✦✦✦✦ This is the biggest level-jump for the band since The Parallax. The album starts out on very familiar territory, with a track that sounds like it could easily fit on either of the band’s last two albums. And then the second track starts, and all of a sudden we have a new sound for BTBAM: heavier, more anthemic, but also less beholden to old prog rock tropes. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ The highly anticipated album from our favorite space-slug-themed band does not disappoint. The music is massive like Gojira, inventive and suitably alien like Gorguts, but catchy like Mastodon. And yet, Slugdge manage to avoid some of the pitfalls that have recently tripped up those progenitors. Honestly, this is far better than anyone has a right to expect. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This is Turnstile’s most experimental album to date, for good and for ill. The band shines most winsomely when they’re most clearly emulating their punk and metal heroes (especially Quicksand and Sick Of It All). The less straightforward tracks, alas, are all over the place, in a way that works against the album’s pacing, momentum, and cohesion. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This is some old-fashioned Bronze Age metal, y’all. Lots people love this Manowar-sounding band. Feh. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ I wouldn’t even call this rethrash; more than anything else, this feels just like a vintage Anthrax album I’d never heard before. I ain’t complaining, especially when they step out from that core sound, and evoke fresh takes on other thrash classics such as Exodus, Powermad, and yes, 3250. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Aside from updated production values (which sound great), this is pretty much exactly what you’d expect from a British heavy metal band formed before the advent of the Compact Disc. Jokes aside, if you’re in the mood for some NWOBHM with updated audio sensibilities, this album is for you. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This new Rolo Tomassi album operates in two modes fairly equally: interestingly jazzy post-trip-hop and chaotic mathcore, like DEP meets Lamb meets Norma Jean. The beautiful thing here is that neither mode feels like filler against the other. It’s all internally consistent, cohesive, and compelling. And in a further evolution for the band, the album’s emotional range is almost cinematic in scope. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ The Isis-meets-APC vibe of TAL is more finely tuned on this album than ever before. Heavy, moody, and unique. See the rest here
✦✧✧✧ I swear to god, when this album started I thought at first that I’d popped on a Primus album. Unfortunately, that’s probably the listening high point of the debut album from this high-concept stoner band. I’m hardpressed to think of another supergroup as intent on casting its constituent pieces in a worse light. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This album feels both novel and dated at the same time. Its production values and humble musical ambitions lend the proceedings a tiredness that’s hard to look past. But the album is also fresh in some of its riffs and chord progressions, as well as its interweaving of Swedish death metal, thrash, and black metal. See the rest here
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