✦✦✦✧ A stunningly beautiful and powerful album that defies genre boundaries. The band’s unique blend of melodic black metal, progressive metal, and post-rock creates a sound that is as haunting and uplifting as it is unpredictable. Avienne Low’s vocals are a standout, soaring over the complex instrumentals with grace and power. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ One of In Flames’ better late-stage albums. This feels like a return to the Gothenburg melodeath form that this band helped define. The back half of the album does wear out its welcome a bit, though. See the rest here
✦✧✧✧ WHAT? HUH? FUCK, THEY’RE JUST SO LOUD! WAZZAT? YEAH, TWO BANDS THAT LOVE NOISE! …WHY? WHO KNOWS! Oh, good. Now they sound a little like The Jesus Lizard. Maybe that’s OH SHIT LOUD AGAIN! See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ The band’s trademark blend of black metal and gothic rock is still present, but it feels more than ever like an underpowered version of Ghost. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Jesus Piece’s sophomore album is a blistering, uncompromising, and yet groovy metalcore assault on the senses. This is also a powerful and challenging exploration of addiction, depression, and self-doubt. And don’t let the 28-minute runtime fool you: this is a big meal, so plan accordingly. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ These guys aren’t the kings of NPR Metal for nothin’. Equal parts black metal, prog, and Dead Can Dance, this album once again marks an evolution of their sound, if not a complete departure. It’s full of surprises from start to finish. Do me a favor and give it a listen, if for no other reason than we can talk about it afterward. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This is undeniably Metallica. It’s also pretty boring. Also also, it’s about twice as long as it needs to be. Not only does it have too many songs, and not only are the songs overlong, but even at the riff level, they tend to repeat too many times. You know you’re in trouble when you’re thinking about the Skip button about 20 seconds into a track. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Longtime readers of this blog won’t be surprised by my initial thoughts on this, the 714th album from thrash metal’s most consistent band. (It even had the exact same score as the previous album, for the first two-thirds of the album). But I’ve gotta call out the track “Fever,” which is so nasty and sludgy and rad. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Entheos is now a power trio. Think about that as the safety lapbar comes down and you are immediately launched onto this wild ride. Navene Koperweis handles the guitars as well as drums on this album, while Evan Brewer is back on bass. The result is a sound that slides adroitly from death metal to prog to jazz, equal parts Torrential Downpour and Meshuggah at their most experimental. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ BABYMETAL meets… Evanescence? Periphery? The problem with this version of the band is one of restraint. The over-the-top extremes of their first album are what I loved most about BABYMETAL. Without them, I’m just not as interested. See the rest here
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