Reviews of metal albums released November 01 – November 07
A week that’s out to test your sanity, pulling you up, down, inwards and into several pieces.
Astronoid – Stargod
Genre: Progressive/avant-garde metal/shoegaze
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Review: Let’s go on an adventure skipping through a selection of pleasant dimensions to the uplifting tones of 80s rock and heavy metal. There are notes of sadness involved, and a good deal of dreamy contemplation, but for the most part it’s cushioned by gentle-yet-expressive vocal work and warm melodies. The guitars are clearly present, offering gallops and chugs that draw from prog, hard rock and even a slight bit from black metal. But they rarely get to outshine the synth based atmosphere, which strongly sets the tone for the entire experience. There are a few too many mellow and un-challenging tracks on here for my taste, but it’s elegantly and cohesively crafted as a result of a very clear and well executed vision.
Highlights: “Love Weapon” and “Dream Protocol ’88”
Cold Steel – Discipline & Punish
Genre: Thrash metal/hardcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Review: Dropping their debut full-length like an artillery-fired nail bomb, Florida’s Cold Steel are making sure it’s obvious they mean business. Their trade is crossover thrash of the harsh, percussive kind, in the shape of mid-tempo, chugging punishment rather than a blistering riff fest. It’s dirty, angry, heavy and slightly unhinged, bursting with character and delivering an awesome collection of opening tracks. The middle section of the album is a slight letdown comparatively, as it slows down and takes on very similar rhythms, but they bring back the intensity towards the end. It’s tight, purposeful and decently varied, promising great things for the future.
Highlight: “Blacksmith of Damnation”
Ildaruni – Divinum Sanguinem
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Review: This is Armenian black metal that emerges like an army of the dead from ancient and forgotten halls carved into the heart of the mountain. That’s not saying it’s locked in rigor mortis. On the contrary, it bristles with grim energy and strikes with both blade-edged fierceness and towering force. There is a definite epic quality to it, with a melodic approach that brings to mind solemn melodic death metal, but the snarling vocals and shivering tone keeps it rooted in the blackness. Its folk elements provide clear distinction, while it remains quite traditional in its instrumentation otherwise. There’s not a weak track on the album, and one or two more truly outstanding songs might have elevated it into undeniable greatness.
Highlights: “Forged With Glaive and Blood” and “Zurvan Akrane”
Norilsk – Gigantes Mortui
Genre: Doom/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Review: While certainly heavy and boasting harsh elements straight out of bloodthirsty death metal, the temperament of this album feels mostly lifted from classic doom. Some of the rhythms are surprisingly light on their feet, bringing to mind stoner and even a hint of punk. But the tone remains mostly bleak and crushing, with only faded hints of levity present in the restrained melodies. At times it sounds massive and ancient, at times impatient and quite mobile. It stands out in the death doom subgenre as something that offers more than just crushing bulk, and while slightly uneven in structure and sense of purpose, it’s well worth your attention.
Highlight: “La liberté aux ailes brisées”
Omnium Gatherum – May The Bridges We Burn Light The Way
Genre: Melodic death/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Review: Finnish veterans Omnium Gatherum are now on their 10th full-length, but playing with the energy of a band half their age. What we get on this latest release is a vibrant, fairly accessible form of melodeath with undeniable Finnish traits and accompanying charm, and a good deal of swagger from classic heavy metal to go with it. There’s a lot to like, but pushing the envelope it most certainly is not, and that album cover does not do it any favors.
Oromet – The Sinking Isle
Genre: Doom metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Review: If you’re looking for funeral doom with the same kind of all-enveloping, seemingly endless scope as Bell Witch, then this is likely to sate your hunger. It keeps rising, and rising, and rising, and pulls you along with it to unseen domains of the skies. The bass is a constant, steady companion, and the patient drumming, like the footsteps of a titan, carry you effortlessly along. While, as expected, moving at a glacial pace, it’s a truly dynamic listen, bringing you the unstoppable force of a tsunami as well as serene calms of near-silence.
Highlights: “Hollow Dominion” and “Foresaken Tarn”
Pupil Slicer – Fleshwork
Genre: Mathcore
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Review: This is not your average, fiendishly complicated, rubbing-alcohol-flavored piece of mathcore. It’s aggressive, for sure, and certainly not straightforward. But there are layers to the harshness, and the band deftly maneuvers between them in a way that is both satisfyingly unpredictable and which produces a rich level of variation. There is noise and dissonance, but also groove, melody and experimenting with genre influences. It’s a band flexing its capabilities and expanding its repertoire, doing so confidently and fully committed to making it work within the flexible framework of their base style. The effort is there all the way, as it claws, snaps and roars at you in rhythmic outbursts.
Highlights: “Heather” and “Gordian”
Qrixkuor – The Womb of the World
Genre: Atmospheric death/black metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5
Review: This will dissolve the ground underneath your feet and send you hurtling into a realm of shifting shadows, unsettling shapes and pure madness. In essence it is a strain of terrifying death metal, feeding on your fear and causing light itself to wither and die. An orchestra of beautiful malevolence plays in the background, while the vocals hiss like serpentine demons and the guitars thrash and writhe in blind rage and agony. Given the depth, it feels a lot like doom, and it bites with a blackened bitterness, but when the intensity builds there is no denying the rumbling, musty savagery. It keeps morphing and evolving, alive with corrupting potency. It’s a lot to take in, but never really becomes overwhelming, and the nightmare comes to an end after a little over 50 minutes, which is no more or less than it needs to leave you broken down yet in complete awe.
Highlights: “The Womb of the World” and “Slithering Serendipity”
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?
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