✦✦✧✧ Don’t let the on-brand weak album cover put you off too much: there’s some tasty rockin’ out here. Sure, Udo’s voice feels a little shaky at times. But many of the tracks here remind me of Accept, albeit with an updated production that makes this sound more rethrash than retread. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This sounds like a mellower Machine Head, circa 1993. Curiously, the album sounds a little more energetic in the back half. I don’t hate it. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ The good news: when David Ellefson starts a new band, you can be guaranteed that you’ll hear the bass in the mix. The bad news: this band is all over the frickin’ place. You’ll hear the influence of every group that David and the other members have been a part of (Megadeth, Soulfly, Access Denied, Decapitated, Entombed A.D., See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This album’s all over the place, which is saying a lot for typically-already-batshit A7X. It’s a concept album. It’s nu metal. It’s pop. It shreds (but usually for no discernible reason). I dunno: it reminds me a lot of Destrage and Faith No More, only not in ways I actually enjoy? See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ High-octane hardcore/rethrash goodness! The back half has some odd experiments that may or may not win you over, but so what! Ten songs! Twenty five minutes! Pop it on when you’re driving, and get there faster! Blegh! See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This is both the weirdest and heaviest thing that Sevendust have put out, both fresh and tired at the same time. Hey, at least it’s chock full of surprises! See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This is a frustrating mixed bag of an album, with passages of satisfying crunch tempered by synthpop-informed atmospherics and no real consideration for flow or momentum. Holocene is dogged by a pervasive feeling of building up for a climactic payoff that never comes. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This is my frontrunner for the most ChatGPT djent album of the year. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ The band’s trademark blend of black metal and gothic rock is still present, but it feels more than ever like an underpowered version of Ghost. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This is undeniably Metallica. It’s also pretty boring. Also also, it’s about twice as long as it needs to be. Not only does it have too many songs, and not only are the songs overlong, but even at the riff level, they tend to repeat too many times. You know you’re in trouble when you’re thinking about the Skip button about 20 seconds into a track. See the rest here
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