✦✦✧✧ A perfectly adequate and fun hardcore+ album, halfway between Converge and Slayer. It pairs well with an impromptu demolition derby, or anywhere that physical damage reigns supreme. Weird, however, that virtually every track feels a minute too long. But maybe that’s just because it all caves my chest in. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ At its best, the music here is a perfect fusion of folk and metal, not merely folk-inspired metal or vice versa. Of course, an hourlong 16-track album all but guarantees that some songs don’t hit that ideal. Still, if you have to listen to folk metal, I recommend you listen to this one above most others. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This is Rammstein at their most accessible. This is also Rammstein at their most serious and sinister. Don’t talk; just get in the car. See the rest here
✦✧✧✧ “Vintage” is right; this album feels stuck in time, comprised of a lot of ill-fitting parts. The slop-like production only makes things worse, but the bigger problem is a poor sense of pacing, seemingly in service of mood but actually the album’s biggest enemy. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Circle pitttttt! And yet, the latest album from Denver grindcore purveyors COTV is more of a grower than a shower, especially when compared with the band’s catalog. It’s an enjoyable ride, and I especially like the moments of sludgy innovation and a noticeable deference to mood. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ (See yesterday’s firstie on the companion album “War.”)
If you really liked “War” but wished it was less metal and more hard rock, this album is for you. Otherwise, this album is most certainly not for you. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Demon Hunter seem to be cribbing a page from Opeth’s playbook, releasing two albums this year which are thematically linked but sonically different. (We’ll have our first-listen feedback on the companion album, “Peace,” tomorrow.) Beyond that, this is fairly uninspiring, unless you’re a huge Stone Sour fan. See the rest here
✦✦✦✦ Once again, Destrage grace us with a wildly inventive collection of progressive metalcore songs. And yet, this EP is even more accessible and refined, for all its unpredictable craziness. It reminds of the best of Dillinger, Meshuggah, and Leprous: well-balanced, enthralling, energetic, and inhuman (even for all its listenability). A must-listen for sure, and the band’s best album. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Is Viking metal your thing?
If “yes,” then great; listen to this and smash some beer steins while you’re at it.
If “no,” I don’t know that this is the album that’ll change your mind.
The main problem here is that, while this music is absolutely 100% fitting with the subgenre (and with the band’s previous work), the songs are often not super compelling on their own, or they’re plagued by moments of awkward goofiness, or both. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Halfway between desert rock and prog metal, this reminds me as much of Good Tiger or Mutoid Man as it does Baroness or Mastodon. The band manage an interesting balancing act between heaviness and fun. They also feel a little too preoccupied with laying down chord progressions that defy prediction (which, as much as it pains me to admit, isn’t necessarily a good thing). See the rest here
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