Zeal & Ardor — Stranger Fruit
✦✧✧✧ This self-described “black metal meets negro spirituals” feels like a double case of smarmy cultural appropriation. At least it’s unusual. See the rest here
Author Archives: arse
YOB — Our Raw Heart
✦✦✧✧ YOB’s vocals are much improved this time around, but the band’s plodding stoner metal is as deliberate and singleminded as ever. On some tracks, like “Beauty In Falling Leaves,” this pays off. For other tracks, the material feels underdeveloped, evincing a run-this-one-riff-into-the-ground approach. See the rest here
Alice In Chains — Rainier Fog
✦✦✧✧ I give props to AIC for continuing to be even halfway relevant. And this album has more grit and snarl than one would reasonably expect from the band. And there are a number of very cool riffs and motifs throughout the album. The pity is that, at the same time, the songs here feel/sound like they’re under a thick blanket. See the rest here
Obscura — Diluvium
✦✦✧✧ Obscura have teetered over into full-blown Cynic mode. Gone is the hitherto casual-at-best relationship the band had with song structure. Instead, “Diluvium” is an all-you-can-eat riff salad bar, with not much deference given to pacing or flow. The band are great at what they do, but this is one trying listen. See the rest here
Aborted — TerrorVision
✦✦✧✧ This is as over-the-top as anything Aborted have ever given us. It’s also all over the fucking map, which is problematic. The band is at their best when they hew closely to their technical grindcore wheelhouse, but there’s enough other stuff in here to dilute the former’s efficacy. See the rest here
Soreption — Monument Of The End
✦✦✦✧ Predictability. Restraint. Understatement. These words just do not apply to Soreption, who manage to outdo themselves in terms of ridiculousness of tech death excess. I can’t say that their unbound bravara makes for a better album, but it sure is impressive. See the rest here
Otep — Kult 45
✦✧✧✧ Limp Bizkit meets RATM meets Butcher Babies meets Soulfly meets Body Count with just a hint of past-their-prime Ministry. In other words: a hot mess. See the rest here
Baptists — Beacon Of Faith
✦✦✦✧ This 38-minute collection of 13 post-hardcore songs is like a punch to the face. Effective and energetic, well-paced, with just enough innovation and variability to avoid tedium (the Jesus-Lizard-tinged “Capsule” and Isis-like dirge of “Eulogy Template” are two of my favorite moments). See the rest here
Skinless — Savagery
✦✦✧✧ This album starts in full-on “Dude, is this vintage Carcass or Morbid Angel? No? Eh, I don’t give a shit. BRÜTALITY IN TEN CITIES!!!” mode. But after three tracks, a more inventive and progressive underbelly is revealed. See the rest here
Bad Wolves — Disobey
✦✦✧✧ I’m always prepared for a metal supergroup to sound more or less like an amalgam of its constituent parts. What I wasn’t ready for is the idea of a supergroup sound like a blend of a bunch of other bands not at all related to its members. And yet what you get with Bad Wolves is an awkward fusion of Sepultura, The Acacia Strain, Vildhjarta, Tremonti, and Linkin Park. See the rest here
