First Listens With Two-Star Ratings
Torche — Admission
Sabaton — The Great War
✦✦✧✧ Do you like well-produced power metal that deals with warfare? Then you already know about Sabaton, and this album gives you more of what you’ve come to expect. For the rest of us: this is sortakinda epic symphonic Eurometal with awkward vocals but tasty guitars. The most entertaining part of this album (about World War I) is just how literal the lyrics are; for proof, you need go no further than such songs as “In Flanders Fields,” “82nd All The Way,” and of course “The Red Baron.”
This Gift is a Curse — A Throne of Ash
Possessed — Revelations Of Oblivion
✦✦✧✧ The band once known as the launching pad of Larry LaLonde, and whom no one has heard from since my college days, are back with some new Bay Area thrashy death metal. And yet, everything from the guitar tone to the still of riffage to the production by Hypocrisy’s Peter Tägtgren all combine to craft a package that is expertly and lovingly vintage.
Darkthrone — Old Star
✦✦✧✧ Look: I’m giving this album two stars in part because it’s amazing that this duo is still making music (if you know of any other studios at nursing homes, let me know!), but otherwise I could do without it. This is allegedly an album that explores different genres, but it all still sounds to me like vintage Norwegian black metal.
Fleshgod Apocalypse — Veleno
✦✦✧✧ This is a fun record to listen to. That said, whether you’re already a fan of FGA or are only hearing of their brand of orchestral tech death now for the first time, this album’s unvaried production and all-too-familiar riffage suggest that you should listen to the band’s previous album “King” instead.
Baroness — Gold & Grey
Death Angel — Humanicide
✦✦✧✧ If you’ve ever listened to this band over the past 37 years, this album will not come as any great surprise. I wouldn’t even call it re-thrash, but that’s part of the band and album’s strength. The riffage and shredding are top-notch, although the songwriting only approaches greatness here and there.
