Ascension — The Dead Of The World
★★☆☆ The final track on this album, “Mortui Mundi,” has some memorable songwriting… but otherwise, this is a solidly-not-bad black metal album by the numbers. Inoffensively, formulaicly correct. See the rest here
Category: First Listens
Xibalba — Tierra Y Libertad
★★☆☆ This is sufficiently dark and angry sludgecore… and yet, at the same time, it doesn’t entirely grab my attention with a heartfelt grip. It’s good as it plays, but lacks staying power after the music dies down. See the rest here
Periphery — Juggernaut: Omega
★★★☆ Everything lacking on Juggernaut: Alpha is fully evident here on Omega. It’s far more cohesive, even as it tilts from djent to late-70s prog and back. And, more importantly, it’s fucking heavy. Nice! See the rest here
Periphery — Juggernaut: Alpha
★☆☆☆ This album would be a whole lot better if it showed any signs of cohesion aside from sudden transitions into new material. As such, it comes across as a lovingly engineered collection of B-sides and experiments that don’t always pay off. See the rest here
Napalm Death — Apex Predator – Easy Meat
★☆☆☆ With this album, Napalm Death have reasserted their role as the honey badgers of the metal world. Call it an improbable three-way head-on collision between punk, indusrtial, and grindcore. The resulting carnage works better than you’d think, especially at high volume. It’s impressive, really! At the same time, I’d be very very surprised if I ever willingly listened to this again. See the rest here
Sylosis — Dormant Heart
★★☆☆ A meatily-produced album of post-metalcore (I just made that up) that nevertheless manages to feel both overlong and disposable. Good for a listen, but I’ve already forgotten it. See the rest here
Tortorum — Katabasis
★★★☆ This is quite simply one of the finest black metal albums of 2014. With the right kind of ears, you could hear this as if Deliverance-era Opeth decided to fully commit the dark. And the reverb. See the rest here
Nervosa — Victim Of Yourself
★★★☆ This is satisfyingly straightforward thrash, not bogged down by overthinking or overproduction. There is a sameness to the material and pace that starts to bog you down after a while, but the overall sound is just different enough to not sound too derivative (while still be very firmly rooted in the genre it so lovingly emulates). See the rest here
A Sense of Gravity — Travail
★★☆☆ I’m going to throw out some names that crossed my mind as I listened to this prog metal epic, and you tell me if you can resist the siren call: Textures. Chimp Spanner. Allan Holdsworth. Fredrik Thordendal. Compelling, right? And yet, about halfway through, the album loses its footing and starts sounding like just another djent band. See the rest here
Gamma Ray — Empire of the Undead
★★★☆ A throwback? Perhaps. But this album from Helloween-offshoot Gamma Ray also offers an updated take on some vintage power metal, with hints of Savatage, Queensrÿche, Blind Guardian, and yes Helloween. And Priest. And Queen? And to be honest, the album starts to overstay its welcome about two thirds of the way in. See the rest here
