✦✦✦✧ 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
✦✦✦✧ Not content to serve up another satisfying helping of the Gothenburg melodeath sound that they helped pioneer, DT actually push things forward a bit on their latest album. There’s a slightly greater reliance on shredtastic riffage (for the win), while the melodrama remains effective. And their accessibility on tracks like the title track doesn’t rely on hackneyed clichés, instead elevating their gothic leanings into something more. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Pretty decent Euro-style melodic metal, and unsurprisingly there’s more than a few nods to Arch Enemy… but I’ve gotta say that I am not a fan of Vicky Psarakis’ vocal stylings here. They’re too loud, too grating. And that Hozier cover at the end of the album is just the pits. See the rest here
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