✦✦✦✧ If you liked these Finns’ last folk metal album “One Man Army,” you’ll be equally delighted by this one. There are some questionable vocal moments (the clean singing is especially shaky at times), but that’s a fleeting misstep in an otherwise rambunctious Amon-Amarth-meets-DragonForce beerhall adventure. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ After the full-throated “A World Lit Only By Fire,” this new album from Godflesh feels like a cruel hard turn of the steering wheel, off the familiar if potholed road the band helped pave. At least the album telegraphs the move into its new territory: more experimental, moodier, and absolutely industrial. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Interesting, jarring, alien… in other words, business as usual for this band. They’re playing around with unheralded tempo changes more this time than I recall in previous releases. If you ever find yourself missing Gorguts, Torrential Downpour, and Don Caballero at the same time, this is your jam! See the rest here
✦✦✦✦ Equal parts Extol (this is Ole Børud’s new band after all), Cynic, Extol, Torrential Downpour, The Darkness, early Meshuggah, and Yes after “Union.” I shit you not: you’ve likely never heard any metal like this before. This is a Must Listen, and perhaps The Stunning Debut of 2017. See the rest here
✧✧✧✧ I fucking hate Electric Wizard. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ VOM have by now perfected their recipe for metalcore-anchored djent. Think TesseracT-meets-Vildhjarta-meets-All That Remains. It’s an intriguing yet unholy alliance, and the combinations miss the mark a nontrivial amount of the time. But there’s enough here, between the songwriting, musicianship, and surprising twists that it defies dismissal. Definitely worth a listen, perhaps as a consummate example of what’s possible in metal in 2017. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ After shocking us with the unreasonably good album “Inferno”, Marty returns to form and satisfies every preconception; this is about as good as it gets for self-indulgent lead guitarist wankery. Largely, this is a problem of balance (a tricky thing to nail). There are sporadic moments of red-blooded metal mayhem strewn about, but they’re tempered too often by cheese. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ If you’re already a fan of Cradle of Filth, this album will most certainly satisfy. It’s more of the same, only better. Full disclosure: I am not one of those fans. In particular, Dani Filth’s vocals have always gotten on my nerves. But everything else is very well done, and there’s enough meat on the bone that I don’t mind the gristle as much as I have in past albums. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ My description from Entheos’ first album is equally applicable here, and the band continue to push the envelope of electronic-infused prog metal in twisted ways. If anything, their sophomore effort is even more ambitious, inventive, and above all alien. It’s so out there, in fact, that I find myself having a hard time relating to it on an emotional level. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This is a weirdly uneven album, careening from rethrash to Megadeth at their cheesiest to… is that Jackyl? Steel Panther? Founder Jeff Waters has been fronting the band since the last album, as well as producing the album, which partially explains the unfortunate prevalence of questionable vocal choices high in the mix. See the rest here
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