Reviews of metal albums released April 04 – April 10
Death metal seems to have staged a coup this week, as it’s broken out of the obscure shadows and into dominating positions in the headlines.
Archspire – Too Fast To Die
Genre: Technical death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Review: There must be some significant pressure for bands that are talked about in the music community as “the heaviest”, “the most brutal”, “the most evil”, and, in the case of Archspire, “the fastest”, to keep outdoing themselves. Thankfully, at least to me, that’s not become an all-encompassing obsession on “Too Fast To Die”, contrary to what the title might lead you to expect. In fact, the title track is among the furthest from crossing into comedy as a result of its pace. But don’t get me wrong, relentless speed and brain-tenderizing technicality are what we all crave from these guys, and they deliver like an ant hive on Red Bull. Crucially, they’re able to see the silliness in the extreme velocity, and lean into it as a balance to the obvious dedication that’s evident from their super tight and dynamic compositions. There are a few tracks that sound a bit “same old, same old”, but nothing remotely band, and a good few mind blowing monsters of envelope-pushing tech death.
Highlights: “Carrion Ladder” and “The Vessel”
Battlegrave – Enslavement
Genre: Thrash/death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Review: This one took me by surprise, as I’d never heard of this Australian band before. What comes raging out of the speakers is a hyper aggressive strain of thrash that’s spread well into death metal and its neighboring extreme subgenres. Giving the band’s last, sophomore full-length a quick listen I instantly noted that “Enslavement” is a significant step up in production and tightness of the performances. I hear Scour-like blackgrind, Werewolves-style groove-forward death metal and the kind of deathcore-y tech death you’d expect from a band like Summoning the Lich. It’s dark, with clear ambitions of expanding into an unsettling horror-themed soundscape. That’s not unwelcome, but ultimately the more atmosphere-loaded tracks in the second half of the album end up pulling in a slightly different direction than the high-energy, adrenaline-fueled tracks you get in the beginning, and so it feels a bit like a veering off from what initially built my enthusiasm. Still, it’s got great energy throughout and radiates a suitably foul mood.
Highlights: “Bonesaw” and “The Grand Machine Of Despair”.
Immolation – Descent
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Review: It’s time for some death metal legends to step back into the spotlight. What’s immediately evident on their 12th full-length is that Immolation is the type of band that faithfully sticks to their core formula while not ignoring advances in production capabilities, and also not looking backwards in terms of technicality. This is a crisp and exceptionally tight sound that also rumbles like the advance of hell’s collected arsenal of siege engines. It knows exactly what it wants to be and doesn’t stray from the path or experiment. But the guys have also far from given up on trying to impress. They strike a highly mature and confident balance between demanding sonic punishment and infernal groove that sounds well considered and convincingly ominous.
Highlights: “Adversary” and “Descent”
Inferi – Heaven Wept
Genre: Technical/melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Review: This is not gonna be an unique take in the least, but Inferi sound like The Black Dahlia Murder if they decided to openly pursue tech death. In fact, I think that this description is so accurate that if a sufficiently devil-may-care mood struck me on the day, I could leave the entire review at that. But it is not (quite) this day. The band are by no means newcomers, which becomes quite evident from their world-class technicality and ability to write songs compositions that are both impressively complex and accessibly melodic. My main personal problem is that even in such an insanely busy album, I’m struggling to find anything that sounds genuinely fresh. It’s fairly loaded with stylistic tropes, particularly in the vocal department. But it’s also effortlessly expansive, and both majestic and sharply aggressive at the same time.
Highlight: “Godless Sky”
Lord Of The Lost – Opvs Noir Vol. 3
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Review: Apparently Lord Of The Lost don’t think that there’s enough gothic metal being made these days (at least not good) and are intent on filling the void, as they’re already back with the third part in their “Opvs Noir” series, with both part 1 and 2 having been released last year. They still sound big, on the verge of symphonic, with the occasional leaning into industrial. Once again there are far too many ballad tracks for my taste, but the writing is mostly really good (although very on the nose), and a couple of the more attitude-laden tracks are probably gonna stick with me for a while.
Highlight: “My Funeral”
MIRE – Pale Reflection
Genre: Groove metal/metalcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Review: Existing somewhere between the technicality of Sylosis and the catchy groove of Bleed From Within, with the solid melodic sense of both, MIRE has finally followed up their 2021 debut “A New Found Rain”, which I had a pretty good time with. Their sound had been sharpened and added definition, and feels more emotionally charged this time around. There’s a heap of exciting tech-y guitar antics and some really cool riffs, but in the end the overall impression is not that of an inspired writing process, as it feels a bit stiff and unimaginative.
Highlight: “Pale Reflection”
Nukem – The Grave Remains
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Review: The river of thrash, once nearly run dry, now surges stronger than perhaps ever, and has provided yet another feral, clawing animal of an album, this time from sunny California. Nukem sound as pissed of and impatient as a thrash band should, with strained, shouted vocals (that sound quite a bit like those of Obituary’s John Tardy) and the kind of tone that convinces you there’s plenty in the world to be mad about. They slap you around with savage, charging speed as much as locked-in riff execution, an active, agile bass and some surprisingly melodic solo sections. Not every track hits quite as hard, but the ones that do really hit the spot. It took 10 years for them to follow up their debut with this. Let’s hope the wind blows in their favor and they get to expand even further on this bangin’ foundation.
Highlight: “Torture, Murder, Mutilate!” and “Into the Kill Zone”
Skaphos – The Descent
Genre: Death/black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Review: Ready for some deep sea terror? Last year’s “Cult of Uzura” was not this French blackened death metal band’s first outing into abyssal dread (it was their third), but it was the first I’d heard of them, and the album made my top 100 list of the year. I found it to be a refreshingly “dangerous”-sounding alternative to the much more by-the-numbers “The Shit of God” released that week by subgenre peers Behemoth. In comparison, “The Descent” feels more cleaned up, technically minded and, dare I say, modern (yuck?). It doesn’t have the strongest opening tracks, but you quickly get the gist of its theme, and soon you’re being pummeled by unforgiving heaviness, with increasing measures of tribal savagery and atmospheric oppressiveness. I suppose you could say we’re making a… descent… into the realm of unspeakable subsea horror where this band is at its most outstanding, and, whether you like it or not, you’re stuck here for the duration. A little less wild? Sure. Still unsettling and brilliantly punishing? Hell yes. Also, that album art is just perfect.
Highlights: “Mireborn” and “Horror Squid”
Spirit Adrift – Infinite Illumination
Genre: Doom/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Review: For someone who just got into these guys, it’s sad to learn that this will be their last album, as they announced their split-up last month. 2023’s ultra groovy, upbeat and memorably melodic “Ghost At The Gallows” was one of my favorite releases that year. That was the band leaning strongly into the heavy metal iteration of their sound. “Infinite Illumination” sees a significant step back into classic doom, with an accompanying gloomy mood. The riffs are punchier, the tone darker, the tempos slower, and there’s a mournful tinge to Nate Garrett’s vocals. All that’s not to say that you can’t have fun with it. There’s plenty of groove still, and the solos taste just as sweet. But while the last album felt very in the moment, this sends the mind wandering. It doesn’t have quite the same memorable quality, but functions solidly as both a well-balanced, purposeful heavy/doom album and a full-circle statement.
Highlights: “Where Once There Was An Ocean” and “Window Within”
Voidchaser – Interstellar I
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Review: Voidchaser is a prog metal band that play around in both the accessibly melodic shallows and more extreme deep end of the pool. Most of the time it feel a bit like a space opera that keeps being yanked out of its comfort zone by the pull of black holes, passing through asteroid fields and getting chased by curious and/or hostile alien vessels. It’s playfully technical and dense with electronic atmosphere rather than rhythmically challenging, and succeeds in circumventing the most glaring tropes of the subgenre. Melodically it’s a bit uneven, but the nature of it changes so often that missteps are soon forgotten.
Highlight: “Welcome to Terra Corp”
Vomitory – In Death Throes
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Review: Vomitory are here to BLUUURGH! all over your fine senses and hack all your sitting surfaces apart with an axe until you’ve got no other choice but to stand up and headbang your way into the unloving embrace of the firmest chiropractor available. For those unfamiliar, this is a Swedish death metal band blending old school brutality and crunchy groove with thrashing riffs. Everything is ultra tight and performed at close to technical perfection, but not without artistic flourish and a love for the vileness of the subgenre. It is both bafflingly impressive and stirringly primal, with a sky high entertainment factor and complete disdain for trends. The track “For Gore and Country” is probably the closest you you’re gonna get to a brutal death metal anthem before taking on traits of parody, and there’s simply not any songs on this album that doesn’t at least partially hit you with the same kind of lethal, infectious bloodlust. Not a conceptual revelation by any means, but holy hell does it lay waste.
Highlights: “For Gore and Country” and “Two and a Half Men”
Witch Ripper – Through The Hourglass
Genre: Progressive sludge/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5
Review: Witch Ripper’s brand of progressive sludge inevitably prompts a few Mastodon comparisons, but as on 2023’s “The Flight After the Fall”, there’s no mistaking their stylistic distinctions if you spend more than just a few seconds listening. “Through The Hourglass” feels like a patient album where every song starts out in a different yet stable place and then goes exploring. And the band seems to know all the best places to discover entertainingly puzzling rhythm- and tonal shifts, and mind-nurturing, melodic rapture. At its best it’s fascinatingly intricate, pleasant and satisfyingly grating at the same time. It feels highly mature and creatively challenging in a listener-friendly way, and the band is likely only a real “hit” away from blowing up at this point.
Highlights: “The Portal” and “The Clock Queen”
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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