Within Temptation — Resist
✦✧✧✧ Any itch this album attempts to scratch would be better served by Evanescence’s 2006 album “The Open Door.” (The fact that I had to go back 13 years for a comparison should tell you something.) See the rest here
Author Archives: arse
Sonata Arctica — Talviyö
✦✦✧✧ Tired riffs and arbitrary chord progressions mar this latest effort from these power metal mainstays. Worst still, there’s just not enough cheese here to distract from the rest of the material, which feels like a retread. There are lots of examples in 2019 of veteran bands coming out with new, invigorating material; this is definitely not one of them. See the rest here
Vitriol — To Bathe From The Throat Of Cowardice
✦✦✧✧ This techdeath album sounds like a tornado of razor blades: devastating, mechanistic, chaotic almost to the point of unintelligibility. Unfortunately, the band’s expertly-deployed technical onslaught and deranged composition skill also shreds any sense of dynamics or memorability. See the rest here
Sacred Reich — Awakening
✦✦✦✧ Some veteran thrash bands have come out of their slumbers with attempts at reinventing themselves; not these guys, who are clearly invigorated by the prospect of putting out a fresh batch of the same old shit (for the first time in 23 years). And it’s all still here: Phil Rind’s strong vocals, Dave McClain’s concussive drumming, and shredding guitars by Wiley Arnett and (sole newcomer) Joey Radziwill. See the rest here
Entombed A.D. — Bowels of Earth
✦✦✧✧ Yeah, this is just 36 minutes of grossness, more Morning Star-era than Left Hand Path or Wolverine Blues. It’s a good soundtrack for alcohol-fueled destruction, which if we’re being honest is definitely on-brand for this band, no matter what you call ’em. See the rest here
Wrvth — No Rising Sun
✦✦✦✧ The band’s eponymous predecessor to this album had a few different sounds in its soup; while I’m not a betting man, I would not have wagered that Wrvth would focus this time around on their blackened-post-metal side instead of their deathcore roots, now a seemingly distant memory. I also would not have guessed that I’d like this album as much as I do. See the rest here
Cloudkicker — Unending
✦✦✧✧ For an instrumental proggy metal album four years in the making, there’s just not enough “there” there. Sure, it evokes a mood, but the tracks which aren’t electronic filler tend to not go anywhere and leave you wanting more. Not in the good “Encore Encore!” kind of way, but more like “And then what?” See the rest here
Killswitch Engage — Atonement
✦✦✧✧ Sometimes, the KSE formula yields pure gold. This, by comparison, is a bronze album. Not too much to hate on here, but not a lot to yearn for either. This of course will do nothing to dissuade anyone from seeing this as another sign of the decline of this metalcore stalwart, but fortunately that’s not going to stop Adam Dutkiewicz et al from persevering. See the rest here
Tool — Fear Inoculum
✦✦✦✧ It’s immediately apparent that this is less a collection of bangers and more a sonic journey, likely intended to be consumed in undisturbed sequence. Any hopes for analogues to “Sober” or “Stinkfist” are bound to disappoint; while the tracks flirt with delivering the metal goods, this album is not mosh pit fodder. See the rest here
Richard Henshall — The Cocoon
✦✦✦✧ While The Police were falling apart in the mid 1980s, Stewart Copeland put increasing energy into scoring for film and television. One of his first products was a soundtrack for the TV show The Equalizer… an ultra digital, mood- and tone-heavy soundscape with elements at turns progressive, jazzy, and dark. See the rest here
