Cryostatic Dream — Boundaries
★☆☆☆ This sounds exactly like the kind of music I always wanted to make: jazzy djent for video games. Also, this music should not really be made by anyone. See the rest here
Category: First Listens
Bear — Noumenon
★★☆☆ There’s a lot to commend this album: it’s djenty but with more fury than technicality (which is a good thing), and it’s high energy and eminently listenable. At the same time… there’s a vague whiff of Korn or crabcore about the whole thing that’s hard to shake. I think I’d feel better about it if I wasn’t so allergic to popped collars, bro. See the rest here
Portal — Vexovoid
★★☆☆ To call this simple sludge would be to miss the deconstructivism at work here. Throughout this challenging album, you can hear hints of Catch 33, Suffocation, and other modern metal landmarks… all shat through a meat grinder repeatedly. Definitely something to listen to at least once… although calling this “metal” requires a degree in ethnometallurgy or something. See the rest here
Evergreen Terrace — Dead Horses
★★☆☆ A nicely full-bodied hardcore album that has tasty bits throughout, but doesn’t really coalesce into a strong, cohesive whole. Worth a listen, but it doesn’t have a lot of staying power. See the rest here
Saliva — In It To Win It
★☆☆☆ Believe it or not, this isn’t the worst thing I’ve heard all year. It’s cheesy as hell, as you’d expect from Saliva, but it’s so adorably self-earnest that you can’t help but buy into the hipshake a little. Well done, little Saliva. You’re better than Device. See the rest here
Rivers Of Nihil — The Conscious Seed Of Light
★★☆☆ Oh sure, it’s heavy and interesting and whatnot… but it’s so slippery. Definitely from the kitchen-sink school of polyglot metal. You like djent? Death metal? Melody? Check check check. An interesting ride, but I defy you to describe a specific moment from it when it’s all done. See the rest here
Misery Signals — Absent Light
★★☆☆ A high two-star on First Listen, although I’ll admit that I gave it a second listen (after which I liked it even more). It’s uneven as fuck, but that’s part of its charm. The vocals are the weak link here, but a small price to pay for really interesting post-core metal. See the rest here
Funeral Circle — Funeral Circle
☆☆☆☆ Admittedly, I’m not the world’s biggest doom metal fan… but this album is even worse than the Cathedral swan song. Self-congratulatorily boring, and the production values are solidly in “early 90s demo tape” territory. I want that hour of my life back now, please. See the rest here
Anciients — Heart Of Oak
★★★☆ This unholy mix of Mastodon, Opeth, and Baroness manages to surpass recent offerings from each of those seminal bands by not being as proggy or technical as any of them. Instead, we’re treated to a massive hofbrau slab of all of the above. Their swagger and unapologetic heft (not a single tune under 7 minutes, yo) yield a truly surprising and refreshing (if not wholly original) debut album from these mad Canadians. See the rest here
Inter Arma — Sky Burial
★★★☆ It’s easy and tempting to dismiss this album as nothing more than the lowest, sludgiest layer of The Ocean’s Pelagial… but Sky Burial repays the patient listener with a deft and nuanced exploration of heaviness. While it’s easy to tune out at times, the second half of the album has a few tasty surprises. See the rest here
