Animals As Leaders — Parrhesia
✦✦✦✧ This is AAL at their heaviest in a very long time, if ever. Feel free to thank Misha Mansoor, whose production and arrangement assistance can be heard throughout the album. See the rest here
First Listens With Three-Star Ratings
Dark Funeral — We Are The Apocalypse
✦✦✦✧ This album delivers everything you might want from these exemplars of black metal’s second wave, but Dark Funeral do it in ways that sound anything other than trite or formulaic. This is a surprisingly expansive and experimental collection of songs. See the rest here
Arkaik — Labyrinth Of Hungry Ghosts
✦✦✦✧ Very tasty tech death from a bunch of Californian veterans (Alterbeast, Vale Of Pnath, Hatriot). The music shreds, it’s inventive, and it’s even got groove at times. And I’m glad that they kept the mean and median song length to six minutes; when it comes to metal this frantic, you’re still going to suffer blisters. See the rest here
Crowbar — Zero And Below
✦✦✦✧ Crowbar are like well-oiled clockwork. This album delivers the heavy, sludgey goods that we require of the band. While nothing here stands out as career-defining, that’s like complaining that a particular lasagna isn’t the best you’ve ever had. Quit yer complaining. See the rest here
Ghost — Impera
✦✦✦✧ While this is about as metal as Rush, Van Hagar, or ABBA… it’s nonetheless an excellently crafted modern take on progressive classic rock, with a tendency toward anthemic bombast. But quibbles aside, this is likely Ghost’s best album to date. (And honestly, they do get pretty close to actual metal in a couple of places on the album: check out “Watcher In The Sky” and “Twenties” if the hard rock isn’t hardcore enough.) See the rest here
Corpsegrinder — Corpsegrinder
✦✦✦✧ I may be projecting, but this album has a slight air of primitivism that reminds me more of Deicide than anything Cannibal Corpse have done in over a decade. At other times it sounds like Brujeria crossed with DETHKLOK. One thing’s for sure: it’s heavy like a heavy thing!! See the rest here
HammerFall — Hammer Of Dawn
✦✦✦✧ This is exactly how I like my power metal: formulaic, unapologetic, and fist-pumping! See the rest here
Allegaeon — Damnum
✦✦✦✧ Eight years ago, techdeath darlings Allegaeon released Elements of the Infinite, developing for themselves a reputation for virtuosic unseriousness. They’ve been trying to distance themselves from the goofiness assumption ever since, in the process sounding like they’re still trying to figure out what their sound is. I’m happy to say that Damnum is a mighty step in the right direction, delivering dazzling, surprising, and energetic progressive metal that repeatedly manages to sound both fresh and familiar. See the rest here
Cult Of Luna — The Long Road North
✦✦✦✧ This album from Sweden’s kings of post metal builds on and refines the sound from its predecessor A Dawn To Fear. Their sonic palette is expanded and even moodier and more interesting, and the production affords the music more space to inhabit and breathe. If I imagine what Isis might have sounded like if they’d continued their ascendancy, this album is pretty close to it. See the rest here
Once Human — Scar Weaver
✦✦✦✧ I have somehow been snoozing on Logan Mader’s work after he left Machine Head. What a great time then to hop on Once Human’s bandwagon: this album feels like a wholly cohesive statement, yet not quite like anything else you can hear today. Lauren Hart’s vocals that remind of Chester Bennington as often as of Joe Duplantier, all to great effect. See the rest here
