✦✦✦✧ This melodeath album wavers from run-of-the-mill Insomnium to goddamn-great Insomnium. I wish the production was a little crisper (although that might just be my Gothenburg bias showing through), but otherwise the shredding and epicness shine brightly enough. Stand-out tracks like “Valediction,” “Pale Morning Star,” and “Twilight Trails” are must-listens, in any event. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Once again answering the question, “What happens when you give Digital Whammy pedals to everyone in a NYC-area mathcore band?”, Car Bomb’s latest feels like the ill-begotten offspring of Converge and Meshuggah (specifically, the latter’s “Contradictions Collapse/None” split). What is surprising is just how listenable this album is, even while kicking down your doors to claim the prize for Most Twisted Album Of 2019. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This is everything you could possibly want from a Norwegian black metal band. You can almost feel the icicles dangling off this album. It’s also a better example of the potential fusion between vintage prog and modern metal. This album is atmospheric and folksy and energetic and so epic. In other words, this album is what I’ve really wanted from Opeth for quite some time now. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This is an enchanting extreme metal (and then some) album, combining the glossy symphonic sensibilities of Blind Guardian with adroitly placed hints of TesseracT, The Contortionist, and even Protest The Hero and Gojira. Aside from the clever and surprising songwriting, the MVP on this album is unquestionably vocalist Vicky Psarakis, who deftly pulls out all the stops, pivoting from wannabe-operatic to hard rock to cookie monster and back again in a way that should finally free her from predecessor Alissa White-Gluz’s shadow. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Pioneers of Southern groove metal Exhorder are back, and as ferocious and energizing as ever! Technically, this is rethrash, except that this album very much feels like what you’d expect if the band had just continued the trajectory they started in the late 80s. The truth is, this is their second reunion, and they’ve been disbanded longer than they’d ever been together. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This album from kings of the second wave of mathcore TNTLLY (their first in a decade) seem to fill a void left by The Dillinger Escape Plan, Mr. Bungle, and pre-Parallax BTBAM… but really it’s anyone’s guess what the band are actually trying to do with this. This album is nothing short than a compendium of inventiveness; believe frontman Jase Korman when he says, “This album is like a galactic freak show advertisement to aliens, telling them to come see this insane place we call Earth.” See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ With this highly anticipated followup to “Mariner” (2016’s critically fawned-over duet with Julie Christmas), Cult Of Luna set a new standard for what post-metal is capable of… this sounds like a mix of Isis, the Inception soundtrack, and BTBAM. Deeply evocative, peerlessly heavy, and interesting enough to justify the uncompromising pacing (8 songs, 79 minutes). See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This is the blend of Leprous, The Faceless, Scale The Summit, and BTBAM you didn’t know you needed. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ If you absolutely have to put out music in 2019 that’s inspired by nu metal and industrial, at least be as fun as WSS are on this album. It helps tremendously that they’ve mastered the art of blending early 00’s sensibilities and present-day tropes; I never would have thought to blend metalcore, Chester Bennington-style screams, and trap music… but it’s so crazy and fun that it just might work for you! See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Some veteran thrash bands have come out of their slumbers with attempts at reinventing themselves; not these guys, who are clearly invigorated by the prospect of putting out a fresh batch of the same old shit (for the first time in 23 years). And it’s all still here: Phil Rind’s strong vocals, Dave McClain’s concussive drumming, and shredding guitars by Wiley Arnett and (sole newcomer) Joey Radziwill. See the rest here
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