✦✦✦✧ Barely metal at times, but a very good prog offering nonetheless. It’s a great fusion of 80s and current sounds, at times sounding as much like latter-era Yes or UK as Porcupine Tree or Leprous. It’s an unlikely combination of sources, which I first heard on their previous EP, but this time it totally works without sounding too much like a gimmick. See the rest here
✦✧✧✧ Look, I’m not gonna lie: there are a handful of tasty riffs in here. But there’s just so much hair-oriented swaggering going on, and the rest of the musicianship feels so lazy, that album is generally hard to sit through. Also, there’s gonna be two of these? Ugh. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ While not entirely groundbreaking, this culmination of Cult Of Luna’s post-metal instrumentals and Julie Christmas’ melodic meanderings is undeniably fresh, winsome, and emotive. The music feels like a synthier fusion of Isis and The Ocean, and the vocals are as entrancing as they are dynamic. This one is a must-listen, and a shoe-in for Arsie competition. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This album is a vast improvement over the band’s previous album, “Lost Forever // Lost Together.” The excesses of that album have been reigned in, which alone is redemption enough. The production is also a notch better than last time, with the heavy parts really delivering. Admittedly, the cumulative effect can sound at times like a hybrid between TesseracT and Linkin Park. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Krallice’s style of prog-in-sludge’s-clothing metal is more cohesive and captivating on this EP than their previous album “Ygg Huur,” with hints of Thought Industry and ELP alongside more dominant strains of Agalloch and Pallbearer. I even got a whiff of Meshuggah’s “I” at times. It’s definitely an interesting set of tunes. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ It’s melodeath, sounding like a fusion of… just about everything else. Very solidly okay metal. It’s not particularly imaginative or memorable, but it does what it says on the tin. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Bay Area thrash is alive and well! This album sounds like vintage DA, mashed up with some Machine Head, Racer X, Exodus, Sick Of It All, Metal Church… in other words, a melange of vintage early 90s metal. As such, don’t expect any innovation, other that crisp, updated production. You’ll still be quite happy with the expertly delivered headbanging. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This album starts off feeling like a less compelling, emotionally vacant synth demo cover of Chimp Scanner. The chiptune stuff is at least different than what I’m used to hearing in our genre (which works, from a metalcore-adjacent standpoint). That said, and I never thought I’d say this: knowing upfront how electronic this work is… just makes the drums’ “virtuosity” feel completely pointless. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This is a glorious blend of Voivod and BTBAM, with generous dashes of older Slayer for good measure. At times, this carnival-like shredfest threatens to fly apart from its own frenetic momentum, but this is an entertaining riff salad all the same. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This feels like the Microsoft Store of metal albums: internally consistent and well-done, but without much external validation or reason for existing. Props however for the unusual Phil Collins cover. See the rest here
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