All That Remains — The Order Of Things
★☆☆☆ Occasional moment of headnodding drowned out in a sea of boring metalcorepop. ‘Nuff said. See the rest here
Category: First Listens
Pyramids — A Northern Meadow
☆☆☆☆ Post-post-rockmetal that couldn’t be more boring if it tried. Seriously, there should have been a system of checks and balances that stopped this before it got anywhere near my ears. See the rest here
Venom — From the Very Depths
☆☆☆☆ This album very much sounds like an excuse for a showcase of bassist/vocalist Cronos, with everyone else feeling like an afterthought. It goes on way too long, with a doggedly old-fashioned and outdated sensibility, a production quality that while energetic is slapdash at best (especially the irritating guitar tone), and vocals that are at times clownish. See the rest here
Black Sheep Wall — I’m Going To Kill Myself
★★☆☆ This is post-post-core, if that makes any sense… a savage screamfest deconstructed beyond all sense of flow, sense, or consideration of the listener. There’s a lot to admire here, but it’s also impossible to ignore that this hour of noise is as self-indulgent as it is cathartic. It’s worth a listen, but let’s never speak of this again. See the rest here
Leviathan — Scar Sighted
★★★☆ This is one of those doom mood-piece albums that need to be consumed all in one go; the brilliance comes out once this big slab of experimental sludge has had enough time to work its evil magic on you. At first blush, you might not see that coming, but push past your initial take and listen to the whole thing. See the rest here
Primitive Man — Home Is Where The Hatred Is
★★★☆ Holy fuck is this heavy and dark and oh god the paaaiiiinnnnnnnn. See the rest here
Keep Of Kalessin — Epistemology
★★☆☆ This is frustrating: this album simultaneously boasts shredding scorchers and shamefully derivative snorers. And the title track has elements of both. So you’ve got half a three-star album comingled with half of a one-star album. Discovering which tracks go where, I leave as an exercise for the reader. See the rest here
36 Crazyfists — Time and Trauma
★★★☆ This album rules! What a bizarre, unique, and hard to dismiss melange of metal… as much Glassjaw, CoC, King’s X, Entombed, and latter-era Pantera as it is a work of metalcore. But I fuckin’ dig it, because it’s got a freshness to the swagger. And most importantly, there’s an astonishing diversity to the tracks even while the band nail down a very specific sound. See the rest here
Marduk — Frontschwein
★☆☆☆ This is an hour of obstinately formulaic black metal, untroubled with concerns of pacing, dynamics, or even proper song endings. While not terrible, it’s likely that this album is for Marduk fans and apologists only. See the rest here
Sumac — The Deal
★★★☆ This was a surprise, considering that almost half of this band is Aaron Turner, the second-hardest working man in metal, and judging from his recent efforts, a confirmed audio sociopath. But rather than an assault of antisocial noise, this is a dirty yet progressive slab of musical rage. It’s somewhere between Isis (natch), Old Man Gloom (natch), and The Jesus Lizard (huh?) See the rest here
