Category: First Listens
Machine Head — Øf Kingdøm And Crøwn
✦✦✦✧ This is the best Machine Head album of the last five years. So what if it’s ten minutes too long, and will simultaneously remind you of three other Machine Head albums so much that you’ll actually wonder if they’re covering themselves. It’s like a not-very-good pizza: it’s still pretty fucking good.
Soilwork — Övergivenheten
Megadeth — The Sick, The Dying, And The Dead
✦✦✧✧ This new Megadeth album feels more like a successor of Rust In Peace or Countdown To Extinction than any other Megadeth album from the last fifteen years. Some of the songs on here even come close to Classic status. But it’s a long listen (even if you skip the last two uninteresting cover songs on the album).
Fallujah — Empyrean
✦✦✦✧ A highly anticipated prog metal album from Bay Area heroes does not disappoint. Newcomers to the band (and scene veterans) Evan Brewer on bass and Kyle Schaefer on vocals add a anchoring fullness to the sound, which is even shreddier than ever. And it’s nice to hear a return to a more dynamic sound.
Wo Fat — The Singularity
Destrage — SO MUCH. too much.
✦✦✦✧ This album is chaotic and whackadoo, even by Destrage’s standards. It’s catchy, unpredictable, and devastatingly morose, even with plenty of the band’s ridiculous musicianship. It’s also exhausting to listen to; I’m not sure how they managed to embed so many hooks in so many other layers of equally interesting ear candy.
Revocation — Netherheaven
✦✦✦✧ I’m going to slightly buck the inevitable deluge of fawning press on this album: it’s great by modern metal standards, but solidly in the middle third of Revocation’s own catalog, at best. That is to say, you’re going to want to listen to this at least once, even if it’s not an instant classic.
Tómarúm — Ash In Realms Of Stone Icons
✦✦✦✧ You need to get past the breakers on this album, which seems to almost defy an openminded listen. If you can get past the kneejerk dismissal that a lot of American black metal inspires (not unfairly), you’ll find a surprising and compelling new voice of progressive metal, with tasteful smatterings of other styles and subgenres.