✦✦✧✧ Speed metal and black metal, two subgenres that don’t often get successfully blended together, find an uneasy alliance in 1349’s latest album. Or rather, this happens in different ways throughout the album, which feels like at least three slightly different EPs, bookended by a few recurring “Tunnel Of Set” interludes, themselves a continuation of a trick first heard on 1349’s Demonoir album. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ The best way to enjoy this album is to be open to the idea of what Refused used to be, without thinking for a moment about “The Shape Of Punk To Come.” If you can thread that needle, you’ll have the mindset needed to enjoy this energetic, guttural punk/metal hybrid. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Gods love DragonForce, who continue to hold down the fort for power metal with unwavering commitment and enthusiasm (hell, they put it in this album’s title!). As always, the latest DragonForce album just feels so damned good. The shredding is exactly as it should be: as ridiculously adroit as it is over the top. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Unsurprisingly polished rockmetal from a band that is ostensibly Creed with a different singer. (No flippant dismissal intended by that statement; you merely have a right to expect a certain amount of polish from these guys.) The biggest problem here, then, is that all that gloss is in service of material that is uninspiring. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Staggeringly complicated, perverse, and heavy progressive metal; if I had to draw a comparison, it’d be to some segments of latter-era Death or Gorguts. I wish there was more bass (or at least that the bass was more present in the mix), but otherwise this is a tight and compelling listen. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ BAN do a phenomenal job here of blending stereotypical Norwegian black and experimental American post-black metals (which is ironic since they’re French), and seem to have fun playing with one’s expectations throughout their new material. Special shout-out to Vindsval, whose vocals are particularly atmospheric and (from a musical standpoint) almost worthless otherwise. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ A tight sampling of LOA’s multiple moods, moving seamlessly from groovy hard rock to more experimental forays. This is more their mellowest record to date, but there’s still a streetwise menace to be felt throughout. If the result sometimes sounds like Alice In Chains as often as it sounds like Nothingface (or older LOA), that feels like an easy price to pay. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ TDWP take their industrial/glitchy djentcore style into a more accessible direction. But this new sound is only interesting in a heady, shoegazer way, with ruinous pacing issues and very little emotional heft behind any of the album’s tracks. Maybe this will make TDWP more of a household name; if their aim is to be more like Asking Alexandria or Breaking Benjamin, this may be the way forward, and I wish them luck. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This melodeath album wavers from run-of-the-mill Insomnium to goddamn-great Insomnium. I wish the production was a little crisper (although that might just be my Gothenburg bias showing through), but otherwise the shredding and epicness shine brightly enough. Stand-out tracks like “Valediction,” “Pale Morning Star,” and “Twilight Trails” are must-listens, in any event. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Feral as ever, Exhumed continues to distance themselves from their very Carcass-like beginnings while still holding true to the nasty aesthetic that the subgenre is known for. The riff salad that is this album however feels a little less inspired than previous works. Not the band’s best, but still rollicking good fun. See the rest here
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