6 years is a long time to wait for a new album. When that happens, some bands try to make the ultimate comeback album. However, there are times when a band would just return with a short amount of tracks that may, in theory, disappoint fans. The new offering by these Canadian progressive metallers Protest the Hero, Within contains 6 full songs in just 36 minutes, almost like the EP Pacific Myth, but slightly longer and adding in two interludes which I guessed help cement it as a full-length studio album.

I don't blame the band for the somewhat slow progress, considering the turbulence in their lineup and health. But now, they can still display the heroes within them that shall be appreciated and never protested! Within reigns in excellent triumph despite its aforesaid short length and independent release.

"Mouthpiece" is an energetic rapid-fire way to kick off the album. The riffs and melodies will get you hooked, and d*mn, those lyrics hit hard, "In a world of vivid colour, our eyes are beaten grey". Then "Fishhook" is more punky in the music and attitude. The instrumentation and lyrical narrative really catch my attention. "Above" is the first interlude, sounding so emotional in the symphonics.

"Grandfather's Axe" is another kick-A track, adding in some thrash/speed aspects. The vocals by Rody Walker still impress me. "The Orchard" soars through as a pleasant standout. It ends with a soft serene outro sung by Jadea Kelly who has collaborated with the band in the past. Her most beautiful performance since in their debut Kezia!

"Below" is one more interlude to get you seated for what comes next. "Liberty Spike" accelerates through fast instrumentation and captivating lyrics, "A second song, for my first friend, whose loss this time, is permanent". Finally, "The Mariner" is the ambitious 7 and a half minute finale. Walker has clearly improved since his vocal issues that occured right before recording Palimpsest, and the lyrics and musical grandeur throw back to that album's highlights. Another album ends on an inspiring note!

Although Within can't beat the glory of the band's earlier albums like Kezia, it exemplifies their talent and passion within the music and lyrics. It shows that Protest the Hero are standing strong and powerful in just 36 minutes, which isn't that bad of an album length if you're up for repeated listening. They continue to hold their prog-metal ground!

Favorites: "Mouthpiece", "Grandfather's Axe", "The Orchard", "The Mariner"

I was originally introduced to these Dutch death metallers through Neuropath vocalist Mark Wangmann via their incredibly raw & intense 1992 debut album "Cross the Styx" (4/5) which I really enjoyed. This led to me picking up Sinister's classic 1993 sophomore record "Diabolical Summoning" (4.5/5) shortly after it was released & finding that the band had taken things to another level with that release becoming somewhat of an all-timer for me. For that reason, I was first in line to pick up Sinister's third album "Hate" as soon as it hit the shelves & it left me more than satisfied. In fact, I'm gonna suggest that it's Sinister's best release overall these days &, for that reason, you can probably find photos of me wearing a "Hate" t-shirt on stage during the middle of that decade. "Hate" sees the trio returning with a more controlled & mature sound that may be a touch less frantic & brutal but more than makes up for it in class & tightness. There's a major Cannibal Corpse influence throughout but this is a step up from anything those Buffalo extremists had produced to the time. The first couple of tracks are utterly devastating & so is closer "The Bloodfeast". Front man Mike van Mastrigt's (Houwitser) vocal delivery is powerful yet intelligible throughout, the riffs of Bart van Wallenberg are angular & interesting & the beats of drummer Aad Kloosterwaard (Houwitser/Thanatos), who is the MVP for me personally, are pummeling & super-tight. This is peak-time, elite-level mid-90's death metal at its finest & should be essential listening for all of our The Horde members.

For fans of Cannibal Corpse, Deicide & Monstrosity.

I hadn't heard of these Germans before seeing this nominated as a monthly feature, so went into it completely blind. A bit of background digging reveals that Slaughterday were formed in 2010 and for most of their career to date they operated as a duo with Jens Finger taking care of the six- and four-strings and Bernd Reiners the drums and vocals with a huge cast of supporting drummers, bassists and guitarists helping them out with their live shows. However, for this their fifth full-length, they have inducted reinforcements into their ranks and have expanded the band into a five-piece with Christian Wiesener taking over bass duties, André Janssen drums and Tobias Koops boosting the six-string attack as second guitarist.

So what do we have here? Well, this is pretty much meat and potatoes old-school death metal with obvious influence from usual suspects such as Autopsy, Bolt Thrower and Vader and I say that with no hint of sniffiness because that is exactly the kind of death metal that floats my particular boat. Sure, the more demanding death metal listener will likely feel unfulfilled by the lack of ambition displayed on "Dread Emperor", but I don't imagine that upsetting the Slaughterday guys that much. The performances are very solid indeed, the band obviously know their way around their instruments and have an excellent grasp of what OSDM is about. After a portentious instrumental intro track the band charge out of the blocks with opener proper, "Obliteration Crusade", and proceed to attempt to rip your face off with sheer riff power. Throughout this and the subsequent eight tracks they deploy a withering arsenal of riffs in order to batter down any resistance to their undemanding, but energetic, old-school blitzkrieg. Reiners' vocals are rough, gruff, roaring bellows and are plenty powerful while the rhythm section drive in the rhythmic piles upon which the individual tracks are built in an unshowy wholly dependable way. There is a significant amount of soloing present on "Dread Emperor" and it is with this that I have reservations. The thing is that the solos are actually quite melodic, even to the point of sounding like Maiden or Priest solos at times and I am not completely convinced that they suit the violence of the riffs and vocals, consequenly making the album as a whole sound a lot less aggressive and menacing than it should. I would have preferred more Kerry King and less KK Downing. I have been a big defender of James Murphy's contribution to Death's "Spiritual Healing" where a similar argument can and does get used, so this may be a bit of a hypocritical stance, but I think Murphy's skill was to enhance the more brutal aspects of "Spiritual Healing", where I find the melodicism of the solos here distracting.

Still, that aside, I love the riffs which still manage to give me that warm, fuzzy, OSDM buzz that I can just never get enough of so, derivative and unambitious it may well be and, in truth, I am unlikely to be running out to score a copy any time soon, but I actually quite enjoyed it and that is good enough for me. That cover is pretty badass too. I have been playing the Elder Scrolls Oblivion remake on PS recently and the creature on the cover is exactly like one of Oblivion's Nether Liches, tough bastards that they are!

I have given this one a couple of spins over the past few weeks and whilst I could not say that it is as a direct result of this release, I did notice how much more accommodating I have become of these metalcore releases nowadays. I think there is something about intelligence in most of the music I enjoy nowadays and this possesses intelligence no small quantity, and given that hardcore punk is often thought of as being such a simple style of music this perhaps seems like an OTT statement to some degree. 7 Angels 7 Plagues go beyond any basic template though. The death metal chug on ‘Someday’ being one such example of this more exploratory attribute that the band can muster without making it sound intrusive, or just a selection of ideas thrown together. At the same time the melodic elements of the album seem to possess an almost Deftones, nu-metal quality to them which only manages to further my enjoyment of the album.

I am on the fence about the vocals if I am honest. They grate, yet at the same time I have to agree that they sort of fit perfectly. As a contrast to some of the post-metal moments or just as a more stark opposing force to the great use of melody in general, it is hard to argue that they are not performed in an interesting way. I am not offended by the inclusion of the interludes, but I could quite easily get through the album without them; they most certainly are the weaker tracks overall from the listing. For a band that seemed to be capable of filling the space around them well enough with sound that was intriguing and thoughtful it does strike me as odd that they have included these “palate-cleansers” at all. When you can write the droning chaos present on tracks like ‘Away with Words’ and accompany them to a backdrop of near cinematic percussion, you don’t need to provide fiddling acoustic numbers to prove anything really.

The mood for this current listen through this album tonight is perfect. After a long day with lots of elements jostling for possession of my time, it is cathartic to listen to an album of a similar pulsing multitude of parts and hear them all so well balanced and clearly given space around each other. Perhaps other than the vocals, there is little in the way of any one element dominating proceedings. Overall it feels more of busy as opposed to a heavy record, and I say that without aiming it as a criticism. It does settle into some weighty rhythms I concede but this is not my overarching takeaway from the listening experience. I have a sense that as I listen to more early metalcore, I may get to understand better the importance of this record in terms of it genre developing credentials but at this early stage of my understanding of these things, I can only rate this record on individual merit.

Lots of black metal bands like to kickstart their albums with some slow build up. And then you have Cabinet, who's like, "Nope. I'ma shove a dump truck full of dirt on top of your head. Here's music that sounds like a corpse is digging back to the surface and growling while the earth keeps getting stuck in its mouth. Then halfway through the first track, we get guitars that sound like the music that plays when flies are buzzing around you in the cartoons, expect the flies are gonna kill you. But because of the heavier focus on the noise factor, there's less melody and more chugging than usual, at least there is when the war metal takes the stage. When you have the doomy stuff with the creppy chanting in "Precipitating Pneumonoconiosis In The Cremation Cellar," (I totally copy/pasted that) there's more "songwriting" involved. And out guy's going a little crazier with the sound effects this time. He ends one track with the bubbling sounds of having your head forced underwater, one track ends with collecting wheezings and coughs, and there is one disturbing narration that I won't ruin for you. But overall, this album may be more of the same at its core, but its war metal is dirtier and its clearer edges are smoother. Definitely has a lot of replay value.

90