This is a week for instrumental achievements, where astounding technicality and modern production come together to stunning effect.
Allegaeon – The Ossuary Lens
Genre: Technical/melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5
It must be daunting, going about crafting a tech death album in this day and age. Being technical virtuosos isn’t nearly enough, as there are such an overwhelming number of dizzyingly competent musicians out there that fans get exposed to. How do you find the space to sneak in some personality in between the ant hive-worth mass of notes? The answer for Allegaeon seems to be mainly one overarching strategy: Be purposeful. On every level. As extravagant, melodic tech death goes, this is a lean record, and with every song being immediately identifiable as chasing a slightly different goal along a different path, the result is mind-blowingly effective. It’s always moving forward, in leaps and bounds, scurrying along complex tunnel networks, prowling the shadows and taking jet-fueled flight. Melodically, it’s as vibrant as it is focused, which is a hard thing to pull off. A true highlight of their discography.
Highlights: “The Swarm” and “Dark Matter Dynamics”
Benediction – Ravage Of Empires
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Back again after a mere 5 years, proving they still got it, death metal veterans Benediction serve up more old school, thrash-riffed goodness. This is all about tone and bad-ass delivery – more of a style that’s very well established and doesn’t need to be reinvented. And the band’s dedication to this style is evident. There’s nothing fancy about this album, nothing surprising, just riffs, growls and lively drums. That being said, it’s unnecessarily long at over 47 minutes, as there are no “chapters” or detours in the experience, just the same, fairly narrow approach for song after song. The energy doesn’t run out though, so if you’re ready to eat it all up, you’ll be plenty full.
Highlight: “Crawling Over Corpses”
Bleed From Within – Zenith
Genre: Metalcore/groove metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
I jumped on the Bleed From Within fan train back when I discovered them with 2020’s “Fracture, which was evidently a good place to join in. I’m generally not the biggest fan of contemporary metalcore, but what got me about this band is that, while they’re not afraid to sound “modern”, as opposed to mimicking the old school early 2000s style, they employ healthy doses of groove- and melodic death metal, and that’s their way of “going heavy”. Which just feels so much more organic – borrowing elements of objectively heavier subgenres – than downtuning and adding strings to your guitars for a chunkier, over-distorted guitar tone with extremely on/off rhythms for maximum contrast. Even so, melody and catchiness is still a key part of their style, but even as they are clearly growing in popularity, they don’t surrender to their more accessible side. Instead, it sounds to me like they’re only getting heavier and more aggressive. I’ll definitely not be the only reviewer to say this, but “Zenith” has the band sounding more mature than ever. And even though there are a few tracks on here that are more miss than hit, the ones that pierce the bullseye are all radiant, vital examples of how to make youthful, melodic extreme metal that bridges the gap between light and dark.
Highlights: “Chained to Hate” and “In Place of Your Halo”
Buried Realm – The Dormant Darkness
Genre: Technical/melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
The melodic death metal equivalent of a shred album, this is the product of a one-man, technical melodeath project that involves quite a few notable guest appearances, like Björn Strid, Gus G. and Christopher Amott. It’s plenty fast, heavy and adventurous, and successfully bridges the gap between tech death and modern melodeath. But for people (like me) who are looking for more than impressive musicianship, it can feel fairly hollow, even boring at times. If you care less about character and conceptual depth though, this should prove plenty entertaining.
Fractal Universe – The Great Filters
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
While their style is still easily recognizable, it seems like these French proggers are making a genuine attempt at diversifying their sound on this, their fourth full-length. They’ve been melodic and able to switch effectively between gentle and harsh before, but their technical, aggressive core has for the most part held the upper hand. This time around, the death metal elements are more scaled back, in favor of really exploring and expanding on the atmosphere. It’s a move that heavily relies on the band’s ability to write strong, memorable melodies and engaging mid-to-low tempo rhythms, and while certainly not bad, it’s still not their strongest suit. The heavy progressive work that remains has its ups and downs – both bold, attention-stealing innovation as well as fairly recognizable, odd-timed rhythms that feel like prog for prog’s sake. Still, the saxophone is well integrated, and it’s a step in a much more well-rounded direction.
Highlights: “Casualty’s Grip” and “Dissecting the Real”
Frantic Amber – Death Becomes Her
Genre: Melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
I first discovered all-female melodeath band Frantic Amber with their sophomore release “Bellatrix” back in 2019, and found their aggressive-epic approach to slot satisfyingly in between melodic heavyweights like Arch Enemy and Amon Amarth and more savage, sharp-edged bands like Goatwhore and Crypta. This is still true six years later, and “Death Becomes Her” is a more even, focused effort that’s technically a significant step up. But it’s also more revealingly on a tipping point between straight-up catchiness and cut-throat viciousness, not quite always getting the balance right. Still, it’s got some distinct highlights that are evenly spread throughout, making for an engaging listen that should further elevate the band.
Highlight: “Hell’s Belle”
Kiritsis – Kiritsis
Genre: Death ‘n’ roll/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
This is dirty, sludge-like death ‘n’ roll with a distinctly doom-like tone. It’s all about jumping from punishing, mid-tempo riffs into bounding hardcore-like rhythms, and then back. It’s uniformly dark, sounding like they’ve got their style nailed down. They need to utilize their time a little better, as some of the slower parts can drag along a bit, but the attitude is right and the punch is nice and heavy.
Luna Kills – Deathmatch
Genre: Alternative metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Been a little while since I’ve heard a young band manage the alternative metal sound as well as this bunch. It’s a balance between moody pop, nu-metal and techno-goth, with just a bit of rhythmic metalcore riffs on top. The album has its ups and downs, but the best of the melodic work is outstanding, and there’s a whiff of greatness over the mix of dark synth and haunting vocals.
Messiah Paratroops – Legions of Tomorrow
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
The debut full-length death metal album from a band that formed all the way back in 1989. The style also hails from that early era, being slightly muddled and riff-happy, with rusty vocals. It’s fun stuff, although a little uneven in execution.
Midnight Vice – Midnight Vice
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
A young band throwing themselves head first into the classic metal revival game, scoring well on both familiarity and character. The effort is all there, with the vocals ranging from falsetto to light grunting, and the guitars chasing eagerly along. Melodically, it’s not always a bullseye, or particularly distinct, but they pack onto it with cool, darkly fantastical atmosphere, that suits the style perfectly.
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Death Hilarious
Genre: Stoner metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Sure, knowing the tastes of the stoner metal fanbase, the seven pigs serve up fuzzy riffs aplenty on their latest release, and with a bit of doom rumbling to back it up, but they are also clearly not interested in making a straightforward album. You get a bit of psychedelia, some classic metal and a surprising bit of indie, but more significantly there’s an experimental tendency to mess about with the rhythms and genre-feel. A bit of punk anti-harmony here, some atmosphere-backed hypnotic repetition there, a dash if rap, and gliding fluidly in between light and dark, makes this an experience a little out of the usual. It’s not all immediately pleasing, as the album’s variation isn’t really felt on an individual song basis. But when taking the whole thing in, you can appreciate how confidently different it is to your typical stoner jam.
Highlights: “Blockage” and “Stitches”
Tómarúm – Beyond Obsidian Euphoria
Genre: Progressive black/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
If you like your extreme prog metal busy, then this is absolutely for you. At 1 hour 8 minutes, this is a mammoth of an album. In true aggressive, technical prog fashion, it goes for the throat in a myriad of different ways, and loves to delve into adventurous, melodic tangents both energetic and dreamy. It’s with these vivid melodic sections that they really win me over, although by contrast, some of the more aggressive, frantic rushes feel overdone and jumbled to me, often employing disharmony to boost the feeling of alienating hostility. There is a lot to take in over the course of the album, almost like you’re getting two albums worth of material. It’s complex and technically brilliant, certainly a bit nerdy and show-off-y and not quite going the direction I would have liked following 2022’s more measured “Ash in Realms of Stone Icons”. But it’s a massive, content-rich effort that manages to blend in both darkness and brutality in an impactful way.
Highlights: “Shed This Erroneous Skin” and “The Final Pursuit of Light”
Warfield – With The Old Breed
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
German band Warfield serves up impressively consistent, mean-tempered, battlefield-thrash that’s both bitingly ferocious and heavy on the shreddy groove. Immediately establishing a malicious tone and a headstrong, impatient approach to song progression, the guys deliver on this promise on track after track. Sure, not every single one is as memorable, but the reckless attitude, fronted by the snarling vocals, is infectious, and never lets up, ensuring a visceral feel even when they slow down to a mid-tempo trot. Tight drum work and a nice, punchy bass make for an excellent counterpart to the slicing guitars, filling out the sound and adding to the impact. At times perhaps feeling a tad too controlled, the utter devotion to the riff, the dark tone, gang-vocals and bared-teeth aggression make this thrash to the bone.
Highlights: “Appetitive Aggression” and “Inhibition Atrophy”
Wrath Of Logarius – Crown Of Mortis
Genre: Black metal/deathcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
An attempt at combining the bitter hostility of black metal with the distinctly modern, technical and visceral brutality of deathcore. On a surface level it absolutely succeeds, although much of the ominous “ugliness” – that chilling core of black metal – is buried under the massive onslaught of thundering drums and rumbling riffs. And as a blackened deathcore project it’s perhaps a tad too stark. Still, if you just want to be flattened by darkness, it does that job quite well.
Zeolite – L’Appel Du Vide
Genre: Technical/brutal death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Eschewing most of the symphonic elements of their debut, 2021’s “Proselytism”, Zeolite still deliver big on over-the-top heaviness and precision. It’s also still a dark, menacing sound, in the typically unsubtle kind of way that usually goes with modern, brutal death metal, but it’s a bit more raw and sharpened this time around. The utter abandon of no-holds-barred, brain-shaking aural devastation of its predecessor has been reigned in somewhat, which is a bit of a shame. “L’appel Du Vide” is more mature, more focused in purpose, and sounds more genuinely ominous. The apocalyptic, slamming delivery certainly hasn’t been abandoned though, and while a bit of the fun is lost, the contrasts are greater, making for a more dynamic listening experience.
Highlight: “Impetus”
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 