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Sunn O))) — Pyroclasts
✦✦✧✧ This is an improvement over Sunn’s previous album, “Life Metal,” only insofar as there is a hint of an actual performance on a real instrument about 26 minutes into the album. See the rest here
Category: First Listens
Skinlab — Venomous
✦✦✦✧ Skinlab walk the thin line between revigoration and rehash, with just enough nu-metalisms to remind you who you’re dealing with (without the whole thing sounding dated). Most interestingly, there’s also enough shared DNA here with heavy acts like Tombs, Machine Head, and even Sepultura to make this music sound both familiar and novel. See the rest here
Blood Incantation — Hidden History of the Human Race
✦✦✦✧ Run, don’t walk to your nearest wifi enabled device (or if you are JaPaBo, inefficiently procure a hard copy in the format of your choice) to listen to this gem. For the first couple of tracks, which come out of the gates hard, it’s like you are listening to the best DM album of 1991 you somehow missed, but with better production. See the rest here
Jinjer — Macro
✦✦✦✧ The secret to this album is the free experimentation that Jinjer indulge in. The result reminds me of Destrage with less examples of inhuman shredding. But don’t worry: you’ll still get your Periphery, SikTh, and Mudvayne fix. It’s kinda nuts that Jinjer put out two excellent albums this year; crazier still that this latter release is the better of the two. See the rest here
Fit For An Autopsy — The Sea Of Tragic Beasts
✦✦✦✧ Much of what I wrote regarding my first listen to F2A2’s previous album The Great Collapse still applies here: this is some heavy and satisfying Gojiracore! If anything, this one is more of an experiment than its predecessor; that some of those experiments don’t pay off is to be expected. See the rest here
Bad Wolves — N.A.T.I.O.N.
✦✦✧✧ For their second album, Bad Wolves took their SiriusXM-friendly groove metal formula and… made it less interesting? See the rest here
Cattle Decapitation — Death Atlas
✦✦✦✧ This is clearly intended to be Cattle Decap’s nihilistic master opus, and I can’t fault their approach: capitalize on the winningest moments from Monolith Of Inhumanity and The Anthropocene Extinction, set the action in space, and lace in some blackened death for even more epicness! See the rest here
BABYMETAL — METAL GALAXY
✦✦✧✧ It’s ironic that an album that starts with a track titled “FUTURE METAL” trades so heavily in clichéd tropes. The metal gems on here are fewer and farther between the increased reliance on J-Pop, and honestly most of this album sounds like the soundtrack to Beat Saber… but don’t sleep on truly interesting and fun tracks like “Elevator Girl” or “Night Night Burn!” See the rest here
Abigail Williams — Walk Beyond The Dark
✦✦✦✧ Slightly more melodic black metal, with loads more atmosphere than the band usually deliver, and just a hint of progressive friendliness to taste. It’s a subtle and cohesive admixture, and definitely scores highly on emotionality and immersiveness. Perhaps my favorite Abigail Williams album so far! See the rest here
Battles — Juice B Crypts
✦✧✧✧ Mildly engaging bleeps and bloops occasionally mixed with elements of currently popular music genres. I have no need to ever hear this again. See the rest here
