★★☆☆ 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
★★★☆ 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
★★☆☆ 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
★★☆☆ This album is really heavy. And really moody. And unrelenting. And a bit boring, honestly. Then again, I don’t smoke dope, so what do I know. See the rest here
★★☆☆ This album is caught halfway between deathgrind and technodeath, between sounding like The Black Dahlia Murder and The Acacia Strain. While that sounds great, the problem is that the shifts between modes happen too quickly to really seat the listener in either. It’s still a well-done bit of nastiness, though, with a nice assortment of riffs and leads. See the rest here
★★☆☆ Very technical death metal, on a par with Gorguts or Disincarnate. Impressive, furious, but a little dated by now. By the way, I can’t say that I’m in love with the band’s gratuitously misogynistic tone. I get the need to be shocking, but c’mon. See the rest here
★★★☆ This is a gorgeously nihilistic EP with hints of The Ocean’s “Pelagial”, Chino Moreno’s side project †††, and even Death Cab For Cutie when they’re not aiming for accessibility. It sounds like a bunch of things all at once, and at the same time it sounds like nothing I’ve ever heard before. See the rest here
★☆☆☆ This is a joke. Oh, I know that they don’t think it’s a joke. The album is painfully self-serious. But you can’t tell me this doesn’t remind you of Spinal Tap. See the rest here
★★☆☆ This is a conflicting album. On the one hand, you get the sense that it does an excellent job executing on whatever kind of music it’s trying to be. On the other hand, it’s not quite outlandish or groundbreaking enough to be notable. Combined, it comes across as a high-water mark of self-informed nonreferential music that’s equal parts doom, sludge, and Southern rock. See the rest here
★★☆☆ This album is as good as Behemoth gets. And that there is mixed praise. It is relatively expansive, and more mature than you’d suspect. But it’s also a bit tired and unexciting. Still, it’s a bit of an improvement over Evangelion. See the rest here
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