This is a bit of a bummer: TesseracT just announced that their current vocalist, the excellent Ashe O’Hara, is leaving the band. In his place will be their old also-excellent Daniel Tompkins, sure, but I felt like Ashe brought more to the table in terms of musicality and range (based as much on the two albums as on their live performances). See the rest here
★★★★ This energetically technical metal album has it all. Euro-style synth intros, faultless musicianship, a lower-than-thou tuning, tasty solos, not to mention a whirlwind tour of virtually every metal subgenre of relevance today. It’s hard to imagine someone being underwhelmed. Yet, they manage to consistently sound fresh and novel and interesting, even as they sprinkle their music with nods to Gojira, The Faceless, Attack! See the rest here
★★☆☆ This is a lovely, gory blend of Entombed and “Scream Bloody Gore.” It does go on a bit monotonously, though… which is impressive for a 9-track, 30-minute album. See the rest here
☆☆☆☆ Believe it or not, I remember Mushroomhead being better than this. Avoid at all costs. See the rest here
★☆☆☆ This album puts forth the difficult-to-dispute premise that Mastodon is slowly, steadily, smoking enough dope to transform themselves into Baroness. There’s some interesting musical direction on here, and the band’s performances are generally as good as they’ve ever been. But even on tracks like “High Road” and “Chimes At Midnight,” where you can still detect a glimmer of the swagger and bravado that really was the whole point of the band to begin with, everything feels like it was processed through a cheap King’s X or QOTSA filter. See the rest here
★★★☆ This is one of the most interesting things I’ve heard this year so far, somewhere between The Jesus Lizard, The Ocean, Filter, The Melvins, Zombi, Fantômas… or just hovering around The Black Keys, once those guys grow up and develop a serious problem with black tar heroin. This album is a controlled, snarling exploration, one that rewards repeated listenings even with its seemingly lo-fi pretensions. See the rest here
★★☆☆ Once this short and sweet hardcore album starts out in earnest, you get an affable what-you-see-is-what-you-get slugfest that’s well-produced (for what it is) and generally smileworthy, if not exactly groundbreaking. On that subject, the opening ambient track is a complete red herring that has nothing to do with the rest of the album, and doesn’t serve the band at all. See the rest here
★☆☆☆ While this is pretty well-executed emocore, it’s still an aspirational Norma Jean replica at best, and something approaching Emmure at its worst. See the rest here
★★★☆ This band have their feet planted in two camps. The first, their Black Dahlia Murder brand of death metal, dominates the first half of the album, in a way that feels familiar (almost to the point of forgettability). But the second half of the album gives way to more of their progressive tendencies, reminiscent of The Faceless. See the rest here
★★★☆ This is a bizarrely great, or greatly bizarre, album. To write it off as a lead guitarist’s solo wankfest is premature and a disservice. If anything, it’s more a showcase of Marty’s omnivorous tendencies, as he deftly through the many styles of his long and storied career. Through it all, there’s sick guitarwork of course… but to focus on that would be to miss the equally deft hand that Marty uses in his arrangements. See the rest here
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