove-oriented solutions, but that being said, this is an absolute blood-pumping nail bomb of an album. While the backbone of the music is definitely hardcore-styled, stompy rhythms, the coarse, ominously-toned nature of old school Scandinavian death metal coats everything like a layer of broken saw blades, upping the savagery tenfold.
Highlight: “Poems for My Funeral”
Mitochondrion – Vitriseptome
Genre: Blackened death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 4/5
This album is a nightmare from beginning to end, which makes the 1hr 25min runtime seem like an intentional choice mainly for the sadistic purpose of prolonging the torture. It’s dissonant, abyssal death metal that’s a bit too fast to be considered doom, but has the same kind of feel as a cavern-dwelling, monstrous death doom project. You get plenty of noisy, disturbing atmosphere, a complete disdain for melody, and a very sparing use of coherent riffing. Personally I don’t find quite enough to connect to to fully justify the massive runtime, but if you are of the mind that death metal should be pushing the limits of acceptable discomfort and hostility towards the listener, then Mitochondrion has struck a remarkably good balance between advanced musicality and disharmony on this one.
Highlight: “The Protanthrofuge”
Nachtmystium – Blight Privilege
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
This is Nachtmystium’s first full-length album since reforming in 2017. Not being terribly familiar with their past work, I can’t really take into account their evolution, but will nonetheless state that “Blight Privilege” sounds like the result of a long and fruitful process of maturing. What you get is a classic black metal core steeped in sullen, milder atmosphere, with the harshness playing an equal counterpart to the contemplative, emotion-heavy melodies. A part of me wants to call it gothic, but the tone is much more earnestly bitter than superficially glum. There’s a real spring to the rhythms on here, making sure the music keeps moving forward and helping to remind us that this is a work to be enjoyed, despite the gloomy façade. For being black metal, it is easy to grasp, and highly rewarding to get properly immersed in.
Highlights: “Blind Spot” and “Predator Phoenix”
Paganizer – Flesh Requiem
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
In an alternate universe, this is possibly what Amon Amarth could have ended up sounding like. Brutal, old-school Swedish melodeath but with an undeniable penchant for battle-charge riffs and an infectious, hungry energy behind the raspy vocals. This is a band that knows very well what it wants to be. The downside being that a lot of the songs on here sound fairly similar, with very few deviations from the base formula. For a death metal fan it’s still ear candy anyway, ’cause it all sounds very good indeed.
Highlight: “Life of Decay”
Powerflo – Gorilla Warfare
Genre: Rap/groove metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A mix of angry, Body Count-style rap and melodic groove metal, this is anthem-prone, modern and spirited stuff. The riffs have some nice crunch to them, and some of the heavy hip-hop beats seem to want to dig down to a primal place. But mostly it’s fairly accessible, crowd-pleasing stuff.
Qaalm – Grave Impressions Of An Unbroken Arc
Genre: Sludge/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Long-form sludge that goes from near-death metal heavy chugs and constricted vocals to sweeping, doom-styled melodies and dusty, mystical atmosphere. The band certainly handle the aggressive approach the best, both when it represents rage and when it gets into more straightforward grooves.
Rorschach Test – Fallen
Genre: Hardcore/deathcore
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Chug, chug, chug, chug, chug. CHUG. CHUG. CHUG. This one’s aaaall about the chug-beats, with hardcore rhythms delivered with glass-shard-covered fists and rending deathcore vocals. A bit one-dimensional, but the rage is real, and infectious.
Tribulation – Sub Rosa In Aeturnum
Genre: Gothic rock/metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5
I’ll be honest, I’m definitely one of those Tribulation fans that’s a little disappointed that this record takes a step down from gothic METAL, into rock and dark club (?) atmosphere territory. So I’ll let my subjective rating reflect this, while my objective rating represents me praising the band from my knees for their musical craftmanship, and their daring in expanding the stylistic outlet for their signature sound. This album is so damn cool, it doesn’t give a shit about being heavy. It’s goth, it’s a shadow-dweller, a vampiric life drinker, a pulse in the dark. It’s Tribulation, just in a certain mood that’s a bit different from what it was the last time you met them.
Highlights: “Tainted Skies” and “Drink the Love of God”
Vessel – The Somnifer
Genre: Atmospheric stoner metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A stoner project that might just be a bit too careful. It gives you heavy fuzz that will vibrate your brain, and lazy, nomadic melodies that trudge along, with, or without a beat. It’s a very pleasant listen, with a smooth, warm production and a goth-like vocal style that almost surprisingly fits the tone very well.
Vola – Friend Of A Phantom
Genre: Progressive/electronic metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
I get a bit of In Flames-Anders, and I’m generally happy, although that’s a fairly restrained, although front-loaded, guest appearance on this album. VOLA makes gentle, electronic prog metal that floats on fluffy atmosphere and warm, pop-oriented melodies. Putting a muzzle on the metalhead in me, my main gripe with the album is how straightforward a lot of the songs are, considering that it’s clearly a progressive effort, which makes the prog elements feel a bit tacked on. But the melodies are pure joy, like a balm for your mind.
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 