How about some spice to rouse you from the catatonic laziness of the holidays? This last week of the year has you covered.
Acida – Blessed to Destroy
Genre: Melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A fresh piece of Chilean melodeath that hits a lot like Angela Gossow-era Arch enemy, but with enough differences to remain their own thing. It’s a groove-oriented sound for sure, aggressive and tastefully abrasive, much more interested in firing off heavy, speedy riffs than crafting particularly memorable, melodic choruses. It’s got a few rough edges courtesy of being a debut, and it’s not the most advanced in terms of songwriting, but it’s got the right spirit – bringing in just enough elements of the old school to give it a solid, legit base from which to grow.
Highlight: “Broken Society”
Algol – The Black Sands of Madness
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Did you enjoy Satyricon’s “Volcano” and “Now, Diabolical” albums, and kind of wish they’d continued down the line of black ‘n’ roll-infused, riff-centered, not-so-conceptual black metal? Argentinian solo project Algol picks up the threads and keeps on spinning, revitalizing that spirit of catchy bitterness. While a good number of the songs on the album feel rather unambitious, in that they stick more or less to the same line from start to finish, it’s all good stuff, never losing sight of their purpose, never falling for the temptation of indulging in ambient padding to boost the runtime. It’s straight-to-the-point, un-pretentious stuff that sticks resolutely to a strong stylistic core.
Highlight: “The Black Sands of Madness”
Antumbra – Days of Future Ravaged Lands
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
If you’re in the mood for some melancholy to wipe that blissful Christmas joy smile off your face, here’s an atmospheric black metal album from one-man-project Antumbra out of Romania. Feelings of epic longing flow from the tremolo-led melodies, offset by agonized, raspy vocals and steady, mid-tempo rhythms. You’ll find your mind wandering along barely discernible paths in vast, misty forests, at the foot of towering, snow-capped mountains, all in complete solitude. If you’re familiar with the style, you will generally have heard it all before in several highly similar iterations, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a rewarding listen.
Highlight: “When Nothing Remains”
Black Negative Domination – Reborn in Darkness
Genre: Black/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Despite some slightly messy rhythm work and a limiting production, this is a rough gem of a blackened heavy/death album from Germany. Snarly aggression and rumbling beats meet a sense of the epic, catchy riffs and a bit of snazzy solo work. Tonally it comes off as fairly serious, but it’s not out to get you in a bad mood – quite the opposite.
Highlight: “When I’m Gone”
Black Yet Full of Stars – Dark Wing Gospel
Genre: Symphonic metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Dramatic, harsh-edged symphonic metal from Italy which gives you some of the lighter sides of Fleshgod Apocalypse, and a good dose of power metal panache on top. A few progressive twists and turns come included as well, but it’s more low key. It goes both low and high, soaring on rousing bombast as well as chugging out punchy riffs followed by growled vocals. It’s got an operatic theatrical quality that’s not overdone, and which makes me imagine elaborate stage productions telling tales of bravery and tragedy.
Highlight: “Nigredo, Foulest Servant”
Empty Mirror – Deus Profanus
Genre: Gothic metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A melodic, symphonic-leaning goth metal project from Greece that uses both clean female vocals as well as male harsh ones. It sounds serene and smooth, although with a good number of heavier riff sections. A bit sedate, but would be a great contrast to more brutal things.
Gravethorn – Atrocitas
Genre: Black/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A hissing, thorns-out, US-based blackened death project that sounds just the right degree of underground for what it’s trying to achieve. The spooky tone, the over-distorted guitars, the muffled vocals, it’s all there. But it’s also fairly intense, and its death metal personality pulls it in the direction of heavy chugs and fervent, squealy solos, which are all highly welcome.
Highlight: “Barbaric War Declared”
Here and Beyond – Echoes of the Past
Genre: Black/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Get ready to be hit by a wave of furious despair in the form of atmospheric, blackened death metal out of Nevada, USA. It screams and roars its way along on pounding drums, and lets out laments of cold, gentle melody, sometimes changing its trajectory suddenly with progressive rhythm transitions, giving a slightly erratic overall feel. While there’s an abundance of aggression, it doesn’t feel overly hostile, more like a herald of great misery that conveys its message very convincingly. Not all the songs have an equally strong identity, but in total it’s a force to be reckoned with that firmly stands its ground among its peers.
Highlight: “Invocation of the Thaumiel”
Jugular – Hymns for Our Deathbed
Genre: Heavy metal/hard rock
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
This is (mostly) a fun one, even though I’m not sure it’s intended to be. In spite of song titles like “Grief” and “A Hymn for Our Deathbed”, the album feels upbeat – skipping along on peppy hard rock rhythms and light, thrash-y riffs accompanied by mildly gritty vocals. My main gripe with it is the band’s proclivity for slower doom-ballads, which aren’t dark enough to land as atmospheric mood-setters, and kill the momentum created by the earlier, more energetic tracks. And so they fall in between two chairs. But if they can decide more firmly on a specific direction for their sound, I sense great promise here.
Mammon XV – Emprise
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
An album that starts off as a malevolent, throat-ripping predator, attacking with intense force. Then, halfway through, it shifts to slower, longer, and more atmospheric songs, losing the previous aggression to semi-sad tones and an overall more emotion-laden approach. The quality is still there, but I personally find it to be a missed opportunity.
Shovelhead A.D. – Timeless Old
Genre: Groove/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
While we’re waiting for a potential new Pantera album, and the divisive shitstorm that will no doubt accompany it, have some of this! Shovelhead A.D. draws from that sludgy, coarse groove sound that we got on “Far Beyond Driven” and “Vulgar Display of Power”, then adds to it with some thrash ferocity and just a tad of Devil Driver melodic affinity, It’s at times significantly more brutal than Pantera and at other times gentler, offering much of the same Southern attitude, if not nearly the same level of innovation. It’s a straight banger from start to finish, just the right amount of dirty, just the right amount of instrumentally playful. Technically a bit rigid, perhaps, but they make up for it by churning out some of the most rad riffs I’ve heard all year.
Highlights: “Tormented Aggression” and “Shell Shock”
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 