✦✦✦✧ This melodeath album wavers from run-of-the-mill Insomnium to goddamn-great Insomnium. I wish the production was a little crisper (although that might just be my Gothenburg bias showing through), but otherwise the shredding and epicness shine brightly enough. Stand-out tracks like “Valediction,” “Pale Morning Star,” and “Twilight Trails” are must-listens, in any event. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Feral as ever, Exhumed continues to distance themselves from their very Carcass-like beginnings while still holding true to the nasty aesthetic that the subgenre is known for. The riff salad that is this album however feels a little less inspired than previous works. Not the band’s best, but still rollicking good fun. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Once again answering the question, “What happens when you give Digital Whammy pedals to everyone in a NYC-area mathcore band?”, Car Bomb’s latest feels like the ill-begotten offspring of Converge and Meshuggah (specifically, the latter’s “Contradictions Collapse/None” split). What is surprising is just how listenable this album is, even while kicking down your doors to claim the prize for Most Twisted Album Of 2019. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This is the closest Hellyeah have come to producing an entirely listenable album; fully half the tracks on here are winners or near winners. If the band’s considerable press efforts are to be believed, this is evidence of a change in direction for the band, conceived of before Vinnie Paul’s untimely death in 2018. See the rest here
✦✧✧✧ This sounds like reheated crap. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This is everything you could possibly want from a Norwegian black metal band. You can almost feel the icicles dangling off this album. It’s also a better example of the potential fusion between vintage prog and modern metal. This album is atmospheric and folksy and energetic and so epic. In other words, this album is what I’ve really wanted from Opeth for quite some time now. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Of course Opeth would start this album with a Mellotron sample. And yet, everyone’s favorite was-metal prog rock band are newly channeling 70s proto-metal here. The result is darker and more interesting than their last few albums. I’m still waiting in vain for a Damnation Part II, but I give Messrs. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This is an enchanting extreme metal (and then some) album, combining the glossy symphonic sensibilities of Blind Guardian with adroitly placed hints of TesseracT, The Contortionist, and even Protest The Hero and Gojira. Aside from the clever and surprising songwriting, the MVP on this album is unquestionably vocalist Vicky Psarakis, who deftly pulls out all the stops, pivoting from wannabe-operatic to hard rock to cookie monster and back again in a way that should finally free her from predecessor Alissa White-Gluz’s shadow. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Pioneers of Southern groove metal Exhorder are back, and as ferocious and energizing as ever! Technically, this is rethrash, except that this album very much feels like what you’d expect if the band had just continued the trajectory they started in the late 80s. The truth is, this is their second reunion, and they’ve been disbanded longer than they’d ever been together. See the rest here
✦✧✧✧ This might just be the most brutal death metal album of 2019. Unfortunately, the production is so godawful that you really can’t be sure about what you’re hearing. I do think I have a concussion from listening to it on headphones, so that’s a plus I guess. See the rest here
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