Night Demon — Darkness Remains
✦✦✧✧ This feels like an album of montage music from 80s American karate flicks. I just checked to make sure I wasn’t actually wearing sweatbands. At least the bass is all up in yo face. See the rest here
Category: First Listens
Mors Principium Est — Embers Of A Dying World
✦✦✧✧ Pseudo-orchestral, pseudo-electronic melodeath that, despite the overly long adjectives, hardly nudge the envelope in any meaningful way. Did DT’s “Atoma” leave you wanting more last year? Fortunately for you, this album will certainly dull the edge of your want. Unfortunately for MPE, it does so without leaving much of a lasting differentiable impression. See the rest here
Persefone — Aathma
✦✦✦✧ Let me get this out of the way: when you say that Paul Masvidal does guest vocals on two of your tracks, you’re really only referring to Paul Masvidal’s vocoder.
That said, this is shockingly compelling and well-done modern prog metal from Andorra. Think equal parts Dream Theater, Protest The Hero, Cynic, and Periphery. See the rest here
Deep Purple — Infinite
✦✦✧✧ Crisp and clean swagger-rock, aged like a fine British wine. And yet, I cannot ignore the fact that this feels a whole lot like Spinal Tap’s “Break Like The Wind.” See the rest here
Warbringer — Woe to the Vanquished
✦✦✧✧ Sweet neo-thrash from Southern California. Very Municipal Wastey, with just a hint of Andrew W.K. added for flavor. See the rest here
Demon Hunter — Outlive
✦✧✧✧ Take equal parts Machine Head, King’s X, Soilwork, and Killswitch Engage, and purée them in a blender until all flavor is lost. See the rest here
Mastodon — Emperor Of Sand
✦✦✧✧ What the hell is this.
No, really. What the actual fuck.
Hm. Okay, that’s more like it. Now if only they can… OH COME ON! See the rest here
Body Count — Bloodlust
✦✦✦✧ This is a surprisingly fun time. As Ice-T says himself on “Raining Blood/Postmortem”, this is equal parts Sabbath, Suicidal, and Slayer. This isn’t going to move the needle in terms of metal evolution or anything, but that’s not why you listen to Body Count. You listen because you want to hear a bunch of homies from the hood throwing down some earnest hardcore and speed metal. See the rest here
Pallbearer — Heartless
✦✦✧✧ Not quite as compelling or driven as their previous brand of doom metal, this album shows the band seeming to be more content wallowing in the moments they’re creating. Compared to the delicate tightrope act of “Foundations Of Burden,” here the band bring in their ambitious arms, and are tripped up a bit by their own gravity, like a spinning top turning a bit too slowly to keep itself upright. See the rest here
Northlane — Mesmer
✦✦✦✧ Djentcore lives on! Equal parts Periphery, Karnivool, Linkin Park, and Bring Me The Horizon. Sadly, it takes the band at least half an album to really find their footing, so if you’re particularly sensitive to awkward sequencing (or just wanna get to the really good stuff), focus on the last four tracks for ultimate justice. See the rest here
