✦✦✦✧ The band’s previous album Vector had me worried, but somehow the band correct for past sins here, without abandoning their trademark accessible eccentricity. Indeed, the band continue to wear their influences on their sleeves (Dream Theater, Devin Townsend, Leprous, SikTh, Karnivool, Porcupine Tree, Tool) while also managing to surprise and delight. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This is definitely my preferred portion of the now collective 3 hours that make up the Phanerozoic suite. Seemingly more deliberate than Phanerozoic I: Palaezoic, Messrs. Staps et al find novel ways to express their creativity without sacrificing coherence or ferocity. Definitely listen to the whole album, as it looks to map the passage of geologic time, lyrically and musically, over a span of 250 million years… with accompanying genre shifts along the way. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This, finally, is an Enslaved album that I can enjoy without reservation. The pacing is great, bordering on psychic; the blending of styles (black metal, prog, beerhall, Viking, jazz) is tasteful, sensible, and pleasing to the ear. This is a Must Listen for sure, and my favorite Enslaved album ever. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Perhaps the most inscrutable, internally consistent album I’ve heard since The Mars Volta’s Amputechture. The band’s third album introduces a new element to their sound: throughout, there’s now a new sense of Something Gone Wrong here, which really hones the edge of their music’s inventiveness and unpredictability. Give it an honest chance; this album has surprises up its sleeve. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Delicious prog death! BCI’s sound is leaning now more in the prog direction. It’s also the most surgical and precise kind of brütal hëaviness I’ve heard in a long time, maybe ever. It’s quite an achievement. Also, I am loving the split vocal stylings of James Dorton (growls) and Andy Thomas (cleans). See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This is a fun old-style prog debut that’s halfway between Mastodon, Tool, and Intronaut… but with more grit than any of those. It is remarkable (in a good way) that an album this full of innovative twists and turns can come across as so unsurprising or natural. Aside from that faint praise, my only gripe is that this album feels overlong by a lot. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ If you’re a Deftones fan, this album offers tantalizing glimpses of near greatness. It’s the first time in 17 years that the band have worked with the great Terry Date, and their combined production choices yield very listenable, if not always straightforward, sonic decisions. Those choices just contribute to an overall sense of the band now being so post-meta that us listeners are just going to have to play catchup. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Once again, Xibalba add to their growing witches’ brew of influences with ease, melding vintage death metal, grind, doom, hardcore, and sludge. And it all makes ferocious sense! The real surprise here comes in the last two tracks. I won’t spoil it for you, but it gives you a sense of where Xibalba may go in the future, and it’s exciting yet unexpected. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This album perfectly marries the attitude of hardcore and the sound of aggressive industrial, resulting in a post-metal, post-punk triumph, reminiscent of (Arsies winners) The Armed’s “Untitled.” The riffs may not always be memorable, but the band commit to them with such gusto that it’s hard to resist their charm. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Lorna Shore go full-epic on their latest album, blending blistering deathcore with symphonic embellishments throughout every song (and I do mean throughout; think violin swells and choral pads behind blast beats). The back half of the album does run out of steam, but there’s plenty here to enjoy for at least 30 minutes. See the rest here
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