✦✦✧✧ Not quite as compelling or driven as their previous brand of doom metal, this album shows the band seeming to be more content wallowing in the moments they’re creating. Compared to the delicate tightrope act of “Foundations Of Burden,” here the band bring in their ambitious arms, and are tripped up a bit by their own gravity, like a spinning top turning a bit too slowly to keep itself upright. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Stoney sludgecore by the numbers. I’d try to pull similar sounding bands for reference, but this kind of music is impossible to fingerprint. That said, if this is your itch, you’ll likely be quite satisfied. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Well, it does what it says on the box, at least. Everything feels a bit too much on the nose, even for Steel Panther. And a bit more tired. And their careerlong pastiche work is now full-blown “borrowing.” See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This is definitely a step in the right direction (away from 2014’s “Inked In Blood”). There’s no new ground to break here, but if you’re cozy with good old-fashioned death metal, you’ll be sated by this. It’s great to hear Terry Butler’s rumbling bass (and that Spiritual Healing vibe is definitely welcome here). See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This album is a faithful paean to mid-80s Metal Blade thrash. ‘Nuff said. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This is one goofy but well-intentioned shredfest that harkens back to the simpler times of Shrapnel Records and endless solos. The album is as much bluegrass as it is rock or metal, and definitely more Satriani or Stu Hamm than Marilyn Manson or Rob Zombie. On the whole, this is music designed to be heard and wowed over, if not actually listened to for any reason not related to guitarwankery. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This album, from a dyed-in-the-wool metalcore, is surprisingly nü-metallic. Eddie Hermida and the band sound like Jonathan Davis & Co. half the time. (The other times, they sound more like Slipknot.) But the riffs and rhythms are sufficiently blow-out-your-speakers mean to not dismiss the album outright. Mostly, this feels like a band having a hard time moving in a unified direction. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Apparently, new blood (in the form of former members of TDTE and Glass Cloud) can improve things for Emmure. And yet, the fundamental problem exists: the band’s raison d’etre seems to be a misread of djent as merely an invitation for nu-metal to tune down lower. So, if your idea of a good time is a detuned Limp Bizkit, have I got an album for you. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Grindcore leavened with equal parts Converge and Brujeria. The energy’s there, and it’s dark enough, but there’s something weirdly anonymized about the whole thing. Also, the drum triggers are so high in the mix as to be distracting, especially with Shane Brown’s penchant for fast syncopation. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ 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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