✦✦✦✧ Much of what I wrote regarding my first listen to F2A2’s previous album The Great Collapse still applies here: this is some heavy and satisfying Gojiracore! If anything, this one is more of an experiment than its predecessor; that some of those experiments don’t pay off is to be expected. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ For their second album, Bad Wolves took their SiriusXM-friendly groove metal formula and… made it less interesting? See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This is clearly intended to be Cattle Decap’s nihilistic master opus, and I can’t fault their approach: capitalize on the winningest moments from Monolith Of Inhumanity and The Anthropocene Extinction, set the action in space, and lace in some blackened death for even more epicness! See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ It’s ironic that an album that starts with a track titled “FUTURE METAL” trades so heavily in clichéd tropes. The metal gems on here are fewer and farther between the increased reliance on J-Pop, and honestly most of this album sounds like the soundtrack to Beat Saber… but don’t sleep on truly interesting and fun tracks like “Elevator Girl” or “Night Night Burn!” See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Slightly more melodic black metal, with loads more atmosphere than the band usually deliver, and just a hint of progressive friendliness to taste. It’s a subtle and cohesive admixture, and definitely scores highly on emotionality and immersiveness. Perhaps my favorite Abigail Williams album so far! See the rest here
✦✧✧✧ Mildly engaging bleeps and bloops occasionally mixed with elements of currently popular music genres. I have no need to ever hear this again. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ All of the ferocity you’ve come to expect from these glitchy metalcore legends. What makes this album interesting is how the band simultaneously pummel the listener and hold their fire for better pacing throughout the album. The album’s back half is as compelling and brutal as its front half, not an easy feat for anyone in this genre. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Shoegazey black metal/post-black done to perfection. That is to say, it’s moody, meandery, and slippery. The album’s high marks are a testament to how well the emotionality works. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Symphonic tech death that feels like a cross between The Faceless and Fleshgod Apocalypse. When it’s on (“Sisyphean Cycle”, “Consume And Assume”, “Desmoterion”, it’s fucking on. Otherwise, the music here does trend toward the derivative or at least very familiar. That’s pretty much the worst criticism I can level against this otherwise epic and impressive shredfest of an album. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ It makes a lot of sense that gothic metal would appropriate some of the milder, more polished elements of djent. And it makes a lot of sense that gothic mainstays Lacuna Coil would lead the charge. But what will blow your mind is just how much this new version of the Lacuna Coil formula works (or at least doesn’t outright fail). See the rest here
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