A week that will please the brain as much as the heart, and make sure you get a proper neck exercise in.
Coltsblood – Obscured Into Nebulous Dusk
Genre: Doom/sludge metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
A misery-mired shuffle through a soundscape of cold, indifferent marvel, this is funeral-like doom with a raspy, jagged, blackened sludge core. It’s not one where you go through any real, significant shifts throughout each song, and so for someone lacking the required patience for several 10-minute single-path tracks, this can be a slog to get through. But if it’s a tonal landscape you feel at home in, or at least find rewarding to visit, you’re in good hands.
Death Rattle – The Moral Chokehold
Genre: Groove metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Rhythmic groove metal with very obvious Gojira influxes, to the point where it’s mildly derivative. Creatively though, it’s not really in the same league, but offers up some nice riffs, and the atmospheric touches make a decent effort in trying to pull you in.
Eschaton – Techtalitarian
Genre: Technical death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Fair warning: If the erratically busy nature of modern tech death is precisely what puts you off most examples of the subgenre, then this is most certainly not for you. This thing skips about like a hummingbird on speed – and with unrestrained teleportation abilities. It’s not the kind of thing you go to for measured buildups and a deeper sense of purpose. Neither is it an overly chaotic sort of beast. The drums in particular ensure a supercomputer-like level of control and precision, and while it’s not exactly immersive, it certainly can be fascinating. There’s not much melody outside of the guitar solos, but neither does it feel bleak or soulless. The instrumentation takes on a life of its own, like being enveloped in frantic and overlapping streams of communication in an alien language.
Highlight: “Antimatter”
Golem Of Gore – Ultimo Mondo Cane
Genre: Goregrind
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
I feel like goregrind will never be objectively “good music”, and perhaps it actually shouldn’t be. Bad taste is, in a way, inherent in the style. This one is too long at nearly 38 minutes. There are some awesome turns from all out instrumental hammering to punishing breakdowns, and you so love them when they arrive, but they are in the minority, and you can feel your brain numbing at the constant assault it suffers, leading to fatigue long before the end of the album.
Graceless – Icons Of Ruin
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Graceless manage the feat of both staying faithful and satisfyingly predictable within the sphere of old school death metal, and at the same time branching out and pulling in select elements from neighboring styles. When they slow down, it feels like a nod to epic doom. When they take the brutality down a slight notch, it feels like cracking open the door to melodeath. And when it’s time to step up the fun factor, they start toying around with early groove metal. Rhythm wise, it’s not terribly engaging, and they lack a bit of force in the low end to really knock your socks off. But the production is suitably grungy, and for such a style-conscious sound, it’s pleasingly varied.
Highlight: “Sanctified Slaughter”
Gridiron – Poetry From Pain
Genre: Rap metal/hardcore
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Rap metal isn’t the subgenre where you expect the most experimentation or variety, and for the most part Gridiron’s newest offering lives up to this “prejudice”, if you will. Their hardcore influences mixing with the straightforward street-hip-hop is fitting, but hardly a contrasting flavor. It’s a little more interesting how the heavier guitar and rhythm parts take cues from aggressive thrash, even death metal at times, and I wish that they would have allowed these influxes more room overall, instead of letting the predictable stomp-beatdowns dominate. All that being said, it’s hard to deny the energy and headbang-ability of this album, so if you’re just looking for a heavy metallic hardcore sound not too far removed from Body Count, then I don’t see why you wouldn’t enjoy the hell out of this.
Grin – Acid Gods
Genre: Sludge/stoner metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
In my mind, this is the optimal mix of sludge, stoner and psychedelia. The lazy, groove-loving rhythms bring a touch of comfort to contrast the clenched-fist, gravel crushing heaviness of the tone and vocals. Speaking of which, Jan Oberg sound like he’s straining his vocal chords to the point where I want to clutch my throat and chug ice water to alleviate the imagined pain. The upside of this is that he’s able to wring his voice into melodic gargle-howls not unlike the great Lemmy, which adds another dimension to the experience. While this is in no way a genre-bending sort of sound, with the subtle psychedelic elements feeling like a natural addition, the album feels meticulously and expertly shaped. There’s both darkness and levity at the extreme ends, and in the middle it’s a restrainedly soulful, slow-rolling thunderclap.
Highlights: “Nocturno” and “Beneath the Altar”
The Haunted – Songs Of Last Resort
Genre: Melodic death/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
If you haven’t listened to The Haunted before, firstly shame on you, and secondly I’ll try to sum up what you can expect on their latest release by way of name dropping. Think the songwriting excellence and heaviness of At the Gates with the restless groove of Lamb of God, some Cavalera Conspiracy ferocity, a bit of Destruction-style thrash shredding, and a touch of old school In Flames melody. If that sounds like the stuff of dreams, then you can start to appreciate just what you’ve been missing out on for the last 27 years. On “Songs of Last Resort” they go heavy on the thrash and groove, but always with the throat-ripping vocals and a ravenous aggression fueling the momentum. The start of the album is insanely strong, and it keeps the quality all the way though, although you do feel like you’re on a slight downwards slope in terms of freshness. Still, it’s an album packed with bangers, and the qualities that shaped the band still shine through as strong as ever.
Highlights: “In Fire Reborn” and “Warhead”
In The Kingdom Of Nightmares – Fading Light
Genre: Metalcore/groove metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Take some Unearth-style early metalcore and add some heavy, Kataklysm-style groove to it, as well as a bit of hardcore rhythm rigidity, and you should be able to clearly picture this stuff. It’s not the most three-dimensional songwriting wise, but will fill your craving if you’ve got it.
Obsidian Tongue – Eclipsing Worlds Of Scorn
Genre: Experimental black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Welcome to this otherworldly sermon to powers incomprehensible. Yes, this is in essence black metal, but it’s warm, curious, expansive and unpredictable in a non-jarring way, like it’s inviting you along to experience an undiscovered part of the universe. You get gentle, atmospheric melody, rich, friendly psychedelia, a tragic-epic tone and sweeps of snarling heaviness that feel both old school and grand in a tastefully understated way, without resorting to a garbage production. There’s not really a clear, coherent direction to the listening experience, and I find myself losing interest slightly on the second to last two songs, but then it soars back up with the final track, and all is well again.
Highlights: “Theater of Smoke & Wind” and “Orphaned Spiritual Warrior”
Obstruktion – The End Takes Form
Genre: Hardcore/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
As a fan of metallic hardcore, this is kind of what I want all hardcore to do, which is to simply turn the riff power up to eleven. Allowing in a few other rhythm influences also doesn’t hurt, and pushing the vocals into raspy territory also really does it for me. This album has that monumental riff tone that makes death metal sound so ominous, and plenty of beat-heavy energy. A bit too many of the songs are overly one-dimensional, but it’ll still get your blood pumping.
Puteraeon – Mountains Of Madness
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Oh dear, it’s crunchy Swedish death metal. I can feel my objectivity draining away and my consciousness slipping into a happy place coma. This one even has some thematic depth to it… oh damn, I’m completely sold from the get-go. You can imagine my ecstasy at discovering that the melodic and rhythmic variety on this album is also more than decent. Let’s see if I can muster the mental fortitude to properly describe it to you. This is a Lovecraft-themed, fairly cold-toned, modestly melodic, Swedish old school death metal album that boasts a beefy production, playful rhythms and a constantly threatening tinge. The vocals are mostly all-out wet-snarling, but also does a few barks, and a couple of dips into clean. There is absolutely nothing missing from this in terms of pure, headbanging heaviness, but I will deduct some slight points for missing the opportunity to utilize some genuinely scary atmosphere. A few cues from death doom might have done it. But other than this, I find precious little to criticize.
Highlights: “Watchers At The Abyss” and “The Land of Cold Eternal Winter”
Quadvium – Tetradōm
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
A band of two bassists, essentially, this is a masterclass in instrumental prog metal, at least as far as technicality is concerned. Yes, there’s a bit of riffing and drums in there as well, but the bass is no doubt king. It’s got a warm, all-enveloping low end (as can be expected) and doesn’t go too crazy with the rhythm transitions, but it’s still a showoff through and through.
Rivers Of Nihil – Rivers Of Nihil
Genre: Progressive/technical death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
I both want to be more strict and more liberal with my rating of River of Nihil’s latest. From the point of view of a laid-back appreciator of technical proficiency and melodic variety, this is extremely enjoyable. The album explodes with force and verve, leaving behind almost all trace of the pensiveness of 2021s “The Work”. So if that one bored you, then it’s time to rejoice. But if you, like me, find yourself a bit disappointed with the near-abandonment of consequential thematic depth to the benefit of deathcore-levels of rigid, punishing chugs, metalcore-like choruses and electronic ambience, then, well, that’s disappointing. There are still plenty of recognizable elements though, like the riff tone and use of sax, so don’t worry. It’s still high quality melodic prog death, just not quite pushing the envelope for this highly competent gang.
Highlights: “Dustman” and “House of Light”
Svart Vinter – Isvind
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
This is pretty much as straightforward as you can imagine atmospheric black metal to be. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it just limits the scope. It’s cold, snarly and with sweeping, tragic tremolo melody.
Vildhjarta – + där skogen sjunger under evighetens granar +
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
You should know that when a band that uses djent guitars as heavily and percussively as this still manages to win me over, they are truly doing something right. I think the key in this case being that they understand how to manipulate the sound into doing OTHER things than just drive the progression steadily and punishingly to the next, predictable breakdown or jarring rhythm shift. At it’s best, the guitar tone and riff structure mimic other music styles, making it feel like the whole song is morphing into some gleeful caricature. Don’t get me wrong though – while it’s certainly entertaining, it’s not silly or disrespectful, in fact it shows a fluidity of taste and musical understanding that is nothing short of admirable. And it somehow ends up meshing perfectly fine with the flow of the album. It’s a little long, and slightly repetitive at times, but well worth a listen for any prog enthusiast.
Highlights: “+ den spanska känslan +” and “+ kristallfogel +”
Zig Zags – Deadbeat At Dawn
Genre: Heavy metal/punk
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Playing a characterful blend of classic metal and punk rock that the band themselves like to call garage metal, there is no doubt that LA’s Zig Zags have a very specific expression in mind. Is it a bit narrow? Sure, but not more than usual for any of the subgenres in question, which also include a bit of speed and thrash. It’s a mid-tempo, back-to-basics affair that strikes a tasteful balance between lean and punchy. The album starts very strong, then dips into a slight creative lull, before coming back stronger towards the end. The overall length is only a bit over 33 minutes though, and there’s really nothing bad on here, so expect to be entertained throughout.
Highlight: “Altered States”
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 