✦✦✧✧ This album is a challenge to listen to, in part due to its ridiculously brickwalled mix. Too bad, as ABR have managed to imbue more emotion into their music, without sacrificing their by-now trademark experimental brand of metalcore. But my ears! My ears!! See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This is one of the Finnish band’s best efforts to date, improving on its predecessor Heart Like A Grave in all aspects except for pacing, which does tend toward the overblown. Still, a fine almost-hour of melodeath, best served cold. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This album, more than most, feels like a product of the CoViD-19 pandemic, for good and for ill. By way of delays and other exigencies, Ne Obvs were required to spend years on this album, and the resulting level of refinement and honing on display here is without equal. There is no filler, no fluff; this beast is all muscle and precision. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ A massive and appealing album of Finnish black metal, with just enough keyboard work to make things a little surprising and more interesting than your typical fare. But don’t worry; the band’s bread-and-butter blast beats and tremelo picking are constant companions here. Also, the production is surprisingly good, something that I don’t take for granted in this genre by any means. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Deathcore brutality par excellence. What it lacks in variety, it makes up for with clever sound sculpting, thoughtful brevity, and endless kicks to your teeth. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ It’s… fine. Great vocals and a gorgeous mix, but it’s odd to have an anthemic power metal feel like it’s missing emotionality. This is a modest improvement, but still feels like a band actively trying to find their winning formula. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ More settled than the 2020 predecessor City Burials, this album is surefooted, dynamic, and above all else, hauntingly emotive. So the band is less and less progressive with each album. And sure, it sounds like they’ve taken another step closer toward being Leprous (but that’s not much of a tragedy). See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ A little more noisy than usual for Periphery, which is a welcome bit of spice. As usual, they’re at their best when they let themselves off their own chains and go djenty-heavy. Alas, the shredding material here is countered by synthwave, atmospheric frippery, or stuff I imagine is intended to be radio-friendly. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ A dense techdeath masterclass, somewhere between Revocation and Gorguts. The musicianship on display is faultless, and the songwriting is surprisingly catchy and memorable. Did I mention that it’s also heavy? It’ll give you a good neck workout, headbangers. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ These Floridian death metal veterans sometimes deliver the goods exactly as I want them (ie, vigorous yet classic death). Sometimes they take one riff and drive it into the ground. Sometimes they just confuse me. I’m jut glad they’re still at it! See the rest here
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