First Listens With Three-Star Ratings

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Every Time I Die — Radical

✦✦✦✧ ETID is as vital and imaginative as ever on this album, but this time around their mathy metalcore maelstrom feels more political than I recall them being before, in ways both overt and subtle. The album is chock full of pleasing surprises and upheavals. The whole band sound great, but special props to vocalist Keith Buckley, whose range is as impressive as his commitment to every style he reaches for, and to newcomer Goose Holyoak on drums, fresh off a few years with my other fave metalcore standardbearers Norma Jean.

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Gojira — Fortitude

✦✦✦✧ This is as much an evolution from 2016’s accessible hit Magma, as it is a descendent of their earlier albums. Fortitude is the best of both wordsL experimental, driving, satisfying, heavy, and confident. My only question is: what more can Gojira do before they’re accepted into the media mainstream?

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Aborted — ManiaCult

✦✦✦✧ The latest from Belgian deathgrind heroes Aborted continues the band’s fascinating and satisfying assault, following their career-long trajectory that has me convinced they’re Carcass from a parallel and slightly more demented universe. There’s not much innovation here, but with shredding this lethal, who’s going to complain?

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Whitechapel — Kin

✦✦✦✧ This is unusually catchy, but it’s also very sufficiently tech-deathy. There’s an obvious lean toward songcraft here; that, coupled with the ultra crisp production and emotive cleans, combine to file down the rough edges a bit, giving you an album that often sounds more like Parkway Drive than The Acacia Strain.

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Vildhjarta — Måsstaden Under Vatten

✦✦✦✧ Vildhjarta prefers their djent jarring and jazzy (djarring and djazzy). Good god, this album is heavy. But the heaviness hides some inner subtlety and beauty, in the staccato spaces between the palm mutes and quarter-note crashes. Vilhelm Bladin’s Swedish screaming are paradoxically an essential part of the listening experience, adding a layer of focus and attention to the music that can often sound chaotic at best; familiarity with the Swedish language is not required.

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Between The Buried And Me — Colors II

✦✦✦✧ If you’ve never listened to BTBAM before, start with Alaska or Parallax II, but work your way back here.

If you’re already a BTBAManiac, here’s the deal: this is pure fan-service, and you’re going to eat it up. It’s as much a remake as it is a sequel. Fear not: you’re going to love all the many callbacks to Colors I, as well the novel forays into straight-up jazz, flamenco, and… hard rock?

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Tomahawk — Tonic Immobility

✦✦✦✧ Is this even metal? No, it is not (which is a surprise, given that the group now consists of people from FNM, The Jesus Lizard, Mr Bungle, and Helmet/Battles). But it is imminently listenable, endlessly innovative, and just lots of fun. Mybe I’m just a sucker for Duane Denison’s inimitable guitar stylings propping up Mike Patton’s vocal madness.

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