Reviews of metal albums released September 05 – September 11
Overwhelming brutality, adrenaline-pumping bad-assery and devilish charm are the main flavors on this week’s menu.
Cartilage – Operating Altar
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Review: Contrary to what the album cover might lead you to believe, this is not some nightmarish, lightlessly monotone descent into the choked-up sewers below an abattoir. This is the slicing and dicing and tossing-intestines-at-each-other-for-fun in a back-alley operating theater populated by orcs. Think deathgrind in the vein of Carcass, just more chunky, thrashy and flippant.
While the album is mostly played at high tempo, it doesn’t feel quite as concise and focused as your typical grindcore project. Nor is it quite structured or tonally consistent enough to fall fully within death metal. And apart from the highly entertaining vocal and instrumental performances, this unconventionality is probably the album’s greatest strength. It’s perhaps a bit short on standout moments, but if “a gory good time” sounds appealing to you, then don’t hesitate.
Highlights: “S.C.D. (Sudden Cardiac Death” and “The Operating Altar”
Dreadnought – Wars Of Spirit // Wards Of Light
Genre: Progressive doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Review: Time to float around in space for a while. Don’t worry though, it’s not out in the black nothingness, but pulled along the trail of comets and sitting back to observe planetary weather systems, solar storms and the spin of the galaxy. The format is atmospheric, progressive doom – moving slow but sounding serenely melodic, with occasional churns of aggression and darkness. The use of industrial-style electronica suits the theme, and the vocals provide clean and sharp distinctiveness. It’s an album to relax into, where I find my attention waning slightly at times, but always pulled back in.
Highlight: “The Archive”
Green Lung – Necropolitan
Genre: Heavy/doom metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Review: Smash together Black Sabbath and Deep Purple in your mind, and you should be building the right kind of expectations for this album. Green Lung take the cheerful occultism of Ghost and injects in into a bluesy, groove-happy merging of old school doom and NWOBHM. Critically, the music remains more important than the concept, and so we’re treated with memorable, focused instrumentation aplenty.
The crunchy riffs, solos and organ-assisted, adventurous melodies are the standouts on the album. It strikes a line between rock ‘n’ roll peppiness and spooky, witching-hour tonality that would be difficult to pull off without the level of commitment we get from the vocals. I find some of the main melody lines to be a bit similar, and could probably wished for a bit more variation in rhythm, but then that might have compromised the thematic consistency. It’s a great, unholy time among the gargoyles.
Highlights: “Black Magick Radio” and “Ozymandias”
Harlott – Exsequiis
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Review: Harlott’s “Detritus of the Final Age” was my favorite thrash album of 2020, so when I saw the Australians pop up on the release calendar I snapped right to attention. No need, really, as the album will demand your attention whether you like it or not. Past a short, tone-setting into, the album explodes with precise aggression, a raging fire which keeps blazing till the last note, as if they’ve tapped into some endless, infernal wellspring of the stuff.
The playing is incredibly tight, almost mechanical, and might have felt a tad rigid if not for the absurdly infectious grooves carried upon the regularly shifting rhythms. There’s a blackened edge to the angrier parts of several of the songs, but they remind me more of Kreator or Slayer than any pure black metal act. The barking vocals are a true standout, delivering heaps of character, and matching the marching, powerfully rhythmic progression perfectly. It doesn’t feel like they’re taking any big chances with “Exsequiis”, but it’s refined, drawing the maximum potential of the band, and delivering ripper after merciless ripper.
Highlights: “Void” and “Kleptogenesis”
Space Chaser – Razorblade Bay
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Review: More riff-o-licious thrash this week? Yes please! This is German sci-fi adventure thrash, throwing an army’s worth of badass riffage at you, but expecting you to get up and jump rather than crumble in submission. It’s a tad indistinct in terms of melodies and generic in terms of rhythms, with the vocals lacking a bit of determination in order to match the ripping guitars. But the tone is suitably light, and it keeps surprising throughout with fresh grooves and bursts of attitude.
Highlight: “Blade Serpents”
Tygers Of Pan Tang – Electrifyed
Genre: Heavy metal/hard rock
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Review: This bunch of NWOBHM veterans sound for a few brief moments like they’ve got a second wind on “Electrifyed”, with optimistic rock ‘n’ roll swagger oozing from a good portion of the tracks. The album feels relaxed, which works for them, rather than trying to coax out energy that’s probably wouldn’t come off as heartfelt anyway. It’s not overly anthemic, and brings to mind both the groovier side of AC/DC and more fun-loving side of Led Zeppelin. But the melodies have little staying power, and overall there’s simply too much forgettable material crowding the decent stuff.
Vulgar Mephitis – From Dust
Genre: Brutal/technical death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Review: Forget all notions of “melodic” and orderly that you might connect with tech death, for this stuff only wants to pulverize you through the erratic application of cold, unfeeling force, weight and pressure. The band applies all the savagery and monstrous overkill you’d expect from brutal death metal, but delivers it with murderous precision in patterns designed to knock you off balance and completely overwhelm you.
Many of the slam tropes have been set aside or are only utilized restrictively. Breakdowns with bass booms and frantic drums are to be found all around, but not overused. The riffs are ridiculously chunky and the vocals relatively varied. But it’s the sheer control that the band is able to demonstrate over what would normally be an apocalyptic level of chaos that is most impressive. It’s a bit difficult to tell apart songs, and the band’s personality gets kind of buried in the mayhem, but it’s a highly promising and head-scratchingly competent debut from these guys.
Highlight: “Gorging Greed”
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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