Cormorant — Earth Diver
★★★☆ It’s like someone took some of the best parts of Opeth, Mastodon, The Ocean, Isis, and Enslaved, put it in some rusted out machinery, and extruded out a nasty but delicious paste. See the rest here
Category: First Listens
I Killed The Prom Queen — Beloved
★★☆☆ Very well done mathcore that yet somehow fails to inspire. You’ll nod your head, but kinda because you just have to, ya know? Nice interesting and “brutal” breakdowns, though, so there’s that. See the rest here
Pyrrhon — The Mother Of Virtues
★★☆☆ This is pretty much Gorguts by way of The Melvins or Fantômas. If you’re into that sort of thing. It’s expertly done, but there’s no way I can do anything other than hold on to the dash for a whiteknuckled ride that is impossible to remember as soon as it’s over. See the rest here
Triptykon — Melana Chasmata
★★★★ This, finally, may be the perfect doom metal album. The production is a masterwork of fine balancing acts, giving us a sound that is as convincingly menacing as it is lush and layered. The guitars and bass dutifully cut without mercy. Even the vocals, the genre’s typical Achilles’ heel, give just enough bite without tipping into amateurishness (as they so often do). See the rest here
Within Temptation — Hydra
★☆☆☆ I’m always impressed by how American the English sounds when spoken or sung by a Dutchperson, and that just lends authenticity to the evanescence of this whole album. This is very well-executed schlock. See the rest here
Raubtier — Pansargryning
★☆☆☆ You kinda have to give a band props that sings in Swedish and starts off an album with a song titled “Dieselrök.” That said, this particular brand of industrial melodeath is just too noisey and awkward to really get into. The whole thing feels familiar, but clumsily so. Imagine going to a black market music store, and finding a Rammstein CD… only, it actually says Ramnstine. See the rest here
Anubis Gate — Horizons
★★☆☆ This album is confusing, like a mashup between Textures, early Devin Townsend, and Scar Symmetry (with a smidge of Opeth thrown in for good measure). It’s proggy as the day is long, and a pleasantly unusual ride. Unfortunately, I can’t say that any of it is particularly memorable. See the rest here
Sevendust — Time Travelers & Bonfires
★☆☆☆ This undistorted album of material is pretty. Pretty boring. See the rest here
Emmure — Eternal Enemies
★☆☆☆ When the band is firing on all cylinders, they deliver a loud, discordant, and undeniable kick in the teeth. Sadly, the band only seems to fire on all cylinders when vocalist Frankie Palmeri is out of the room. Worse, he keeps showing up, sounding like Fred Durst post-Significant Other, when the fame got to his head, and he was reduced to self-parody. See the rest here
Massacre — Back From Beyond
★☆☆☆ Give the people what they want, that’s what I always say. And that’s exactly what Massacre has done with their latest album. This is Grade A 100% Floridian death metal, straight out of Death’s “Scream Bloody Gore” or Malevolent Creation’s “Stillborn.” And the fact that I namedropped two lesser albums from important bands in the genre is your clue: if you’re going to deliver prototypical fare, at least have the decency to break some new ground. See the rest here
