Author Archives: arse
Edguy — Space Police – Defenders Of The Crown
★☆☆☆ Imagine a cover band committed to doing songs from Powerslave-era Maiden or Turbo-era Priest. Now imagine that band hires a keyboardist. Then they hire Bobby Ellsworth to do vocals. Now take all that and assume the worst. This album gets a star for novelty, but otherwise, don’t bother.
Appearance Of Nothing — A New Beginning
★★☆☆ This is a curious prog metal album, one with great aspirations but quite a few stumbling blocks (the vocals and production chief among them). That said, if you’re looking for a Dream Theater clone with more unpredictability, this might make your day.
Noneuclid — Metatheosis
★★★☆ There’s a lot to admire on this album, certainly one of the most surprising and unstraightforward First Listens of the year. Equal parts Voivod, Gorguts, and Thought Industry, with hints of Devin Townsend, Opeth, Hagman, and King Crimson. You should hear it, if for no other reason that it’ll confuse you.
Voice Of Ruin — Morning Wood
★★☆☆ This is solidly decent middle-of-the-road metalcore. There’s enough differentiation here that you might be able to differentiate Voice Of Ruin from As I Lay Dying or All That Remains, and there are a couple of interesting moments sprinkled throughout. But aside from all that mild praise, this album is fairly forgettable.
Aborted — The Necrotic Manifesto
★★★★ This cruel bastard of an album is clearly the result of a gangbang between Malevolent Creation, Gorguts, The Acacia Strain, and Pinhead from the original Hellraiser. The aural assault is well produced, and stays tasty and scary and interesting throughout. You will listen, and its sound is like razors through flesh.
Thou — Heathen
★★★☆ This album some dystopian futureworld lovechild of Isis and The Ocean. I’m dutybound to classify it as doom metal, but that’s like calling Sriracha “ketchup.”
Basement Torture Killings — A Night Of Brutal Torture
★☆☆☆ Well, I’ll give BTK this much: this grindcore is pretty frantic. But it’s also fairly lo-fi, nonsensical, and slippery to boot. If all you want is grossness at high speed, you’ll probably enjoy it. Otherwise, it feels like a lesser version of Macabre.
Devil You Know — The Beauty of Destruction
★★★☆ This isn’t just a simple amalgam of styles that you tend to get with metal supergroups, but an interesting bit of exploration away from their metalcore and thrashy origins. When it works, anyway; sometimes the experiments fall flat. And overall there’s a haunting similarity to the Frankenstein quality I remember hearing on many of the Roadrunner United album.
Lord Mantis — Death Mask
★☆☆☆ This album flirts with being interesting.
