Asphyx — Necroceros
✦✦✧✧ I’ll be kind and call this retro Euro-style death metal. It’s not bad by any means; it’s just not particularly inspiring. I give it two out of 4 Obama-not-bads. See the rest here
Category: First Listens
Gatecreeper — An Unexpected Reality
✦✦✧✧ It is admittedly unusual to hear a band segregate their distinct influences, rather than try to meld them together. That what you’ve got here: Side A (grindy death core) vs Side B (doooooom). Both halves are competent, but I wish either side brought more originality to the mix. See the rest here
Ulcerate — Stare Into Death And Be Still
✦✦✦✧ Haunting and atmospheric technical death metal, somehow reminiscent of both Gorguts and latter-day Death. See the rest here
Cryptic Shift — Visitations From Enceladus
✦✦✧✧ These guys totally remind me of Thought Industry. Oh man, I fucking miss Thought Industry. Did I ever tell y’all they TI was my first ever fan mail exchange? True story. Anyway, enjoy this super-interesting piece of art noise. See the rest here
Pallbearer — Forgotten Days
✦✧✧✧ Like a vintage yet less evil Sabbath clone with worse production. See the rest here
The Acacia Strain — Slow Decay
✦✦✦✧ I can say, without hyperbole, that this is the most experimental deathcore album I’ve heard in years, if not ever. It contains all of the genre’s hallmark touches (seismic detuning of mushy guitars, compressed triggered drums, and the cookiemonsterest of vocals), but deployed in novel and unpredictable ways throughout the album. See the rest here
Lamb Of God — Lamb Of God
✦✦✦✧ MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM LAMB OF GOD! See the rest here
Yashira — Fail To Be
✦✦✧✧ Not quite as devastating as the band’s 2018 debut Shrine, but hardly an example of a sophomore slump, either. The band continue to serve up steaming heaps of nasty, noisy sludge, a la Old Man Gloom but with less meandering. The edge is smoothed over a little since last time, but this is a quibble; Yoshira are still heavy and fascinating and worth the listen! See the rest here
Unleash The Archers — Abyss
✦✦✦✧ This is for those of us who like our power metal epic, layered, and lush, with just enough bite to keep things interesting. Brittney Slayes’ vocals rightly dominate the album, but the rest of the band perform capably. The sound here is about 70% power metal and 30% more aggressive metal subgenres (black metal, speed metal, thrash). See the rest here
Carcass — Despicable
✦✦✦✧ Let me just get this off my chest: THIS IS BARELY AN EP, DAMMIT. Still, you know I can’t deny Carcass. And I gotta say, this four-song collection feels just like the goregrind-defining material on Necroticism, the band’s 1991 objective masterpiece. And yet, these four tracks do a great job illustrating the breadth of Carcass’ influence on both grindcore and melodic death metal. See the rest here
