Kreator — Gods Of Violence
✦✦✧✧ Unabashed Eurothrash: speedy, earnest, goofy, powerful. This album chronicles the band in not quite as energized form as they were on Phantom Antichrist, and yet it scratches a very particular itch. See the rest here
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Alluvial — The Deep Longing for Annihilation
✦✦✧✧ The debut (instrumental) album from a collaboration between Keith Merrow and Wes Hauch (The Faceless, Conquering Dystopia, Black Crown Initiate) has all the tasty shredding any modern guitarophile could ever want. It’s also got a mean attitude, which I like. It’s not the most memorable thing in the world, though. See the rest here
The Agonist — Five
✦✦✧✧ Pretty decent Euro-style melodic metal, and unsurprisingly there’s more than a few nods to Arch Enemy… but I’ve gotta say that I am not a fan of Vicky Psarakis’ vocal stylings here. They’re too loud, too grating. And that Hozier cover at the end of the album is just the pits. See the rest here
Nails — You Will Never Be One Of Us
✦✦✧✧ Straight-up convergecore. Raw energy, about as subtle as a money shot. If that’s what you’re in the mood for, it’ll do nicely. See the rest here
Lacuna Coil — Delirium
✦✦✧✧ Djenty emotechnocore. I don’t get what the fuss is all about. Evanescence is more interesting than this, honestly. (The title track is undeniably catchy, but I’m not entirely sure that’s in a good way.) See the rest here
Circle Of Dust — Machines Of Our Disgrace
✦✦✧✧ Little known fact: back when I was getting my industrial passion project Hagman off the ground, one of my biggest inspirations was the little-known-of producer Klayton, courtesy of his Circle Of Dust moniker. In fact, to this day, every time someone mentioned Cradle Of Filth, I feel an inner twinge, wishing instead that they were talking about Circle Of Dust. See the rest here
Omnium Gatherum — Grey Heavens
✦✦✧✧ This album has a few standout moments of melodeath excellence, and the musicianship is expectedly topnotch. But there’s a pervasive and formulaic familiarity to a lot (possibly most) of the material here. See the rest here
Hollow Earth — Dead Planet
✦✦✧✧ Strictly speaking, my first impression here is that this is some gloriously dark scifi/space metal. It’s a curious blend of Gojira, Nothingface, ETID, and Misery Signals. The production, which at first seems perfect, never relents from its excessively compressed assault on the eardrums. DR5 makes sense for the band’s more devastating tracks, but just sounds silly otherwise. See the rest here
Katatonia — The Fall Of Hearts
✦✦✧✧ The newest incarnation of Katatonia begs a few comparisons to Opeth (“Damnation,” anyone?). More pointedly, any vestiges of metal on this album are largely relegated to the status of ornamentation in service to a pervasively gothy form of prog. Look: props definitely due for the band burrowing deeper into their softer side. See the rest here
Metallica — Hardwired… to Self Destruct
✦✦✧✧ Proving that they are still a band that marches to the beat of their own badly mixed drums, Metallica have filled this (their tenth studio album) with riffs and aggression “inspired” by their thrashier past. This is a welcome departure from the overarching theme of the band’s last few albums: ill-conceived experiments in audio engineering gone wrong. See the rest here
