★★☆☆ 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
★☆☆☆ This undistorted album of material is pretty. Pretty boring. See the rest here
★☆☆☆ 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
★☆☆☆ 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
★★★☆ Norma Jean meets Unsane meets Tool meets Clutch meets The Mars Volta meets Mastodon meets Baroness. And so on, but through it all, this album is heavy and swaggery and compelling. Definitely worth checking out, even if it goes on a bit long. See the rest here
★★☆☆ This is some choice noise, with hints of Sick Of It All, SOD, and Fantômas. The latter is probably why this album of 2-minute songs still manages to feel a little overlong, however. See the rest here
★★★☆ This neo-thrash album walks a thin line between sounding pleasantly retro and interestingly modern. Either way, we all win. You’ll be able to make out the band’s DNA easily enough: Exodus, Overkill, Kreator. But Shrapnel (great name, by the way) manage to add something new to the mix. See the rest here
★★☆☆ Slightly more palatable and melodic black sludge that goes down smooth. And while it does suffer from the monochromaticism typical of the genre, it does also offer interesting sound choices (and is blessedly not overlong). See the rest here
★★★☆ Wow. I’ll tell you that this bizarre album nods to the Dillinger Escape Plan, Mr Bungle, Between The Buried And Me, Skrillex, The Mars Volta, Green Jellö… but even all of that won’t really capture the nature of this hybridized beast. Nor will any of that tell you that, through whatever specific alchemy the band wield, it actually works surprisingly well. See the rest here
★★☆☆ Jazzier than your usual grindcore fare, but just as typical in its brevity, this 22-minute EP is a fun enough hit-and-run that you’ll nevertheless have a hard time remembering past the first few tracks. See the rest here
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