★★★☆ A darker, and yet more expansive turn from the usually uber-predictable kings of melodeath. Everyone in the band is in top form, of course, with special props to Dick Verbeuren and Sylvain Coudret on drums and rhythm guitars, respectively. As for the songsmithing, the departures from their norm are generally very welcome, and at times remind me of Dream Theater, Gojira, and other proggy bands (each at their own darkest). See the rest here
★★★☆ The first track is arguably the weakest song on this album. It’s a warmup, a tone setter. It’s also a good gatekeeper to the rest of the album: if you can’t stomach the first five minutes, you might miss all the really good parts of this deceptive shower. This is Ghost, returning to the form of their debut album: unabashedly fanboyish of the best parts of the 70s, joyously rockin’, and genuinely epic. See the rest here
★★★☆ There are two kinds of music on this album, both seemingly from a sleep-deprived night in a house much too big for comfort. The first type of music is fuzzy and bassy and sumptuous and perfectly disorienting, familiar with but still unlike Godspeed, Sleep, Russian Circles, V.A.S.T., and St.Vincent. That stuff is pure win, and a must-listen. See the rest here
★★★☆ You might as well call this “Monolith Of Inhumanity v2.0″… and I mean that in the best way possible. The band have taken the best parts of that previous album, and expanded on what worked before. This is a cohesive, self-assured blackgrind with plenty of twists and turns, but also tons of technical shredding. See the rest here
★★★☆ From an instrumental aspect, this album is metal as fuck. The pacing is excellent, and the extremes are as extreme as I could ever ask of a band with a hard rock pedigree. But vocally, it lies somewhere between King’s X and Saliva, and that’s hard to not hear. Still, this ill-fitting formula works really well when the metal eases up a bit, and the more emotive songs on this album work a kind of retroactive magic on the more jarring fist-to-face tracks. See the rest here
★★★☆ This 9-song, 24-minute living homage to classic/ancient grindcore is near perfection. It’s heavy as shit, and mean, and the energy is off the charts. And just when you think you know what playbook the band are using, they add enough flavor from other related genres (noise, doom, punk) to keep it interesting. See the rest here
★★★☆ ABR manage to walk a tightwire act of opening up their sound and adding experimental elements to their sound, while still being recognizably metalcore. At first blush, I can hear borrowings from near (KSE, AILD) and far (The Mars Volta, BTBAM), but even at their riskiest the band never stray too far from The Metal, which is a good thing. See the rest here
★★★☆ This reminds me of The Ocean, Indian, The Faceless, and Gorguts all at the same time. Those are all great ingredients, and the musicianship is tight, and oh my god so much bass in the mix! I don’t really even mind the all-screamo-all-the-time vocals, although that’s definitely costing ’em. Also, big props for naming a song after the town next to the one I live in. See the rest here
★★★☆ With my short and sweet Firstie for IWABO’s previous record still in my memory, I’ll admit I was not looking forward to listening to this album today. And so, I wasn’t prepared for how… thoroughly effective this one is. The band have settled into a much more economical brand of still-insane 8bitdigidjentymetalcore, trading their goofy self-indulgences for unsubtle savagery. See the rest here
★★★☆ LOG’s seventh album showcases the band tempering their tried-and-true shredding with slivers of other kinds of metal (metalcore, thrash, heavy metal). The approach doesn’t always pay off (Chino Moreno’s guest vocals are a low point for the whole album), but on the whole it’s a welcome addition. Of course, when the band return to form, they really deliver the goods. See the rest here
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