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Weekly rundown February 02 – 2024
The first week of February sees a battle being fought between life-hungry prog and bitter, shadow-dwelling black metal, bringing you some of the best of both worlds.
Bipolar Architecture – Metaphysicize
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5A dark progressive album that feels like it’s balancing between modern, near-industrial rigidness and floating melancholy seeping in from the realm of atmospheric black metal. The mix works a lot better than it sounds like it should.
Corpsevore – Feed The Plague
Genre: Death metal/grindcore
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Barebones death metal infused with grindcore’s ferocity and utter lack of patience. It’s raw, slightly clunky, and utterly relentless.
Deadyellow – What Was Left of Them
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5This is black metal heavily steeped in introspective, mellow melodies, and taken to a warmer tone than is generally the norm.
Dwarrowdelf – The Fallen Leaves
Genre: Black/folk metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5An epic, triumphant experience tempered by its stern-toned black metal framework. Instead of over-relying on dreamy atmosphere, the energy level is kept high throughout, and you get a sense of the same melodic playfulness that exits in melodic death metal.
Enterprise Earth – Death: An Anthology
Genre: Technical deathcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5A hammering of brutal percussion and breakdowns, with varying levels of semi-melodic, technical playing in between. There is an attempt to showcase distinctly different approaches to the songwriting on each song, which makes for decent variety, but also a slightly disjointed experience overall.
Graywitch – Children Of Gods
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Epic, larger-than life classic metal that might scratch an itch if you miss the late 70s.
Hasturian Vigil – Unveiling The Brac’thal
Genre: Black/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Here’s a band that hopes to get the most out of both nihilistic black metal and spritely heavy metal, but only partially succeeding in getting the two to meld.
Hollow Woods – Like Twisted Bones Of Fallen Giants
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5A bleak and outraged black metal album in the traditional early 90s style, although with an influx of darkly poetic, lamenting chants and lingering melodies.
KMFDM – Let Go
Genre: Industrial/electronic metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5A major nostalgia trip diving headlong into what feels like the early rave scene, although this album has a story to tell. It ebbs and flows and morphs into different flavors as it goes along.
Meanstreak – Blood Moon (EP)
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5A dark-toned heavy metal EP that hovers on the edge of doom, gothic and power metal. It’s got heavy, chugging riffs, soaring vocals, cheeky solos and sections of ponderous, patient slow burn. The songwriting could be a notch or two tighter, but overall this is very interesting and shows a lot of promise.
meth. – Shame
Genre: Noise/experimental metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5This sounds like a hardcore band that’s gone absolutely apeshit from being stuck in a noise torture room for too long and is fighting with all their might to get out. There’s absolutely nothing pleasant about this record, and it actively gnaws at your sense of mental equilibrium.
Mind Conflict – Temple Of God
Genre: Death metal/hardcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5This is very much mostly a old school-ish death metal album with pounding riffs and a threatening tone, but for extended sections it will also shift gears into much more agile, metallic hardcore rhythms. Some of the heft does seep out at the same time, but it keeps the album lively and slightly unpredictable.
Necrowretch – Swords Of Dajjal
Genre: Black/death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5This is blackened death metal that doesn’t care for a single second about being understatedly evil . It’s a bile-spitting inferno with a demonic rhythm section, where the emphasis is very much on the black metal the entire way. It’s aggressively rousing, large in scope without feeling grandiose, and doesn’t let up. You know you’re in for it when the LAST song is called “Total Obliteration”.
Highlights: “Numidian Knowledge” and “The Fifth Door”.
Persefone – Lingua Ignota: Part I (EP)
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Here Persephone drops a medium length EP, partly to introduce their new vocalist, but also, of course, to delight fans of aggressive-yet-melodic prog. The balance between melodeath force and emotion-laden harmony is expertly struck on this one, and even though it’s far from experimental, it’s also feels free from an adherence to tropes. An experience that leaves you wanting more.
Highlights: “Lingua Ignota” and One Word”.
Perveration – Putrefaction Of Infinite
Genre: Brutal death metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Wanna feel like there’s a perpetually-propelled, flesh-eating bouncing ball loose inside your head?
Solbrud – IIII
Genre: Black/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5An ambitious, far-reaching journey of a doomy, atmospheric black metal album. It goes both very gentle and very harsh, and certainly has the space to transition between the two, but the blend still doesn’t feel entirely natural.
Stages Of Decomposition – Raptures Of Psychopathy
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 3/5An absolutely unhinged brutal death metal album raging down a low-fi path of clicking drums and hoarse-gurgly vocals.
Transit Method – Othervoid
Genre: Progressive/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5A traditional metal-modeled prog album that oozes stylistic confidence. Light on its feet, it effortlessly shifts tempo and mood without disrupting the flow. There are traces of a slightly milder, prog rock mindset throughout, but rather than rob the songs of heft, it keeps proceedings explorative and playful. Some of the riffs on here are on the verge of iconic, but the band never bothers to dwell on them for long, instead prioritizing variety.
Highlights: “Frostbite” and “Psychometry”.
Utopia – Shame
Genre: Mathcore/technical death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5This is not album that was in any way shaped to be manageable. Combining the constantly shape-shifting unpredictability of mathcore and clinical-yet-brutal technicality of tech death, it’s a sound that constantly demands your attention.
Vægtløs – Aftryk
Genre: Black metal/shoegaze
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5A thoroughly sad experience, this mostly forgoes the bleak, hopeless nihilism of typical black metal and infuses its melancholy soundscape with heart-rending emotion, Desperation interweaves with anger, hurt, longing and grim acceptance, making for a profound statement about wading through life’s strongest currents of adversity.
Highlight: “Tag dit knuste hjerte og lav det til kunst”
Wandering Oak – Resilience
Genre: Black/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Speedy, adventurous black metal that’s a bit too preoccupied with chasing impressive and pleasing instrumental flourishes to pay quite the necessary attention to song structure.
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, do feel free to express yourself in the comments section below.
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Weekly rundown January 26 – 2024
A beefy week to mark the end of January, where progressive and technical extreme metal leads the way. We’re in the thick of it now.
Almost Dead – Destruction Is All We Know
Genre: Groove metal/hardcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Aggressive, street-hardened groove metal with a thrash directness and some melodeath-leaning melodic sections.
Any Given Day – Limitless
Genre: Metalcore
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 3/5Slick and well-produced modern metalcore with nods to Killswitch Engage and some good punch in those riffs.
Blood Red Throne – Nonagon
Genre: Death/groove metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5The Norwegian death metallers of Blood Red Throne are back with another ripping riff fest of a heavily groove-leaning record. This time the production is more crisp, and they’ve employed a few tricks from up the sleeve of modern brutal death metal. It feels slightly less organic in that regard, but the blood-boiling rage and all-out headbang-ability is very much still there.
Highlight: “Blade Eulogy”
Byron – Chapter II: The Lotus Covenant
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Doom-toned traditional metal out of Finland, boasting some tasty solos and all round good-sullen vibes.
Caligula’s Horse – Charcoal Grace
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5With the first major prog metal release of the year, Caligula’s Horse bring an expansive and varied soundscape with their signature gentle tone. Certain sections throughout do feel fairly recognizable, and you’re in for several dips in intensity to go on mild-mannered tangents. Whether or not you’re into this, you also get songs that are so unbelievably well crafted from start to finish that you’re left shaking your head in disbelief.
Carnal Savagery – Into The Abysmal Void
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Nasty, oldschool Swedish death metal-sounding stuff that treks along the graveyard doing its own thing.
Cognizance – Phantazein
Genre: Technical/melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5A tech death outfit that’s come a long way towards establishing a distinct sound within a realm of music where technical proficiency tends to overwhelm other concerns. The instrumental playfulness marries well with the emphasis on groove-laden melody, and while it could have benefited from a couple more notches of drive and forcefulness, it makes for a thoroughly enjoyable listen.
Highlight: “Shadowgraph”
Command – Resver
Genre: Heavy/gothic metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5A low-fi traditional metal album that leans far into the gloom of gothic and black metal, achieving some of the tragic tone that works so well for Tribulation.
Corax B.M. – Pagana
Genre: Black/gothic metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Uncharacteristically well-produced black metal that manages an aura of hopelessness without stripping its sound of all other emotion.
Cosmic Void – Subterranean Rivers
Genre: Doom/black metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Earthy, tranquil and ponderous blackened doom metal.
Dipygus – Dipygus
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Death metal creeping out of the crypt to grind out its dusty curses to the world.
Dissimulator – Lower Form Resistance
Genre: Technical thrash/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5A speedy, aggressive death thrash extravaganza that’s at its best when sticking to dazzling technicality, and not experimenting with spacey progressive variations.
Drowned – Procul His
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Real ominous, doom-laden death metal that feels as unstoppable and rumbly as an earthquake, without the need for exaggerated brutality.
Exocrine – Legend
Genre: Technical death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Following up their excellent “The Hybrid Suns” from 2022, Exocrine are back to prove that they’re still very much a force to be reckoned with in the tech death realm. Yet again this seems to be an attempt to push the envelope for how many notes it is possible to put out without completely overwhelming the listener, and yet again they succeed in not pushing it too far. Some fun, progressive twists and turns also provide a nice respite every now and then.
Highlights: “Legend” and “By The Light Of The Pyre”
Hiraes – Dormant
Genre: Melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Hiraes plays modern, fairly anthemic melodeath very much in the vein of current Arch Enemy, so if you’re into that style, then you’ll dig this. And vice versa.
Hyloxalus – Make Me The Heart Of The Black Hole
Genre: Progressive/power metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Offering a refreshing blend of styles, this album feels like a result of the band successfully exploring both what they know and what they like. Operatic vocals lead a solemn-yet-energetic power metal foray into uncharted territory, shifting into different stylistic shapes along the way.
The Infernal Sea – Hellfenlic
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5In the mood for some snarly, in-your-face, slightly tongue in cheek black metal in the vein of witchery? These guys employ a few more classic black metal bells and whistles compared to their Swedish peers, which removes it slightly more from the realm of black ‘n roll, allowing for a deeper, unholy immersion. They strike a remarkably good balance between nihilistic harshness and groove-laden aggression, mostly abstaining from influxes of folk-tinged atmosphere.
Highlights: “Bastard of The East” and “Messenger of God”.
Jenner – Prove Them Wrong
Genre: Heavy/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5An all-female, Serbian heavy metal band that know how to spice tings up with thrashy groove and speed.
Kalt Vindur – Magna Mater
Genre: Black/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Heavy, full-bodied black metal that rolls over you like dark tidal waves. The feel is clearly non-Scandinavian, which is a welcome change, and while borrowing many stylistic traits from the like of Behemoth, they very much manage an expression of their own.
Knoll – As Spoken
Genre: Death metal/grindcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Like an incredibly violent nightmare, this album seeks to utterly overwhelm you with hostility and powerful rushes of unease. As relentless as a mad god of the abyss set on tearing our world apart, it leaves you with a feeling of powerlessness, like being crushed into submission by an immense weight.
Luciferian Rites – Oath Of Midnight Ashes
Genre: Technical death metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Cult-y, haunted black metal with howling vocals and a purposefully muddled mix.
Manticora – Mycelium
Genre: Power/progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Grandiose, progressive power metal that manages both an epic traditional metal approach as well as more heavy, aggressive symphonic outbursts.
Mega Colossus – Showdown
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Fun, uncomplicated heavy metal for the pure enjoyment of classic riffing and solos.
Metalite – Expedition One
Genre: Power metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 3/5Slightly spacey, electronica-driven, anthemic power metal that will sound massive live.
Olhava – Sacrifice
Genre: Atmospheric black/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5If you like atmosphere, you’re getting an overload of it on this near-hour and a half long album. The rhythm patterns and melodies stretch out, giving the effect of dwelling on the same thoughts and emotions.
Rhun – Conveyance in Death
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5A black metal album that employs stark, dissonant bleakness, marching riffs and cold melodies in equal measure to achieve a varied, distinct expression.
Rituals of the Dead Hand – The Wretched and the Vile
Genre: Doom/black/death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5A lead-heavy, doom-paced, blackened death metal album that seems towering in stature.
Stone Horns – Chimaira
Genre: Groove metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Young and energetic groove metal with some room for maturation as far as songwriting goes.
Stuporous – Asylum’s Lament
Genre: Avant-garde black metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Black metal layered into calm, haunting melodies, where the jarring juxtaposition often feels like a madman’s lament.
Tanin’iver – Dark Evils Desecrate
Genre: Death/black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Energetic blackened death metal boasting an assortment of strong riffs, although losing some force through the mix.
Vipassi – Lightless
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5As far as modern, technical, instrumental prog metal goes, this is more or less what you’d expect it to sound like, which isn’t to say that it’s not very well made. It feels experimental in an explorative way, and manages the contrast between serene melody and rushes of aggression well.
Vitriol – Suffer & Become
Genre: Progressive death metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5Vitriol’s latest beast of a progressive death record feels like the unrelenting forces of growth and decay in nature, scaled- and sped up to cataclysmic proportions and unleashed upon the world. Dazzlingly technical and astonishingly forceful, it takes a listener well versed in modern extreme metal to manage the sonic onslaught, but however long it takes for you to grasp onto the details of the controlled chaos, it will be so very worth it. Examples of such a complete package of infernal complexity, raw groove, relentless energy and utter fury are few and far between.
Highlights: “Shame and its Afterbirth” and “Flood of Predation”.
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, do feel free to express yourself in the comments section below.
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Weekly rundown January 19 – 2024
This week gets right in your face to let you know that January means business. Just, wow. Some excellent stuff heading your way.
A/Oratos – Ecclesia Gnostica
Genre: Melodic black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Black metal with a solemn, serious mood and classical melodies. Nothing that particularly stands out, but it’s consistently engaging and suitably dramatic.
Abhoria – Depths
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5This one reminds me of Satyricon when they’re at their most angry. Take away some of the black ‘n roll and add a bit of death brutality, and you’re not far off.
Andracca – To Bare The Weight Of Death
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Properly tremolo-driven, murky-production, classic black metal that leans into the tragic guitar tone. It feels ominously mighty at times, but lacks a bit of punch.
Boundless Chaos – Sinister Upheaval
Genre: Blackened thrash/death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5How about a slice of blood-dripping, charred, perfectly unpolished thrash that brings the malicious tone of Slayer and slightly unhinged laughing-cadaver-in-your-face attitude of early death metal? The drum and riff work on here is absolutely killer, the vocals sound like ripping dry sinew and you get plenty of enthusiastic solos,
Highlights: “Guillotine” and “Kromer’s Whistle”.
Dark Oath – Ages Of Man
Genre: Symphonic death/folk metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5On this record, Dark Oath shows you how to let massively epic and rousing, symphonically driven melodies dominate the songwriting without the result being a towering mound of cheese and silliness. The emotion in the tone is thoroughly cinematic, and so if you feel like being swept away by a wave of mythological drama, you should dive into this one.
Highlight: “Bronze I”
Disconnected Souls – Fragments Of Consciousness
Genre: Electronic metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Mildly disjointed, stylistically ambivalent electronic-driven metal conjuring up a variety of sonic landscapes.
Final Coil – The World We Ineherited
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Oddly dystopian and bleak-feeling prog metal, despite a warm tone and emphasis on ambient, soothing instrumental sections.
Horrorgraphy – A Knight’s Tale
Genre: Symphonic goth/doom metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Darkly theatrical, almost like a gothic opera, but lacking a bit of the flair and stylistic confidence.
Kontact – Full Contact
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5It’s not often I hear a traditional metal project going this spacey and psychedelic without it crossing fully into prog, but here we are. I feels like the band is playing a bit with your expectations, all the while staying firmly within a well defined style realm. Although the tone and vocal style hover on the border of entertaining weirdness, the rhythms and solos counter it, keeping you grounded with their classic timelessness. A bit like early Ghost, really.
Highlights: “Heavy Leather” and “(Return of the) Astral Vampire”.
Lord Dying – Clandestine Transcendence
Genre: Progressive sludge/doom metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5This album feels like being guided through a dark, turbulent dream by a steady, comforting hand and an omniscient narrator. Balmy bass and gentle, folk-y guitars meet rushes of charging drums, rasping snarls and abyssal riffs, only to straighten out into steadily marching, groove-tinged classic metal sections with a warm, doomy undertone. This is a band with a lot of ideas on their mind, and the ones they were able to cover on here feel expertly realised.
Highlights: “I AM NOTHING I AM EVERYTHING” and “Final Push into the Sun”.
Master – Saints Dispelled
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5This is classic death metal somewhat reminiscent of Obituary, although spiced up with some lively, at times Motörhead-esque drum work and cheeky thrash riffs. While the instrumental approach is thoroughly old-school, the production is crisp and full, delivering the up-to-no-good tone in a suitably direct fashion.
Highlight: “Find Your Life”.
Ribspreader – Reap Humanity
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Apocalyptic meatgrinder-metal that churns the earth at mid- to low pace, without taking any unexpected turns along the way.
Resin Tomb – Cerebral Purgatory
Genre: Death/sludge metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5As a herald of hell’s arrival, this is a violent assault on your eardrums. The band calls it dissonant death metal, which it is to a certain point, but not more than adding an extra layer of hostility to the tone of it all, which is otherwise dark and fairly slow.
The Rods – Rattle The Cage
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Classic, 80s style, fairly arena friendly heavy metal.
Saxon – Hell, Fire And Damnation
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5While you certainly shouldn’t expect any surprises as far as style is concerned, the NWOBHM veterans have delivered an impressively vital and solidly put together album this time. Inventive? No. Well considered and entertaining? Absolutely.
Scarlet Anger – Martyr
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Aggressive, solo happy thrash metal with a Teutonic feel. While it’s got some really tasty riffs, the lack of flow in each song keeps it from being truly engaging.
Sgàile – Traverse the Bealach
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Scottish progressive metal with layers and layers of folk-tinged atmosphere. There’s plenty of heavy riffs and force throughout, but the overall approach still feels more relaxed, and the tone is like an uplifting rush of wind.
Sovereign – Altered Realities
Genre: Thrash/death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5This is extreme metal that makes a point of being challenging to the listener. It’s harsh, at times dissonant and chaotic, with a distinctly old school production, full of speedy thrash riffs and thundering death metal drums.
Upon Stone – Dead Mother Moon
Genre: Melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5A fleeting look at the album cover might lead you to believe that this is an epic, slightly silly traditional metal record, but behind the façade lurks a really rather aggressive beast of an old school melodeath banger. There’s plenty on here that brings classic At the Gates to mind, with slow, darkly majestic melodies seeping through the jagged riffs like the cold, ghostly essence of past greatness.
Highlight: “Paradise Failed”
Vemod – The Deepening
Genre: Atmospheric/progressive black metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5Sometimes a work of music just touches you on a deep level, and it happens much quicker than you think should be possible for something that builds as slowly as this. The sweeping, haunting melodies on “The Deepening” feel as inevitable as the earth’s rotation, and the unmistakable black metal instrumental elements are pushed back to a level where they’re not oppressive, yet still very much defines the stylistic realm in which this album exists. Elements of dark, progressive rock bring nuanced flavor to certain sections along the way, without disturbing the overall flow. If you let this one in, it is sure to linger for a while.
Highlights: “Der guder dør” and “Inn i lysande natt”
Wasp Mother – Digital Pollution (EP)
Genre: Grindcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Slightly unhinged and lightly humorous grindcore that’s still, at least tonally, a tunnel drill to the eardrums (in a good way). It’s got a very creative progress, and gets a lot done in under 10 minutes.
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, do feel free to express yourself in the comments section below.
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Weekly rundown January 12 – 2024
Second release batch of the year is the week of EPs, apparently, with a pair of devastatingly heavy contenders leading the way.
Alluvial – Death Is But A Door (EP)
Genre: Progressive/technical death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5A powerful, technically brilliant, yet not overwhelming effort that encompasses most, if not all, of the death metal style realm. It’s impressively tight, and doesn’t mess around too much with immersion-breaking tempo shifts, retaining an awesome, beefy fullness that still allows for detail and melody. A lot of the time it feels like a non-conceptual, or experimental, outcome of Whitechapel meets Rivers of Nihil.
Highlight: “Death Is But A Door”
Cariosus – Will, Until Beauty
Genre: Melodic death metal/deathcore
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Technical, semi-melodic death metal touting all the modern bells and whistles and a few rhythm approaches out of deathcore.
Domination Campaign – A Storm Of Steel
Genre: Death metal/hardcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Highly rhythm-driven death metal with the directness of hardcore evident in each and every song on this album. It’s a pounding, mechanical beast that’s sure to get your blood pumping.
Drown In Sulphur – Dark Secrets Of The Soul
Genre: Blackened deathcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Unholy, theatrical, symphonically boosted deathcore that outputs just the right amount of force and bravado to ride the balance between heir-raising brutality and infernal melody.
Engulf – The Dying Planet Weeps
Genre: Technical/progressive death metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Cold, cynical prog death with precise, accomplished instrumentation and a lean production.
Escuela Grind – Ddeeaaatthhmmeettaall
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5While there are still traces of Esquela Grind’s other stylistic traits on this EP, the overall feel definitely matches the name. It’s rhythmic, grindstone-brutality measured out in a controlled, city-leveling crush. It’s rife with hostility, yet doesn’t need to descend into chaos in order to keep the moshpit going for the entire duration.
Highlight: “Ball and Chain”
The Grandmaster – Black Sun
Genre: Power metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Symphonic power metal with an 80s vocal style and early 2000s electronic melodies.
Infant Island – Obsidian Wreath
Genre: Experimental black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5This is black metal that has dived deep into a mire of heavy, sullen emotion, and stayed for the melancholy, spiritual beauty. It’s forceful, and at times raw and chaotic, but retains that mist of condensed atmosphere throughout.
Iron Front – Hooked
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Properly grotesque, earth-shaking death metal that sounds like it’s using your house piping for percussion.
Mourning Dawn – The Foam Of Despair
Genre: Black/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Incorporating harmonious melody and unsettling dissonance in equal measure, and neither overpoweringly so, this is a bleak, blackened doom record, like My Dying Bride but in constant physical pain.
No Terror In The Bang – Heal
Genre: Progressive/avant-garde metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5If you’re comfortable with prog metal that exists as much in the realm of soothing, ethereal beauty as it does in that of soaring, rhythmic wrath, and several other places in between, then check this out. You get a mostly symphonic style that swings wildly in intensity, and takes side trips into hardcore, pop and industrial metal.
Ryujin – Ryujin
Genre: Folk metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5You don’t mind your folk metal a little silly as long as it’s also shreddy as hell? And you wouldn’t mind it not being Finnish for once? Ryujin’s got you covered. While Matt Heafy’s all over this, both production and performance wise, the style is definitely enough of a departure that there’s no point getting hung up on it. It both dips into both ballad-y power metal and roars into thrashy melodeath, which makes for delightful variation rather than anything immersion-breaking.
Splitknuckle – Breathing Through The Wound
Genre: Hardcore/death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5This is white-knuckle, shaking-with-fury tension from beginning to end. It’s blunt force trauma over finesse, but the band clearly doesn’t mind working some groove into those rhythms. It’s also a solid step above your typical, super-efficient sub-30 minute affair in terms of runtime, working in enough substance and variation to keep it interesting for over 40.
Highlight: “Gutter Thoughts”.
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, do feel free to express yourself in the comments section below.
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Weekly rundown January 05 – 2024
Let’s start the year with whatever dares to creep out from under the crumpled heap of 2023.
Axicator – ‘Til Thrash Do Us Part
Genre: Thrash/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Slow thrash with a dark heavy metal edge and the reverb turned way up.
Almucantarat – Weightlessness
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Slow going black metal with soothing, harmonious melodies and a bit of symphonic power.
Ashes of Abaddon – The Hellbringers
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Chugging thrash with some melodeath heaviness.
At the Plates – Omnivore
Genre: Progressive death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Given the name and the self-proclaimed “culinary death metal” style, you might go into this expecting all kinds of silliness, but it’s in fact a solidly crafted, moderately progressive and melodic death metal album with some real standout moments.
Blistering Tree – Somewhere Within
Genre: Doom metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Mellow doom with mild stoner vibes and smoooth fuzz.
Caroozer – The Brewtal Truth
Genre: Groove metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Sludgy vocals, heavy metal melodies and some psychedelic flair define this groove metal album.
Child Cemetery – Rebirthed Revived Rekilled
Genre: Death metal/goregrind
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Ultra heavy, but still manageable goregrind that clearly revels in the nasty.
Darkcluster – Stellar Tomb
Genre: Black/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Space-headed and thrashy black metal with an experimental mindset.
Forbidden Alchemy – From Within
Genre: Melodic death/black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Intensely aggressive and heavy, this throws a lot at you at once, but does so with precision.
Fragments of Lost Memories – Yakosoku
Genre: Doom metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Riff-focused, Japanese doom slowed nearly all the way down to funeral pace.
Gray State – Under the Wheels of Progress
Genre: Metalcore/hardcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5A good balance of aggression and groove, as well as some proudly showcased guitar chops, prevail on this metallic hardcore record.
Haunter – Tales of the Seven Seas
Genre: Heavy/power metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Slightly groovy, rock ‘n roll-riffed traditional metal with a fantastical flair.
Insade – Human Obsession
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Crushing death metal with a light experimental edge, which serves to up the savagery.
Karnivortex – Waterwitch
Genre: Black/industrial metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Thrashy black metal with a dystopian, purposefully artificial atmosphere.
Køldbrynger – Totenblut
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Very raw, unhinged black metal that’s looking to give you nightmares.
Lair – The Hidden Shiv
Genre: Sludge/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Distinctly unpleasant, crawling forward one heavy riff at a time, this is a bruiser from beyond the grave.
Massecutor – Conceptual Visions
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Retro death metal all the way, from attitude to production. Nailing the style, but not terribly memorable.
Narbeleth – A Pale Crown
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5While by no means unique in the world of traditional-leaning black metal, this one manages a very convincing balance between tragic, icy melody, and gritted-teeth contempt.
Nimetön Hauta – Pimeyteen laskee joki
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5On this Finnish atmospheric record, the black metal plays second fiddle to sweeping, lamenting melodies that feel like the forces of nature in a muted northern landscape. While certainly not far removed, the style never really crosses into folk. It’s suitably somber, but still evocative.
Highlight: “Kerran syntyneen, maaksi maatuneen”
Panzerwar – Pale Whispers of a Writhing Moon
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5If pure, tradition-honoring, old-school black metal is what you’re after, this hits all the important spots.
Revisal – Curtain Call
Genre: Technical death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5An enticing mix of vivacious technicality and lofty melody, this tech death project is somewhat let down by a poor production.
Roswell Deathsquad – Welcome Home
Genre: Metalcore/technical death metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Aggressive metalcore with technical ambitions, lacking a bit in execution but smelling of potential.
Sabrum Tabal Jiin
Genre: Symphonic/power metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Grand, yet technical symphonic metal with an engaging, energetic power metal backbone and prog aspirations.
Schwarzer Engel – Träume einer Nacht
Genre: Gothic metal
Subjective rating: 1.5/5
Objective rating: 2/5By-the-numbers, gothic tinged arena metal.
Shamael – Il suono di mille orchestre parte II
Genre: Funeral doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5This is proper funeral doom, transition between tortured, abyssal agony and ethereal nihilism.
Soggoth – Emerge
Genre: Atmospheric black/death metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2/5A slightly odd mix of thrashy death riffs and foggy black metal atmosphere.
Stac Pollaidh – The Plight of the People
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Hope-withering, bleak atmospheric black metal that sounds like it’s trying to wring the life from an already dead tree.
Svdestada – Candela
Genre: Blackened hardcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Impressively tight and focused, this is blackened fury with a real sense of urgency, managing to sound direct and expansive simultaneously. You get seven clearly distinguishable songs that make the absolute most of their runtime.
Temporal Driver – A Treatise of Sorcery: The Definitive Guide to Mysticism in Magic
Genre: Doom/stoner metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Doom tone all the way, with nice, crunchy riffs and some fresh rock groove evenly distributed throughout.
Vessalius – A Lesson in Life (To the Stars)
Genre: Symphonic black metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5While it doesn’t have the greatest mix, this one showcases an interesting approach to modern, symphonic folk and black metal aggression.
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, do feel free to express yourself in the comments section below.
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Weekly rundown August 25 – 2023
A standout week for extreme metal, as we’ve got a plethora of stellar death-, black- and hash thrash metal released upon the world.
Asking Alexandria – Where Do We Go From Here?
Genre: Pop metal/metalcore
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Immaculately produced, catchy and well-performed metalcore with strong pop and electronica leanings.
Asphodelus – Sculpting From Time
Genre: Avant-garde doom metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Sullen, alternative-sounding doom draped in disharmonious tragedy.
Atoll – Human Extract
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Morbid, bloodthirsty stuff with elements of brutal death metal, but doing it in a more classic, manageable style.
Augurium – Unearthly Will
Genre: Symphonic death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Spooky-toned symphonic death metal that feels like metalcore beneath the brutal-melodic surface.
Blut Aus Nord – Disharmonium – Nahab
Genre: Black/avant-garde metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5The machinations of chaos are on naked display on this one, pumping dissonant waves of oily madness through your speakers. Blut Aus Nord yet again delivers pure nightmare fuel, but with a distinct, all-enveloping gloom this time. There is no light on the horizon, only a perpetual descent into various forms of half-organic, half-industrial horror.
Highlight: “The Endless Multitude”
Celestial Sanctuary – Insatiable Thirst for Torment
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5This is death metal with an old school kind of tone and production, but an evolved ferocity and sense of instrumental creativity. Whether flirting with thrash, speed, doom or melodeath, the band’s intentions for an overall sound to the album shine through as clear as day. There’s hardly a single part that sounds conventional or low effort, and you get both groove and crypt-dust brutality in spades.
Highlights: “Biomineralization (Cell Death)” and “The Lurid Glow of a Dead, Burning Body”
Colony Drop – Brace For Impact
Genre: Thrash metal/hardcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5A cool meld of old school, rowdy thrash and punky hardcore that ignites a energetic sense of a good time.
Dethklok – Dethalbum IV
Genre: Melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Dethklok (aka. Brendon Small) returns with more delicious death metal ear food consisting of catchy riffs and tight drum- and solo work. It’s thoroughly enjoyable.
Exmortus – Necrophony
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Here’s a good slice of adventurous thrash with a mean, raspy edge. Virtuosic, almost neoclassical playing, lofty, classic-metal-style melodic work, and an appetite for speed boosting tasty riffs and precise drum work. The harsh vocal style fits it all quite well, contributing a whiff of tech death, but in essence this is an album for the thrash and traditional heavy metal enthusiast.
Highlights: “Oathbreaker” and “Storm of Strings”
Grand Cadaver – Deities Of Deathlike Sleep
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Mikael Stanne and his gang of (mostly) non-melodic death metallers are back with more serrated riffs and grooves, and it doesn’t disappoint. Solid, if not outstanding.
GraveRipper – Seasons Dreaming Death
Genre: Thrash/black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Like the grim reaper riding a Mad Max-style monster truck, this is all adrenaline-pumping, high speed, killer riffage with an aftertaste of nihilism. Sure, it’s a s aggressive and rowdy as you might expect, with all the right tonal ingredients, but also with the entertainment factor turned way up. In short: It’s killer!
Highlights: “Into the Grave” and “Resist Against the Light”.
Heimdall – Hephaestus
Genre: Power metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5If you ignore the fact that a band named after a Norse deity made an album named after an ancient Greek deity, this is pretty fun and well-performed stuff.
Marc Hudson – Starbound Stories
Genre: Power metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Bright, Anime intro song-inspired (I’m pretty sure) power metal with speedy drum and synth work from the Dragonforce frontman.
Incantation – Unholy Deification
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5If crushing, old school, doom-laden death metal is your thing you know that these guys have you covered. There’s both punishment and reward aplenty in the mix of dragging, abyssal heaviness and rhythmic, menacing riff work. No one part overstays its welcome, and the balance of disharmony and systematic pounding is very well realized.
Highlights: “Chalice (Vessel Consanguineous) VIII” and “Convulse (Words of Power) III”
Kallias – First Ascent
Genre: Progressive/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Highly proficient technically-driven progressive metal with a moderate tech death presence. It’s a bit unfocused, but has several really strong songs.
Knife – Heaven Into Dust
Genre: Speed/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Yet another solid release from these German speed metallers, although even if the ferocity is there most all of the way, the “speed” part is not quite as prevalent, giving way to their classic heavy metal and mid-tempo thrash side.
Lepra – Devil’s Blood in Her Tongue
Genre: Black/gothic metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5A promising first full length from a band experimenting with dissonant, gothic atmosphere lashing out with black metal harshness.
Lions At The Gate – The Excuses We Cannot Make
Genre: Alternative metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 3/5Delivering some early punches with heavy, nu-metal riffs, this quickly descends into pop-oriented, well-trodden, alt-rock-like territory.
MDMA – Organic
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Brutal, tight-rhythm death metal played at such a non-varied pace that it’s hard to distinguish one song from another.
Meurtrières – Ronde de Nuit
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Low-key, medieval-styled heavy metal with distinctly atonal female lyrics.
Monasteries – Ominous
Genre: Technical deathcore
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Percussive, technical, odd-rhythmed deathcore that’s mostly devoid of melody in favor of an all-out slam and breakdown factor.
Nixil – From The Wound Spilled Forth Fire
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Dark, writhing black metal that reaches out from a perpetual gloom.
Noveria – The Gates Of The Underworld
Genre: Symphonic/power metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Grand, yet technical symphonic metal with an engaging, energetic power metal backbone and prog aspirations.
Orphalis – As The Ashes Settle
Genre: Technical death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Mostly settling with a modern death metal pace, there’s still plenty of instrumental sidesteps, varied tone and light experimentation to earn the tech death mantle.
Shepherds Reign – Ala Mai
Genre: Heavy/groove/folk metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Sheperds Reign strikes back with what feels like strong step in the direction of full musical maturity, mixing heavy metal melody with thrash and groove riffs, and, of course, a good dose of Polynesian traditional elements, which fits their style very well.
Sinheresy – Event Horizon
Genre: Heavy/symphonic metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Catchy, well-performed symphonic metal with heavy metal and hard rock energy.
Tegmentum – Evolvement
Genre: Technical/progressive death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Tech death striking out on indiscriminate, prog-led detours into the cosmic void, delivering potent aggression, yet not quite landing a tonal or melodic cohesion.
Till The Dirt – Outside The Spiral
Genre: Death metal/grunge
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5A strong influx of grunge and prog elements makes this death metal project stand out from the masses, even as it proves to be the strongest when leaning on classic rhythms and groove-oriented death riffs.
U.D.O. – Touchdown
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Whoa! I did not expect U.D.O. to sound this reinviogorated. Going in with lukewarm expectations, this proved to be a solid good time. If only the whole album could be as energetic as the title track (and have an actually decent album cover), this would be truly great.
The Unity – The Hellish Joyride
Genre: Power/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Classic melodic power metal with lots of heavy metal feelgood vibes. But guys, don’t call your song “masterpiece”, unless it’s some sort of joke.
Vision Master – Sceptre
Genre: Heavy/speed metal/punk
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Powered by a distinctly punk “whatever goes” kind of attitude, this band pumps out barebones heavy metal that’s loaded with elements of speed, thrash and black metal. It’s weird and surprisingly cohesive.
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, do feel free to express yourself in the comments section below.
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Weekly rundown August 18 – 2023
A bountiful week favoring more extreme or dark lean-ins to classic heavy metal.
After Earth – The Rarity Of Reason
Genre: Melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5If you enjoy the direction that In Flames and Dark Tranquillity were taking in the early 2000s, then you should pay attention. This album feels like a slight modernization of that mid-life Swedish melodeath style, without selling out to trends or toning anything down. You get ultra-heavy riffs, classic death metal vocals and lots of dark, doom-laden melody, without sacrificing the momentum.
Highlights: “Undermine My Suffocation” and “Legions”.
Blight House – Blight the Way
Genre: Death metal/grindcore
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5A weird, abrasive, disharmonic, yet kind of laid back death metal/grindcore album with a strong horror theme.
Cales – Chants Of Steel
Genre: Melodic black/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5While certainly on the track of an attractive mix of black metal sharpness and the epic scale of folk and heavy metal, the composition is a bit too messy to fully enjoy on this one.
Cyhra – The Vertigo Trigger
Genre: Pop metal
Subjective rating: 1.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5At times catchy riffs, but they let themselves get utterly bogged down with primary shool rhyme lyrics and sappy ballads.
Fall Of The Albatross – Rite
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Like free form jazz, this is technically mezmerising, but feels like too much of a jam session to get a good grip on for the average metalhead.
Godthrymm – Distortions
Genre: Doom metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Heavy and deep, with a contemplative and grand approach to melody, this is doom that conveys a wide spectrum of dark emotion.
Horrendous – Ontological Mysterium
Genre: Progressive death metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5This is one of those “why not both”-type albums where an eclectic combination of flavors really hits the sweet spot. Grindcore-style mad vocals, chugging thrash riffs and grooves, heavy prog rhythms, a threatening death metal tone and plenty of light-footed classic heavy metal playful melodic work. How the hell does it all fit together? Who but Horrendous knows. On top of it all, there’s an organic structure and pace to the album that makes it an experience that keeps pulling you in and demanding your attention, while dealing out the insane genius in manageable portions.
Highlights: “Ontological Mysterium” and “The Death Knell Ringeth”.
Invultation – Feral Legion
Genre: Death/black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5A menacing, at times overwhelming blackened death metal album that pummels you with landslide rhythms and a pitch black tone.
Nocte Obducta – Karwoche
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Classic black metal treated with a contemplative, doom-laden atmosphere and traces of traditional folk music.
Nott – Hiraeth
Genre: Deathcore/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Hellishly heavy, unleashing all the power of modern death metal and deathcore, but slowed down to the crushing pace of a titanic atlas stone rolling across the earth an flattening all in its path.
Orbit Culture – Descent
Genre: Melodic death/industrial metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Orbit Culture have grown into a bit of a beast in the last few years, as they really hit their stride with 2020’s Nija, and the rampage continues unabated on this one. It feels a bit more refined, but you still get the same slamming riffs, rhythmic vocal delivery and dark, booming melodies. It doesn’t necessarily feel fresh, but certainly loaded with energy and confidence.
Highlight: “Alienated”.
OXX – The Primordial Blues
Genre: Experimental metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Enjoy being treated as a ragdoll in the hands of a cocaine-aided performance artist? It this album gets you, it’s not gonna let go. The rhythms are the mad intricate kind you’d expect from mathcore, but fleshed out with genuine depth, purpose and atmosphere. Adding the gut-punch of sludge brutality, the combination hits with quite unexpected potency.
Highlights: “The Song of the Rivers” and “The Hypostasis”
Ringworm – Seeing Through Fire
Genre: Hardcore/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Rage! In copious quantities. Ringworm is back with more scorched, thrash-riffed metallic hardcore. It might just be me, but their death metal side seems to show a bit more than usual as well. It’s relentless, super aggressive, but allowing for some wicked solo work as well. If you’re looking for moshpit material, look no further. I’d book a dentist appointment for after, just in case.
Highlights: “No Solace, No Quarter, No Mercy” and “Thought Crimes”.
Sanguine Glacialis – Maladaptive Daydreaming
Genre: Symphonic gothic metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5As grand as you might expect from symphonic gothic metal, with some real punch from heavy riffs, and bite from black metal vocal snarls.
Skálmöld- Ýdalir
Genre: Folk/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5A highly successful marriage of classic heavy metal rhythms, riff styles and tempo with the epic tones and battle-ready force of Nordic folk metal. This is not one of those tavern-stompers that’s all sing-along choruses and chant-ready melodies though. The band has taken its concept seriously and poured real effort into crafting something solid that works perfectly well beyond the beer-drenched fields of summer festivals.
Highlights: “Veðurfölnir” and “Ýdalir”.
Spirit Adrift – Ghost At The Gallows
Genre: Heavy/doom metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5Once the classic/doom metal meld is done right, it can invoke so much of what is great outside the extreme metal sphere. You get the heavy, yet eager riffs, dark tones creating the perfect backdrop for groovy-yet-measured solo work, and the creative space to move between solemn reveries to up-tempo, triumphant highs. All of that rings true for Spirit Adrift’s newest offering. Everything works together to create a warm, punchy sound that both rocks and tickles the mind.
Highlights: “Barn Burner” and “Siren of the South”.
Unblessed Divine – Portal To Darkness
Genre: Atmospheric death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Death metal that seems to strive to break into some doomy, atmospheric realm using brute force.
Warmen – Here Are None
Genre: Power/death/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5If you wondered where the sundered remains of Children of Bodom’s spirit might have drifted off to, the answer is here. This is all power metal melodies, catchy riffs and adventurous solos.
Worm Shepherd – The Sleeping Sun
Genre: Symphonic deathcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Deathcore doesn’t get much more grandiose than this, with a mix of towering doom, gurgling brutal death metal and slamming, dissonant riffs.
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, do feel free to express yourself in the comments section below.
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Weekly rundown August 11 – 2023
Raw, inexhaustible aggression fuels the top outputs of this week, spearheading an assault that’s followed up with more heavy, yet slightly more complex, hitters.
Claret Ash – Worldtorn: Anemoia
Genre: Progressive black metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5A short, mixed release of dark, progressive black metal offering some good ideas with simply okay execution.
Cystic – Palace of Shadows
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Low-fi, dungeon-dwelling death metal with a real pronounced drum sound and a doom-like approach to atmosphere.
Hemina – Romancing the Ether
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Essentially a one-song album divided into 6 parts, this is dreamy, soothing, melody and synth-heavy prog for those wishing to delve deep.
Kataklysm – Goliath
Genre: Groove/melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5If you though Kataklysm sounded unusually angry and djenty on their last record, then you ain’t heard nothing yet. From the very first song, this album sounds like a scarred, chain-wrapped fist shaking with poorly contained fury. The over-distortion does drown out a lot of the guitar tone, but not all, so the grooves remain intact, although somewhat muted. It’s not exactly what you’d call innovative, but sounds potent and purposeful, and keeps bringing the heavy every step of the way.
Highlights: “Bringer of Vengeance” and “The Redeemer”.
Kind – Close Encounters
Genre: Stoner/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5With more than a hint of Stone Temple Pilots, this is southern rock-stoner with doom metal heaviness and a sense of catchy melody that isn’t utilized quite enough.
Lancer – Tempest
Genre: Heavy/power metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Tonally strong and riff-happy classic power metal that comes up short on melodic harmony, especially in the instrumental-vocal meld.
Megaherz – In Teufels Namen
Genre: Industrial/alternative metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Coated in a crusty veneer of Neue Deutsche Härte-riffs and alternatve grittiness, this is really mostly ballad-heavy, empty-calorie party metal.
Mycorrhizae – The Great Filtration
Genre: Avant-garde black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Slightly hypnotic, heavily muted and bass-pronounced black metal that’s surprisingly big on intensity. It borrows tones from brighter and more artsy corners of the musical spectrum, but keeps pummeling you relentlessly with staccato drumming and tremolo. And yet, it feels organic in a single-minded sort of fashion, slightly tweaking its progress at every step but always moving towards the same goal.
Highlight: “Strength in Space”.
Nox Eternus – Eternal Night
Genre: Black/death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Heavily muted, sinister blackened death metal that might be a bit too caught up on old school-genre convention for their own good.
The Rite – The Astral Gloom
Genre: Black/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Doomy black metal caught somewhere in between Tribulation and Witchery, but strongly toned down.
Silverburn – Self Induced Transcendental Annihilation
Genre: Sludge metal/mathcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Jagged, hardcore-powered sludge that leans into the choppy, hostile prog-style of mathcore, without touching any of the metalcore elements.
Urne – A Feast On Sorrow
Genre: Sludge/thrash metal/metalcore
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Taking all the best parts of sludge, thrash and metalcore and joining them in something that also leaves room for band personality feels like quite a feat, and yet it has materialized in this album. At its most serious this is laden with doom- and black metal moroseness, but the meat of the thing is is engaging riffs and mature melodies. It has a little bit of everything, and yet succeeds in collecting into a coherent output.
Highlights: “Becoming the Ocean” and “The Long Goodbye/Where Do the Memories Go?”
Werewolves – My Enemies Look And Sound Like Me
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5The fourth flesh-rending, high-tempo, ultra-aggressive output from these Australian gents in as many years, putting many of their peers to shame with the consistent quality. At some point you will realize that there’s actually quite a bit of black metal sharpness in there, but as a blade in the hands of a ravenous madman, it becomes but an effective tool for the delivery of ferocious, violent punishment. You get both brutality and groove-driven riffs in heaps, proving that these guys’ appetite for morbid bad-assery isn’t close to being sated.
Highlights: “Bring To Me The Kill” and “My Enemies Look And Sound Like Me”.
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, do feel free to express yourself in the comments section below.
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Weekly rundown August 04 – 2023
A shorth but sweet, death-metal leaning week that’s as faithful to the fashion of today as it is to the class of the past.
An Autumn For Crippled Children – Closure
Genre: Black metal/shoegaze
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5An odd but interesting juxtaposition of depressing black metal and mildly positive indie pop/rock vibes.
Besta – Terra Em Desapego
Genre: Death/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Fast paced, dirty and wicked death thrash with traces of grindcore.
The Crawling – All Of This For Nothing
Genre: Blackened death/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Crisp and heavy death doom with a strong, nihilistic black metal influence.
Crypta – Shades Of Sorrow
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5A focused and well realized vision for a distinct death metal sound prevails on Crypta’s sophomore album. It borrows a bit from thrash and groove, and some from the more aggressive types of melodeath, but not enough to call it a genre hybrid. They keep the intensity up nicely all the way through, even with some interludes, but it’s not as varied as I might have hoped for.
Highlight: “Trial of Traitors”
Dun Ringill – 150-Where The Old Gods Play-Act 1
Genre: Folk/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5A dark but melodic folk album slowed down to a doom tempo. Distinct, but slightly messily realized.
Eminentia Tenebris – Rise of a New Kingdom
Genre: Melodic/atmospheric black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Sweeping, cold, but also fervent melodic black metal.
Hallucinate – From the Bowels Of The Earth
Genre: Avant-garde death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5This is death metal that allows for an influx of doomy atmosphere, as well as heading into completely new, genre-unrelated territories.
Humanity’s Last Breath – Ashen
Genre: Deathcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Looming, ominous, apocalyptic deathcore that packs a lot of meat around a skeleton of fairly conventional, djent-percussive breakdown-iness. Intent listeners will find death doom, black metal and other nuances, aside from a dark, symphonic grandeur.
Highlight: “Passage”.
Icon Of Sin – Legends
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 3/5Some sweet guitar solos and classic power metal feel aside, this feels a bit too much like a rehash of the more well-worn elements of traditional metal.
Körgull The Exterminator – Built To Kill
Genre: Thrash/black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5This one loses a few points on some off-putting rhythm work, but otherwise it’s spirited and on point tonally.
Repentance – The Process Of Human Demise
Genre: Groove metal/metalcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5A straight, high energy pleaser of a groove-focused metalcore album, reinventing no wheels but burning plenty of rubber.
The Shredderz – The Shredderz
Genre: Shred/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Apart from awesome thrash- and heavy style shreds this is honestly pretty bland and weakly composed.
Skindred – Smile
Genre: Nu metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Wait, you’re telling me I wasn’t just magically transported back to 2005? Could’ve fooled me. Not saying it’s necessarily a bad thing.
Temple of Dread – Beyond Acheron
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5This is rock solid old school death metal riding a wave of classic, brutal melodeath atmosphere. Which allows for some actual guitar solos, and yes, they’re great. The songs smoothly flex up and down from mid- to high tempo, and it’s all pitched for just the right amount of menace, while still allowing for a measure of grandeur in the more doom-leaning sections. It’s a consistently enjoyable affair.
Highlights: “Asebeia” and “The Plague”.
Tumulation – Haunted Funeral Creations
Genre: Death/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Heavy, ominous death doom that makes a lot of the slow, threatening tempo, but perhaps not enough.
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, do feel free to express yourself in the comments section below.
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Weekly rundown July 28 – 2023
A good week for prog, although of the heavy, aggressive and groove-laden kind, and ain’t nothing wrong with that.
Alghol – Night Eternal
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Aggressive black metal with a darkly tribal twist. Not an immaculately realized concept, but still with a clear shade of originality to it.
Arch Blade – Kill The Witch
Genre: Heavy/groove metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Heavy metal with apparent Pantera-like aspirations, but going more in the direction of Avenged Sevenfold.
Astralborne – Across The Aeons
Genre: Melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Strong nods to the original Gothenburg sound is no uncommon thing on melodeath records. This one takes the extra step of including an In Flames cover.
Atonement – Sadistic Invaders
Genre: Thrash/black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Full throttle demonic thrash that aspires to that unpolished sound of the 80s underground.
Black Sorcery – Deciphering Torment Through Malediction
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Black metal that could be characterized as noise metal just from the level of low-fi in the production.
Black Spell – Walpurgis Night
Genre: Doom/stoner metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Occult-leaning doom smothered by fuzz, crawling forward on a train of stoner groove.
Eave – Fervor
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Black metal stuck in a mire of hopelessness, utilizing typical instrumentation and a disharmonious array of atmospheric effects.
Eternal Rot – Moribound
Genre: Death/doom metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5An album that moves with the slow and inevitable purpose of decay, spreading rot and disease as it goes. Gurgling maledictions (the vocalist sounds like an actual living corpse) and slugging out riffs like the rumble of an earthquake, this has both the brutality and morbid groove that you crave from good death doom.
Highlights: “Summoned From Moribund Delusions” and “Desecrated Guts”.
Fleshvessel – Yearning: Promethean Fate Sealed
Genre: Experimental black/death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Utterly unhinged, this is blackened death metal that sounds heavily influenced by surrealism, completely embracing its more disturbing side.
The Glorious Dead – Cemetery Paths
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Furious, badass death metal charging head first into the fray, taking a few, unexperienced tumbles along the way.
The Gorge – Mechanical Fiction
Genre: Progressive/sludge metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5This is spikes-out, heavy prog metal slamming slug roars and lethal doom riffs into your eardrums with no intention of apologizing for the damage caused. There are parts when you think they’re about to drift off into more delicate, Leprous-like territory, but the next explosion of furious drums and harsh vocals greet you around the corner instead. Awesomely technical, and yet strutting with groove, it feels like a real knuckleduster on the prog scene.
Highlights: “Beneath the Crust” and “Presence”.
Hooker Spit – Krötch Splitter
Genre: Death/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Built on a foundation of fast, banger-friendly riffs, this project marries groove-laden thrash with old school death metal and a hint of melodeath to great effect.
James Rivera’s Metal Wave – New Wave Gone Metal
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 1.5/5
Objective rating: 2/5Whatever this is supposed to be, it sounds barely alive, and not on the mend, which is probably for the best.
Lokust – Infidel
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Technical, aggressive thrash with strong notes of metalcore.
Lowlife – Leader Of A New Generation
Genre: Hardcore
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2/5Slightly clunky, riff-meaty hardcore.
Machinations of Fate – Celestial Prophecies
Genre: Melodic death/black metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5What could very well be the beginning og a riff-happy, sinister toned, blackened melodeath band.
Marble Orchard – Building Monuments to Misery
Genre: Doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Dark, occult-leaning doom that has just the right atmosphere, just lacking a clear purpose and some production tweaks.
Mutoid Man – Mutants
Genre: Progressive/psychedelic metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5You don’t really expect heavy, psychedelic stoner given a thorough progressive treatment to sound quite like this, which just proves the band’s strong stylistic capabilities. The flavor of the thing is not crazily varied, rather a more uniform thing that ties everything together, no matter the technical direction each song takes. It’s a blend of exciting rhythms, awesome guitar grooves and an outstanding vocal performance.
Highlights: “Graveyard Love” and “Demons”.
Nuclear Power Trio – Wet Ass Plutonium
Genre: Shred/progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Another instrumental shred album from the trio that’ll have any tech nerd slipping into a blissful coma.
Organ Dealer – The Weight of Being
Genre: Grindcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5A lawnmower-to-the-face kind of grindcore experience, with some impressive drum work.
Panzerchrist – Last Of A Kind
Genre: Blackened death metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Oppressive blackened death metal that treads an over-traveled path.
Porta Nigra – Weltende
Genre: Black/industrial metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Combative, rhythmic black metal that’s filled with conviction and demonstrating a surprising amount of depth. Relentless, riff-driven assaults and harsh, blackened outbursts of hate are interspersed with doomy, atmospheric dips into contemplative melodic sections, and it all makes for a compelling whole.
Highlights: “Götterblut” and “Hora Mortis”.
Sevendust – Truth Killer
Genre: Alternative/groove metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Clean, comfortable, with some heavy grooves and excellent vocals. All as it should be, but nothing more.
Sign Of The Swarm – Amongst The Low & Empty
Genre: Technical deathcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Percussive, frenetic and ridiculously aggressive, this will probably please tech death fans as much as deathcore ones.
Spellsword – Night Of The Grail
Genre: Black/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5If you liked Nite’s latest album but wished they would lean more into the black metal side, then this comes as ordered. It’s got much of the same epic feel, and somehow feels even more like a long storytelling session, without getting silly or needing to resort to spoken word-sections. You get sharp vocals, tremolo and blast beats, but also catchy riffs and strong, classic heavy metal melodies.
Highlights: “Night of the Grail” and “Castle Montsalvat”.
Starer – Wind, Breeze, or Breath
Genre: Atmospheric/symphonic black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5This is big, symphonic-tinged black metal that never gets overly bold or outlandish, keeping it nice and tonally uniform.
The Sun’s Journey Through the Night – Worldless
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Bleak black metal with gothic and atmospheric tendencies. At its best when putting the full drama on display.
TakaLaiton – Mindfection
Genre: Thrash/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5This one has a lot of that Alexi Laiho wildchild-energy that made COB so much fun. Makes me sad to think about it. But the music is anything but sad.
Thra – Forged in Chaotic Spew
Genre: Death/sludge metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5This is some corrosive-ass shit. Like a machinery running on pure sludge, clogged up with oily filth and battery acid.
Vinsta – Freiweitn
Genre: Folk/progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5This is highly melodic and folk-infused death metal that takes a few prog twists and turns, which feels more like an instrumental flex than something that fully served the album, but it’s still quite good.
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, do feel free to express yourself in the comments section below.
The Metal Dispatch 