✦✦✦✦ This followup to the 2011 prog masterclass “Dualism” finds the band doubling down on their Meshuggahness. This results in ridiculous heaviness when the band want to wield it, and next-level time signature/syncopation madness. The danger here is that their penchant for slippery rhythm goes so far as to make some sections virtually headbang-proof, the cleverness-for-clever’s-sake coming at the cost of effective emotional delivery. See the rest here
✦✦✦✦ This is a hard-hitting technodeath triumph, and sets a high bar for any other progressive metal in 2016. Unlike recent examples from other technodeath staples, this album does a better job in offering a (relatively) diverse musical palette, at times evoking Death, BTBAM, The Faceless, and Gorguts. Every song feels substantial without being overlong (even the 15-minute closer “Weltseele”). See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This is glorious neoclassical speed metal, and a paean to cokehead Vikings everywhere. See the rest here
✦✧✧✧ It’s not that the songs on this album are bad per se, but what you’ve got is 48 less-than-inspiring minutes of a hybrid of latter-day Alice In Chains, Godsmack, and Nickelback. Jason Suecof produced this, and you can definitely hear a bit of Trivium’s DNA in this, but the music here flirts with metal without truly committing to it. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ A lo-fi adventure in screechy hostility with a marred execution. You can definitely hear the Unsane pedigree in this supergroup, but in a decidedly retro way. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This is a pleasantly unusual and self-assured album that claims metalcore roots, but this music is as likely to remind you of Periphery or Symphony X or American Head Charge as it will of Killswitch Engage. In particular, the band do a masterful job of melding melodic sensibilities with wall-of-noise mayhem. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This feels like DT’s take on Pink Floyd – The Wall… but doesn’t work nearly as well. The band repeatedly make bad trades by subduing their collective virtuosity in exchange for limp and forgettable songwriting. Also, these songs have a bad habit of going from Shred to Meh’d and back again, undercutting any hope of momentum. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This isn’t the worst thing that Megadeth have done (that honor still stays with Super Collider). Also, the shredding here is satisfyingly sharp, and the production is crisp and heavy. I’ll remind you here that Chris Adler is playing drums on this, because otherwise you’d never know it from listening to the album. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This is as tasty and heavy a slab of noise as you’d expect from the grindcore supergroup helmed by Scott Hull. It’s also a bit of a curveball, if you’re expecting just another helping of Pig Destroyer, as this is decidedly more sludgey than that. But it’s just as earnest and convincing in this form, due in no small part to Katherine Katz’s gutwrenching vocals. See the rest here
★★★☆ Sure, power metal may not be the most admired genre in the business, but given that… this album is pretty much flawless. It feels like a more energetic Soilwork, cross-bred with some Symphony X for good measure. Everything you’d look for is here in spades: tasty guitar work, pounding drums, a healthy bottom line, lush keys and strings, and very strong vocals (which is surprisingly rare in this field). See the rest here
This work by Metalligentsia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.