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
First Listens With Three-Star Ratings
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
Between The Buried And Me — Automata II
✦✦✦✧ This is the btbamiest album that BTBAM has ever made. Musically, the band have never been in finer form. But in terms of songwriting, “Automata II” reverses the trend toward self-restraint, and gives over to pure self-indulgence. Whereas the first album broke away from both traditional prog metal and classic prog, this album more blatantly evokes Dream Theater and Boston, for good and for ill. See the rest here
At The Gates — To Drink From The Night Itself
✦✦✦✧ The ancient kings of Gothenburg are back, sounding as polished, virtuosic, and driving as ever. And yet, there’s not a lot hear we haven’t heard before. Even as the band nudges their formula here and there, the result is evocative of other melodeath staples (and more often than not, it’s evocative of other bands in post-heyday form; I’m looking at you, The Haunted and In Flames). See the rest here
ASG — Survive Sunrise
✦✦✦✧ This is as good as a stoner metal album can get in 2018 without being great. It’s fantastic that an early progenitor of the subgenre can still sound vigorous and vital, gently expanding the envelope even as they run deeper ruts into the old familiar paths. And yet, there’s something so damned familiar and been-there-done-that about the whole thing. See the rest here
Akhenaten — Golden Serpent God
✦✦✦✧ This death metal band from Colorado wear their Middle Eastern Egyptologist schtick on their sleeves in a big way. This seems far too obvious at first, too on the nose. But it grows on you fast: not only do Akhenaten show that there’s still unplumbed depths to the connection between Middle Eastern music modes and technical death metal, but there’s also something adorable about how committed they are to their sound. See the rest here
Alkaloid — Liquid Anatomy
✦✦✦✧ You’ll be forgiven if your first impression of this prog metal album is that it’s swerving all over the road, from Cynic to Gojira to Gorguts to Torrential Downpour. Just know that you’d be dismissing a unique, deft, and hardly assailable prog metal masterwork. See the rest here
Micawber — Beyond The Reach Of Flame
✦✦✦✧ A subtly interesting album, evincing a rethrashed form of progressive tech death album, with hints of Revocation, Black Dahlia Murder, Job For A Cowboy, and even Control Denied. Just when you think you know where it’s going, it throws a curveball. If there’s a downside here, it’s that it trades immediacy for memorability. See the rest here
De Profundis — The Blinding Light Of Faith
✦✦✦✧ This feels like an updated blend of Discarnate, Sadus, and Deicide. So obviously I dig it. The album does feel like it’s 2 hours long, however. See the rest here
