✦✦✦✧ Five years after Vile Genesis, Inferi return with a reshuffled lineup: Malcolm Pugh now covers bass too (Andrew Kim having decamped to Brand Of Sacrifice), and this is drummer Spencer Moore’s swan song before joining Archspire. You can hear why they wanted him; there’s a definite Archspire vibe running through this thing. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ COC’s eleventh album (their first in eight years) is also their first since the untimely passing of drummer Reed Mullin. Warren Riker’s production is a little rough around the edges, which mostly suits the swampy riffage, and new rhythm section Stanton Moore and Bobby Landgraf nicely complement Pepper and Woody. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Lots of energy here from MC on this, their fourteenth studio album. The band is 60% new, with only guitarists Kurdt Vanderhoof and Rick Van Zandt surviving the cut. The big news is newbie Dave “Junior” Ellefson on bass, sounding great of course… but vocalist Brian Allen and drummer Ken Mary also bring the thunder. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Russian Circles are so fucking cool. Just when you think you’ve got them figured out, they pull a Crazy Ivan and surprise you with more variations to their sonic explorations. Some of their most metallic and heaviest moments are on this, their ninth (duh) album. But so are some of their synthiest moments. See the rest here
✦✧✧✧ You could imagine The Black Eyed Peas making a hard rock album, but that’d be an insult to The Black Eyed Peas. This makes me want to listen to Buckcherry. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Symphonic deathcore that sounds like it’s =all nu metal/post-industrial breakdowns or guest-spot songs or something difficult to get into. Also, the production is entirely too much: brickwalled to hell and back, and hazily indistinct. It’s a shame, as I feel like there’s a talented band in here under the mire. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ A solidly delightful shredder of an album, more vintage thrash than rethrash. You never quite know how serious or goofy Exodus are going to come across, so let me assure that this release is one of Exodus’s more harrowing albums. It’s also more experimental (don’t miss violinist Katie Jacoby). Gary Holt is as frickin’ awesome as ever. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Blisteringly shreddy as always, although I find that the band is most potent when they slow down even just a little bit. I really dig the added investment in melody and (dare I say) catchiness, which act like life preservers in an otherwise mercilessly raging sea. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Converge’s eleventh studio album is half pit-roiler, half moody reflection. The first four songs have the band moving from shredfest to breakdown to panic chords with impossibly smooth abandon. But the rest of the album is where the real emotional damage lands; brooding, patient, and yet just as brutal in its complexity. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ I give credit to LOG for pushing their envelope, even if I love their envelope just fine as-is, and even if it doesn’t always pay off (for me, anyway). Put another way: leave your preconceptions at the door, give the whole album a chance, and you’re likely to be pleasantly surprised when you least expect it. See the rest here
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