Russian Circles — Blood Year
✦✦✧✧ To be honest, this one’s kinda boring. (Just contrast this to the new Elder album, and you’ll see how much Russian Circles could have done with instrumental shoegaze.) See the rest here
Category: First Listens
Humanity’s Last Breath — Abyssal
✦✦✦✧ Djenty deathcore with a shiny (somewhat distractingly) digital gloss. Even more Vildhjarta-ish than Vildhjarta (which makes a kind of sense, seeing as HLB currently boasts two members of that other band). One thing’s for sure: this album is unformulaic, jarring (djarring), and above all else, dark. See the rest here
Elder — The Gold and Silver Sessions
✦✦✦✧ “Hey man, good to see you again! …Me? I don’t know… ‘How long I’ve been a Deadhead’? I dunno… But then, what is time anyway? I mean, it’s all just a construct, you know what I mean? A figment. Wow, man. Wow.” See the rest here
Carnifex — World War X
✦✦✦✧ See, this is how you spring from a retro sound and make it fresh and fun! This epic tech-inspired deathcore album evokes comparisons with Fleshgod Apocalypse or Anaal Nathrakh more dependably than Thy Art Is Murder or Whitechapel, and this is a good thing. Oddly, the tracks with guest appearances by Alissa White-Gluz and Angel Vivaldi don’t add much; fortunately, the rest of the material stands on its own. See the rest here
Northlane — Alien
✦✧✧✧ Why is everyone trying to go industrial in 2019?! I mean, I get that cultural trends come back every 15-20 years, but why not bring back early Mastodon or Slipknot? Considering the greatness of the band’s previous album, the post-djent masterpiece “Mesmer,” this feels like a step backward when considering any criterion imaginable. See the rest here
Abyssal — A Beacon in the Husk
✦✦✧✧ This doom album is a very mixed bag for me. On the one hand, if you’re looking for a recording of a band who are delivering jawdropping riffs, or you want to shake your fist triumphantly at the sky, this album is not for you in the slightest. On the other hand, I’m hardpressed to name another album this year that is as successfully moody, evocative, or noisome. See the rest here
Tomb Mold — Planetary Clairvoyance
✦✦✦✧ I hope you’re hungry, because this 38-minute album is one seriously dense riff salad… served shredded! (See what I did there?) No longer satisfied with evoking a bygone era of death metal, Tomb Mold have apparently set 1990 as a starting point for interesting and innovative composition which rivals some of the most avant-garde offerings from 30 years ago. See the rest here
Thy Art Is Murder — Human Target
✦✦✧✧ The last time TAIM put out an album, I said, “Typically, one doesn’t listen to TAIM for subtlety, or innovation, or expansion of the genre. One listens when in need of a good beating.” So why o why did they put a heightened emphasis on vocals, unclear yet fast riffing, prominent fake snare hits, and a generally squishy sonic character? See the rest here
Hatriot — From Days Unto Darkness
✦✦✧✧ I wouldn’t even call this rethrash: this is instead newly-minted vintage Bay Area thrash. (Oakland represent!) With a little more self-restraint/editing and crisper production, this album could be a modern classic. See the rest here
Torche — Admission
✦✦✧✧ At its best, this album reminds me of vintage Sub Pop; at its worst, this is just more hipster-sludge. Of special note is the production, which offers a dynamic range of a shouting match. At least the songs are all mercifully brief. See the rest here
