✦✦✧✧ More engaging than your typical old-school Scandanavian black metal, but don’t worry: the shitty production values and Crypt Keeper vocal stylings are still in full effect. Not quite as experimental as past Watain albums, but the band strike a good balance here between unusual chord progressions and obligatory-screaming-in-the-cold-forest fundamentals. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Doggedly ferocious and unpristine, this is what you want a Morbid Angel to sound like. It’s also more interesting than I feared, with some clever and unusual riffs and moments buried under the bare brutality. And yet, this album often feels like a Frankenstein’s monster of death metal B-sides and bridges crammed together. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This is, at first, a somewhat frustrating album. It’s still recognizably The Faceless, but the music’s taken on a new inconsistency and weirdness (and Michael Keene is no stranger to weirdness). It starts very strongly (skipping the throwaway opener), with something akin to radio-friendliness without losing any of the technical bravado or progressive elements. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ A well-crafted, but ultimately too precious, collection of prog. Too much of the album feels like forced meditation, with a minimalistic reliance on droning repetition. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Baroness meets Linkin Park meets Periphery? I’ll give them this: it’s a unique sounding album. It’s also wildly uneven. Worth a once-through, although I’m left with the nagging question: is this actually metal? See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ If you can imagine the Brothers Cavalera being abducted in 1990, shoved into a time-traveling van, and driven to a modern recording studio while listening to Slayer’s “Undisputed Attitude”, you can imagine what this album sounds like. Certainly interesting from a sci-fi/ethnomusicological standpoint, but not as intriguing as a metal album. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ After the full-throated “A World Lit Only By Fire,” this new album from Godflesh feels like a cruel hard turn of the steering wheel, off the familiar if potholed road the band helped pave. At least the album telegraphs the move into its new territory: more experimental, moodier, and absolutely industrial. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ After shocking us with the unreasonably good album “Inferno”, Marty returns to form and satisfies every preconception; this is about as good as it gets for self-indulgent lead guitarist wankery. Largely, this is a problem of balance (a tricky thing to nail). There are sporadic moments of red-blooded metal mayhem strewn about, but they’re tempered too often by cheese. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ If you’re already a fan of Cradle of Filth, this album will most certainly satisfy. It’s more of the same, only better. Full disclosure: I am not one of those fans. In particular, Dani Filth’s vocals have always gotten on my nerves. But everything else is very well done, and there’s enough meat on the bone that I don’t mind the gristle as much as I have in past albums. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This is a weirdly uneven album, careening from rethrash to Megadeth at their cheesiest to… is that Jackyl? Steel Panther? Founder Jeff Waters has been fronting the band since the last album, as well as producing the album, which partially explains the unfortunate prevalence of questionable vocal choices high in the mix. See the rest here
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