Judas Priest — Firepower
✦✦✦✧ A reassuringly good and fun album. This sounds like Priest has been listening to Overkill a bit, but otherwise it’s exactly what you’d hope to hear. Rob’s voice is in fine, fine form of course. See the rest here
First Listens With Three-Star Ratings
Slugdge — Esoteric Malacology
✦✦✦✧ The highly anticipated album from our favorite space-slug-themed band does not disappoint. The music is massive like Gojira, inventive and suitably alien like Gorguts, but catchy like Mastodon. And yet, Slugdge manage to avoid some of the pitfalls that have recently tripped up those progenitors. Honestly, this is far better than anyone has a right to expect. See the rest here
Extinction A.D. — Decimation Treaty
✦✦✦✧ I wouldn’t even call this rethrash; more than anything else, this feels just like a vintage Anthrax album I’d never heard before. I ain’t complaining, especially when they step out from that core sound, and evoke fresh takes on other thrash classics such as Exodus, Powermad, and yes, 3250. See the rest here
Rolo Tomassi — Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It
✦✦✦✧ This new Rolo Tomassi album operates in two modes fairly equally: interestingly jazzy post-trip-hop and chaotic mathcore, like DEP meets Lamb meets Norma Jean. The beautiful thing here is that neither mode feels like filler against the other. It’s all internally consistent, cohesive, and compelling. And in a further evolution for the band, the album’s emotional range is almost cinematic in scope. See the rest here
The Atlas Moth — Coma Noir
✦✦✦✧ The Isis-meets-APC vibe of TAL is more finely tuned on this album than ever before. Heavy, moody, and unique. See the rest here
Harms Way — Posthuman
✦✦✦✧ Goddamn, this industrialcore album is unapologetically nasty. There are fun and clever flourishes throughout, which only accentuate the otherwise singleminded pummeling on every track. See the rest here
Good Tiger — We Will All Be Gone
✦✦✦✧ The supergroup’s sophomore album still has a lot of the magic as was evident in their 2015 debut “A Head Full Of Moonlight“, but the band’s musicality, emotionality, ambition, and strangeness are all dialed down a bit. This comes across more as a new maturity than any loss of momentum or inspiration, the result still captivating in its not-quite-*core pop-metal sensibilities. See the rest here
Krallice — Go Be Forgotten
✦✦✦✧ Take the band’s last release (the two-month-old “Loüm”) and blend it with… the Inception soundtrack? See the rest here
Sons Of Apollo — Psychotic Symphony
✦✦✦✧ This debut album pretty much comes from a parallel universe Dream Theater, along the way improving upon every complaint I’ve had about DT for years (with stronger vocals, less formulaic prog, real balls to the metal). Hell, even the three obviously-for-radio tracks are at worst inoffensive (take that, “Surrounded”). There’s also a delightful early-90s bum-shaking the permeates the whole thing… except for when it’s replaced with what I swear can only be homages to the band UK. See the rest here
Glassjaw — Material Control
✦✦✦✧ This feels like a progression and successor to the band’s previous album, 2002’s “Worship And Tribute.” It’s a testament to Daryl Palumbo and Justin Beck that they sound as potent, masterful, and energetic fifteen years down the line. Among other things, “Material Control” is a study in how far a band can stray from their own tropes and still sound like themselves. See the rest here
