✦✦✦✧ Have I ever said “djentcore” before? Because that’s what this is… and I kinda dig it. The best track on the album is its opener, “Behold The Crown” (which might win for use of pinch harmonics alone, and boy do they make a meal of it here). However, there is an almost-great tinge to almost every aspect of the album, from songwriting to riffage to production. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ An intriguing debut album of progressive blackened death metal that is more surefooted than it has any right to be. Think latter-day Gorguts cross-pollinated with Fredrik Thordendal’s “Sol Niger Within.” It’s pervasively dark, ambitiously imaginative, and hugely atmospheric (in a way that feels more earned than you typically get from black metal bands these days). See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This debut album from tech death supergroup Flub (featuring members of Alterbeast, Rivers Of Nihil, and Vale Of Pnath) manages to tick every box your expectations may already have, while still hewing far from their more traditional roots. There’s an added lightheartedness that works well enough. Is this the perfect union of technicality and accessibility? See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This is Rammstein at their most accessible. This is also Rammstein at their most serious and sinister. Don’t talk; just get in the car. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Halfway between desert rock and prog metal, this reminds me as much of Good Tiger or Mutoid Man as it does Baroness or Mastodon. The band manage an interesting balancing act between heaviness and fun. They also feel a little too preoccupied with laying down chord progressions that defy prediction (which, as much as it pains me to admit, isn’t necessarily a good thing). See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Squeeeeeeze those invisible oranges, friends! Denver techdeath heroes Vale Of Pnath cram a full album’s worth of shredding into a 27-minute EP, at turns deft and epic and surprising, but always interesting. Don’t miss this one! See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Lovely prog metal (emphasis on the ‘prog’). This is kinda what I really want to hear when I imagine Scale The Summit paired with an appropriate singer. (But there’s also echoes of Don Cab, Torrential Downpour, and Glassjaw.) Special shout out to Chris Alfano for pulling off the hat-trick of laying down bass lines that are simultaneously jazzy, muscular, and unique…. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ If I had to put a label on this, “Cynic-inspired progressive jazz rethrash” isn’t a bad place to start. I like that there’s no heavy reliance on blast beats and busy yet unintelligible riffs. Instead, the band find ways to stitch together lots of various styles, from tech death to groove to… flamenco? See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This solo debut cements Ola Englund as the torchbearer for modern guitar wankery. Imagine a Shrapnel Records vanity album, only by way of Sweden instead of California. (Jason Becker: still alive, gods love him!) Fans of The Haunted expecting more of the same will be disappointed, but keep your eyes on the prize: this album taps into lots of different metal styles, so there’s something here for everyone, even if it isn’t super memorable or emotive. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ The band is focusing anew on technical ability; they’ve been practicing, and it shows. Thusly armed, CoB’s usual treacly nonsense is interspersed between truly shreddy moments. Even without the bonus tracks, the album drags, but it’s still one of the best things the band have ever made. See the rest here
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