✦✦✦✧ 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
✦✦✦✧ This album surprised me. Surprisingly compelling riffs adorn like filigrees a sturdy base of energetic doom, adding an energy and diversity that I don’t remember from past Paradise Lost albums. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ After a downright Otep-like opening, this album settles into an uninspired, wanky power metal mode that bears a vague resemblance to Arch Enemy albums of old. The band can still shred from time to time (and how could they not, with Jeff Loomis joining Mike Amott), but for the most part it sounds like they’re making sure this’ll sound good in the arenas that they’re filling up on the road. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Pathologically bombastic as always, although the extreme metal and symphonic passages are less disjointed on this album than they were on “Titan.” There are pleasant attempts here to push the band’s own envelope of creativity and experimentation, and Logan Mader’s production wisely emphasizes the actual band’s performances more than it did last time out. See the rest here
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