✦✦✦✧ This is some delightfully noisome aggression. Self-assured and epic in its scope, the album is like a moodier and darker Entombed. There’s a blackened/gothic rock vibe that brings a smile, if not a full-on fist pump. “Ode To The Flame” goes on a little longer than I’d like, though. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ The mad men of Milan are back with this predictably unpredictable metal smorgasbord. There are too many flavors to list here (DEP, SOAD, IWABO, Racer X, Maximum The Hormone, etc and so forth), but rather than coming across as self-indulgent, these pulls are all employed for the benefit of your ears. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Nasty, sludgy, stoney doom! There’s a soggy industrial nihilism to this band’s sound, reminiscent of Unsane or Eyehategod. Good lawd is this music heavy. There’s a good 20 minute stretch that feels like one massive breakdown though which may test your stamina. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Imagine if Cynic had decided, ten years ago, to double down on their tech death leanings. Then imagine if they’d released an EP and gone into hiding for a while, quietly working on their craft in secret, before securing a gross vocalist and dropping a masterpiece on an unsuspecting metal landscape. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Holy fuck is this heavy. “Paradise Gallows” makes Inter Arma’s previous releases sound like “(Listen To The) Flower People.” But that sledgehammer to your balls is not without finesse; how else could this band pull off 90 minutes without it feeling overly long? The expert pacing makes possible the band’s ability to cover a vast terrain of moods and progressive elements. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This is perhaps AAL’s best album since their 2009 debut. The band take a more spartan, less-distorted approach to their fourth album, which pays off handsomely. AAL’s brand of metal has always been less about walls of overdriven sound and more about precisely frenetic rhythm, and that’s all the truer here, where clean strings are even more predominant. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Wow. This album defies categorization. You could, with equal precision and certitude, call it black metal, stoner metal, space psychadelia, prog metal, 70s prog rock, world music… I could keep going. It’s surefooted in its dominance, without being ostentatious about it. And it’s full of surprises. A fascinating must-listen, which reminds me of Ihsahn but with more ambition, if you can imagine such a thing. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This is some highly polished stoner metal, equal parts Kyuss, King’s X, and latter-era AIC. But I mention all of that as a loose interpretation of what the band actually do with this album; the one universal thing you can say about it is that it’s unpredictable. I wouldn’t call it innovation, so much as avid remixing, but I give ’em plenty of props for keeping me guessing, and keeping me entertained throughout. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ If you’re already a PTH fan, this collection of songs will give you exactly what you already know to look for. Ridiculously blistering, convoluted riffs undergird Rody Walker’s distinctive and melodramatic vocals. And the musicianship is as flawless as ever, with new drummer Mike Ieradi and bassist Cam McLennan ably filling the busy shoes of Chris Adler and Arif Mirabdolbaghi, respectively. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This debut from underground noise rock darlings seems to hit all the right notes at first blush: feel-it-in-your-balls drums, screechy screams, maximized and compressed bass and guitar, tasty feedback doled out generously. There’s also a self-conscious and catchy winking quality here that occasionally threatens to undermine the band’s emotional effectiveness. See the rest here
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