High On Fire — Electric Messiah
✦✦✦✧ This is Matt Pike et al at their most Motörheadesque. See the rest here
First Listens With Three-Star Ratings
Sumac — Love in Shadow
✦✦✦✧ First off, don’t let the 4-song-66-minutes thing fool you: there are definitely sections and breaks in those tracks. That said, this feels like Sumac’s attempt at pulling a Catch Thirty Three. And the band pull it off a surprisingly high percentage of the time. Yet, this brand of post metal can’t seem to consistently bridle their experimentalism to the yoke of listenability. See the rest here
Psycroptic — As The Kingdom Drowns
✦✦✦✧ Groovy, surly, and above all tight as a drum. This band have improved their parlor trick of making catchy, accessible, technical death metal with feel. The title track alone is worth the price of admission, but the whole album is a Must Listen. See the rest here
Pig Destroyer — Head Cage
✦✦✦✧ This is not exactly what I came to expect from Pig Destroyer. It’s oddly accessible… for a grindcore boot to the teeth. It’s also full of hints at a (dare I say) progressive streak running under the surface, if not quite erupting right on the skin. More than anything, this makes me excited for the next thing PD put out. See the rest here
Unearth — Extinction(s)
✦✦✦✧ Once again, Unearth bust out of their metalcore pigeonhole and bring us an expansive, reimagining of the genre. Do I detect hints of Acacia Strain, Meshuggah, and Machine Head between the breakdowns? Headnoddin’ good times, brah! See the rest here
Beyond Creation — Algorythm
✦✦✦✧ As to be expected, this BC album starts out sounding primarily like a showcase for fretless bassmanship. (Playing to the judge? I’ll allow it.) And while I’m talking about the bass, I need to highlight that “newcomer” Hugo Doyon-Karout more than fills his predecessor’s shoes. But the album quickly shifts gears into a more nuanced form of technical death metal, jazzier and more inventive than before. See the rest here
Gorod — Aethra
✦✦✦✧ Three years since their last album, Gorod return with a more honed approach. Their sound now is still solid technodeath, but with a renewed commitment to songcraft. The band wields a more diverse palette this time around, channelling Gojira, Revocation, and early Mastodon… while simultaneously reining in their prior self-indulgences. See the rest here
Parius — The Eldritch Realm
✦✦✦✧ BTBAM much? Seriously though: this is very tasty, restrained, and fun prog death. It’s remarkable in fact how much room the band give their material to develop, considering this is a 7-track EP. See the rest here
Soreption — Monument Of The End
✦✦✦✧ Predictability. Restraint. Understatement. These words just do not apply to Soreption, who manage to outdo themselves in terms of ridiculousness of tech death excess. I can’t say that their unbound bravara makes for a better album, but it sure is impressive. See the rest here
Baptists — Beacon Of Faith
✦✦✦✧ This 38-minute collection of 13 post-hardcore songs is like a punch to the face. Effective and energetic, well-paced, with just enough innovation and variability to avoid tedium (the Jesus-Lizard-tinged “Capsule” and Isis-like dirge of “Eulogy Template” are two of my favorite moments). See the rest here
