Paradise Lost — Medusa
✦✦✦✧ This album surprised me. Surprisingly compelling riffs adorn like filigrees a sturdy base of energetic doom, adding an energy and diversity that I don’t remember from past Paradise Lost albums. See the rest here
First Listens With Three-Star Ratings
The Haunted — Strength In Numbers
✦✦✦✧ This latest album is quintessential Haunted, but not in a way that relies on the proven formula. There is a reinvigorated savagery here, as well as a new melodic sensibility throughout. Those two observations don’t normally coexist well, but on “Strength In Numbers” they thrive in equal measure. I know that, when reviewing their last album “Exit Wounds,” I’d said that it was the best thing the band’s done since “The Dead Eye.” See the rest here
Cormorant — Diaspora
✦✦✦✧ Cormorant continue their dirty Mastodon-meets-The-Ocean blitz, trading some of their progginess for straight-up sludge. Doubling down on their doomier tendencies seems like a smart move for the band, as it gives them more space to explore and elaborate than ever before. But the last ten minutes is ten minutes too long for this album. See the rest here
Byzantine — The Cicada Tree
✦✦✦✧ Groovy, surefooted, at once familiar and alien… this is classic Byzantine, doing what they do best. As has become par for the course with this band, I still don’t know whether to classify them as prog, thrash, hard rock, djent, agitprop… comparisons to Lamb Of God, Porcupine Tree, Alice In Chains, Meshuggah… all of these approximations fit, and yet all miss the mark. See the rest here
Origin — Unparalleled Universe
✦✦✦✧ Ridiculous technodeath is ridiculous. That’s to be expected from Origin. They may have taken things a bit too far this time around, with their wankery devolving at times into pure implausibility. The drums are particularly unbelievable. However, undergirding the comically precise shredding is a latest catchiness that feels more pronounced since the band’s last album (2014’s “Omnipresent”). See the rest here
Bison — You Are Not The Ocean You Are The Patient
✦✦✦✧ Bison (formerly Bison B.C.) return after five long years with a new label and a “new” take on their energetic stoner metal. The sound is brighter but not necessarily more polished, and their sludge has burrowed down so far as to come out the other side, sounding more like Unsane, Kyuss, or Fu Manchu than Baroness. See the rest here
Boris — Dear
✦✦✦✧ The experimental trio from Japan return to a doomy form that they’ve been distancing themselves from for at least 7 years. Far from a tired capitulation, this album feels like a reinvigoration. The music here resonates with a brawny emotionality that belies the band’s laboratory leanings. See the rest here
Sentient Ignition — Enthroned In Gray
✦✦✦✧ A really interesting and lovely technodeath debut that does a remarkable job of broadening the usual scope of others in the subgenre. The music here cartwheels from Euro-style symphonic bombast to moments of mature, laid back atmosphere. Also, the shredding is nonstop (but not overbearing). Prog this busy, and yet this endearing, is a rare beast indeed. See the rest here
Decapitated — Anticult
✦✦✦✧ This is a terse, energetic, and fun Decapitated album, better than its predecessor “Blood Mantra” but not quite as insta-classic as “Carnival Is Forever.” This also feels like a gateway Decapitated album, in a couple of ways. First, while the songs are replete with stock Decapitatedisms, there’s also plenty of new influences to be found here (Meshuggah and Slipknot chiefly among them). See the rest here
Goatwhore — Vengeful Ascension
✦✦✦✧ Just as nasty as you’d expect from Goatwhore (think somewhere between Belphegor, Entombed, and Morbid Angel)… but damn is this groovy and tasty and interesting. Never have these guys sounded as self-assured and rollicking. The second half of the album is even more special than the first, so stay for the whole thing. See the rest here
