Reviews of metal albums released August 15 – August 21
This week’s in a bit of a mood, either violently acting up or sulking in the shadows. All done in style, though.
Cobrafuma – Droga Total
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Review: You really don’t need to say anything else than “Portuguese thrash” to pique my interest, so if you add elements of punk, sludge, speed and death ‘n’ roll on top of that, you’ve truly and fully captured my attention. The debut album of Cobrafuma is incredibly light on its feet, but still carries loads of attitude and insolent groove.
What you’re essentially getting is galloping, mid-to-high tempo punk thrash with coarse, shouted vocals, a distinctly regional melodic flair and a well-defined but spartan production. You’re not left with an ounce more than necessary. Not all of the tracks knock my socks off, but the ones that do proceed to set fire to said socks and make molotov cocktails, just to be able to inhale the resulting fumes and go even wilder.
Highlight: “Quem é este man”
Fen – Elemental Part One: Mourning Earth
Genre: Atmospheric black/doom metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Review: Sometimes atmospheric metal manages to sound like it’s absorbed the essence of a certain kind of landscape, and this is very much the case with Fen’s eighth full-length. It sounds like a gnarled, forested valley going through the upheaval of millennia’s worth of growth and decay, disasters and stagnation alike, in the span of mere minutes. It reminds me of Enslaved at their least proggy but most lushly atmospheric and conceptually exploratory, which should be considered high praise.
Tonally it remains a blackened affair all the way through, but exists almost as much within doom, folk and gothic metal, without drawing attention to any obvious tropes. There’s aggression, dry riffing and chilling tremolo to be had, but this feels less like obligatory, unholy “dressing up” and more like essential ingredients to describe the most harrowing of natural events.
Highlights: “Tectonic” and “Glacier”
The Night Eternal – Cold Velvet
Genre: Heavy/gothic metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Review: If you liked the Spell album from a little earlier this year, chances are you’ll be feeling this one as well. As suggested by the album title, it’s classic heavy metal with a velvety kind of gothic-melodic veneer, further enforced by emotionally expressive, slightly theatrical vocals.
Everything sounds delicate and reverb-y, with gentle riffs and elegant guitar solos. There is some force to be had, but it’s reserved for the big moments. To me a lot of its non-harmonic melody lines feel more distracting than impactful, and the vocals aren’t really my cup of tea, but it feels conceptually complete and stylistically confident.
Highlight: “Eurydice (Don’t Look Back)”
Oddland – Unilluminate To Illuminate
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Review: Oddland are a Finnish prog metal band founded all the way back in 2003, and now on their fourth full-length. Their style on “Unilluminate to Illuminate” reminds me of Haken in many ways, but the album starts off even more adventurous than I’ve come to expect from the brits, with deft switches from delicate acoustic cleans with sax sprinklings to growly, tech-chugging aggression, versatile vocals and engaging, unpredictable melody lines.
The band manage to keep up this impressive dynamism and creativity for about the first half of the album before things unfortunately start to deflate. The force seems to fizz out and the song progressions start to feel purposeless and somewhat repetitive. There are still great moments throughout, but overall it loses some of the strength of its statement.
Highlight: “Eternal Erode”
Rituals of Sorrow – The Ire of God
Genre: Deathcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Review: This deathcore one-man project places itself somewhere between the rhythmic chugging of a band like Kublai Khan TX and the grandeur of Lorna Shore, with a touch of blackened melody, metalcore dexterity and brutal death metal heft and nastiness.
It’s very much a “pick and mix” of different ingredients, with slamming breakdowns meeting sharp technicality and acrobatic solos, and unsettling, mournful atmosphere transitioning into percussive riffs, grooves and roars. The vocals produce everything from screeches to phlegmy gurgles. and the low end booms like slow motion shockwaves. For a deathcore fan it’s a candy bag of violent variety. For me it’s a bit too unfocused and preoccupied with well-worn genre traits, but it keeps surprising with its versatility all the way throughout.
Highlight: “Subjects of Ymir”
Street Tombs – Existence Is Corruption
Genre: Death metal/punk
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Review: For those yet unfamiliar in the realms of morbidity: when death metal is described as “fun”, this is basically what we mean. Thrashy riffs, eager, steady rhythms, dive bombing guitar squeals, a generous amount of solos, vocals like ripping dry leather and a completely unapologetic and light-hearted thematic and tonal immersion in horror, decay, defilement and suffering.
From the alleyways of sunny Santa Fe, New Mexico come creeping the ghouls of Street Tombs, back with their second full-length after releasing the equally riff-tastic but more grimy and light-shy “Reclusive Decay” back in 2023. This time they’re not skulking around the sewers, but chasing down unsuspecting victims on the open streets. The album feels athletic and spritely, but with the proper heaviness and rawness of a solid low end and coarse vocals to keep it grounded. It doesn’t challenge the format in any way, and can get a bit same-y in terms of rhythms at times, but serves up a delicious combination of crust punk spite, hardcore stomp, and black ‘n’ roll groove, that overshadows any such petty faults.
Highlights: “Upset the Grave” and “Septic Values”
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 