★★★☆ This album rules! What a bizarre, unique, and hard to dismiss melange of metal… as much Glassjaw, CoC, King’s X, Entombed, and latter-era Pantera as it is a work of metalcore. But I fuckin’ dig it, because it’s got a freshness to the swagger. And most importantly, there’s an astonishing diversity to the tracks even while the band nail down a very specific sound. See the rest here
★★★☆ This was a surprise, considering that almost half of this band is Aaron Turner, the second-hardest working man in metal, and judging from his recent efforts, a confirmed audio sociopath. But rather than an assault of antisocial noise, this is a dirty yet progressive slab of musical rage. It’s somewhere between Isis (natch), Old Man Gloom (natch), and The Jesus Lizard (huh?) See the rest here
★★★☆ This album has all the converge-ish tropes that you’d expect from Call Of The Void. But the real reason to listen to “Ageless” is to check out the weirdly progressive diversions the band explore, evoking the noise-rock of Glassjaw and The Jesus Lizard along the way. See the rest here
★★★☆ Progressive to the point of making you say, “Um, WAT?” You know you’re in for a wild ride when an album treats djent as a basecamp for more adventurous territory. It’s unique and memorable and compelling and weirdly poppy, in all the ways that remind me of Leprous and Textures and Destrage, even though the actual sound of the music is closer to Meshuggah or TesseracT. See the rest here
★★★☆ Everything lacking on Juggernaut: Alpha is fully evident here on Omega. It’s far more cohesive, even as it tilts from djent to late-70s prog and back. And, more importantly, it’s fucking heavy. Nice! See the rest here
★★★☆ This is quite simply one of the finest black metal albums of 2014. With the right kind of ears, you could hear this as if Deliverance-era Opeth decided to fully commit the dark. And the reverb. See the rest here
★★★☆ This is satisfyingly straightforward thrash, not bogged down by overthinking or overproduction. There is a sameness to the material and pace that starts to bog you down after a while, but the overall sound is just different enough to not sound too derivative (while still be very firmly rooted in the genre it so lovingly emulates). See the rest here
★★★☆ A throwback? Perhaps. But this album from Helloween-offshoot Gamma Ray also offers an updated take on some vintage power metal, with hints of Savatage, Queensrÿche, Blind Guardian, and yes Helloween. And Priest. And Queen? And to be honest, the album starts to overstay its welcome about two thirds of the way in. See the rest here
★★★☆ This is a fun half hour of grindcore, as perfectly gross, silly, and sloppy as the genre demands. You’ll likely appreciate it more if you keep in mind that this is the product of a co-ed Bay Area supergroup, featuring ex-members of Exhumed, Repulsion, and local heros The Iron Maidens. See the rest here
★★★☆ This is a mighty fine riff salad of an album. And while there’s plenty of room for Obscura’s drummer to showcase his percussive abilities, he also does a great job as composer and ringleader here. The music is proggier than I was expecting (always a bonus), and the sound comes from somewhere between Obscura and Marty Friedman. See the rest here
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