✦✦✦✧ This is a surprisingly fun time. As Ice-T says himself on “Raining Blood/Postmortem”, this is equal parts Sabbath, Suicidal, and Slayer. This isn’t going to move the needle in terms of metal evolution or anything, but that’s not why you listen to Body Count. You listen because you want to hear a bunch of homies from the hood throwing down some earnest hardcore and speed metal. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Djentcore lives on! Equal parts Periphery, Karnivool, Linkin Park, and Bring Me The Horizon. Sadly, it takes the band at least half an album to really find their footing, so if you’re particularly sensitive to awkward sequencing (or just wanna get to the really good stuff), focus on the last four tracks for ultimate justice. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ FFAA (F2A2?) pick up where they left off 17 months ago with their Gojira+JFAC style of deathcore, adding more than a few touches of modern Meshuggah to their already potent witches’ brew. This is one heavy slab of music, and somehow it manages to convey an even more cohesive and unique sound than ever before. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ You know, for a Kurt Ballou produced recording, this album has surprising depth behind its muscular aggression. It’s a spin on the band’s typical deathy metalcore-laden explorations that actually improves things. And just when you think you’ve got a handle on the compositions, Michael Carrigan’s leads come in and inevitably take things up a notch. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ A definitely improvement over the supergroup’s 2014 debut. This sounds much more like a fusion of King’s X and Lynch Mob, with a competent drummer (and fortunately no Kornisms sneaking in over the fence). Also, George Lynch can do no wrong. 66 minutes is at least 20 minutes too many, though. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This album starts out in a rough way… like the worst parts of Scatterbrain, Suicidal Tendencies, and Municipal Waste hogtied together. I’m very, very conflicted about the too-funky bass antics of Nick Schendzielos. Not at all conflicted about David Sanchez’s lyrics and vocals, which are as subtle as Dave Mustaine’s fever dreams. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ It’s been two years, almost to the day, since Junius stunned us with their doomed EP “Days Of The Fallen Sun.” As before, the band’s blend of The Ocean, Sleep, and VAST comes across as immense, intense, and lachrymose. What makes this album a progression is the sense of uneasy equilibrium that the music maintains, like the band could nail this tone all day long. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ There is something both unabashedly old fashioned and cleverly fresh about this latest slab of death metal from Immolation. The sound here is nasty in that early-90s Deicide way, but also atmospheric in a way that leans almost progressive. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ The band continue their hofbrau’s-kitchen-sink pillaging of all other things sludgey and jangly, to great effect. What I said for their last album still holds: “Norma Jean meets Unsane meets Tool meets Clutch meets The Mars Volta meets Mastodon meets Baroness…” There’s a slightly more witchy influence here, which I’m diggin’. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ You’ll find haunting hybridizations here of Tool, Opeth, Porcupine Tree, Karnivool, and Leprous… with plenty of hints of folk, indie, and ambient rock thrown in for good measure. The band is doubling down on emotionality here, focusing on sublimely excellent songcraft, but at the expense of any overt signs of self-indulgence. See the rest here
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