✦✧✧✧ The best thing I can say about this album is that it has as much arpeggiated shredding as anyone could hope to expect from anyone (other than. Other than that, this is progressive power metal by the numbers. Worse, this isn’t even updated for a modern age. Everything from the mix to the songcraft makes this sound like an early Iced Earth album, not a post-Iced Earth album. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Grindcore leavened with equal parts Converge and Brujeria. The energy’s there, and it’s dark enough, but there’s something weirdly anonymized about the whole thing. Also, the drum triggers are so high in the mix as to be distracting, especially with Shane Brown’s penchant for fast syncopation. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ You’ll find haunting hybridizations here of Tool, Opeth, Porcupine Tree, Karnivool, and Leprous… with plenty of hints of folk, indie, and ambient rock thrown in for good measure. The band is doubling down on emotionality here, focusing on sublimely excellent songcraft, but at the expense of any overt signs of self-indulgence. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This is bouncy and fun, as any self-respecting Overkill album should be. At the same time, there’s something going on here, a slight tweak to the otherwise dependable formula that’s not entirely successful. I hope I’m very wrong about this, or reading into it too much, but the band’s sound borders on weird “Load+Reload”/”Countdown To Extinction”/”The Ritual” territory. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This is a weird cross of “Psalm 69,” Suicidal, S.O.D., and a bunch of pre-mainstream releases from bands I haven’t taken seriously in at least 20 years. And that retro-hardcode vibe is somehow perfect for the band, and for the times we find ourselves in now. Adorbs. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Unabashed Eurothrash: speedy, earnest, goofy, powerful. This album chronicles the band in not quite as energized form as they were on Phantom Antichrist, and yet it scratches a very particular itch. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Accessible French prog metal, best likened to Karnivool with touches of Porcupine Tree, Thrice, and Isis. What a debut; where the hell did these guys come from?! See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Lo-Pan do a convincing imitation of Quicksand at their happiest. A raw and energetic EP of songs, if not entirely groundbreaking or habit-forming. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ The debut (instrumental) album from a collaboration between Keith Merrow and Wes Hauch (The Faceless, Conquering Dystopia, Black Crown Initiate) has all the tasty shredding any modern guitarophile could ever want. It’s also got a mean attitude, which I like. It’s not the most memorable thing in the world, though. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This is one weird album, and unlike anything I’ve heard Sepultura do before (which is a very good thing). You’ve got elements from all possible constituent influences (old Sep! more recent Sep! punk! thrash!), as well as rando sounds I never would have pulled for them (vaguely Persian root music! See the rest here
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