Reviews of metal albums released September 12 – September 18
This week got spookier and moodier than I had expected, but not in the way that makes you want to hide under the covers. More like watch an old school horror movie.
Anthrax – Cursum Perficio
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Review: With the amount of great thrash metal rolling out these days, you can’t really afford to rest on your laurels if you want to stay relevant. It’s a little different for bands like Anthrax, who have proven their ability to come back strong and remain true to a concept and sound that’s not really being done any better by anyone else. That being said, I have never understood the hype around this band. I appreciate their image, but don’t connect to the music. Will that change with 12th full-length “Cursum Perficio”?
Short answer? No, it doesn’t. There’s a laudable vigor behind the guys’ performances, and some obvious effort has gone into crafting individually outstanding songs. As has traditionally been the case, the band mostly employ mid tempo, fairly rigid hardcore- and hard rock-leaning rhythms. There’s a bit more variation than I had expected, but it’s not an album that ever gets more than a brisk jog on. A fair amount of the riffs hit hard enough, and the vocals exude both the required force and character to inject proceedings with memorability. For me though, too many tracks leave me unengaged, with some questionable melody lines jarring my listening flow. It does, however, convince me that the band has more in store, and could yet soar higher before coming in for permanent landing.
Highlight: “It’s For The Kids”
The Bleeding – Godless Communion
Genre: Death/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Review: When you’re presented with an album where there’s little undead characters armed with gore-choked chainsaws as part of the band logo, parts of your brain immediately relaxe, as you no longer really need wonder too much about what you’re in for. And sure enough, this is classic, brutal death thrash firing on all cylinders, belching flames and flailing articulated circular saws.
Despite a grim tone, relentless drums and grinding-machinery vocals, this is absolutely one of those death metal sounds that I’d classify as fun above all. It’s thick with groovy thrash riffs, varied and eager rhythms, and completely saturated with a “let’s just try it” attitude. It’s somewhat uneven in terms of engaging song structures, and feels a bit messy production wise, but that doesn’t stop me from wanting to turn up the volume further and further the longer I listen.
Highlights: “Altar of the Ram” and “Praise of the Succubi”
Blodtår – Monark
Genre: Melodic black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Review: Blodtår are a Swedish duo playing folk-melancholic, semi-melodic black metal, and seem to have really honed in on their particular spin on the subgenre with this, their second full-length. On it they expand upon fairly simple but effective, sorrow-tinged folk melodies with steady rhythms, ragged-bellow vocals and tremolo, making for a solemn, tastefully understated affair.
The flip side to this understated-ness is a certain lack of variation. Some of the aggression of the previous album is missing, making for a more flat and even listening flow. Several of the songs take a good while to get started, but for the absolute most part this feels earned. The melodies are distinct and allowed to the fore, with no clutter to distract from what’s important. I’m not left in awe, but it certainly pulls at a few strings.
Highlights: “Till min sista viloplats”
Early Moods – Ready For The Grave
Genre: Doom/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Review: California classic doom metallers Early Moods are back with their third full length. On it we get more tasteful Candlemass and Sabbath worship, but also clear nods to early heavy metal. The mood is just right – wicked yet groovy, with a real 70s feel to the melodies and guitar work, although it’s modernized in terms of beefiness and clarity. The songwriting is strong, with memorable choruses and spine-tingling lead guitar melody lines. It’s a bit slow in parts, but it suits the theme.
But what in the actual hell is going on with the vocal mix? Either Alberto Alcaraz developed a severe lisp since their self-titled debut album (I notice the same tendency on “A Sinner’s Past”), or the production is to blame. In either case, the moment I hear vocal deliveries like “no one help me out of thithh methhh” and “shackled in thethhh chainthh”, I’m no longer able to take the album thheriouthhly (sorry). I’ve not seen anyone else reacting to this, so maybe it’s just me, but my headphones and two sets of my speakers all tell the same story.
Highlight: “Inquisition”
Krallice – Scour Order
Genre: Avant-garde/technical black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Review: Krallice are one of those outstanding underground bands that have managed to silently pass me by, even though they’ve been concocting dizzying, yet traditionally rooted black metal at a staggering rate since 2007, and are now on their 15th full-length, non-collaborative album. Compared to some of their earlier material (of which I’ve so far only had the time to skim the surface), “Scour Order” feels somewhat stripped down, like a forest of naked trees shivering, blurring and casting morphing shadows in response to unseen forces.
The technical complexity on the album is fascinating in the way that it feels wild and uncontrolled without devolving into randomness. The tone is bleak, cold and oppressive; I’d go so far as to call it alarming at times, like you’ve been transported to a place where you’re witnessing incomprehensible cruelty, with the danger of being discovered at any moment. The issue is that this mood completely dominates the entire 1 hour+ listening experience, and so it starts to lose its potency well before you get to the end. Perhaps not the best introduction to the band, but still an impressive technical achievement.
Highlight: “Agonal Shining”
Maunah – Hjarta
Genre: Doom/folk metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Review: You hear “folk-influenced, Scandinavian doom”, and I’d easily understand if your thoughts immediately go to Heilung-esque, old Norse-inspired, pagan-ritualistic theatre. But while there are traces of the atmosphere employed by acts like Wardruna in Danish band Maunah’s debut full-length, there are few other reasons to suggest that they’re trying to walk the same path. This is melodic doom fist, but with strong sonic ties to forested nature.
In their sound I hear similarities to Katatonia, Enslaved and Green Carnation, but with the progressive elements largely removed. The vocals are mostly clean and soulful, with great range, and a particular mournful tinge that somehow reminds me of both Anders Fridén of In Flames and Serj Tankian. In any case, it fits the kind of neutrally dark, hidden-among-the-roots-and-leaves mood that defines the album. It’s slow and patient, but doesn’t feel sluggish, nor do they try to drown the clarity of the individual performances in the production. It’s not hugely varied, but changes up rhythms and intensity often enough that very little feels like it blends together. I can see great things in the future for these folks.
Highlights: “Heimaland” and “Theinajau”
Nasty Insects – Bite ’til They Bleed
Genre: Thrash/industrial metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Review: Quite fittingly, these bite-y insects hail from down under – the land of most things crawly, venomous and generally unpleasant. To match their band name, Nasty Insects have crafted a creepy, crusty, barebones thrash sound with strong elements of Ministry-reminiscent industrial, as well as grindcore and punky hardcore.
The approach is fairly straightforward, with simple-ish riffs and eager, non-fancy drum work and coarse, slightly unhinged vocals. Instrumentally it doesn’t knock my socks off, but it gets up to enough antics to keep me on my toes and grinning all the way throughout. I feel like it needed to be wilder at times to deliver the real shocks to the system that they might have been going for. It’s appropriately nasty and fun, if not quite the jump-in-your-face menace that it gives the impression of aiming to be.
Highlight: “Not My Rat”
The Noctambulant – Revival
Genre: Melodic black/gothic metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Review: Black metal needs to make room for those who just want to enjoy some unholy groove and a bit of blasphemous theatre, without getting too flippant. To me, bands like Witchery make some of the most enjoyable extreme metal out there – it’s full of contempt and harshness, but in the spirit of black metal trickster god Abbath, you don’t need to take it so damn seriously all the time. Florida’s The Noctambulant seem to agree, and have dropped perhaps the most entertaining blackened album of the year in “Revival”.
From start to end the album is packed with thrashy riffs, bluesy groove and gothic melody, with a bit of death metal chunkiness added for a punchier impact. The southern gothic theme that they’ve fully embraced visually isn’t quite as evident in the music as I’d have hoped for, and overall they’re not reinventing really any part of the subgenre, but if Tribulation meets Vltimas meets Dimmu Borgir sounds like a winning recipe to you, then this will likely deliver everything you expect and more.
Highlights: “Bring the Sorrow” and “Skeleton Key”
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats – Shapes Of Midnight
Genre: Psychedelic rock/doom metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5
Review: The UK are on a roll with excellent spooky-doom albums, and Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats want you to know who are the kings of the graveyard. Every aspect of their sound seem to come together just right on “Shapes Of Midnight” – the retro style, the groove, the irreverence and the occult theme. If you loved the idea and vibe of Ghost’s “Infestissumam”, but found it a bit lacking in technical execution, then this is probably exactly what you were hoping for.
For us metalheads, this is not what you’d call heavy. The band describe themselves as a sort of proto-metal, which makes sense given their early-doom-meets-70s-psychedelia, pre-Judas Priest heavy rock style of mostly mid-paced riffs and rhythms, with plenty of strong hooks and alluring solos. Pretty much every track stands out with a character and story of its own, and the overall flow is not only organic but highly entertaining. It’s not too much tongue in cheek, nor is it too serious or confined by a narrow stylistic scope. I’d have liked a pinch more force and darkness here and there, but that really is nitpicking. This is how you do it, folks.
Highlights: “Shapes of Midnight” and “Psycho On The Loose”
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?
