Mick Mars — The Other Side Of Mars
✦✦✧✧ I was going to say that I don’t know who this collection of lukewarm rockers is for, but I realized that I do know: it’s for Mick Mars, of course. See the rest here
Author Archives: arse
Judas Priest — Invincible Shield
✦✦✦✧ Folks, this album is maybe everything I ever wanted from Priest. It’s anthemic, shreddy, speedy, gritty, and even more energetic than 2018’s Firepower. Andy Sneap’s production is top-tier, of course, but that only serves to showcase how great the whole band sound. Only time will tell if tracks like "The Serpent And The King" and "Trial By Fire" will take places aside "Painkiller" and "Breaking The Law"; regardless, this album is a must-listen. See the rest here
Ace Frehley — 10,000 Volts
✦✦✧✧ Shake them buns! See the rest here
Persefone — Lingua Ignota: Part I
✦✦✦✧ More prog metal perfection, although I can’t help but feel like this one has been sanded a bit too smooth. Still, for a five-track, 26-minute half album, this is a remarkably unrushed and hauntingly mature release. New vocalist Daniel RodrÃguez Flys definitely fits in nicely here with the rest of the band. See the rest here
Vitriol — Suffer & Become
✦✦✦✧ This album gives me chills, y’all. And not just because the band obviously took to heart my critique of their promising yet flawed 2019 debut, fixing or improving upon everything on it. Seriously, aside from the already-stellar shredding or vocals, Vitriol have improved their scores for every one of my criteria, resulting in a new benchmark for modern techdeath. See the rest here
KMFDM — LET GO
✦✦✧✧ Poppy Eurodisco industrial which still works well enough. It kinda reminds me of a more party-friendly Rammstein, or a more aggressive Yello, if that means anything to you. (Oh yeah.) If you’re not already a fan of KMFDM, this isn’t going to bring you into the fold. But if you do already dig KMFDM, I’m sure you’ll eat this up. See the rest here
Enterprise Earth — Death: An Anthology
✦✦✦✧ Continuing their exploration of kitchen-sink post-deathcore, EE sacrifice cohesion for a cavalcade of endlessly tasty bits. This turns out to be a winsome choice, and a recipe for a grower of a record. As was also the case of its predecessor, the album is possibly 15 minutes too long for my attention span, but so what? See the rest here
Static-X — Project: Regeneration Vol. 2
✦✦✧✧ This is the second Static-X album to be at least partially constituted from tracks written and recorded by Wayne Static before his death in 2014. As such, don’t be surprised by the strong industrial nu-metal nostalgia that permeates this music. All that said, this is much more entertaining than I thought it’d be. See the rest here
Caligula’s Horse — Charcoal Grace
✦✦✦✧ This album marks a subtle pivot for the band, emerging from CoViD as a djentier yet still proggy version of themselves (less Textures, more TesseracT). The music still tends to groove, it shreds when it needs to, and is remarkably listenable for an album that has three longform pieces (counting the 22-minute four-part title track). See the rest here
Saxon — Hell, Fire And Damnation
✦✦✦✧ Man, Saxon just don’t give up! Their twenty-fourth studio album is guaranteed to get your fists pumping, my olds. Also, I’m a sucker for historically-themed midtempo metal, and this album that in spades, from the Battle Of Hastings to aliens in Roswell NM). Who needs to stray from the formula when you’ve got The Goods? See the rest here
