✦✦✧✧ This is an enjoyable warts-and-all throwback of an album, redolent of the 80s that were Lita’s playground, and full of entertaining cameos from times long gone (Cheap Trick! Billy Sheehan on bass! Dave Navarro on mandolin!). You get a real sense that this was worked on in a garage, and that’s a strength here. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This is sludge that I can get behind! This is a highly regarded black metal band who haven’t released anything in about seven years; unfortunately, that’s how long the album feels. This album has been universally praised, and I get why (I really dig the early-Tool-meets-Aaron-Turner aesthetic here)… but it’s a bit of work to get through. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ While I won’t go so far as to call BABYMETAL victims of the sophomore slump, there is definitely a new aimless quality to the music on this album. The shredding is as ridiculous as ever, and there’s some catchy shit on here, but you’re also lacking any classic memorable moments. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Mighty Anthrax serve up an excellent sampling of modern thrash, which manages to come across as fresh and invigorated while still sounding very much like Anthrax. New lead guitarist and ex-Shads founder Jon Donais ably fills Rob Caggiano’s shoes (and then some), while Scott and Charlie and Frank are peerless in their performances. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ The phrase “15 songs, 23 minutes” can only mean one thing: blast beat grindcore mayhem! And yet, there are some surprising twists and turns on this EP. The mandatory fury is tempered with pace changes galore, in delightfully unpredictable ways (my favorite is on “The Opportunist”, wherein the band switch into half time about six seconds before the end of a 68-second tune). See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This album is for those Entombed fans for whom “Wolverine Blues” sounded too polished. Unfortunate, the unvarnished production is matched by a set of unfiltered, meandering compositions that are just tedious throughout the front half of the album. Things do improve in the back half, but by then the damage is done. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ FGA take their neoclassical pretensions to ridiculous heights with this one; it says something that they were able to release a deluxe double-length edition, with soloed-orchestral versions of every song on the standard release (and it says something else that this bonus actually kinda stands up on its own, like a video game soundtrack). See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ KSE’s latest feels like an odd fusion of Meshuggah, pre-Black Album Metallica, and heaps of metalcore-by-the-numbers. And while I applaud the band for trying to be more progressive, their efforts manifest in largely arbitrary and distracting time signature changes. Still, if you already love KSE, you’re probably going to be just fine with all this. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Yep, this is definitely Voivod. I will also say: this is a really good length for a Voivod release; there’s enough Québécois madness on here to whet your whistle, but not so much to grow into tedium. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Y’all know that I’ve loved Prong from back in the day (Headbanger’s Ball, holla). But this album gets off to a boring start, and has a hard time shaking off that misstep (even though the riffs get better as the album unspools). Then we get to the twin surprises of the album: the bizarre metalcorish “Do Nothing” and the purposefully detuned “Belief System”. See the rest here
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