✦✦✦✧ While the music is most closely aligned with stoner metal, Elder are so dynamic and driven here that the usual narcolepsy associated with the genre is replaced with a tireless roving spirit. You can definitely hear it most compellingly on “Sonntag,” the stoniest of all stoner prog songs of 2017. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This album feels about a decade too late. It gets decently heavy in places, but for the most part you’re dealing with metalcore that alternates between calling back to AIC and Entombed, and visiting the same territory that’s been well traveled by Norma Jean, ETID, and a slew of others. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ SikTh manage to thread a very fine needle here, harnessing their djenty brand of prog (or proggier brand of djent) in service of a catchy accessibility that generally eludes the genre. Along the way, these veterans don’t return to form, so much as they call on old debts, incorporating elements from descendants such as Periphery, Protest The Hero, TesseracT, and many others. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ A funkier, nastier, but still rollicking followup to their 2015 debut, “War Moans” does not stray far from the territory that the band has already claimed: tone-rich bass, propulsive drums, and Steven Brodsky’s memorably eclectic guitars and vocals are all in full effect here. If anything is a progression here, it’s the slightly more expansive sonic soundscape (more obvious on the title track than anywhere else). See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ If there’s a surprise to this album at all, it’s that DF is a skosh restrained in their ridiculous speed metal antics. But otherwise, if this is the sort of thing you like, you’ll like this sort of thing. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Man, these guys fucking love the pirate life. Especially the drinking part. You can almost hear the mugs of grog and beer sloshing on every track. If you’re already a fan of this kind of beerhall metal (somewhere between Amon Amarth and the Dropkick Murphys), you won’t be disappointed or surprised by this album. See the rest here
✧✧✧✧ Unfulfilling, unfinished, and wildly uneven… for all the reasons that you’d come to expect from latter-era Danzig (i.e.: not produced by Rick Rubin) I don’t mind the slower bluesy vibe of this album; Danzig The Band was always about that devil blues anyway. What I mind is the irredeemable descent into narcissism that this project seems to have undergone. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ COOOOOOOKIEEEEEE MOONNSSTEEERRRRRRRRRR
Very few surprises from these deathcore veterans, other than a subtle hint of melody lurking somewhere in the hydraulic presses of this concise juggernaut. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ What happened?! Somewhere between their last album and this one, STS decided to start sounding like a puréed mix of themselves, Periphery, Animals As Leaders, The Algorithm, and Eric Johnson. The shredding is delightful, which is to be expected… but everything else feels like a misstep. Disappoint. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This lives somewhere in the imagined intersection of Linkin Park, Deftones, Ill Nino, and Miley Cyrus. There’s an unfortunate tendency toward overproduction flourishes like full stops and other digital atmos effects that neuter any chance for momentum. That said, every single track on this album is under 4 minutes in length, which is perfect for this kind of guilty pleasures. See the rest here
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