Cancer Bats — Searching For Zero
★★☆☆ It takes this album a few tracks to find its feet, by eventually finds its voice as a pounding screamfest, somewhere between Kyuss and Converge, yet somehow without the real moxie of either. See the rest here
First Listens With Two-Star Ratings
Black Sheep Wall — I’m Going To Kill Myself
★★☆☆ This is post-post-core, if that makes any sense… a savage screamfest deconstructed beyond all sense of flow, sense, or consideration of the listener. There’s a lot to admire here, but it’s also impossible to ignore that this hour of noise is as self-indulgent as it is cathartic. It’s worth a listen, but let’s never speak of this again. See the rest here
Keep Of Kalessin — Epistemology
★★☆☆ This is frustrating: this album simultaneously boasts shredding scorchers and shamefully derivative snorers. And the title track has elements of both. So you’ve got half a three-star album comingled with half of a one-star album. Discovering which tracks go where, I leave as an exercise for the reader. See the rest here
The Agonist — Eye Of Providence
★★☆☆ This is a hit-or-miss affair. When it hits, the blend between melody and metal is perfectly balanced, with strong emotion in the former and real balls in the latter. When it misses, neither feel compelling, giving you something that sounds like an impersonation of melodeath. See the rest here
Ascension — The Dead Of The World
★★☆☆ The final track on this album, “Mortui Mundi,” has some memorable songwriting… but otherwise, this is a solidly-not-bad black metal album by the numbers. Inoffensively, formulaicly correct. See the rest here
Xibalba — Tierra Y Libertad
★★☆☆ This is sufficiently dark and angry sludgecore… and yet, at the same time, it doesn’t entirely grab my attention with a heartfelt grip. It’s good as it plays, but lacks staying power after the music dies down. See the rest here
Sylosis — Dormant Heart
★★☆☆ A meatily-produced album of post-metalcore (I just made that up) that nevertheless manages to feel both overlong and disposable. Good for a listen, but I’ve already forgotten it. See the rest here
A Sense of Gravity — Travail
★★☆☆ I’m going to throw out some names that crossed my mind as I listened to this prog metal epic, and you tell me if you can resist the siren call: Textures. Chimp Spanner. Allan Holdsworth. Fredrik Thordendal. Compelling, right? And yet, about halfway through, the album loses its footing and starts sounding like just another djent band. See the rest here
Equilibrium — Erdentempel
★★☆☆ Holy fuck, is this folksy. With most other bands, folk metal tips over too easily into awkward caricature. But somehow, not only do Equilibrium avoid this trap, but their unflinching commitment helps them create an authenticly uplifting headbanging experience. At its best, “Erdentempel” sounds like Týr as performed by DragonForce. See the rest here
Cloudkicker — Little Histories
★★☆☆ This EP is not unlike taking a quick regional flight: you spend so much of your time getting to cruising altitude, that once you’re there it’s time to start your initial descent. The material here is good and lush and well-done, of course, but Cloudkicker music needs time and space to unfold into its ultimate form, and that means that there’s actually not a whole lot here. See the rest here
