✦✦✧✧ Look at this three-necked instrument! This guy is still a shredding maniac. The album is definitely worth checking out for its unpredictable creativity and alien imagination, even if it is hardly rock, let alone metal. I’d describe it as a modern instrumental Zappa-like exploration, and I mean that as nicely as I can. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Aethereus’ sophomore album find the band in even more uncomprosingly dissonant form. Seamlessly transitioning from tradition techdeath to Gorguts-inspired mayhem is a talent in and of itself. And then there are the orchestral elements: rather than slathering the album with typical metal symphonic filler, the band present sections that would be at home with some of modern classical’s most atonal standardbearers (e.g. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This is an uneven deathcore album, but the highs outweigh the lows. I can’t help but imagine that if the band had focused on a 45-minute album, it might have made it to four stars. Alas, this 67-minute opus makes you hang in there for all the gems, which are plentiful thankfully. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ While arguably less experimental than the band’s previous two albums, F2A2’s sixth album is every bit as punishing and satisfying. It does feel like they keep finding new ways to merge deathcore and Gojira, not that I’m complaining one bit. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Kudos for this postcore band trying to push the envelope, even if the results are not particularly compelling. Album closer “Pneumonia” does feel like something special, though, offering a taste of metal that’s both emotive and updated for a newer digital-ready generation. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ These Tennesseean techdeath titans have done it again: ridiculously tight shredding at blistering speeds. The danger with this kind of approach is that it is apparently easy to misbalance things and totter over into self-indulgent forgettability (I say “apparently” as I’m not nearly the musician that these folks are). But this time around, they show just enough restraint to help the album avoid problems with pacing or tedium. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ The third album from this French quartet comes across as impressively technical and jarring, like a good prog metal album should. It reminds me of Intronaut, The Faceless, and Cynic at their best, but somehow doesn’t feel as self-indulgent as those bands do at their worst. And I say that, even with a truly excessive amount of saxophone all over the place. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ The band is clearly done experimenting with brevity, as heard in their previous Distance Over Time. Too bad. Fun fact: James LaBrie has been in this band for thirty years. I still don’t like his voice very much, but this is some of his least offensive vocals, so there’s that. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This is Trivium’s best album in a decade. On top of everyone’s already ridiculous shredability, Matt Heafy’s vocals are vastly improved, if a little more metalcore than is strictly advisable — his low-rent Hetfieldisms only show up toward the end of the album, thank goodness. And the band’s trademark small-plates approach to metal remixing is more cohesive and sensible here than ever before. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This is a slightly groovier and more midtempo offering from these melodeath stalwarts, a refinement that suits the band quite nicely. OG have always made a virtue of cleanliness and polish, and this album is no exception, but what is new is a greater sense of laidback self-possession. The album is also a great showcase of the band’s maturity, cohesion, and evolution, which is all the more impressive when you consider that it’s the debut of a brand new rhythm section. See the rest here
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