Noisem — Cease To Exist
✦✦✧✧ Fast, aggressive noise metal that reminds me of an EP of metal bands covering punk songs. There’s almost nothing for your memory to cling to, so shut up and go along for the ride. See the rest here
Category: First Listens
Vale Of Pnath — Accursed
✦✦✦✧ Squeeeeeeze those invisible oranges, friends! Denver techdeath heroes Vale Of Pnath cram a full album’s worth of shredding into a 27-minute EP, at turns deft and epic and surprising, but always interesting. Don’t miss this one! See the rest here
Arch/Matheos — Winter Ethereal
✦✦✧✧ Yep, this here is my newest choice for The One Prog Metal Album You Point At To Prove Everyone’s Worst Fears About The Genre. It makes sense that it’d be a John Arch + Jim Matheos Joint, as neither man knows the words “editor” or “self-restraint.” Still, the guitarwork and singing are every bit as faultless as their respective artists are renowned for. See the rest here
Enterprise Earth — Luciferous
✦✦✧✧ It’s kind of refreshing to hear an album in 2019 that isn’t trying to temper its deathcore with other influences. Instead, here you’ve got naught else but metalcore by numbers. (The real pisser is that I can tell there could be some interesting riffs and musicianship under all that oppressive weight.) See the rest here
Lo-Pan — Subtle
✦✦✧✧ QOTSA have done it again! See the rest here
East Of The Wall — NP-Complete
✦✦✦✧ Lovely prog metal (emphasis on the ‘prog’). This is kinda what I really want to hear when I imagine Scale The Summit paired with an appropriate singer. (But there’s also echoes of Don Cab, Torrential Downpour, and Glassjaw.) Special shout out to Chris Alfano for pulling off the hat-trick of laying down bass lines that are simultaneously jazzy, muscular, and unique…. See the rest here
Origin — Abiogenesis: A Coming Into Existence
✦✦✧✧ Look on the bright side: if you’re wanting brand new death metal that sounds like it came from Tampa in 1991, have I got an album for you! See the rest here
Fractal Universe — Rhizomes Of Insanity
✦✦✦✧ If I had to put a label on this, “Cynic-inspired progressive jazz rethrash” isn’t a bad place to start. I like that there’s no heavy reliance on blast beats and busy yet unintelligible riffs. Instead, the band find ways to stitch together lots of various styles, from tech death to groove to… flamenco? See the rest here
Amon Amarth — Berserker
✦✦✧✧ This album is fifteen minutes longer than Amon Amarth usually give us; this is one of those times when less would likely have been more. There are some gems of Viking metal, and I could imagine slipping a couple of these tracks into my lifting playlist, but there’s an awful lot of Not on here as well. See the rest here
Ola Englund — Master of the Universe
✦✦✦✧ This solo debut cements Ola Englund as the torchbearer for modern guitar wankery. Imagine a Shrapnel Records vanity album, only by way of Sweden instead of California. (Jason Becker: still alive, gods love him!) Fans of The Haunted expecting more of the same will be disappointed, but keep your eyes on the prize: this album taps into lots of different metal styles, so there’s something here for everyone, even if it isn’t super memorable or emotive. See the rest here
