Derek Smalls — Smalls Change (Meditations Upon Ageing)
✦✦✧✧ At long last, here is the first solo album from the loudest British metal band in history. TKTK See the rest here
First Listens With Two-Star Ratings
Sevendust — All I See Is War
✦✦✧✧ After years of defending Sevendust, this album from them is finally a little more Nickelbackish than I’d like to admit. The big change is the swapping out of actual riffs for DR5-crushed walls of tone, which lays bare some fairly pedestrian songwriting otherwise. At least Lajon Witherspoon continues to deliver world-class vocals. See the rest here
The Armed — Only Love
✦✦✧✧ Giving my beloved The Armed the benefit of the doubt, this is definitely some next-level noise art. However, the dearth of actual tunes here is notable, and a detriment to the album. I’ll listen to it again to see if it grabs me any more, but after my first listen, I’m not (yet?) See the rest here
Cancer Bats — The Spark That Moves
✦✦✧✧ The good: delightfully meaty riffs, a tight runtime, and a punkish production sensibility. The bad: there’s really not much else to say about this album. It gets the job done, but doesn’t give much reason to give it another thought otherwise. See the rest here
Primordial — Exile Among The Ruins
✦✦✧✧ Muddy and meandering, this is a surprisingly limp effort from a band known for energetic excellence. The songs here feel underedited, in terms of musical refinement, emotional resonance, or even just plain length. And the shame of it is that, even with those knocks, you can still get a sense of what might have been: a unique, surefooted, melancholic masterwork. See the rest here
Kalmah — Palo
✦✦✧✧ COOOOOOKIEEEEEEEEEEE! All kidding aside, it was perhaps a tactical mistake for Kalmah to start their latest melodeath album with such a seemingly stereotypical beerhall tune, as that obscures the vitality and innovation found throughout the subsequent tracks. That said, the hits are also surrounded by a few duds and headscratchers. See the rest here
Panopticon — The Scars Of Man On The Once Nameless Wilderness, Pt. 1
✦✦✧✧ Oh, so wintry, blackest of metals, folksiest of dirges. Behold, the snow on the very cover. Observe, the hooting of a fucking owl.
This is not nearly as winsome as Panopticon’s previous album “Autumn Eternal.” At least it occasionally kinda shreds, but it wouldn’t kill Austin Lunn to use a tuner. See the rest here
Kamelot — The Shadow Theory
✦✦✧✧ Absolutely no surprises here: this is textbook power metal, with standout vocals from Tommy Karevik, of course, but not much else to stick in one’s memory. There’s nothing here that I would remotely think of as “bad”… also but nothing here to really stir anyone’s blood. See the rest here
Augury — Illusive Golden Age
✦✦✧✧ Look, there’s no question that these guys shred. And you know how much I dig prominent fretless bass in metal. But aside from that, this is more or less a cautionary tale of post-Cynic metal musicianship gone entirely too far. See the rest here
The Crown — Cobra Speed Venom
✦✦✧✧ This feels like a cross between vintage ATG and vintage The Haunted: speedy, deathy, high-energy, and a bit dated, more stubbornly old-school thrash than rethrash. The riffs are, on the whole, as solid as the playing but far from memorable. Still, this’ll likely lure a begrudging headbob out of you. See the rest here
