First Listens With Three-Star Ratings

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Dead Congregation — Promulgation of the Fall

★★★☆ My very first thought was, “Ugh. What crappy production.” That thought lingered for about two minutes, before the rest of this impressive album carried me away. This is forty economically brütal minutes of modern death metal. And by that, I don’t mean a retread of well-traveled territory; even with all the blast beats, 32nd-note riffs, and artificial harmonics at their disposal, this band have crafted some truly non-derivative metal.

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Ne Obliviscaris — Citadel

★★★☆ The closest thing I can compare this to is Cynic’s “Traced In Air.” But I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention that this album reminded me of UK’s first album, and of BTBAM in one of their less carny moods. Here are a group that manage to intersperse violin solos and flamenco guitars with blast beats and furious palm-mute riffs in a way that feels organic and reasonable, as all of it combines to a lavish soundscape that’s hard to pin down.

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Beneath — The Barren Throne

★★★☆ In ways subtle and otherwise, this album feels like more of the spiritual successor to Decapitated’s “Carnival Is Forever” than that band’s followup album from this year. Beneath have produced a blistering barrage of technical death, tirelessly ferocious but with moments of almost progressive ambition. While there are perhaps not enough changes in dynamics and timbre to make this a masterpiece, it’s still sure to be a crowdpleaser: dark, surefooted, and a bona fide bile-raiser.

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Cavalera Conspiracy — Pandemonium

★★★☆ I have been steadfast in my dismissal of all things Cavalera over the years, ever since “Roots.” But this album finally feels like it gets more things right than not. The detuning (both on the guitars and the vocals) combine with an unorthodoxically muddy mix to fit Max’s nihilistic ambitions while simultaneously putting him in his place: present, but not front and center.

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Unearth — Watchers Of Rule

★★★☆ Calling this metalcore is a little misleading. Sure, the trappings are there… but this album has as much in common with new-style thrash or some variants of prog metal as anything else (I’m looking at you, Meshuggah, BTBAM, and Exmortus). Whatever you call it, “Watchers Of Rule” is fast, heavy, and unrelenting.

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Devin Townsend — Z²

★★★☆ This is a challenging double-length release, intended to be two albums in one, each one different in tone and scope. This is asking a lot for a First Listen, especially if (like me) you’re not already all-in with Devy. Worse, the first half album is farther away from what one might traditionally consider “metal” than the second, thereby confronting the uninitiated with the bigger challenges upfront.

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Lo-Pan — Colossus

★★★☆ “Colossus” is a stripped-down but meaty affair, sharing as much in common with Baroness as it does with RATM, post-Layne AIC, the Jesus Lizard, and Stanford Prison Experiment. Everything works here in the band’s favor. The bass and guitars are forever locked in an effectively feral unison, the drums punctuate and drive without mercy, and Jeff Martin’s vocals soar over it all with a self-assured boldness.

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