Reviews of metal albums released July 25 – July 31
Finishing up July, the big wheels slowly start to grind again in the metal world.
Allt – Ataraxia
Genre: Metalcore
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Review: Swedish outfit Allt describe their music as progressive metalcore. Not being familiar with their discography, I can’t speak to past endeavors, but “Ataraxia” is progressive only in stylistic, superficial terms. Djent-y guitars with mildly irregular rhythm patterns and elusive, understated melody lines does not mean innovative. In fact, the whole thing strikes me as rather predictable. That’s not to say that there aren’t some competent compositions and playing on here, but the overall tendency is for any and all complexity to devolve into pop-oriented choruses and safe, easy-to-follow structures.
Complexant – Apex
Genre: Blackened deathcore/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Review: You could tack on a fair bit of labels to the sound of the debut album by Australian band Complexant. Deathcore. Tech death. Melodic black metal. Long story short though: it’s heavy, fast and aggressive. The band seem to have picked out some of their favorite ingredients from modern black- and death metal and mashed them together into their own brand of monstrosity. You get chugs and breakdowns, blast beats, dark majesty and technical complexity.
The important part to note is that the entertainment factor is high, and it doesn’t feel overly bound by tropes. There’s plenty of energy and measured brutality. It’s also a mixed bag. Some of the songs feel rushed, like they’re very nearly stumbling over their own strings as they hurl themselves onto the attack. The clean-ish vocals feel underdeveloped, and too few of the melodies truly land for me. But at its best it’s quite the beast, reminding me of such acts as the UK’s Viscera.
Highlight: “Cyclops”
Disfiguring the Goddess – Bloom
Genre: Experimental/brutal death metal/deathcore
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Review: This is not an album for the slam addict that want to be subjected to an uninterrupted steamroller tsunami of avalanche riffs and detonation breakdowns. All of those things are in there, but it soon becomes clear that Disfiguring the Goddess want a lot more out of their music. The album is loaded with electronic elements, nods to hardcore and nu metal, samples, guest performances, and deathcore grooves and melodies. It’s less weird than it’s indulgent, like the album had a massive appetite as it was coming together, and wasn’t content with a single menu’s worth of flavors.
While the band has managed to show restraint in their level of experimentation, resulting in a surprisingly coherent whole, they’ve been a lot more lax with the editing, leading to a fairly bloated runtime. There are more conventional parts that feel like they’re there as a counterweight to the more daring stuff, which, for me, only serves to lengthen the gap between, and distract from, the actual album highlights. There’s nothing bad though, and they keep up the variation and unpredictability to the very end.
Highlights: “Kiss the Dice” and “Echoes Fade, I Remain”
Finsterforst – Still
Genre: Folk metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Review: If you’re new to German band Finsterforst’s current sound, you need to disconnect your expectations from the atmospheric nuance of such bands as Panopticon, but also the rowdy irreverence of a band like Korpiklaani, and the live-oriented simplicity of the likes of Feuerschwantz. This is folk metal that’s big, fairly uncomplicated and punchy, but that also carries the rasp and venom of black metal, with big, lofty visions leading to epic scope and extended song lengths. It certainly doesn’t make you forget that it’s nearly 80 minutes long, but if you find yourself connecting with the vibe, then you’ll enjoy all of it.
Highlight: “Im Wind”
Five Finger Death Punch – Legacy
Genre: Alternative metal/hard rock
Subjective rating: 1.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Review: Kicking off “Legacy” with its title track, I was left with the flimsy hope that its in-your-face, driving groove would set the example for the whole album. But no. It quickly devolves into artificial rhythms, generic melodies and clichéd, sappy-delivered lyrics, the likes of which makes me itch to skip track after track, until there are no more to skip. Yes there is some heaviness, and yes there is tons of arena-friendly, big groove with plenty of sing-along-ness, but it all feels distinctly formulaic at this point.
Fractal Sun – Divergent Paradox
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Review: This Costa Rican band play a sci-fi-conceptual, melodic and modern variant of progressive metal, not quite managing the impact of such acts as Spiritbox, but utilizing some of the same traits. There are djent-y guitars and snarling vocals to go with the gentle and lofty stuff, and some effort has clearly been put into joining the two extremes as seamlessly as possible. While the complex rhythm work gets somewhat jittery at times, and some of the mixing throws off the balance a little, the best of what’s on offer flows really well, managing unpredictable, mind-tickling progressions that feel purposefully intricate.
Hexorcist – Crucificial Imprecations
Genre: Death/speed metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Review: Boosted by ferocious speed and a bitchin’ album cover, Hexorcist throw themselves at you with reckless abandon, like the shrieking souls of hell rushing off to war. This is old school, occult-toned death metal that go the thrash-y way of sharpness and velocity, welcoming squeals and dive bombs at every opportune moment. Unfortunately it gets a bit repetitive and same-y after a while, but style-wise they’re delivering big.
Lipoma – Infernal Wounds of Ravenous Flesh
Genre: Goregrind/melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Review: If you’re questioning how a goregrind and melodic death/black metal mashup might make sense, then look no further than to New York band Lipoma for a fully functioning example. It’s all the blood-crazed aggression and swamp-guttural vocals you’d expect, but all of a sudden you find yourself nodding along to vintage Dark Tranquillity riff-carried melodies on steady, marching rhythms. There’s a definite chill and solemnity to the sound that sort of works and sort of doesn’t, as it’s matched up with horror samples and abattoir morbidity.
I will admit that it’s not the most inventive, neither as a genre blend, nor in any one of its different styles isolated, but personally I find more than enough entertainment value and brutal groove on here to keep me engaged for its sub-35 minute runtime.
Highlight: “Teratoma in the Putrid Womb”
Bear McCreary – The Singularity: Eklepsis
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Review: This is the kind of prog project that has the grandeur, indulgence and melodic verve of Devin Townsend, and the collaborative nature of Ayreon. The album varies wildly in style with the different artists contributing on the songs, and yet it doesn’t completely run away into the scrapheaps of inconsistency. There’s obvious compositional talent behind the proceedings, ensuring a solid overall flow.
In terms of flavor there’s a little bit for every taste, which is both a strength and a weakness. It’s an album where most people will want to pick and choose, rather than embrace the whole. It sort of justifies its momentous runtime by constantly pulling out new tricks and influences, as well as maintaining infectious energy and force, and if you keep an open mind it’s very capable of delighting you all the way throughout.
Highlight: “Black Box”
Nothingness – Godslaughter
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Review: This summer hasn’t seen much in the way of quality death doom (that I’ve noticed, anyway), and this isn’t exactly that, but for those starved of riffs that sound like collapsing cave systems, this will most likely do the trick and then some. Nothingness is a Minnesotan band that play mid-tempo, old-school-leaning, sky-darkening, happiness-crushing death metal. While far from what I’d call “technical” or “progressive”, there’s an insidious ingenuity to the rhythms that has the beast that is the album regularly shifting its strategy, never letting you get quite comfortable with its approach to chasing and stalking you.
Tonally it’s pretty even-tempered, and while matched with the awesome combined force of drums, guitars and bass it becomes a horrifying spectacle, it can also get a bit tiresome in its lack of variation. There’s not much in the way of shock factor, and it doesn’t unsettle quite like the unhinged evil of a Veilburner album, but it certainly does impress with its sheer weight and relentlessness.
Highlights: “Skull Evulsion” and “Incinerated Immediately”
Tabernakel – Scheintaufe
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Review: Back-to-basics black metal from Germany awaits on this record. The guitars are tinny and sharp, and the vocals creak like the basement hatch of a long-abandoned woodland cabin, but the bass is at least present. There is some actual scope to be found as well, with a moody acoustic intro and a synth-y interlude among the main elements adding a bit of variation. Purists will no doubt be mighty pleased, although for anyone else there’s not too much that stands out.
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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