✦✦✧✧ Pathologically bombastic as always, although the extreme metal and symphonic passages are less disjointed on this album than they were on “Titan.” There are pleasant attempts here to push the band’s own envelope of creativity and experimentation, and Logan Mader’s production wisely emphasizes the actual band’s performances more than it did last time out. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Consistency seems to be the name of the game for this Brooklyn trio, and their latest slab of instrumental shoegaze metal can boast the same feats and fumbles as last time. This is engrossing and effectively moody, like the best parts of Isis and Deafheaven. At the same time, one gets the sense from the beginning that this isn’t stuff that’ll easily come to mind when the music stops. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Typically, one doesn’t listen to TAIM for subtlety, or innovation, or expansion of the genre. One listens when in need of a good beating. Well, on this album the Australian deathcore quintet give you that brütality in spades, and they successfully throw in just a little innovation to boot. Still, you can depend on blast beats and breakdowns to carry you through this frenetic fusillade. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This is a thoroughly solid speed metal/melodeath album, with tasty riffs throughout, and top-notch shredding by everyone in the band (who, it should be stated, are the same people behind Dethklok). That said… while this could be thought of as an unlicensed Dethklok album (at least according to Brendon Small and Gene Hoglan), the name isn’t the only thing missing from this album. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ An old fashioned slab of music that splits its time between deathy thrash and energetic stoner metal, like a bunch of Slayer B-sides as if hastily mixed by Joe Barresi. The title track reminds me of a sloppier Slipknot. But I’m not harshing on this album with any real malice; it’s a fun enough time, in a barroom-brawler way. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ I’m sure there are great ways to avoid having Dead Cross sound like “Mike Patton, Dave Lombardo, and two other dudes.” This album, however, is not one of them. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This is what vintage Swedish Death Metal is all about: rawness and blast beats and “blech”s and nasty tone. This is also something you’ve definitely heard before. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This mostly-Burnt-By-The-Sun not-a-supergroup (also featuring ex-members of Municipal Waste and Revocation) is some nasty business. It’s first and foremost a tour of various kinds of aggression and swagger (evocative at times of Norma Jean, Entombed, and Sepultura at their punkiest). This, the band’s eponymous debut, is a weighty chunk of red meat without any filler. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This is a wildly off-balanced album. Track after track, you’re not sure if you’re listening to a Prong deep cut, a latter-era King’s X single, a particularly aggressive Linkin Park track, the title track of the next Tremonti album, etc. But despite the odds, this makes for an oddly compelling listen. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Neoclassical technodeath with an almost self-conscious fixation on deconstructing the form. This reminds me of Disincarnate’s debut, in the context of the early-to-mid-90s status quo. It is both unfortunate and telling that this Decrepit Birth album reminds me of something from 24 years ago; while there’s definite progress with great listenability on here, I’m left with the feeling that this album belongs to a different decade. See the rest here
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