✦✦✦✧ This is as good as a stoner metal album can get in 2018 without being great. It’s fantastic that an early progenitor of the subgenre can still sound vigorous and vital, gently expanding the envelope even as they run deeper ruts into the old familiar paths. And yet, there’s something so damned familiar and been-there-done-that about the whole thing. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This death metal band from Colorado wear their Middle Eastern Egyptologist schtick on their sleeves in a big way. This seems far too obvious at first, too on the nose. But it grows on you fast: not only do Akhenaten show that there’s still unplumbed depths to the connection between Middle Eastern music modes and technical death metal, but there’s also something adorable about how committed they are to their sound. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This time around, Ghost are emulating The Scorps more than anyone else, which fits I guess; I don’t fault them for emerging from their latest personnel changeup with a little less Satanism, and sounding a little more stadium rock instead. The tunes are still catchy, the guitars still polished and appropriate, but all of this is harder to care that much about. See the rest here
✦✧✧✧ The good news is that this is often a spot-on homage to Death (specifically, the classic album “Spiritual Healing”). And when Gruesome is in this Tribute Mode (as they largely were on their debut album “Savage Land,” you had a sense of extrapolation into something both old and new. The bad news is that, more often than not, the music on this new album feels like the band simply took Spiritual Healing sheet music, put it in a shredder, taped the scraps back together, traveled from Orlando to Tampa (and from 2018 to 1989), found Scott Burns, and got him to record it. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ You’ll be forgiven if your first impression of this prog metal album is that it’s swerving all over the road, from Cynic to Gojira to Gorguts to Torrential Downpour. Just know that you’d be dismissing a unique, deft, and hardly assailable prog metal masterwork. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ A subtly interesting album, evincing a rethrashed form of progressive tech death album, with hints of Revocation, Black Dahlia Murder, Job For A Cowboy, and even Control Denied. Just when you think you know where it’s going, it throws a curveball. If there’s a downside here, it’s that it trades immediacy for memorability. See the rest here
✦✧✧✧ This album of groove metal feels at least 15 years too late. Sure, the production is crisp, and there are some decent licks scattered about. And I do like the Kenny Wayne Shepard and Offspring covers. But even with all those wins, this album is chronically self-serious, dispassionate, and ultimately joyless. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ At long last, here is the first solo album from the loudest British metal band in history. TKTK See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This feels like an updated blend of Discarnate, Sadus, and Deicide. So obviously I dig it. The album does feel like it’s 2 hours long, however. See the rest here
✧✧✧✧ This makes nu metal sound like Deathspell Omega by comparison. It’s actually impressive just how densely packed this Skindred album is with all of the most hated elements of music from the last 10 years. Cowbell! Claps! Girl chants! Reggaeton! Even the rare moment when the band approaches actual decentness is inevitably marred by their insipid “ragga rock” proclivities. See the rest here
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