IXXI — Skulls N Dust
★☆☆☆ A very boring album, even by black metal’s standards of relentlessness. See the rest here
Category: First Listens
Ancient Ascendant — Echoes And Cinders
★★★☆ A wide-ranging, ambitious, and dark bit of work. This album has touches of Lamb Of God, Opeth, Bolt Thrower, and a lot of other bands that I can’t quite put my finger on. At the same time, it manages to sound wholly original and fresh. A must-listen, at least once. See the rest here
Apostolum — Winds Of Disillusion
★☆☆☆ I give these guys some props for earnest ambition, taking a decidedly proggy approach to otherwise traditional black metal. But the end result is far from harmonious, and is never more sloppy than the awkward moments of spoken word in a very thick Italian accent (which reminds me a bit of the priest from the baptism scene in The Godfather). See the rest here
Axel Rudi Pell — Into The Storm
☆☆☆☆ This is power metal at its most tired, trite, and insipid. The album isn’t even particularly well-mixed. Not worth a single listen. See the rest here
Animals As Leaders — The Joy Of Motion
★★★☆ This third AAL album loses a star because of its overall subdued vibe. That said, it’s otherwise wall-to-wall excellence, and everything you’d expect from Messrs Abasi et al. While this album was always going to be a Must Listen, it rewards the effort. See the rest here
Inferi — The Path Of Apotheosis
★★★☆ This album is massive. It’s wall-to-wall unstoppable high-speed technicality that’s as much prog as it’s death metal. It may go on a bit long, but it’s still an enjoyable ride through and through. See the rest here
Throwdown — Intolerance
★★☆☆ It’s hard to care about this thrash-meets-hardcore album. Oh, it’s meaty and metallic enough, but it’s also a bit unconvincing. Take half a listen and tell me if you disagree. See the rest here
Lay Down Rotten — Deathspell Catharsis
★★☆☆ There’s some decent shredding going on here, but there’s also an embarrassing datedness to the album, from its lyrics and Eastern-bloc vocals, to its lazy thrashy meanderings. And then there are the drums. The drums are often really shockingly sloppy in passages on virtually every track on the album (especially the double-pedal work). See the rest here
Soreption — Engineering The Void
★★★☆ This is clearly a high water mark for technical death metal. The musicianship is blistering and precise, the songwriting is interesting and memorable (instead of a mere excuse), and the production is crisp without resorting too heavily to dehumanization. If there’s a fault to this album, it’s Fredrik Söderberg’s cookie monster vocals, which don’t always entirely fit in, and don’t add much to the overall fun. See the rest here
Ringworm — Hammer Of The Witch
★★☆☆ What I really like about these hardcore veterans is that they’ve peppered this album with interesting and atypical riffs. What I really dislike about them is that those interesting riffs are just plugged into the same old tired song format. Also, the vocals are 100% screamed at 100% intensity without rest. See the rest here
