Enslaved — E
✦✦✧✧ A well-crafted, but ultimately too precious, collection of prog. Too much of the album feels like forced meditation, with a minimalistic reliance on droning repetition. See the rest here
Author Archives: arse
Toothgrinder — Phantom Amour
✦✦✧✧ Baroness meets Linkin Park meets Periphery? I’ll give them this: it’s a unique sounding album. It’s also wildly uneven. Worth a once-through, although I’m left with the nagging question: is this actually metal? See the rest here
Cavalera Conspiracy — Psychosis
✦✦✧✧ If you can imagine the Brothers Cavalera being abducted in 1990, shoved into a time-traveling van, and driven to a modern recording studio while listening to Slayer’s “Undisputed Attitude”, you can imagine what this album sounds like. Certainly interesting from a sci-fi/ethnomusicological standpoint, but not as intriguing as a metal album. See the rest here
Ensiferum — Two Paths
✦✦✦✧ If you liked these Finns’ last folk metal album “One Man Army,” you’ll be equally delighted by this one. There are some questionable vocal moments (the clean singing is especially shaky at times), but that’s a fleeting misstep in an otherwise rambunctious Amon-Amarth-meets-DragonForce beerhall adventure. See the rest here
Godflesh — Post Self
✦✦✧✧ After the full-throated “A World Lit Only By Fire,” this new album from Godflesh feels like a cruel hard turn of the steering wheel, off the familiar if potholed road the band helped pave. At least the album telegraphs the move into its new territory: more experimental, moodier, and absolutely industrial. See the rest here
Krallice — Loüm
✦✦✦✧ Interesting, jarring, alien… in other words, business as usual for this band. They’re playing around with unheralded tempo changes more this time than I recall in previous releases. If you ever find yourself missing Gorguts, Torrential Downpour, and Don Caballero at the same time, this is your jam! See the rest here
Fleshkiller — Awaken
✦✦✦✦ Equal parts Extol (this is Ole Børud’s new band after all), Cynic, Extol, Torrential Downpour, The Darkness, early Meshuggah, and Yes after “Union.” I shit you not: you’ve likely never heard any metal like this before. This is a Must Listen, and perhaps The Stunning Debut of 2017. See the rest here
Electric Wizard — Wizard Bloody Wizard
✧✧✧✧ I fucking hate Electric Wizard. See the rest here
Veil Of Maya — False Idol
✦✦✦✧ VOM have by now perfected their recipe for metalcore-anchored djent. Think TesseracT-meets-Vildhjarta-meets-All That Remains. It’s an intriguing yet unholy alliance, and the combinations miss the mark a nontrivial amount of the time. But there’s enough here, between the songwriting, musicianship, and surprising twists that it defies dismissal. Definitely worth a listen, perhaps as a consummate example of what’s possible in metal in 2017. See the rest here
Marty Friedman — Wall Of Sound
✦✦✧✧ After shocking us with the unreasonably good album “Inferno”, Marty returns to form and satisfies every preconception; this is about as good as it gets for self-indulgent lead guitarist wankery. Largely, this is a problem of balance (a tricky thing to nail). There are sporadic moments of red-blooded metal mayhem strewn about, but they’re tempered too often by cheese. See the rest here
