Bret Michaels — Jammin’ With Friends
☆☆☆☆ Holy hell, was this terrible. Go ahead and sample the tracks if you can, for your own education… but don’t force yourself to experience it Clockwork-Orange-style. See the rest here
Category: First Listens
Battlecross — War Of Will
★★★☆ This album is a whole lot of fun, with hints of Lamb Of God, Black Dahlia Murder, and a few other high-energy metal acts. Definitely worth another listen. See the rest here
Autopsy — The Headless Ritual
★☆☆☆ This album gets a high one-star rating, largely for grossness. GROSSCORE. But it’s tediously uninteresting at that. See the rest here
Darkane — The Sinister Supremacy
★★★☆ A breath of fresh air from these Gothenburg veterans. It’s interesting, memorable, and heavvvvvy. See the rest here
Amon Amarth — Deceiver Of The Gods
★★★☆ At worst, this is predictable Amon Amarth (which is still pretty rad). But the highlights of this album are epic standouts. Go on with your Nordic bad selves! See the rest here
August Burns Red — Rescue & Restore
★☆☆☆ I’m giving ABR a single star for effort, but honestly: this album is a mess. See the rest here
Palms — Palms
☆☆☆☆ Not only is this not metal, but it’s not very inspired or even fully-formed besides. And this, friends, is why Isis was right to break up when they did. See the rest here
Attila — About That Life
☆☆☆☆ This is fucking garbage. See the rest here
Extol — Extol
★★★☆ It takes a lot for prog metal to sound unique these days, but this eponymous album from Extol does just that. See the rest here
Philip Anselmo — Walk Through Exits Only
★☆☆☆ This is more of an incoherently abrasive tone poem than a collection of tunes. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, a lot of the material on here just feels dumped on the ground. Either that, or I’m clearly not smoking enough dope to enjoy this album. See the rest here
