Vio-Lence — Let The World Burn
✦✦✧✧ Really good rethrash from Bay Area veterans. Five tracks, 25 minutes. Perfect. Who needs innovation when you’ve got this ferocious pit?! See the rest here
Author Archives: arse
Ghost — Impera
✦✦✦✧ While this is about as metal as Rush, Van Hagar, or ABBA… it’s nonetheless an excellently crafted modern take on progressive classic rock, with a tendency toward anthemic bombast. But quibbles aside, this is likely Ghost’s best album to date. (And honestly, they do get pretty close to actual metal in a couple of places on the album: check out “Watcher In The Sky” and “Twenties” if the hard rock isn’t hardcore enough.) See the rest here
Scorpions — Rock Believer
✦✦✧✧ Solidly good Scorps here. Always great to hear Klaus Meine’s singing and Mssrs. Jab and Schenker shredding. I can imagine hearing this at a bar and subconsciously enjoying it, even if I can’t imagine ever putting this on the jukebox in the first place. See the rest here
Corpsegrinder — Corpsegrinder
✦✦✦✧ I may be projecting, but this album has a slight air of primitivism that reminds me more of Deicide than anything Cannibal Corpse have done in over a decade. At other times it sounds like Brujeria crossed with DETHKLOK. One thing’s for sure: it’s heavy like a heavy thing!! See the rest here
HammerFall — Hammer Of Dawn
✦✦✦✧ This is exactly how I like my power metal: formulaic, unapologetic, and fist-pumping! See the rest here
Bloodywood — Rakshak
✦✦✧✧ This is a six-piece nu metal band from New Delhi. That is to say, it sounds a lot like Limp Bizkit learned what a sitar is. See the rest here
Zeal & Ardor — Zeal & Ardor
✦✦✧✧ Both Z&A and The Armed pull from the same fount when they’re at their best: an uncanny and narrow intersection of ear-candy accessibility and undiluted acrimony. Ironically, the more this music hews to sounding overtly spiritual, the more boring it sounds. Fortunately, there are plenty of more subtle and intriguing tracks on the album (“Erase,” “Feed The Machine”, “Götterdämmerung”). See the rest here
Allegaeon — Damnum
✦✦✦✧ Eight years ago, techdeath darlings Allegaeon released Elements of the Infinite, developing for themselves a reputation for virtuosic unseriousness. They’ve been trying to distance themselves from the goofiness assumption ever since, in the process sounding like they’re still trying to figure out what their sound is. I’m happy to say that Damnum is a mighty step in the right direction, delivering dazzling, surprising, and energetic progressive metal that repeatedly manages to sound both fresh and familiar. See the rest here
Immolation — Acts Of God
✦✦✧✧ It’s a bold choice to start your album with a pair of clean, not-well-tuned guitars. And yet, it’s just one of many examples on this album where these progenitors of the NY death metal scene expertly feed and feed off of your expectations. Even less modern-sounding than earlier albums, Acts Of God nevertheless deliver a potent, ineffable air of melancholic aggression, at times bordering on o.g. See the rest here
