Reviews of metal albums released March 21 – March 27
This week is thick with quality, particularly in the cold and sinister part of the spectrum, but it’s far from all bleakness and misery.
Aggressive Perfector – Come Creeping Fiends
Genre: Speed/black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Review: This has got to be just about as rock ‘n’ roll that black metal can possibly get. Never mind that you’re probably being lured into sacrificing yourself for some unspeakable summoning ritual, if it sounds this fun then it’s probably worth it. This is a crisp, direct sort of sound that still has fullness, but lacking even a gram of excess fat. It’s speed and heavy metal with raw, shouted vocals, bursting with solos, licks and scorched riffs. While it’s more mid-tempo than speedy, it sounds like they’re giving max effort on every track, hell bound to entertain, but not sacrificing the throat slitting attitude for the sake of your listening comfort.
Highlights: “Dead Undead” and “Fiend in You”
Bekor Qilish – Consecrated Abysses of Dread
Genre: Experimental death/black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Review: If you ever wondered what death metal performed by a black metal musician might sound like when infected with a computer virus made by aliens, then here’s a likely answer. While Abbath-like croaking, technical death riffs and prog drumming are at the core of this madness, each track sounds like it’s frantically trying to explore what it might sound like in the style of two or three different other genres of music at the same time. And the actual human behind the instruments and levers has to put up a constant fight to reign it in. But it appears to be a losing battle, as the music seems to get increasingly unconventional the further into the album we get. Describing it as “spasmic” and “glitchy” becomes gradually more apt. It’s a bit aimless and uneven, but still very cool.
Highlights: “No Solace At The Eschaton” and “Emptiness-Wrought Cognition”
Black Label Society – Engines Of Demolition
Genre: Heavy/doom metal/hard rock
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Review: This gets more of a mention than a full review, as I’m a bit short on time this week, and it sounds pretty much exactly as you’d expect from Zakk and the rest of the biker gang. Crunchy, sludgy rock ‘n’ roll with punchy heaviness and doom groove, with quite a few ballad-y section thrown in in between. Oh, and there’s an Ozzy tribute at the end, which I can’t fault for being emotional, but would have liked to see contain some actual essence of what the Prince of Darkness actually represented, and still does.
Blasart – Depravatus Christianis Sacris
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Review: Here’s some Chilean black metal that sounds like it’s bursting out of a yawning crack in consecrated earth, eager to corrupt and defile. It’s relentlessly aggressive but with a strong leaning into black ‘n’ roll, which grounds its rough presence and tumultuous progression in some easy-to-like groove and attitude. It’s lean, perhaps not demonstrating the tightest of performances, but that’s part of the charm, and it sound evil from horn tip to toe talon. And that album cover is one of the absolute best I’ve seen so far this year.
Highlight: “Ritus Impositionis Sacrilega” and “Vocatio Sanctis Phallus”
Chamber – This Is Goodbye…
Genre: Mathcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Review: I had a pretty great time with this band’s 2023 offering “A Love To Kill For”, and this is more of the same sonic punishment. In fact, it’s even heavier. What you get is mercilessly slamming mathcore with a shrill dissonant streak that makes it seem a bit like it was designed with noise torture in mind. It’s technically brilliant, but less clinical than just simply calculatingly violent. At it’s best it’s hugely dynamic and goes from a near-inanimate state to crushing skulls in a nanosecond. At it’s worst it’s a bit too much of the same – on the verge of becoming predictable. It doesn’t last for two long though, and all of a sudden it comes up from behind to snap you in half.
Highlight: “scarlet ink”
Hellripper – Coronach
Genre: Black/speed metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5
Review: All hail the goat! Perhaps not the G.O.A.T., but if James keeps this up he’ll have some pretty strong arguments to make his case. The Scottich one-man-project Hellripper is back after 2023’s frankly god damn excellent “Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags” and judging by the album cover you might expect a slightly more reigned in, atmospheric and solemn approach on this one. Hell no, this is more epic and unapologetically face-melting than ever. I’d go so far as to say that several songs on here are pure masterpieces of balancing untamed, underground-feeling aggression with heavy metal likeability and timeless presence. It’s a fearless kind of album that dares to try different things and expand on the recipe, with great variation in tempos, playfulness and perceived level of darkness. This isn’t your standard flash fire of a blackened speed metal album that’s finished almost before you’re attuned to the inevitable production quirks. This is ambitious. It stretches out, perhaps a bit longer than some would find necessary, but there’s hardly a moment of pause, and certainly none wasted.
Highlights: “Hunderprest” and “Blakk Satanik Fvkkstorm”
Hexenhorde – Sempiternal Witchery
Genre: Death/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Review: A massive riff fest of a death thrash debut album, that just keeps on giving and giving and giving, its bloodlust never waning. There’s no real complexity or depth, it’s technically competent but much too preoccupied with delivering non-stop bad-assery to be particularly creative. It’s not the strongest in terms of songwriting, as several tracks kind of just even out or dip instead of peaking, but there’s so much groove and momentum that you can easily ignore it. It’s fast paces and over in just over 30 minutes, which feels spot on.
Highlight: “Deceiver’s Oath”
Power Paladin – Beyond The Reach Of Enchantment
Genre: Power metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Review: The most important thing to know about this Icelandic band’s brand of power metal is that it’s good, honest, RIFF BASED power metal, which means that it’s possible to enjoy sober and not blasted from a festival stage. As the name suggests, Power Paladin know perfectly well who they’re making music for, and aren’t the least bit shy about it. It’s got D&D and classic fantasy pouring and radiating from it, and if you’ve got the slightest love for this genre I don’t understand how it couldn’t make you beam with happiness. It’s got great energy with some actual heft and hints of aggression, excellent technical performances and just heaps of nerdy-yet-rock ‘n’ roll-charm. Grab your sword and cape, you damn well know you want to.
Highlight: “Sword Vigor” and “Camelot Rock City”
Rivers Ablaze – Inexternal Dread
Genre: Progressive black/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Review: This relatively fresh Hungarian band are already on their fifth full-length since their formation in 2019. With that kind of productivity you should expect a strong clarity of vision, and that’s evident on “Inexternal Dread”. What you get is a progressive black metal band that gazes as much into the cosmos as it does the dark, misty forests, and uses a lean, semi-technical form of death metal as a means of propulsion. It’s mostly quite harsh and gloomy, but allows itself the occasional drift into more serene melody that brings to mind folk-touched doom. There are both strong highlights on here as well as tracks that lack identity and is fairly easily forgotten, but if you’re ready for a hostile, fairly unsettling trip with tight instrumental work and moments of respite, then this will serve you well from start to finish.
Highlight: “Silent Orbit”
Varmia – lauks
Genre: Blackened death/folk metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Review: If you like your blackened death metal sounding unsafe and a bit like it wasn’t actually intended for human comprehension, then this is likely up your alley. I’ve a soft spot for Varmia’s chaotic blend of early Behemoth savagery and Baltic tribal influences. It sounds raw, wild, more real somehow. That being said, there are more songs on this album that feel outright messy than not, and the Behemoth likeness is at times borderline imitative. It will largely depend on your expectations, but I’d take this over something polished and safe any day.
Highlight: “dzień, pół nocy”
Winterfylleth – The Unyielding Season
Genre: Melodic black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Review: Winterfylleth have already proved their ability to take melodic black metal into the realm of the atmospherically majestic without compromising on neither the aggression nor the bleakness on 2024’s excellent “The Imperious Horizon”. So it’s not really a surprise that they’re able to pull it off yet again on this one, but it still warrants saying. At times this feels like the very landscape of ancient, untouched lands swelling and then letting out an almighty sigh as the ground cracks, trees splinter and rivers vaporize. There’s ample aggression to counter the expansive melody, although if you’re not the patient kind, you’ll probably find yourself losing focus towards the end, as it does stretch out a fair bit. While I would have liked a more distinct difference in mood given the contrast in album art (snow covered mountain top vs burning forest) between this one and their previous effort, it’s still very much a continuation of what made that one great.
Highlights: “Echoes In The After” and “Heroes of a Hundred Fields”
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 