✦✦✧✧ Oh, so wintry, blackest of metals, folksiest of dirges. Behold, the snow on the very cover. Observe, the hooting of a fucking owl.
This is not nearly as winsome as Panopticon’s previous album “Autumn Eternal.” At least it occasionally kinda shreds, but it wouldn’t kill Austin Lunn to use a tuner. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Absolutely no surprises here: this is textbook power metal, with standout vocals from Tommy Karevik, of course, but not much else to stick in one’s memory. There’s nothing here that I would remotely think of as “bad”… also but nothing here to really stir anyone’s blood. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Look, there’s no question that these guys shred. And you know how much I dig prominent fretless bass in metal. But aside from that, this is more or less a cautionary tale of post-Cynic metal musicianship gone entirely too far. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This feels like a cross between vintage ATG and vintage The Haunted: speedy, deathy, high-energy, and a bit dated, more stubbornly old-school thrash than rethrash. The riffs are, on the whole, as solid as the playing but far from memorable. Still, this’ll likely lure a begrudging headbob out of you. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Meandering pacing and a suboptimal mix detract from an otherwise enjoyably inventive and compelling tech death experience. The songwriting has baroque and jazz elements to it at times, which I totally dig. Also, another metal album with saxophone? Love it! See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This sounds a lot more like the Pestilence of my youth, and given what the band had been putting out lately, that’s a good thing. Twisted and unusual thrashy death metal was always their best sound, and that’s what you get here. (I could do without the vocoder, though.) See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This is Turnstile’s most experimental album to date, for good and for ill. The band shines most winsomely when they’re most clearly emulating their punk and metal heroes (especially Quicksand and Sick Of It All). The less straightforward tracks, alas, are all over the place, in a way that works against the album’s pacing, momentum, and cohesion. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This is some old-fashioned Bronze Age metal, y’all. Lots people love this Manowar-sounding band. Feh. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Aside from updated production values (which sound great), this is pretty much exactly what you’d expect from a British heavy metal band formed before the advent of the Compact Disc. Jokes aside, if you’re in the mood for some NWOBHM with updated audio sensibilities, this album is for you. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This album feels both novel and dated at the same time. Its production values and humble musical ambitions lend the proceedings a tiredness that’s hard to look past. But the album is also fresh in some of its riffs and chord progressions, as well as its interweaving of Swedish death metal, thrash, and black metal. See the rest here
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