First Listens With Two-Star Ratings

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Trap Them — Blissfucker

★★☆☆ This grindcore album isn’t bad per se, but it’s definitely hobbled. The good news is that the aggression is definitely in effect throughout, and several songs feature little flourishes that remind me of Brujeria, Slayer, even The Jesus Lizard and Suicidal Tendencies. The bad news is that a lot of this record is mired down by the same old Midas touch of Kurt Ballou, so much so that the tracks often boil down to an epic struggle between forgettable sameness and the band’s ability to rise to distinction.

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Whitechapel — Our Endless War

★★☆☆ On the one hand, this is a step up for the band from their eponymous 2012 release. The songwriting is an evolution from their deathcore-by-the-numbers approach, at times evoking a Lamb Of God or even a latter-era Carcass. On the other hand, the band do still suffer a lot from large swaths of unmemorable flexing.

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Nux Vomica — Nux Vomica

★★☆☆ Take any Kurt Ballou-produced crust band, cross it with the slow dirge of an Isis or Murmur, and you’ll get this album. And you know, giving the former’s punch-in-the-nuts ethic enough of the latter’s room to breathe and meander works more often than not. When it doesn’t work, it’s just boring… but there’s still enough here to commend a listen.

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Prong — Ruining Lives

★★☆☆ I’ve had this theory in my head for a while now: Prong has been dead and gone for almost 20 years, and everything we hear now from the band is akin to a new Michael Jackson release: resurrected from lost tapes and B-sides to the Cleansing and Rude Awakening recordings, perhaps propped up with guest musicians, but not truly new.

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Epica — The Quantum Enigma

★★☆☆ I’ll be the first to admit that symphonic metal isn’t exactly my cup of tea. But this album fuses the typical orchestral bombast with a speed and heaviness that is as effective as the former is saccharine. Epica get props for doing something a bit more compelling than your usual fare… but good lord, is “The Quantum Enigma” overlong.

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Mekong Delta — In A Mirror Darkly

★★☆☆ This Mekong Delta does a great job of sounding like both modern-day and retro Fates Warning, with some touches of Symphony X and Rush all at the same time. It’s really strange. It’s also very self-indulgent. But their clear ambition is admirable, and at least it’s certainly interesting throughout.

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