✦✦✧✧ Don’t let the on-brand weak album cover put you off too much: there’s some tasty rockin’ out here. Sure, Udo’s voice feels a little shaky at times. But many of the tracks here remind me of Accept, albeit with an updated production that makes this sound more rethrash than retread. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ The good news is that this album is a clear progression from 2015’s Epistemology, more cohesive, anthemic, and self-assured. It’s a barnburner of a symphonic black metal album, one where musicianship (largely that of Obsidian, naturally) is showcased in a way not normally heard in this genre. The bad news isn’t all that bad: this album is maybe one track longer than it needs to be. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Who needs subtlety when you’re flinging jackhammers like these fuckers are? They do have a penchant for digital frippery that borders on the nü-metal, but with heaviness this remorseless, I’ll allow a bit of digression. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This sounds like a mellower Machine Head, circa 1993. Curiously, the album sounds a little more energetic in the back half. I don’t hate it. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This is at least more fun and interesting than Metallica’s 72 Seasons, if we’re comparing 80s acts with “metal” in their names. Newcomer Marc Lopes does a pretty solid and entertaining job with the vocals. Otherwise, there’s both enough vintage thrash here to satisfy old school MC fans, as well as something a bit different for the band: a sound that’s more modern, aggressive, and epic. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ The good news: when David Ellefson starts a new band, you can be guaranteed that you’ll hear the bass in the mix. The bad news: this band is all over the frickin’ place. You’ll hear the influence of every group that David and the other members have been a part of (Megadeth, Soulfly, Access Denied, Decapitated, Entombed A.D., See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ I’m not going to go into the topic of whether this is truly American indigenous black metal, something that my research indicates may be a point of contention. What I will say, though, is that this album is epic and evocative. The folk appropriations here are tasteful and balanced, not quite as in-your-face as Bloodywood or The Hu, and the overall sound owes as much to influences like Opeth and Wolves In The Throne Room as to any Native American musical traditions. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ First off, I can’t in good conscience call this metal. That said, this is clearly one of the best metal albums of the year. The Armed are the closest group I can think of that truly treat the genre like it’s one equal color on their palette; they’re not metal-with-embellishments, and they’re not pop with high gain guitars. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This album’s all over the place, which is saying a lot for typically-already-batshit A7X. It’s a concept album. It’s nu metal. It’s pop. It shreds (but usually for no discernible reason). I dunno: it reminds me a lot of Destrage and Faith No More, only not in ways I actually enjoy? See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ High-octane hardcore/rethrash goodness! The back half has some odd experiments that may or may not win you over, but so what! Ten songs! Twenty five minutes! Pop it on when you’re driving, and get there faster! Blegh! See the rest here
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