✦✦✦✧ Fast and furious, with just a hint of innovation to keep things fresh. While perhaps not as insta-classic as “Everblack,” this is a more successfully experiment suite of songs than even that esteemed album. Consistently energetic and enjoyable from start to finish, the band even manages to squeeze a bit of walk-on frippery into the album’s economical 33 minutes. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ A solidly consistent album that is more thrash than I would have expected from the band that brought us “Time And Trauma”; this one is more reminiscent of Prong or Nothingface than anything else. (The previous album’s CoC tendencies are in full control here.) The result is an album where every song feels like it should be an instant classic, a collection of emotionally raw songs… yet somehow isn’t. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Good news: Stray From The Path no longer sound just like a RATM clone! Bad news: they sound a little more like Limp Bizkit now. At least Drew York’s lyrical message is moderately less juvenile than that of Mr. Durst. And the band’s energy is undeniable. All in all, an enjoyable if nostalgic way to spend half an hour. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ The disjointed nature of Chelsea Wolfe’s previous album “Abyss” is better comingled here, undoubtedly thanks in some measure to the production guidance of Kurt “Not My First Rodeo” Ballou. The same disparate influences from last time are still here: Massive Attack, V.A.S.T., Chris Cornell, Tori Amos, Wolves In The Throne Room. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This is at least more interesting than the band’s previous effort, “Emperor Of Sand.” By now, Mastodon have tunneled straight through their own Baroness ambitions, only to emerge in some alien post-metal proto-folkrock nowhere of their own making. So, you know, kudos for sounding unlike anything else. I’m just not entirely sure I dig it. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Fear Factory meets Overkill meets Gojira meets Meshuggah meets Lamb Of God meets a runaway train meets a goddamned meat grinder meets a fist to your face. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This is a clear step up for the band from their previous album, 2014’s “Language.” The music here hews a little closer to Chimp Spanner or TesseracT territory, without ever really going full ham. The rest is, of course, ambient techno-djazz. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Ufomammut have for years toiled to perfect the tricky subsubgenre of accessible progressive stoner doom. With that context, their latest album is a towering achievement in that pursuit. Emotive. Interesting. Exotic. Wandering. Concise. Hypnotizing. And now with 50% nastier bass tone! Worth at least two listens. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Exactly what you’d expect: Gothenberg-ish metal with an operatic female vocalist that hits all the checkboxes, yet still fails to effectively inspire. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ All hail the long-awaited return of the British band’s unique jazzy-gothy-doom-death alchemy. If anything, this Akercocke album is their most experimental, evoking in rapid and unpredicted fashion the works of Opeth, vintage Rush, Cocteau Twins, Napalm Death, Powermad, U.K., Leprous, Porcupine Tree… and on and on. A fascinating and rewarding listen. See the rest here
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