Blackened death metal outnumbers all this week, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only flavor on offer.
Abysmal Rites – Restoring The Primordial Order
Genre: Sludge/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A Finnish band crafting their sound from only bass, drums and vocals. It’s dark, ominous, and just as heavy as you would expect with the bass guitar performing all the riffs. Sometimes it’s a bit hard to tell where one track ends and another begins, but the mood they set is very effective.
An Tóramh – Echoes of Eternal Night
Genre: Funeral doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
I would say that this album has a gothic feel to it, but it’s certainly a very bleak and sinister one. There are wisps of melancholy carried on melody, but it feels faint and temporary – inevitably to be swallowed by the darkness before long. There isn’t much building up involved, only pauses in the slow, crushingly heavy riff procession, and so it’s not exactly a dynamic experience. But it does a good job of keeping any semi-attentive listener immersed.
Behemoth – The Shit Ov God
Genre: Blackened death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Ever since releasing the monumental “The Satanist”, I feel like Behemoth keeps being held to an impossibly high standard. That’s not to say that I think their subsequent releases have been masterpieces to even nearly the same level as their 2014 career highlight, but judging them for their independent qualities as works of blackened death metal, I would still argue that they reaffirm Behemoth’s status as subgenre greats. This album takes another step away from the conceptually driven subtleties and artistic intricacies of “I Loved You at Your Darkest” and goes for a much more direct approach. In fact, as Behemoth goes, it’s pretty straightforward. It sounds big, and has a symphonic volume to it. But there’s also plenty of aggressive drive, and some really excellent performances. It’s not mind blowing, but still showcases plenty of the band’s strongest qualities.
Highlights: “The Shit Ov God” and “Nomen Barbarvm”
Chainsword – Chapter XII
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
I will always listen favorably to a band that themes its work around Warhammer 40K, and on this one they seem to have gone in a distinctly Khorne direction. If that means nothing to you, then just ignore it, cause it really doesn’t matter in terms of the feel of the music. It’s semi-primitive, thrash-infused, old school death metal. If you were/are into Bolt Thrower, then this will appeal to you.
Escarnium – Inexorable Entropy
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
This is Brazilian death metal that takes the dark and horrifying route. Most everything about the sound is monstrous, but not in an over-the-top brutal, overproduced sort of way. It sounds like it comes from the deep, rumbling with hunger and feeling its way with slithering tendrils. It’s a thing that’s not instantly easy to wrap your head around, but you feel your understanding growing the further in you get, almost like you’re getting indoctrinated.
Highlights: “Revulsion of Carbon”
Exilium Noctis – Pactum Diaboli
Genre: Blackened death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Greek blackened death metal that pulls hard in the aggressive, abrasive direction, but doesn’t let go of the penchant for dark grandeur. Honestly, there is very little fresh about their sound, but if you want black-leaning, unholy heaviness that sounds evil despite an impeccable production, it will probably float your boat.
For The Pyres – At The Pyres of Sin
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
No, I can, in fact, not get enough of classic Swedish death metal. This is a lively one, with a heavy focus on those crunchy riffs, and vocals that sound like grinding gravel. It has an air of shadowy triumph about it, but it’s not really one that you take seriously as any sort of no-nonsense malicious statement of actual evil. It’s a non-stop headbanging good time, overflowing with groove and all the brutal bells and whistles you would expect from this style.
Highlight: “Let Their Blood Colour Our Swords”
Ghost Bath – Rose Thorn Necklace
Genre: Atmospheric black/gothic metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
If you’re into “healing by feeling”, then this might be the cure for you. It’s an album that pulls you down to its level, insisting that you immerse the misery, depression and suicidality. But at the same time, there’s a notion in here that it’s okay to feel this way, but you don’t have to. You can dream bleak, take in the hurt, and it’s fine. Ghost bath plays black metal with a non-stereotypical gothic flair to the melodies and atmosphere. It also taps into much lighter points of the musical spectrum, like ethereal rock. The metal is the force that wakes you from your reverie invoked by soft, dreamy interludes. I don’t think every song manages the balance as well as the best, but the most inspired material on here has the potential to stay with you for a long time.
Highlights: “Well, I Tried Drowning” and “Dandelion Tea”
Jade – Mysteries Of A Flowery Dream
Genre: Atmospheric/melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Like a storm sweeping over the peaks of a mountain range, the sonic turbulence resounding across the valleys below, this atmospheric death metal album rolls over you, forcing you to lean into it to keep your footing. There’s a feeling of primordial forces being invoked, a bit like the dark folk elements you might find on an Enslaved record. In that regard, there is a touch of black on it, like a calling from the shadows, but it never takes any sort of technical shape. It’s a heavy, austere sound that flows exceptionally well, letting in streams of melody that perfectly match the tone, feeling like transient glimpses into worlds beyond the veil of reality. Personally I could have wished for even more force when it comes time to put the foot down, but I’m completely sold on the immersion.
Highlights: “Darkness In Movement” and “Shores Of Otherness”
My Dementia – Premonição: Só Me Arrependo Do Que Não Vivi
Genre: Doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A funeral-slow, riff-crunchy doom metal album from Portugal. There’s a strong whiff of death metal over it, but it prefers to keep it orderly and august, over raw and bloodthirsty. It’s a bit too repetitive to warrant the 1+ hour runtime, and although I normally don’t complain over a riff-over-atmosphere approach, this one could have benefited from a bit more variation.
Ominous Ruin – Requiem
Genre: Technical death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
As precise, agile technical death metal goes, this one feels almost restrained. It doesn’t go crazy with the speed of tempo shifts, there’s no vocal acrobatics worth mentioning, no glitch-out, insane guitar solos. It’s very to-the-point, and yet measured. It struggles to distinguish itself in any specific area, but should definitely please fans of the subgenre.
Skaphos – Cult Of Uzura
Genre: Blackened death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
If you thought that the Behemoth album this week was a bit too “safe”, then might I heartily recommend this monstrosity. Not that it’s some sort of out-of-control, ultra-harsh work of madmen, but it’s definitely on the raw and ever so slightly unhinged part of the blackened death spectrum. It dips into eldritch horror and ritualistic soullessness, but first and foremost it’s an utter assault of coarse riffs, canon-barrage drums and rusty, gurgled vocals. It does feel a bit long at almost 50 minutes of runtime, so could have used a bit of trimming, but the real ripper tracks are evenly distributed throughout, so it will keep a tight hold of you till the end.
Highlights: “Shaphism” and “Abyssal Tower”
Tetrarch – The Ugly Side Of Me
Genre: Nu metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Yes, this album sounds like an absolute guilty pleasures meld of Linkin Park, Korn and Static X, straight out of the late 90s/early 2000s, and please do tell me – what the hell is wrong with that? Yes, I know I’m biased having grown up with this stuff, but honestly I didn’t listen actively to most of the original nu metal bands until quite a while later, and even then it’s never really been “my” subgenre. But the feel you get on this album is simply undeniable. It’s so… pure. So saturated in that baggy-pants, spiked-hair alternative vibe that you can instantly conjure up your own cartoony, hyper-contrast-filter, cyber punk music video for each and every track. And the band absolutely revels in it. Yes, it’s fairly formulaic at certain times, but unless the thing repulses you from the very first minute, you will easily forgive it.
Highlights: “Live Not Fantasize” and “Anything Like Myself”
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 