Saxy S's Forum Replies
Norwegian industrial metallers Gothminister's seventh studio album is a fairly solid piece of industrial metal. The groove work is fairly solid from top to bottom and the vocal melodies compliment admirably. One of the reasons why I have never been able to appreciate Rammstein fully is because of the language barrier (my German is getting better though). Rammstein have solid melodies and tight knit grooves as well, but something about taking the intricacies of that language and creating a butchered English version does not help matters. Gothminister help by recording all the lyrics in English already....not that you need them because this is still standard in its gothic themes.
Speaking of gothic themes, does anyone else notice how much parts of this record sound like heavier Ghost? Forget about the industrial tinges and all of the synth leads, "Norge", "Mastodon" and "Star" sound identical. Which brings up my biggest issue with Pandemonium as a whole; the record is far too basic. It might borrow from Ghost, or EBM, or even other industrial metal giants like Rammstein, but not a lot about it feels innovative or unique to Gothminister. While I did enjoy it, too often I found the music falling behind and closer to background noise than anything I want to become invested in.
6/10
The modern alternative metalcore scene is a hard subgenre to pin down. While it certainly has its modern upsides in Bad Omens and Spiritbox, a lot of them begin to blend together after a while, as many simply latch on to already popular/dead trends hoping to make a quick buck. Motionless in White is one of those bands for me. After attempting to go more alternative with 2014's Reincarnate, they became a band that would release records that get a bunch of acclaim, but are as quickly forgotten about a month later.
Case in point, I did listen to Scoring the End of the World back in June of 2022 and thought it was...fine. Chris Motionless is quite capable when writing well constructed tunes with some decent melodies. And, most important to me, incorporating breakdowns that do not act as an aside from the original concept or idea. But the record is held back considerably by not having any identity of its own. I had to do a double take at first when listening to the chorus of "Sign Of Life" because I thought for certain that Benjamin Burnley was the principal vocalist here.
And while the vocal comparison should not be that big of a deal, when the instrumentals sound like Breaking Benjamin too, that's where I have to draw a line. MiW goes a step further by having "Porcelain" sound like a modern Bullet for my Valentine tune, complete with some industrial/electronic spattering's that, while not offensive, I found to be more than distracting.
Scoring the End of the World has a lot of guest features and those tunes also feature some of the freshest sounds on the record. "Slaughterhouse" with Bryan Garris is a straight rump and serves as a good change of pace and intensity following the slower, more dreary "Porcelain". Then a trifecta of songs at the end of the record, however these tunes are not as enjoyable. starting off with "Cyberhex" sounding closer to a Mick Gordon track than even the title track, which actually features Mick Gordon! And in the middle of those two, we have the Marilyn Manson inspired "Red, White & Boom", which can be cheeky and fun, but I was not really feeling it.
And I think the reason why is because MiW have this long stretch of Breaking Benjamin/Bullet for my Valentine sounding tunes that aren't the most innovative things in the world. Sure they have breakdowns, but a metalcore band has to do more than add breakdowns to pre-existing formulas to make them enjoyable. And then, right at the very end of the album, they throw a curveball and show you something vastly different than what you've heard through the first ten tracks. The pacing of this record is so back heavy that I had less interest in those deviances than if they had been prominently featured early on in the record. Chris Motionless and company may have had some good ideas, but they are few and far between, and the sequencing is not good at all.
6/10
I'm gonna go with Odessy's Reinventing the Past.
Finally Dinaric
February 2023
Hello Infinite drafters. It's a new month so let's open a new cycle of records to explore. Xephyr, you get the first pick:
Gone Is Gone - Gone Is Gone (2016)
February 2023
1. Mastodon – Ghost of Karelia (2009)
2. Periphery – Wildfire (2023)
3. Caligula’s Horse – Into the White (2013)
4. Sikth – Tupelo (2002)
5. Riverside – Hyperactive (2010)
6. Symphony X – The Accolade (1997)
7. The World Is Quiet Here – Writhing Gate (2023)
8. Andromeda – Extension of the Wish (2001)
9. Converge & Chelsea Wolfe – Lord of Liars (2021)
10. Haken – Taurus (2023)
11. Ihsahn – Unhealer (ft. Mikael Åkerfeldt) (2008)
12. Entheos – I Am The Void (2023
13. Enslaved – Havenless (2003)
14. The Ocean Collective – Preboreal (2023)
15. Plini – The Glass Bead Game (2020)
16. Animals as Leaders – Red Miso (2022)
17. Dan Swanö – Uncreation (1999)
18. In Mourning – Isle of Solace (2012)
19. Ne Obliviscaris – Graal (2023)
February 2023
1. Sleep Token – The Summoning (2023)
2. Mudvayne – Death Blooms (2000)
3. Atreyu – Untouchable (2021)
4. Katatonia – Birds (2023)
5. Buckethead – Soothsayer (2006)
6. Breaking Benjamin – Blood (2018)
7. Bloodsimple – What If I Lost It (2005)
8. Candiria – Down (2004)
9. Parkway Drive – Glitch (2022)
10. Demon Hunter – Heaven Don’t Cry (2022)
11. Slipknot – The Heretic Anthem (2001)
12. Disturbed – Won’t Back Down (2022)
13. Alice In Chains – Drone (2018)
14. I Prevail – There’s Fear in Letting Go (2022)
15. Coaltar Of The Deepers – AMETHYST [REVENGE] (2021)
16. Twelve Foot Ninja – Oxygen (2016)
17. Love and Death – Down (2021)
18. Within Temptation – The Reckoning (2019)
19. In This Moment – Black Wedding (feat. Rob Halford) (2017)
20. Halestorm – The Steeple (2022)
21. Stuck Mojo – The Ward Is My Shepard (2000)
Believe it or not, Scar Sighted was one of those gateway albums that I listened to back in 2015 when I started digging into black metal. And it took me a long time before I was able to appreciate it in comparison to those Panopticon, Saor and Agalloch records. This was far more brooding, dissonant and uncomfortable. And, despite it all, I could not help but get sucked in by its atmosphere. This is not an avant-garde release like Ad Nauseum with its unending assault of loud noises, uncommon time signatures, and unconventional song structures. Scar Sighted is unashamed to slow down and compliment its black metal pulse with post-metal passages; clean guitars, slower moving percussion and whispered vocals. Most importantly, these styles are complimented well to one another as not to feel like isolated ideas crammed together.
It can certainly be an overwhelming listen at just over an hour. The title track is likely my least favourite on the record as ten minutes seems like far too much and the track loses momentum at a more alarming pace than the records shorter moments. But as a whole...look my background with extreme metal has been challenging the further it diverges into the dissonant and the avant-garde, but this is an exception. I do enjoy this record; not as much as I did back in 2015 however. Scar Sighted is one of those rare examples of avant-garde music done right.
7/10
There are times when I'm listening to heavy metal music (and as I have become older, those times have grown a lot closer) when I just need a break. All of the aggression and ruthlessness can become overwhelming and sometimes I wonder "are you guys actually having fun making music?" Well allow me to introduce to you to Fellowship, the newest power metal outlet making some of the cheeriest metal music of the 2020s.
My first impression of The Saberlight Chronicles was reserved as my first comparison point was Majestica and their 2020 Christmas album. And while I did enjoy Majestica a few years ago, something about this does not click the same way. Perhaps it was the promise of being uplifting, but then falling into a very comfortable, Rhapsody (of Fire) formula of songwriting, but perhaps without the indulgent guitar solo dominance. I find it to be adequate, but far from impressive, especially considering Blind Guardian and Avantasia have been able to push the power metal genre forward beyond over-the-top expansiveness.
At least the instrumentals are well performed. Unlike a record such as Pain Remains by Lorna Shore, the symphonic elements are clearly meant as supplements to the choruses. These backgrounds are well produced and compliment the leads well, instead of resorting to the Fleshgod Apocalypse approach of "MORE LOUD NOISES!" As for the compositions, songs like "The Saint Beyond the River", "Silhouette" and "Until the Fires Die" are likely to be complimentary mainstays in my metal playlists. The rest of it just flies over my head as sounding the same. The final two tracks "Still Enough" and "Avalon" are so basic and forgettable even after extending their runtime well beyond what was reasonable.
Perhaps Fellowship's brand of power metal is still in its baby steps and The Saberlight Chronicles is the band just getting their feet wet. Maybe the next album will sound completely different and Fellowship will set themselves apart from even the best that power metal has to offer at the moment. But for now, I thought The Saberlight Chronicles was satisfactory. There are touches of something greater, but too quickly resorts back to tired-and-true power metal formulas of Rhapsody and Nightwish.
6/10
Industrial metal always seems to be a fickle genre to get right. For a genre whose sole purpose is to sound mechanical, many artists in recent years have been unable to to get out of a habit of obliterating the listeners ears with unpleasant and overbearing percussion mixing that finds its way right to the front and drowns out whatever groove/texture/melody is being performed by the guitar, vocals or whatever other instrument.
Now this is around the time in my review where I typically namedrop Daughters' 2018 You Won't Get What You Want, but in this case, I realize that record has more than its share of overbearing percussion. So I'll instead refer to my 2021 album of the year, Frontierer's Oxidized with its unusual blending of industrial and crushing mathcore and how that percussive texture only elaborates instead of dominates. Author & Punisher have a very similar effect on Krüller, but this time the foundation is plainly doom.
And this record is superb. The slower tempos make this album foreboding in a way that is almost new to me. I do not know how Author & Punisher were able to get away with song structures and melodic motifs this sticky and with this much passion infused into them; it feels counterintuitive at times. The use of a true electronic percussion does drag some of this albums' intensity down, but it does get redeemed by some monotonous vocals that are direct from post-metal, and the aforementioned doom infused guitar lines.
Compositions are great in terms of scale. The album has a dark text and subtext, but the song "Maiden Star" sits right in the middle of the record and throws in some unusual, but very welcome major key harmonies as a quick divergence before plunging back into the abyss on "Misery". It does not feel out of place at all and in much the same way, the full on electronic interludes on "Blacksmith" and "Misery" feel very much at home, since they were prepared by what came before.
I was in the need for some hard hitting doom metal today and man did I get a ton of that here! This is wonderfully produced, performed and executed by all involved. It's a doom metal album for those looking to step outside of the comfy confines of My Dying Bride and Swallow the Sun, without diving head first into funeral doomers Esoteric or Bell Witch.
9/10
Waves of Visual Decay is one of those slept on albums that may only have been because of it's close release time to Nevermore's The Godless Endeavour. And it's clear to see why; Communic have taken the Nevermore influence and rolled with it on the same emotional level as classic Nevermore albums had. However, I do feel like Communic are closer related to Fates Warning than a Judas Priest or Iron Maiden Daniel.
As for the record itself, it's exactly what you would expect from a comp to Nevermore. It's a well constructed, well performed progressive metal album that is easy to go down, rather than bashing you over the head with unending guitar solos. The individual tracks go down very smoothly as the more progressive songwriting techniques are complimentary. There are some heavy thrash riffs on "Frozen Asleep in the Park" and "My Bleeding Victim" and compliment the slower, melancholic moments on the title track and the closer "At Dewy Prime" very well. Not all of it works; I was less than impressed by "Fooled by the Serpent", but overall this is a very good album from a band whose influences should surprise no one. They might get in the way for some, but I feel Communic does more than enough to distinguish themselves from Nevermore.
8/10
One of 2022's under the radar progressive metal albums was from the band Moon Tooth. I have seen the name pop up on occasion in my progressive spheres and many of them were excited to hear the newest offering. And while I am fashionably late once again, Phototroph is a well performed, constructed and unique record.
Phototroph has an interesting dichotomy in its performance, which is split between a hybrid of nu-metal and progressive rock, mixed in with some clean vocal stylings of Nick Lee. What makes this work is how powerful the vocals are; while the instrumental has some heavy crunch that sometimes bleeds into metalcore, the lead vocals are pronounced with a strong backing presence. Much of the time, these vocals could border on the side of prissy, but here they work by way of sounding like a cleaner version of Mudvayne's Chad Grey.
The progressive elements on Phototroph are limited, but that allows for the songwriting to take center stage. I really enjoy the riffs on this record and how well they compliment the vocal melodies of "Back Burner" and "Grip on the Ridge". When the album is not working, it is usually on the back of trying too hard for the progressive crowd, which does lead to guitar solos taking precedent over everything else.
The song "Alpha Howl" encapsulates everything that Phototroph is about; the Slipknot chugging riff, the Mudvayne vocals, the math rock guitar leads/solos. If these sounds interest you, then you will likely find something of value in the Phototroph. I really enjoyed this, but the midway point of the record does drag a bit, so I don't think I can call it great.
7/10
Ghost Brigade - Until Fear No Longer Defines Us
I must admit, I had overlooked Until Fear No Longer Defines Us as a member of the Ghost Brigade discography. I heard this groups remaining three projects and found myself gravitating a lot more towards Isolation Songs and One With the Storm and with no prospect of a fifth album, I had little reason to check in on the record that is sandwiched between those two mentioned previously.
Upon listening to Until Fear No Longer Defines Us, I understand why I made that distinction because this album does very little to develop a melodic atmospheric sludge sound that Isolation Songs had figured out remarkably well before. Not that this was a bad thing; this album has a refinement on display that makes for a more consistent release for sure, even though I do not think its highs match those of the previous album.
Part of this is inevitably the sameness of the tunes. Many of them gravitate towards a similar tempo and remain locked in to that groove for a while. It isn't like doom metal though where the tracks can regularly exceed the ten minute mark; this records longest track is "Breakwater" at just under nine minutes. As a result of this, songs like "Torn" and "Divine Act of Lunacy" rarely outstay their welcome despite being fairly monotonous tracks overall. This also gives some greater emphasis to the songwriting on longer tracks like "Clawmaster", "Chamber" and "Soulcarvers", and these tunes do have some nice growth, even so considering how depressive this album can get.
The clean vocals of Manne Ikonen have a delivery that reminded me of some of Machine Head's softer moments on that groups most recent album, Of Kingdom and Crown, while the harsher vocals are a closer resemblance of The Ocean's lead vocalist, Loïc Rossetti. I think The Ocean comparison goes farther than just that the vocals sound similar, but the overall tone of this record has many similarities to The Ocean as well, from the tone quality of the rhythm and lead guitars, to the tempo selections, and even some of the percussive embellishment choices. Where Ghost Brigade succeed over The Ocean is a focus on melody, and "Clawmaster", "Grain" and "Cult of Decay" have strong melodic foundations, and the developments of those themes are more refined than any complete The Ocean album, and even the bands own Isolation Songs.
In the end, this record was a wonderful listening experience. Sure, the record is pretty formulaic by Ghost Brigade, and modern post-metal standards, but it does a far better job of keeping the listener engaged with sticky motifs and development instead of wallowing in texture.
7/10
I checked out this record b/c of Xephyr ranking this as their runner up for AOTY considering our thrash history kind of lines up. I did not like it as much as Xephyr, but still a very good record nonetheless:
Progressive thrash metal is a genre that I typically view with a concerning eye. Part of my reasoning for this is of how drastically different these styles are. What I appreciate in a thrash metal album is something that can be punchy and direct, while progressive metal is usually elongated with uncommon song structures and conceptual formats. Given my recent thrash metal tastes in recent years, you can clearly see why this subgenre sounds interesting, but leaves me with very little substance.
Of course, I also like melodically sound tunes that are well constructed, which leads us to Autonoesis and their 2022 sophomore record, Moon of Foul Magics. This record has some really good ideas that are being played and experimented with throughout its hour runtime. From a purely thrash perspective, the riffage on the title track, "Nihility, Endless Winter" and "The Conjurer" are very good and have a catchiness to them. Sure some riffs don't feel as exciting, however they have a uniqueness to them that, if this was the whole album, I'd be ready to call one of 2022's best.
But that's not what we get here. Progressive metal has a terrible habit of trying to blend multiple songs together and almost never pays off the way that the band expects. And so when this philosophy is brought over to a thrash metal idiom, it turns a record into Riffs: the Album with no connectivity. Autonoesis does a better job of this than most, but that simply because they are following the Vektor formula of slow-fast-slow. How do they change it up? Simply invert the tempos! It's a very basic way of writing progressive music, which in a way, does help Autonoesis with their thrash metal foundation. Tunes like "Raise the Dead" and the closer "Descending the Void" are decent, with varying levels of developing the riffage beyond the initial annunciation of the theme.
Another aspect that makes Autonoesis stand out is the heaviness. This band has clearly come out of the Possessed school of thrash with many elements sounding close to death metal, and even more tricks of the trade out of black metal. Acoustic interludes throughout the album such as "Vahöll" have a Saor-esque timbre, while the bridge of "Descending the Void" sounds closer to early Opeth. It honestly kills a lot of the momentum that has been building for passages prior, but many of them pick that intensity back up throughout and many of them sound excellent.
I will not admit to loving this, but I did enjoy my time with Moon of Foul Magics. The sound is rough and fowl at times and plays into the records benefit as both a thrash and extreme (blackened death) metal record. The riffing is above average and also knows how to balance (a)tonality. But the record could have been trimmed, many ideas are cut off before a conclusion because that's what the slow-fast-slow songwriting formula tells us to do, and momentum drops for much the same reason. I want to like this more since it seems like a thrash metal record targeted for me, but I feel like its missing something.
7/10
When this album begins with nearly eight and a half minutes of avant-garde choral chanting, you can expect some of the thing that you are going to get from Set Chaos to the Heart of the Moon. That transforms "Zâr" and then the three part "Vajrabhairava", which exemplifies all the reasons why Neptunian Maximalism are making some of the best drone music in modern times. This group is using the "drone" as their fundamental so that they can experiment/wank over the very simple ostinato found in the bass and sometimes in one of the stringed instruments as well. Saxophone and guitars galore performing in an unusual manner, while the chanting from the intro serves as complimentary material. The performance does not have a clear direction for melody per se, but the well established fundamental rhythm section before everything else kicks in gives each movement a sense of forward momentum and growth, which is quite the accomplishment for a genre that is notorious for having very little, if not any, momentum or growth (kind of implied in the name of the genre).
While I do enjoy "Ol sonuf vaoresaji ! La Sixième Extinction de Masse", it does not leave me with a lot to talk about. The two part "The Conference of the Stars" is far more interesting. Part one starts off simple enough, but about halfway through, the entire ensemble drops out allowing for a unaccompanied Soprano saxophone, with an octave filter, to take the lead. This was surprising since that droning fundamental bass line has been present throughout the entire performance up to this point; for it to disappear for as long as it does is shocking, and only exemplifies the crushing fundamental again when it returns. It's well placed and a much needed attention seeker, even for those more attuned to drone music than myself. Part two is a little less enjoyable. While certainly interesting as the rhythm section opts for a faster groove that is more closely aligned with post-metal, the chanting drops out as the guitar/saxophone duo trade over a single, slowly rising bass note. It's an interesting concept that saved by being the final "real" song of the set, but would likely fall flat as the final track of a studio album.
Neptunian Maximalism is a group meant to be experienced as a live performance rather than as a studio album. As such, this review is a little bit different than others. I rather enjoyed this new record from the band, and probably more so than 2020's Éons. That album was held back by it's length whereas this takes half of the time. This is a record that should be enjoyed as a complete performance instead of as subsequent parts. If that's for you, then Set Chaos to the Heart of the Moon is one of the best drone albums I've heard in a long time.
8/10
And to round out January 2023, I will be choosing that Ghost Brigade album, Until Fear No Longer Defines Us.
January 2023
1. Thornhill – Red Summer (2019)
2. Bring Me The Horizon – Itch For The Cure (When Will We Be Free?) (2020)
3. Time, The Valuator – Binary Pulse (2022)
4. Bullet For My Valentine – Coma (2018)
5. Cave In – Trepanning (2005)
6. Disturbed – Liberate (2002)
7. Saliva – Badass (2011)
8. Fight The Fury – Still Burning (2018)
9. Pyogenesis – I Have Seen My Soul (2017)
10. Primus - Jerry Was A Racecar Driver (1991)
11. Tallah – Telescope (2022)
12. I Prevail – Lifelines (2016)
13. P.O.D. – Boom (2001)
14. Katatonia – Consternation (2006)
15. Taproot – I (2000)
16. Saint Asonia – Break the Mold (2022)
17. Soilwork – Nerve (2005)
18. The Raven Age – The Day The World Stood Still (2019)
19. Destiny Potato – Indifferent (2014)
20. Avatar – A Statue of the King (2018)
January 2023
1. Haken – The Alphabet of Me (2022)
2. Caligula’s Horse – The Tempest (2020)
3. Altesia – Amidst the Smoke (2019)
4. Dream Theater – You Not Me (1997)
5. Ostura – Duality (2018)
6. Evergrey – The Essence of Conviction (2004)
7. Rototypical - Mycelium II: Rotten Axe (2022)
8. TesseracT – Eden (2011)
9. Lamentations – Prodigal (2022)
10. Xanthochroid – The Sound Which Has No Name (2017)
11. Native Construct – Chromatic Aberration (2015)
12. Fellsilent – Immerse (2008)
13. Textures – Singularity (2011)
14. Protest the Hero – From the Sky (2020)
15. Hypno5s – Sheol, Pt. II (2022)
16. Kingcrow – The Moth (2015)
17. Ne Obliviscaris – Equus (2022)
January 2023 REVIEW DRAFT
Here is the order of album selection for the month:
1. DinaricWarrior
2. Xephyr
3. Shadowdoom9 (Andi)
4. Saxy S
A bit of housekeeping before proceeding; a couple of these records already have names attached to them. These are records that have already been reviewed at some point and will serve as veto's for records that your namesake cannot select for this month's review draft. If you would like to write a full album review for album's you've already rated be my guest, but that is not the point of this project.
Anyways, here are the album's for selection this month:
1. The Antichrist Imperium - Volume II: Every Tongue Shall Praise Satan (2018)
2. CiLiCe - Deranged Headtrip (2009)
3. Ghost Brigade - Until Fear No Longer Defines Us (2009) Xephyr
4. Meshuggah - Catch Thirtythree (2005) Xephyr/Andi
5. Sikth - How May I Help You? (2002)
6. Forgotten Silence - Ka Ba Ach (2000)
7. Code - Resplendent Grotesque (2009)
With that out of the way, DinaricWarrior gets the first pass at album choice. Have fun!
Ron Jarzombek - Solitarily Speaking of Theoretical Confinement
I knew when I initiated the review draft in the Infinite that I was going to have to listen to albums like Ron Jarzombek's Solitarily Speaking of Theoretical Confinement. This is pure guitar wank, delivered over a single, continuous idea, where the tracks are not serve as the end of an idea; it gives the record a conceptual feel. The biggest issue is that it takes the compositional approach of the Minutemen's fantastic record, Double Nickels on the Dime, with short song fragments and a whopping forty-five tracks! As a progressive metal album, this record comes nowhere close to matching Minutemen's punchiness and instant connectivity.
Progressive metal has a hard time on the best of days to create a concept album that is conceptual, but this takes it to the extreme in the worst way possible. Ron is switching to and from different patterns and ideas like a schizophrenic and does not have a care in the world for making this record memorable beyond "look how quirky it is!" With almost every track on the album running less than two minutes, songs that were compositionally uninteresting before become unbearable on repeated listens.
It becomes more apparent when you look at the names of some of tracks on this record and realize that most of them were likely afterthoughts: "Frank Can Get Drunk And Eat Beer", "Grizzly Bears Don't Fly Airplanes", "Sex With Squeakie" and "Tri, Tri Again" are just some examples that tell me nothing about the artist, or the artwork that is being presented. This is lifeless, guitar wank that I would like to thoroughly repress from my mind after being overrun with and endless stream of guitar students during post-secondary school who play this exact same shit. And now most of them are wondering why no one wants to hire them.
3/10
Also, I'm not fully acquainted with the way the draft works yet. I post the review here, I know that, but do I have a time limit or something like that?
Post the review here (and on the album page if you so choose) and be sure to rate the album on the website as well, under the rare instance your album appears again and you do not have to be forced to review an album you did not like.
Andi, I'll throw your name into the number 3 hole next month.
Deathspell Omega - Drought
Lunatic Gods - Turiec
Ron Jarzombek - Solitarily Speaking of Theoretical Confinement
Zu - Cortar Todo
What a fascinating group of records to start us off. I guess I'll get us kicked off with that Ron Jarzombek album. I'll hand it off to you next Dinaric!
This is a record that upon my first listen, I was less than impressed. I wanted to enjoy it after Ire, but felt like something was missing here. But once I reached the albums conclusion, "From the Heart of the Darkness", something ticked in my brain. And it was after that I immediately returned to the beginning of the record again to pick up on all of those things that I missed and are now so clear.
Parkway Drive are not the same band that released Horizons. They have grown beyond this and hearing a more mature sound is commendable. I really enjoy how "The Greatest Fear" has the foundation of a symphonic metal track, but does not include any symphonic swells. It's difficult to call Parkway Drive metalcore in 2022, but I think they pulled it off. Like with Northlane, Parkway Drive are not chasing trends and has resulted in blowback from the fanbase, and the music has turned out better for it.
7/10
Lorna Shore's Pain Remains is the 2022 Album of the Year - Loudwire
It took less than a day! Who called it?
Sonny, "boomer energy" is one of those terms that has been grossly misrepresented in recent years. The boomer meme is meant to be an individual who is stuck in old traditions and thinks that the "new normal" is bad. In Nergal's situation, I view them as being salty that fewer people are looking to Loudwire and MetalSucks for their metal news, since those are the outlets more likely to promote Behemoth records, and are instead looking to independent record labels and forums, like Metal Academy ;) for heavy metal news and information.
Where I will agree with Nergal is that music is far too easily accessible in 2022. Which is to say, any college student can create a piece of music at home and publish it on YouTube, Soundcloud, Spotify, Bandcamp or whatever your streaming preference is. My personal anecdote to this conversation is that I bought my first recording/mixing set in 2022. After all was said and done, I had spent around $600 CAD (which correlates to just around $450 USD). This is a far cry from the mixing boards that cost $1000 by themselves.
Where I draw the line with the initial quote is consumerism. Behemoth have been around for a long time and within the blackened death metal world, Behemoth are one of the best in my opinion. So much so that Behemoth have received glowing reviews for their albums from mainstream metal publications like Loudwire for a number of years. Meanwhile, bands like Enfold Darkness get zero recognition because they play for a relatively small record label, unlike The Satanist, which is published by Nuclear Blast.
I have made it no secret that I like browsing the highest rated lists on websites like RYM and Bandcamp and giving a new artist a chance to impress me. In 2022 alone, Thornhill, Holy Fawn, Dvvell, and Dreadnought released fabulous albums that, if I had listened to Loudwire, would likely never have known existed, except for maybe Thornhill's Heroine. These albums are miles above the new releases from Megadeth, Architects, Machine Head and Lorna Shore, but these are the records that will be at the top of many an album of the year lists because of marketing and promotion instead of actual quality.
Honestly, when I read this Nergal quote initially, I read it as peak boomer energy. "Why is no one listening to Behemoth in 2022? We even released a new album!" It's because Behemoth are part of an old guard. I still occasionally listen to Demigod and The Satanist, but I have no interest in hearing the same Behemoth routine replayed over and over again. Especially when other bands are moving the blackened death metal sound forward instead of leaving it firmly in the mid 2000s. I cannot speak much more about the blackened death metal scene, as I know very little about it, but this is exactly my issue with modern thrash as well; no one wants to push boundaries and move this genre into the 21st century, it all sounds formulaic and boring. It's why a band like Megadeth, who already have the name recognition, get nominated for a Grammy, while Critical Defiance get peanuts.
If only 10% of the music you listen to is of an elite caliber, then increasing the quantity is still going to leave you at 10%, but that 90% is going to seem much larger. So yes, having so much music to hear does have its drawbacks, but I still think the good outweighs the bad. In Nergal's case, Behemoth had their fifteen minutes of fame, and now they do not know what to do now that The Satanist is close to a decade old. And as we approach the end of 2022 and prepare for 2023, I'll still be here to find the best, worst and most mediocre that metal has to offer. What you do with that music is not up to me to decide.
This was okay. I'm not too familiar with Esoctrilihum, even though their name has been all over the avant-garde black metal spheres for the last handful of years. It's kind of hard to pin down what kind of black metal Esoctrilihum actually make as they change back and forth between styles on each album. This time is more traditional black metal, leaning more towards the atmospheric side. The percussion on this record is very intense and reminded me of Mare Cognitum. And with each subsequent track, I'm reminded by how much more I enjoyed MC. I found this record to run musically flat on ideas with very little variety between the tracks. I also found the vocals to be more distracting than enjoyable. I am reminded of the Fallen featured release for the month, Quintiscent and how those distorted vocals complimented the instrumentals, whereas this is more the focal point.
This record is fine, but hardly a great one. I found myself trying to vibe with it on more than one occasion, but ended up getting distracted by outside noise as most of it sounds painfully repetitive. Mare Cognitum is able to create a more expansive world without symphonic elements than Saopth's.
6/10
Well shit; it turns out that I have been remarkably tardy when it comes to the Fallen clan in recent months. In fact, my last review of a featured release from this clan was Type O Negative's World Coming Down back in July. And I feel a little regret in this because I have most likely been missing out on some crushing, Sonny nominated Doom metal such as this!
One of my biggest criticisms of the limited funeral doom that I've reviewed here is its clunkiness. What we have here on the debut album from Dvvell has the production quality of a death doom project from My Dying Bride or Swallow the Sun. There is a pristine level of polish to the instrumentals and the performances throughout the record. Even the malformed vocal timbre is precise.
What makes Dvvell stand out from those death doom albums is the suffocating atmosphere, which is heavily influenced by M.S.W. or to a lesser extent, Ahab. These four tracks have some titanic low ends, which allows for the post-metal adjacent guitar leads and vocals to pierce through the wallowing atmosphere. Which does lead into songwriting and I must admit, Dvvell did a fantastic job of defying my initial expectations. Every track is close to fifteen minutes and while it certainly feels like this is the case, each one has more than enough modulation to not make it too redundant over these extended runtimes. This is most notable in those guitar leads and vocals rather than just a monotonous implication of the open power chords for the entire runtime. RYM has drone metal listed as a subgenre and I can see it, but those lead parts are enough of a change of pace that I think we can devalue that as a subgenre.
If I had to criticize this record for anything, it would probably be how tracks end, specifically "Mother" and "Son" with their extended electronic/ambient passages that don't really develop the tune that just finished, or prepare the listener for the next tune all that well. Otherwise, this is a splendid release. This is an example of doom metal in its highest quality and continues to impress with each subsequent listen. Ahab sounds like a big influence and for me, that is the highest compliment.
9/10
Very good find Ben! Chile might just be my next vacation spot.
I might have to come to terms with the fact that thrash metal might just not be for me anymore. It feels like a toxic relationship at times; where I know I should leave, but something just keeps bringing me back hoping for a change. A genre that seems so contempt with playing a very safe formula of thrash music that borrows almost on cue from Megadeth, Slayer and Exodus. The genre has next to no innovation and until someone comes in to fill the void left behind by Vektor, I may never see a need to return to this genre again.
But that opinion does appear to be changing. While many mainstream outlets are paying attention to a new wave of Japanese metal, extreme metal seems to have found a comfortable mold in South America, and specifically, Chile. Within the last six months, I have been introduced to technical death metallers, Inanna, and in thrash, Parkcrest and Critical Defiance. And each album has provided some positive strides for their respective genres, with No Life Forms easily being the most surprising album of the bunch.
Let's get something clear out the way quickly: thrash metal is not a very difficult genre of music to perform. With roots firmly in punk, a messy and juvenile approach is very easy to replicate. For this, Critical Defiance would get a free pass, but would have to compliment it with something else, particularly in the songwriting. For that, Critical Defiance are doing thrash metal far better than most others. No Life Forms is melodic and hook heavy; every track is built on one or two ideas and weaved together instead of just piling riffs one after the other with no sense of direction.
What also helps is the length of this record. I cannot begin to tell you how agonizing it is to look at a new thrash metal album with a runtime exceeding fifty minutes. Critical Defiance are literally being defiant here by having a record short of half-an-hour. Tracks are punchy and to the point. Guitar riffs take center stage on every piece and they influence every other piece of the song; from the bass lines (yes there are bass lines here!) to the percussion and the vocals. Solos are aplenty and most are implemented remarkably well, except for maybe the instrumental "Elephant", which does suffer from sounding like a glorified wank instead of say "Orion".
Compositionally I think No Life Forms is trying a little too hard to be like classic thrash, but Critical Defiance have a unique timbre about them making them stand out from some still clear influences. Such as the structure of "Kill Them with Kindness" being a direct copy of "Angel of Death". While the rest of the album (i.e. "A World Crumbling Apart", "Dying Breath" and "Warhead (Emotional Fallout)") takes a lot of liberties to early Sepultura.
No Life Forms by Critical Defiance might not be the most modern thrash album ever, but for what it's worth, it is a great album. Music does not need to be progressive in order to be good, it just has to sound like it. This band has mastered the thrash metal formula of old in order to turn it into something new and if more artists start following in their wake, thrash metal will be better for it.
8/10
I have very little to say about this EP that was not already echoed in my review for the new LP, Pain Remains, that was released just last month. It's a very interesting concept combining Fleshgod Apocalypse stylings of insane symphonic technical death metal, matched with some of the filthiest breakdowns so far this side of the 2020s. The melodic songwriting in both the vocals and instrumentals (symphonic strings, guitar, etc.) is very well done and gives these songs a sense of forward momentum and drive. However, it still suffers heavily from the deathcore "problem" of being brutal for its own sake. Breakdowns feel disjointed at times, the kick drum actively distracts, and Will Ramos' vocals are so compressed behind filters and vocal layering that its hard to understand a thing that is being said, which may work for some in this style of music, but coming to it following a fauré into Shadow of Intent, I don't see the appeal.
The only reason this is a higher score than Pain Remains is because this is an EP; probably the only amount of time I could genuinely listen to this type of music and not get bored. Lorna Shore have a bright future ahead of them and have done an adequate job of converting me on extreme metal in the modern day.
7/10
After one full year of compiling these monthly playlists for both the Gateway and Infinite clans, I must say that this has been an overwhelming success. I appreciate all of the assistance from fellow Metal Academy users in helping to buff up these playlists every month and have been fortunate to find some really good songs that I would never have found on my own.
So with all of the gushing out of the way, it's time for the December challenge. All of my playlists up to this point have been set in a free-for-all format with no restrictions on playlist quality, quantity, timeframe or style. For December, let's put together a list of the best moments that these clans had to offer in 2022. Only songs that were released as a single or as part of an album in 2022 will be counted; anything older will be discounted.
Reposts are acceptable within reason, but only one song per artist.
After one full year of compiling these monthly playlists for both the Gateway and Infinite clans, I must say that this has been an overwhelming success. I appreciate all of the assistance from fellow Metal Academy users in helping to buff up these playlists every month and have been fortunate to find some really good songs that I would never have found on my own.
So with all of the gushing out of the way, it's time for the December challenge. All of my playlists up to this point have been set in a free-for-all format with no restrictions on playlist quality, quantity, timeframe or style. For December, let's put together a list of the best moments that these clans had to offer in 2022. Only songs that were released as a single or as part of an album in 2022 will be counted; anything older will be discounted.
Reposts are acceptable within reason (I know there has been a lot of Meshuggah featured this year), but only one song per artist.
My interactions with coldrain have been limited due to the Gateway spheres I frequent being slightly more on the progressive side. But I have heard plenty of tunes from this band thanks to the many song recommendations for monthly playlists. And in all honesty, I might have liked this band more during the 2000s as opposed to discovering them in the late 2010s. Their brand of melodic metalcore is fairly generic and the alternative leanings such as melodic songwriting sounds formulaic.
Case in point, the bands newest album, Nonnegative. When coldrain isn't directly ripping off older bands such as Slipknot on "Cut Me", Parkway Drive/Shadows Fall with "From Today", and a laundry list of chug-chug-chug metalcore bands on "Rabbit Hole", these tunes just are not that interesting. The album might have a decent guitar melody from time to time, but the vocals just feel forced and lacking in emotive drive. Nowhere is that more apparent than on the No Doubt cover of "Don't Speak", which, while not a great song in its own right, Gwen's vocals were timid and hushed as the protagonist goes through a breakup. The vocalist of coldrain doesn't seem to have a problem singing like the lead singer of a power metal band here, creating a weird dichotomy; not just between the vocals and the lyrics, but the instrumentals as well.
It all leaves me with a feeling of nothingness because I've heard all of this before...twenty years ago. coldrain's newest album does not do anything interesting to its influences, and when it does it isn't very good. It's attempts at alternative metalcore are met with a resounding "meh" from me as I have heard plenty of newer artists (i.e. Spiritbox, Bad Omens) and even older groups like Northlane growing the sound beyond the Of Mice and Men and The Devil Wears Prada's of the world. At least when BABYMETAL came out of the new J-rock scene, it was something new and got people talking. Maybe coldrain don't want to be BABYMETAL and that's fine and they will find their audience. But a well oiled machine has to keep moving, and coldrain are still stuck on ten year old technology.
5/10
Diving head first into a band that you have no history with is a lot like the optimists view of Pascal's wager. On one hand, if you listen to an album and you do not like it...not a big deal; it's not like anyone else will be talking about it. But if you find find an album that is good or even great, you have the ego trip of getting to show other people this awesome new/underground artist and hopefully help build a following.
Dreadnought are not a new band. They have been around since 2012 and have an impressive library of albums to their name so far. Starting more as a progressive black metal group, the band decided to become more post-metal focused around 2019. And The Endless might be the bands vision fully realized.
I was taken aback at first when the vocals of Kelly Schilling opened up "Worlds Break". They have a cleanliness to them while still sounding brash to fit the more metal soundscapes. And the limited use of harsh vocals make them stand out even more so as if they are the apex moments of intensity and they certainly feel like it!
Of course, these moments are made even more so enjoyable when you consider this albums precision. For an album that only contains six tracks, you may be surprised to learn that this post-metal album does not contain a single track that exceeds ten minutes, and in total clocks in at a brisk forty-one. Dreadnought are not interested in blowing their load on every single track. Songs such as "The Endless" and "Worlds Break" make you wait patiently for some release, while the closer "The Paradigm Mirror" doesn't give you anything at all!
And the songwriting it quite gorgeous as well! I am a sucker for well produced bass line and Dreadnought come through here with a walloping low end that never feels intrusive, but is given artistic independence to the guitars and vocals to beat some well crafted melodies into your head, with "Liminal Veil" being the albums highlight. The use of harmonic dissonance is well masked as well; this record never feels like it's going avant-garde, but you can feel the wooziness from time to time.
I do agree that the front half of this record is not as interesting as the back half. And does fall into the main structural issue that is an unbalanced record. Those opening tracks have a little bit more of the black metal sound of old as a way to lure in older fans of this group, before diverting expectations on the second half. But even then, that divergence is so minuscule in scale considering how much post-metal influence has been left in the first three songs.
The Endless is a marvelous release in the world of post-metal in the 2020s and its a shame that more people won't hear it. Not just because it progressive tendencies will force mainstream metal outlets hand to avoid this record like the plague, but also those metal fans who think heavy=breakdowns and technicality. The Endless is technically sound, but so much more.
9/10
Okay so this is an album that I appreciate more than I flat out love. For starters, the technicality that is on display is robust and calculated; a place where much technical music loses me so much. Almost every piece of this record is included in order to compliment previous and future sections which allows even the albums longer tracks to feel cohesive instead of a hodgepodge of smaller ideas laced together to extend runtime.
That being said, it has already been pointed out by both Daniel and Xephyr that Void of Unending Depths can be too much of a good thing at times. Extended runtimes only intend to highlight how much weaker the slower and atmospheric tracks feel in comparison to "Mind Surgery", which is the albums best track. And the attempts to capture atmospherics as Blut Aus Nord did on Disharmonium earlier this year fall by the wayside very quickly. I would not even say that these tracks are bad; they just take me out of the experience when the technical death stuff is this good. Perhaps this is a backhanded compliment, but this record could have a stronger emphasis on the tech-death. As someone who does not partake in this style of death metal very often, I would have liked to hear more of it.
7/10
The avant-garde tag on music can be a bit misleading. There are some instances where this tag is used to describe music that goes far and beyond what could be described as "accessible" (i.e. Imperial Triumphant, Deathspell Omega, etc.) by throwing the kitchen sink at the listener with relentless time changes and technical breakdowns. On the other hand, avant-garde can be used to describe bands like Schammasch and Scarcity; the forms are not that unusual, but the usage of unconventional composition techniques makes it quite uncomfortable.
In Scarcity's case on the bands debut album Aveilut, the usage of microtonality gives the droning guitar leads some weight as they float in and out of tune with one another. It can be easy to find yourself floating on a cloud while listening to these five tracks suck you in with their atmosphere. But unlike post-metal, Scarcity does not seem interested in doing anything with these ideas. Aveilut is by design a drone metal album that does not resort to spacey synthesizers with no percussion or distinguished bass for its entire 45 minute duration. I can respect the bands experimentation even if I don't really care for drone metal. The blending of the stagnant drone metal with the loud and vibrant black metal is unique, and it does sometimes bring in the best moments of each.
What it does not bring is black metal's production. Everything is so compressed and restrained that nothing is allowed to evolve dynamically. The closing track "V" is the only one that sounds like a fully developed idea, but the guitar lead is not allowed to go anywhere because it's already peaking when the song begins. The lack of bass on "I" left me worried right out the gate for much the same reason. And while "IV" has a decent mix, it is the bands subtle reminder that this is not meant to be consumed as a black metal record. And I think that is fine; experimentation in drone metal is by nature, extremely lacking. But maybe combining these two genres together was never going to work in the first place.
5/10
The new album from Arizona post-metallers Holy Fawn Dimensional Bleed.
A bit of a contentious album here.
Ashenspire have some chops, no doubt about it. When I heard this record for the first time, I was absolutely floored by the compositional techniques used to tell some awfully grim stories. The technicality of Hostile Architecture never feels overindulgent or as a medium for instrumentalists to wank; their purpose was to further the narrative and I appreciate that in a subgenre that seems too ignorant to this concept.
But as I said in my review, it's the vocals that bring it down considerably. Despite what so many people would like to believe, it's the performance, not the content that leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. Artsy (political) post-rock has this obsession with plainspoken vocals that have no sense of flow, groove or momentum. And as someone who doesn't relate at all to the content on display, I felt like I was being lectured to by a teacher for a class I had no interest in taking, but need credit for in order to graduate. Rage Against The Machine's political music was a statement, whereas as Ashenspire has the passion, but none of the precision. This score would have been several points higher if it was an instrumental record.
6/10
Okay, looking at the early returns provided me with a very different reaction that what I was expecting. A lot of the reviews from those who frequent heavier clans (such as The Horde and The North) respect this album for what it is, but do not like it nearly as much as our last fauré into Alice in Chains last year with The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here.
Upon further analysis, I might see why this is the case. For starters, Layne Stayley era AiC were engulfed in the grunge boom from the pacific northwest. And perhaps there was a little bit of an incentive to make something different than Nirvana, but just as accessible. The end result is an album that sounds more emotionally driven than Nevermind, but heavier than Ten. And to anyone who knows ANYTHING about doom metal will typically gravitate towards the heavier, and less melodically driven side of the genre, instead of this squeaky clean version of it.
But as a wee lad back in the late 1990s, who never liked the adult contemporary gunk that was played in my family household at the time, I wanted something bigger. Nothing too extraordinary, but certainly outside of the realms of the family comfort zone. And grunge was that thing. Furthermore, Alice in Chains was my introduction to metal as a whole. Perhaps counterintuitively, it was the melodic songwriting from the adult contemporary slosh used over a heavy metal idiom that hooked me and never let go.
Without rambling, my experience with Dirt is in direct opposition to Sonny's. As I matured, it was albums like Nevermind and Ten that lost favour as I learned more about the artist, their songwriting process, as well as their future. Sure, Alice in Chains had their problems on later albums (S/T and Black Gives Way To Blue) and left me questioning the bands future, but I never found those albums outright repulsive in the same way I find so many newer Pearl Jam records in the 2000s and beyond. Dirt is an album with soul; something severely lacking in the genres that Alice in Chains are attempting to replicate here. And it's the soul of Layne Stayley, Jerry Cantrell, and the rest of Alice in Chains that lives on 30 years later.
9/10
The Blackening is one of those albums that I have fond memories of blasting "Beautiful Mourning", "Aesthetics Of Hate" and "Halo" back in the day, but I can never find it in myself to return to this album years later. Perhaps it is the downward spiral that has been Rob Flynn for the better part of the last five/six years and his absolute butchering of Machine Head over that timeframe, or maybe it's my continued distancing from thrash metal over the years.
That really should not be a problem since this record leans far more heavily towards groove metal than anything else. I mean, "Aesthetics Of Hate" is a song literally about some deadbeat writer who pissed on the grave of Dimebag Darrell. And there are (fleeting) moments where Machine Head pull out the stops and do a solid Pantera impression. The independence between the dueling guitars and the bass is splendid, the soloing occasionally pulls out some of the Dimebag tropes, and Flynn pulls off the sing/scream better than Anselmo could on later Pantera albums like The Great Southern Trendkill, Reinventing The Steel and even those later Down albums. But it is a flawed album where the band cannot keep the same intensity in the melodies from the first half to the second. The last three songs all being at least nine minutes is tiring and can get quite boring by the end. But those first four tracks are bops and make for a great addition to anyone's top list of 2000's thrashers.
7/10
This is a fascinating album. It's a record that I have seen appear in numerous curated Spotify playlists since I listened to and reviewed this project back in June. The controversy among Northlane and Metalcore fans in general surrounding this record has not been lost on me. I made it known in my review that the crime against humanity of metal bands going accessible is completely lost on me since it usually results in more consistently good albums.
And Obsidian is no exception. This record has some of Northlane's most well constructed tracks in their entire discography (i.e. "Abomination", "Clockwork" and "Cypher"), incorporating breakdowns in a well constructed fashion that are not shamelessly dropped in as a generic mosh pit slammer.
Where it loses me are some of the heavier tracks, which sound less like Northlane exploring this more accessible, "mainstream metalcore" and rather as a plea of "please do not abandon us! We can still make heavier songs see?" It just leaves the album feeling flustered as vibes do not connect well between certain tracks. Regardless, Obsidian is one of the better "mainstream metalcore" albums I've heard in recent years as well as one of the better albums of 2022 so far.
7/10
Blut aus Nord - Disharrmonium - Undreamable Abysses
Blut aus Nord by way of Oranssi Pazuzu. Sonny, you need to hear this.
I've steered clear of the Pit featured releases a lot lately due to my well documented lack of interest in recent years, especially as I have become more comfortable with extreme metals like Black metal. But I always try to make a divergence back into the depths whenever I see a newer release given the golden shovel. Well, I say newer, but I only really mean within the last five years.
This record by the Chilean group Parkcrest is one such album and shows a lot of promise. Unlike so many other records in this genre, this record is not going to beat you over the head with a nonstop assault of fast tremolo picking guitars, unaltering skank beat drums, no bass to be found, and inaudible vocals. There are some very good songwriting moments on this album; the album highlights are "Darkest Fear", "Possessed by God" and "Hatred 'Till Die". The mid album instrumental "Dwelling of the Moonlights" has some interesting ideas and could have worked if some of the motifs had been better connected together.
I like how the percussion alternates between double and half time grooves while the guitar remains at a similar pace through chorus sections. I like how much prominence is given to the bass during the heavier thrash sections. But the vocals are probably the albums weakest element, if only because they borrow heavily from the school of Tom Araya word vomit that I have never liked. Overall, the record has some really good moments on it and it does stand out among its contemporaries, but it seems too reliant on returning to a pre-existing formula if only to bring in a large contingency of thrash fans who already enjoy that stuff. And since I am on the outside of that group looking in, the straight up thrash metal is just plain boring. The experimentation is nice, but struggles a bit when it's trying to figure out what to do with it.
6/10
I am less than shocked to find out that Spheres is a contentious album among the Pestilence fanbase. "A death metal album that isn't thirty nonstop minutes of guitar chugging, impossible drum fills and beats, and a relentless display of unintelligible/inaudible vocals? 0/10!" sounds like something that a typical death metal fan would say when they hear this album for the first time.
But as I have said on numerous occasions, if these elements don't amount to anything, then their usage is lost on me; just an audible assault from a band looking to invade your space, but not do anything to make you remember them within moments of the album's conclusion. This is not the case for Spheres by Pestilence. The production is super clean given the compositional technicality on display, the counterpoint between the guitars and synthesizers is superb. And the structure of the album is immaculate; never letting you get too caught up in either the technical death or the spacey atmospherics. As for the songwriting itself, I find it highly engaging as well. Like with most death metal subgenres, it is not dependent on melody, but rather short motifs, and most of this album use motifs conceptually, so their return is memorable.
This album gets the tag of technical death metal with regularity because of the band association, but I don't hear much of that at all. This certainly feels more like a progressive death metal album, as the "technicality" is brought in through complex song structures/forms instead of instrumental wankery. It takes the groundwork applied by Atheist a few years earlier on Unquestionable Prescence and amplifies the progressive tendencies with it's space ambience and jazz interludes, but also incorporates them into special metal tracks. Is it as good as Unquestionable Prescence? That's hard to say; Spheres is a more complete space opera than Atheist's, but Unquestionable Presence has more death metal implantation, making it stand out more. Perhaps this record surprised me more because of the band it's associated with and their previous output. And in writing all of that I feel like I've convinced myself that Spheres is better that Unquestionable Presence.
So fuck it hot take right now: not only is Spheres by Pestilence the bands best record, structurally it is a better space opera than Atheist's Unquestionable Presence.
9/10
Saor - Origins (2022)
There seems to be hardly any black metal here at all, the beautiful and stirring atmospheric black metal soundscapes Saor have become synonymous with being replaced by fairly pedestrian celtic and folk metal.
I found myself questioning this record initially as well. The shorter track lengths meant that motifs could not be developed and mature as previous albums. The almost abandonment of atmospheric black metal for grooves that sound borrowed from thrash of all places is alienating. The transitions are not as concise and the clean vocals are lackluster if we are being generous.
But this album was also released on the same day as another folk metal album: Alestorm's Seventh Rum of a Seventh Rum, which as I expected, is another paint by numbers Alestorm album. And it got me questioning the drastic change in sound palette here on Origins and whether or not it was a bad thing. Saor still knows how to write a beautiful melody, the incorporation of flute, strings and bagpipes has always been fantastic as to never feel like a gimmick. Their incorporation over something closer to post-metal with more major harmonies feels unusual, but not outside the realm of what Andy Marshall is capable of. The use of folk elements is not uncommon for Saor and the greater importance of them on this record should fit right in. Structurally, is Origins Saor's least cohesive album? Yes; by a considerable margin. Does anything here match "Farwell" or "Forgotten Paths"? Not even close. Is it still a tight knit collection of songs that takes the greatness of the band and pushes the boundaries of what Saor can be? Well... 
8/10
Good production, decent melodic storytelling, and a frontman who has the bass in their voice to pull it all off...and yet I don't find myself enjoying this record as much as October Rust. I think my major complain is sequencing; say what you will about the producer's nightmare that is October Rust, it had a consistent flow and design from top to bottom. Whereas this has some very impressive melodic doom on the back half (most notably the title track and "Everything Dies") but the first few tracks are bafflingly bad. "White Slavery" and "Everyone I Loved Is Dead" are atrocious and I would not blame a soul for turning the album off prematurely. If you can make it through the first six tracks, you'll find some of Type O Negative's best songs.
7/10
I meant to do a quick little album write up when this album came out, but it wasn't on the website at the time, and I had already moved on to that new album from The Chasm. So after another few listens here's my cliffnotes version of what I would have said:
So far in 2022, I've moved away from the high brow critic spheres and narrowed my new listening to styles/genres that I already have a vested interest in. One of those genres, obviously, is heavy metal and last month I cleared out my back catalogue of popular alternative and metalcore records that I skipped over in the first half of the year (Northlane, Bad Omens, Static Dress, etc.). But along came Thornhill who were getting much attention in critic spaces, but not so much in the mainstream. The can usually only mean one thing: Deftones.
I've been revisiting a lot of Deftones in recent weeks as well (White Pony review is coming soon). And yes, Heroine by Thornhill does emit many of the songwriting tropes that are iconic from the early 2000s era Deftones circa White Pony, as well as some more modern, popular releases like Koi no yokan and Diamond Eyes. But something about this record feels different; like a record that knows its source material down to its seams, but can build it back up with different materials and still have it fit. Djent-y breakdowns are popular at the moment, and this record does a solid job of not allowing them to feel slapdash or thrown in just for the sake of trendchasing.
The album is really dreamy and lush and helped in large part by a production that does not favour one instrumental over the other. Lots of atmospheric music fails at being so when bands give prominence to one part over the rest giving it a jarring effect that snaps the listener right back to reality. But this album's real star? Vocalist Jacob Charlton. This vocal timbre is splendid. The way in which Charlton accents uncommon syllables and releases stanzas prematurely adds a layer of roughness to this record that Deftones albums just don't with Chino's clean delivery drowned out in reverb and other effects. It's almost reminiscent of Muse's Matt Bellamy, but with much better fundamentals beneath it.
This is a great album. The Deftones elements are great and hold the original source material to its purest form, but divergences are precise and not forced. This is a name that I look forward to keeping an ear open for years to come.
8/10
Static Dress - Rouge Carpet Disaster
I know Andi enjoys the romp of a mid 2000s post-hardcore/metalcore record, so I'm guessing you'll enjoy this trip down nostalgia lane from this new UK outlet.
https://staticdress.bandcamp.com/album/rouge-carpet-disaster
Where to start with this one? I think on the outset it should be noted that this record is far removed from anything metal in my opinion. In fact, this sounds strikingly similar to the new wave of emo/post-hardcore bands such as La Dispute and Foxtails, mixed in with just enough chamber elements to reminisce on Lingua Ignota. Then when I heard that Ode and Elegy is a solo project from a member of The Pax Cecilia, a mid 2000s post-hardcore/screamo band, I can't say that I was all that surprised.
I never heard The Pax Cecilia back in the day and honestly upon listening to their records, it isn't that surprising that they disappeared. They had some decent songs, but could never form an entire album out of them. Like with so many post-hardcore/metal bands, the texture takes over for good songwriting. Whereas with this, the way that Kent Fairman rises and falls with the song structures is impeccable. The opening string theme is eerily reminiscent to the Firelink Shrine theme from Dark Souls 3 and I was amazed by how many ways this record took that simple theme and style and incorporated it throughout the record; passing it on to the chorus, horns and electric guitar.
Ode and Elegy feels like a record in two parts as the second half is more experimental on those motifs in addition to how it transforms. At one moment, you're waiting what feels like an eternity for any sort of girth from the distortion from the guitar or vocals. The next, the texture is slow and brooding like a doom metal album, and by the end, everything is on fire with blast beats in the percussion, and heavy dissonance in the guitars. On any other day I might call this texture wanking, but this time it is completely justified as melodic themes ebb and flow in and out with elegance and beauty.
From a production standpoint however, this record is seriously lacking. Beyond the strings which sound gorgeous, many of the horn and choral passages sound cheap and tossed in almost as an afterthought. I must admit, I've never liked choral elements in symphonic/chamber music. Far too often they feel like afterthoughts on compositions that would be perfectly acceptable to just have soloists. I never liked it on Beethoven's 9th and I'm not going to give Kent Fairman a pass here.
I've mentioned in a couple of reviews the idea of metal bands using the symphony compositional form for an album or song and this is certainly one of the most unique albums I've heard that fit into that mold. It's use of melodic motifs that remain fresh throughout an almost hour long runtime is very impressive and harkens back to some of my favourite symphonies (Tchaikovsky/Beethoven's 5th and Brahms' 4th). The production is lacking, but somewhat expected because of the electric instruments, but that does not take away from the elite tier songwriting.
8/10
Astronoid - Radiant Bloom
I have always respected this band with their attempts to popularize the blackgaze sound, but have always had far too many structural problems to appreciate them more. Let's see if this new record can make a new impression.
It's fascinating that Sonny and myself can approach this album from vastly different positions and yet we can both agree about the quality of The Fire Cult Beyond Eternity. My introduction to black metal was through a lot of the melodic sound of Windir, Dissection and more recently, Obsequiae. But a lot of roots in post-metal led me toward Agalloch and Summoning. So when the dissonant guitar leads that open this album enter on "Cult Beyond Eternity", I was less than impressed. But as the album progressed, I noticed the dissonant harmonies not playing as intrusive of a role as I initially thought. In fact, they actually compliment the more tonal sections admirably.
I get a lot of (good) progressive metal vibes out of this record, based on how individual tracks are constructed. The guitar gets plenty of moments to shine with some soaring chord progressions with a very solid melodic lead. The bass lines are independent from the guitar chords allowing for extended harmonies to flourish. Percussion is relatively tame for a black metal album, but that allows for the sparse moments when it does pick up into a blast beat fury to hit with more authority. And the vocals are well performed, but are heavily compressed in the mix, meaning the diction of the words is easily lost through the murk of the atmospherics. As for the compositions, I really enjoy how this album is able to compliment its tonal and dissonant sections together through similar motifs; typically found in many of the bass lines, but occasionally found through similar wordplay or percussion grooves.
This album is not as dank as many of the black metal records that I heard in 2020 and it gives this album a confined tone, which does have its positive and negative traits. For starters, having these avant-garde passages that are not entirely percussion dependent means that the dissonance of the guitar leads is not shoved directly into your ears as a method to turn the listener away. On the other hand, with the vocals being held back so far it makes me wonder why some compensation was never considered. But beyond that, this was a pleasant surprise. The progressive songwriting on display is much more up my alley in comparison to the choppiness found in modern prog metal, and is overall just an enjoyable sound, despite its atonality.
8/10