Saxy S's Reviews

Hey kids, do you like the 1980s? Do you want to go back?

Most people will likely not even give this new Motley Crue EP a chance because of its title. Cancelled: most will assume that it is a shitty attempt at being edgy and controversial, but in all likelihood, is just a drawn out project where the protagonist calls himself a "bad man" for an uncomfortable amount of time. And, having listened to it I can tell you that this assertion is not entirely the case.

Their are basically only two songs here (three if you count the "Fight for Your Right" cover), but they really do not sound that bad. They sound right out of the 1980s with albums like Shout at the Devil and Dr. Feelgood. The issue comes through in the compositions as neither of these two tracks sound like they were given the same love for their choruses as "Kickstart My Heart" once was. "Dogs of War" is fun albeit generic, while "Cancelled" may well as not have had a hook at all.

Which brings us back, once again, to the lyrics. Now, I avoid tabloids like Loudwire and Metalsucks like the plague. They (like many others) have been revealed to be corrupt shills who jerk each other off and promote "their boys," regardless of quality, while talented, independent musicians get shafted. If an attempt to get Motley Crue cancelled was orchestrated, why should Motley Crue care? Wouldn't "their boys" help them out? Or maybe they are terrified of what might happen next?

Motley Crue should not be in hot water for something that was not considered taboo during their prime. But perhaps they should be in hot water from their bath at the retirement home.

I hate when any project is announced as "the finale" and everyone gives their passionate goodbyes, only for that projects corpse to be lifted out of the coffin like its still 1989. This reunion of Motley Crue is just that and Cancelled represents everything that is wrong with remake culture. And, like with Velma, Motley Crue will inevitably be cancelled after just one season as well.

Best Song: Dogs of War

It appears to me that the metalcore kids are beginning to take control over a sizeable portion of the progressive metal community. The kicker is that they don't call it "metalcore" so as to draw the unimpressed Eyre of the progressive metal snob. Instead they call it "Djent" with a silent "D" to prove their sophistication. Allt are a generally new band out of Sweden who made strides throughout the early 2020s and released From the New World just the past week as their first full length LP. And let me just say: nothing about From the New World is remotely prog. It contains thall tuned guitars, atomic drop breakdowns, glitchy production and the occasionally catchy vocal hook. And yet I still really enjoyed it.

I know this album is not without its faults. The production can become excruciatingly frail at times; when guitars are tuned this low with this much feedback, it only makes sense that their would be some peaking in the mix.  In addition, the overall texture of this album does cause some of the vocal lines to become condensed and resorted to backgrounds. But even with all of that, From the New World is actually very concise, has more than its fair share of catchy grooves and licks, and the production issues are more sporadic than I might have made them sound earlier; it's probably a better produced record than the recent albums from Humanity's Last Breath or Currents.

Best Songs: Remnant, Echoes, Emanate, Ephemeral

Oceans of Slumber have transformed into the metal band who have exhumed the most wasted potential of the 2020s so far. I never thought of them as being a bad ensemble, but a debut album in 2013 that showed promise has fallen on deaf ears since 2018's The Banished Heart. Two follow up releases that improved barely anything and continuing further into 2024 with Where Gods Fear to Speak.

This album is all over the place in its texture/style. I'm not opposed to bands altering their sound to adapt another genre, like how Oceans of Slumber isolate their melodic death roots in favour of doom/gothic metal here, but the execution of these sounds in harmony sounds more like a trainwreck. As a result, the album feels remarkably disjointed; none of these smaller ideas were given any semblance of connectivity and progression throughout the runtime. the record will non-chalant transform from a slow, melodically pleasant doom section into black metal blast beats and death metal howls at the snap of a finger without any preparation. And this, sadly, is further explored in Cammie Gilbert's vocals as well. There are a lot of metal bands that are perfectly fine writing music without harsh vocals (i.e. Katatonia, Within Temptation, late Opeth), but Oceans of Slumber still imagine heavy music not truly being "heavy" without it. So vocal lines become disjointed with a hybrid vocal delivery, which when paired with the poor songwriting, makes the vocals feel even more obtuse.

I thought a lot about the band Epica while listening to Where Gods Fear to Speak and all of the places that Oceans of Slumber should have focused on to make this record better than it is. Unfortunately, many of the best elements of those Epica albums like Omega and The Quantum Enigma is painfully absent here. What we are left with is a band trying to replicate one of the 2010s most consistent power/symphonic metal bands, but adding the worst possible aspects of progressive metal songwriting to the table for an overall lackluster experience. Oceans of Slumber are the modern day victims of this commonplace issue within the genre, but will likely get a free pass because of the progressive metal tag. It's really a shame and leaves this review feeling empty.

Best Songs: Wish, Wicked Game, I Will Break the Pride of Your Will

Anciients are a band that were very popular among the more djent-y side of prog and metalcore during the 2010s and I could never get into them at the time. Just about a full decade later, Anciients release Beyond the Reach of the Sun, their third studio album and it shows a lot of growth as well as future potential.

First thing I noticed was how different of a sound scape this is. Instead of the djent and metalcore of previous albums, Anciients have gone closer to melodic death metal, and more specifically, mid 2000s Opeth melo-death. That should be enough of a seller for most on its own, but in the interest of specifics, compositions have a knack for bending dynamics and making crescendos that sound rewarding. Kenny Cook has a very nice vocal range and still employs some of his signature death metal screams as before, but now in reserve as the clean singing is not only impactful, but memorable. 

I was a little hesitant on the albums length going into it, but the more I listened to Beyond the Reach of the Sun, the less bloated it became. The album has some longer moments (i.e. "Forbidden Sanctuary" and "Melt the Crown") but the songs are well constructed and compliment each other remarkably well. There is enough variety in the sound structure that it never feels bloated, but not too vast in its scope that it starts becoming overzealous. 

If you like your mid 2000s Opeth mixed with some Mastodon or The Ocean sludge, this is a great return for Anciients and an excellent place to catch on. I hope that they continue down this path in their future projects.

Best Songs: Forbidden Sanctuary, Melt The Crown, Cloak Of The Bast And Black, Beyond Our Minds, In The Absence Of Wisdom

I'm not sure who Ronnie Radke hates more on Popular Monster, you, the listener, or himself.

Now, I have made it no surprise through my track record that my tolerance for modern metalcore is thin. This is not to say that there cannot be some gems in this cesspool, but more often then not, they are utterly disposable and interchangeable. As a result, I am completely and utterly indifferent to Ronnie Radke. I found the music in both Escape the Fate and Falling in Reverse to be milquetoast and beyond boring. This trend carries into Popular Monster as it does not appear to have an original bone in its body.

When the album started, "Prequel" had this gradual swell in the instrumentals and Radke's rapping vocals, which then explode into the albums metal breakdown. But it didn't take me very long to start making comparisons to Hardy's Quit!! from just last month. And that album wasn't very original either. Calling on Jelly Roll to perform guest vocals on "All My Life" was just the ultimate sign of incompetence; "This album is nothing like Hardy," so then why did you even bother adding a country singer for one of your promotional singles you dipshit?

The production on the album is certainly not doing FiR (Falling in Reverse) any favors. Metal music published through Epitaph records have always had a severe hit-or-miss quality to them, but this is the furthest thing from good. Most recently, it has been bands like Architects that have taken the heavy brunt of these production gaffes, and FiR take it to a new level; drum peaking, guitar mush, and disgusting synth lines. That just leaves Radke...who is probably the most impactful part of this album. The vocals are delivered with authority and gravitas and speaks bluntly through his lyrics.

Which is about as generous as I can be with lyrics this vapid. Y'know what this album is about? I'll let ya guess....if you said "anti-woke gibberish, cancel culture and gun wielding America", congratulations! You don't have to listen to Popular Monster (your ears will thank you). I know there won't be many who agree with me on this, but when you have a song called "Trigger Warning," maybe include some content that's actually triggering rather than just saying "I'm a bad man" for the eighteenth time. It's all performative and it looks embarrassing. If Radke was looking to win new fans with Popular Monster, he failed spectacularly.

Popular Monster is an album made for people who believe Radke has done nothing wrong; that all of his legal issues were conspiratorial and everyone trying to cancel him are just mad that he is an asshole. And at this point, you don't really need to cancel Ronnie Radke or Falling in Reverse. They will do it all by themselves.

Best Songs: Watch The World Burn

Many of you will know that my palette in relation to doom metal is quite niche. I'm not super into the droning, unchanging albums that simply wallow away in a single tone for an hour runtime. I much prefer the more melodic side of the genre that is shown in death doom. And yet somehow I find sludge metal to be far more entertaining. It's usually far heavier from a sonic perspective and borrows from Pit clan genres like thrash and groove metal, which I know I'm been vocal about the past five years.

Thou is a band that I was never familiar with until Umbilical was requested for reviewing purposes. They have an extensive discography that dates back almost two decades and have a similar release formula to Full of Hell as they bring in collaborators such as The Body, Mizmor and Ragana. And with Umbilical, you can tell that Thou are playing to a very specific type of sludge metal; one that might take some getting used to for the more traditionalist doom/sludge fan, but that helps it in the long run.

There is a good share of metalcore influence on Umbilical. The riffage is precise and the unison bridge's carry a lot of this records drive and momentum. And the riffs, while nothing super innovative or ear catching, songs like "I Feel Nothing When You Cry," "The Promise" and especially "Panic Stricken, I Flee" feel like fully developed songs. I was super impressed by this albums longer tracks "Narcissist's Prayer" and "House of Ideas," which are very cohesive and tell a full story throughout the runtime. Some of the albums early, shorter tracks feel as if they were missing something from the piece; almost like they needed one final chorus to bring everything back together.

Production is very solid. For as sludgy as an album Umbilical can be, it lives up to that title with some heavy, dank guitar tones and a cavernous low end. The percussion is robust, but never feels like it is overtaking the guitar or vocals as the main attention seeker. The vocals are harsh and delivered with a "sludgy" pretense which matches beautifully with the instrumentals, but something about them being so shredded and pushed back in the mix just does not feel right to me in this style of music. I understand the album has lyrical themes of isolation and grief, which is a nice touch of detail, but it can make things harder to digest.

While I did praise the album for its condensed runtime earlier, I do have concerns with the lack of diversity in the soundscape. Yes, it's doom/sludge metal. It's hateful, aggressive, loathing, but nowhere within Umbilical does Thou give its listeners an opportunity to mentally recover from the cacophony of sound. This band is incredibly lucky that Umbilical is produced well because I'm not sure if I could have tolerated this meshy timbre with a less than pristine mix. I do really like this album and Thou did an excellent job of taking influence from other bands outside of their genre to create something that is uniquely theirs, but also indebted to the past. 

Best Songs: Narcissist's Prayer, House of Ideas, I Feel Nothing When You Cry, The Promise

Powerwolf are back with their seventh studio album in seven years and they are ready to power metal your face off until you cannot power your power metal anymore. This new album has so much great power going on it that it's honestly impossible to keep up with all the power. With new standards like "Power Metal Song #1" and "Power Metal Song #3," this record will be the most power metal album you hear in all of the year Power-Twenty-Power.

Okay, joking aside, I don' think that Wake Up the Wicked is that bad. The production is tight, the band still have some solid melodic leads on "We Don't Wanna Be No Saints" and "Kyrie Kiltorem," and the record clocks in at a brisk thirty-seven minutes; the song lengths do not overstay their welcome and feel like fully fleshed out ideas, and the album as a whole is high octane energy that never feels like it needs an interlude.

In the grand scheme of things however, Powerwolf are getting on my nerves when it comes to new releases. As mentioned previously, over the past seven years, Powerwolf have released a new album on an annual basis and there has not been any attempts to deviate from their established formula in that time. For as much as I despise modern Alestrom albums, at least they don't assault you with the same, drawn out pirate/folk metal at this rapid of a pace.

I wanted Interludium to be a turning point for the band; a metaphorical interlude that would lead into a second act that was more introspective and thought provoking. It didn't have to be progressive or conceptual like the most recent albums by Angra or Unleash the Archers, but something...unique. I can get a kick out of Wake Up the Wicked for sure, but I'll have a really hard time remembering any of this by years end.

Best Songs: Kyrie Kiltorem, Joan of Arc, Thunderpriest

Discovery is a wonderful thing. Ætheria Conscientia are a black metal band that I have seen pop in to my recommended feed (if only briefly) back in 2021 for Corrupted Pillars of Vanity and became a group that I would keep tabs on, even if I found the music to be far too patchy. And this came along solely based on the name of the group. Like with Ne Obliviscaris over ten years ago, Ætheria Conscientia was a name that would be impossible to forget and would be in eager anticipation of their next move.

Now this is coming from the assumption that their foundational progressive/avant-garde metal roots would result in growth and development of a very unique atmospheric black metal sound. And with The Blossoming, I can see the huge strides taking place from the inside to create a more streamlined, accessible, and overall more enjoyable album.

Corrupted Pillars of Vanity is a daunting listen with just five tracks, but a runtime that approaches one hour. The Blossoming by comparison is six tracks and runs at a relatively brisk forty-five minutes. While that might seem like a minor issue, what stands out is that Ætheria Conscientia never sound like they are still performing after all the concert goers have left. Each song (most notably the longer tracks like "Astral Choir" and "Endless Cycle") are cohesive and tell a fully developed story through the instrumentals and lyrical themes. I enjoy how this band is able to sound as dense as they do, while still caring for the listeners time and money; it's a record that gives its listeners all of its necessary information and then lets you decide what it all means, all while not rambling.

And that's important because the compositions are carrying a lot of weight. For a black metal album, The Blossoming is pretty light when it comes to traditional black metal motifs. Tremolo picking guitars are frequently substituted for open power chords, percussion rarely sticks to a rhythmic blast beat foundation, and the vocals are extremely varied in their delivery. And that's even before you add the clean guest vocals of Lisieux on this albums bookend tracks and the ALWAYS sultry saxophone leads that regularly appear throughout the project. This horn in particular is performed with a very similar timbre as those found on Rivers of Nihil's Where Owls Know My Name, which just so happened to be one of the only consistently good pieces of that record!

For a record that is as progressive/avant-garde as The Blossoming sounds, it's quite a shame that it did not axe out many of the black metal production tropes, such as a lackluster bass line, and filtered down vocals. The bass lines are inexcusable at this point; while the guitars are quite pleasant and the open power chords give The Blossoming a sense of wideness, it would me more beneficial for the bass to be closer to the front and allow for the guitars a little bit more breathing room to be experimental instead of playing foundations. As for the vocals, I don't think that hiding the vocalist in the back of the room like this was the most viable solution. After all, The Blossoming is not you're run-of-the-mill black metal album in its lyrical content and themes. This space opera is very surreal and could use a more present narrator to show the listener its folklore and mythology.

Ætheria Conscientia reinvented themselves on The Blossoming and they succeeded in many different ways. Besides the obvious, this record has a feeling of humanity in it that has not been felt in a lot of extreme metal recently. It pulls from Ihsahn, Rivers of Nihil, and Kayo Dot in its ambitiousness and pulls of the best in all of them. Best of all, the record never feels like its meandering or runs out of things to say before its conclusion. I kind of expected the album to end a bit more emphatically, but I think that's part of its appeal and avant-garde texture. 

Best Songs: Haesperadh, Daimu Kadasdra Ko Antall, Endless Cycle

It will probably not come as a surprise, but Sepultura were never among the "elite" thrash bands when I was making my way through the classic discography of the genre. I never thought that they were a bad group, but the heavier, almost death metal take on thrash metal was still a very niche point in my young years. But when the band moved away from the more traditional thrash sound to something more groovy on Chaos A.D. I could not help but be intrigued and I have found a new found appreciation for this band and their early output in recent years.

A lot of that has to do with Cavalera. The re-recordings of Sepultura's first two releases, Bestial Devastation and Morbid Visions, was such a good idea since it took the two most underutilized Sepultura albums, gave them a modern facelift, while some crazy people even replaced their Sepultura recordings with the Cavelera ones! And so, I was perplexed as to why Schizophrenia was getting the modern touch up, since Schizophrenia is generally considered as the first great record that carried on through Chaos A.D. But whatever, here it is: Schizophrenia is a solid piece of nostalgia farming. It's hard to critique the music itself since all of these songs are over thirty years old at this point.

So what's new here? Well the production first and foremost. It has some real grit and feels intense, coalesced by the percussion of Igor Cavalera. They can be overwhelming at times, most notably in the flat footedness of the bass drum, but their intensity is impeccable and carries over to the crunchy guitars, which are open and have much more room than their original recording counterparts. I would have liked to hear a little bit more emphasis on the bass, but for this type of double guitar thrash, I can't say that I'm surprised. I still don't like it since the instrumentals feel one note in their execution. 

That just leaves the vocals and for what they are worth, they give a sense of "modern nostalgia." Early reviews like to criticize Schizophrenia for its liberal use of reverb, but I don't think it's as bad as those reviewers make it out to be. Early thrash metal vocals are notorious for having excessive reverb (Slayer's Show No Mercy, Metallica's Ride The Lightning, Testament's The Legacy), and in the modern day where death metal is so prim and proper with pin point execution of cut offs and unison technical proficiency, the laid back nature of the vocals is refreshing.

It leaves this review feeling a little light on content, but that is what happens when a band re-records their old material. Nothing here is new beyond bringing a classic album into the modern age of thrash metal. I still like it, but as mentioned earlier, I don't think that this album needed a modern facelift. To be honest, I'm a little bit worried if Cavalera continue in this vein in the future with albums like Beneath the Remains and Chaos A.D. coming into view. I can't see fans, or myself, taking those seriously.

Best Songs: From the Past Comes the Storms, Escape to the Void, Septic Schizo, R.I.P (Rest in Pain)

I don't have a lot to say about this release from Sudbury's Fractal Generator unfortunately, but I still feel obligated to write something about Convergence because they are homegrown and I am making a genuine effort to present Canadian content not only as a point of exposure, but also as a point of contention in hopes that someone will see this and add some variation to improve. Or if I'm lucky, maybe the band will see this one day!

Convergence is a pretty solid, if not unoriginal, death meta album. The album has a lot of intensity carried out by way of some crunchy harmonic dissonance. The record can be hard to follow at times given how much the album fluctuates between modulating time signatures and riffs, but many of them do link back to other motifs. The occasional chorus lines that appear on "Cryogenain," "Cyphertext" and "Algorithmic Pathways" give the album a feeling of otherworldliness, before blast beats and howls plummet that idea back into the earth. Beyond those however, this is pretty standard death metal. Even though Fractal Generator do have some nice dynamic shifts throughout this record, it still stands that it can become a little overwhelming at times.

That being said, Convergence is not a bad album. It should satisfy the more tech death-y audience, and its runtime will make sure that the listener does not become too drained by the end. But its simplicity in the compositions does make this record sound like its missing something to turn it grand. Like I said during my Ulcerate review, the proficiency of Cutting the Throat of God is so good that other records just don't cut it for me. This is a prime example of that.

Best Songs: Cryogenain, Ancient Civilizations, Ciphertext

Do you like traditional doom metal? Do you like the modern revitalization of the genre with bands like Spirit Adrift? Well then its time to take you Ibuprofen and check out this new record from Sons of Arrakis!

I honestly do not have a lot to say about Volume II because if you've heard any of the stoner/doom revival bands of the 2010/20s, then you already know what to expect out of this, just of a lower quality. The mixing on Volume II is very solid and does not meander. Song lengths are concise and trim out all of the excess fat that runs through a large chunk of doom metal, and the instrumentals are performed with relative proficiency, with a special shout out to the vocal stylings as well. That said, the compositions are inconsistent, as some songs like "Metamorphosis" sound really intense, while others like "Beyond the Screen of Illusion" fall super flat. Beyond that, the sound palette is very pedestrian and can be easily misheard as another doom/stoner band. 

It is not a bad record by any stretch, but Sons of Arrakis should do some serious soul searching in order to stand out from the crowd, otherwise they will be easily forgotten about amongst the Crypt Sermon's and Neptunian Maximalism's of the world

Best Songs: High Handed Enemy, Metamorphosis, Blood for Blood

We have once again returned to the world of late 2010s metalcore bands that I have no association with. My ties with melodic metalcore were severed around 2008-09 when deathcore started to become super popular and began to dominate the Warped Tour scene. I found myself drifting further away from that clique as I continued to dig myself into more progressive music, as well as building my foundations of jazz music. So, Wage War were a band that completely passed me by during the 2010s. Their debut, Blueprints, was generally favoured I guess, but I couldn’t tell you anything about that album or any of the subsequent releases by the band.

And despite the quality of the music found within STIGMA, I can give Wage War credit for not releasing the same barebones, meat-and-potatoes metalcore album again. This album has some artistic growth on it, most notably in its industrial and synthetic elements. STIGMA does not maintain a static format throughout the entire runtime, and I can give credit where it is due.

Unfortunately, that is where the credit to Wage War ends because wow is this album generic. Modern metalcore gets a bad reputation for being painfully generic and uninspired and I can only imagine the critics saying that were staring directly at Wage War while they said it. STIGMA commits the cardinal sin of making every breakdown sound like it was composed on an AI bot with its painful buildup, always plateauing on the same tired callout by the vocals, before transitioning into a clearly chopped up metalcore breakdown. I hear more variety on a lofi hip hop collaboration!

The sequencing is even worse. Wage War are clearly tired of the same old stuff, which is why they added industrial elements into this album. But song transitions do not work well at all. It is almost an issue of STIGMA trying to do way too much. “MAGNETIC” is okay, but how do you pair it with “NAIL5?” It is such a baffling change of style and direction that somehow made “MAGNETIC” less enjoyable. And then it happens again at the end of the record, with “HAPPY HUNTING” into “HELLBENT.”

And then there is the mixing. First and foremost, the guitars sound tinny and sharp, rendering much of the power required for these breakdowns to work mute. And the cacophony of sound during the albums sung choruses is mind numbing. How can one listen to the hodgepodge of noise on “IN MY BLOOD,” notice that the vocals are being swamped, and say “yeah this sounds good, print it?”

The fall of modern metalcore is quite a shame, but not surprising if you examine it for more than thirty minutes (almost the amount of time it takes you to listen to this whole album). I wish that more modern acts would look back towards the early 2000s or beyond and really learn what it takes to write a good hook. Because where we are at this moment, STIGMA by Wage War is a breakdown album with the occasional verse interlude. If not this, then at least try something a little bit more off the rails. I mean, Reliqa released an album this year that is basically progressive nu metal. I recommend sticking with that.

Best Songs: TOMBSTONE, HELLBENT

Heavy metal fans deserve to be happy once in a while. We love to entrench ourselves in a sea of anger through intensity and loud noises, all the while an instrumental palette of minor harmonies and piercing dissonance rings through our ears. How hard is it for metal artists to use major keys and slightly more uplifting themes? Since the arrival of blackgaze around the late 2000s, we have seen this begin to take shape. One of my biggest appraisals of Deafheaven's Sunbather was how that album began; presenting a false sense of security and joy, even if the title track was anchored by a relentless percussion and howling black metal shrieks. Alcest have done much the same with Écailles de lune and Spiritual Instinct and I thought for sure that this would be the peak of "happy metal".

And while Les chants de l’aurore will continue in this style to mostly positive results, I would be lying if I said I enjoyed this as much as their previous output. Something about this record feels...too carefree and I don't know where that comes from. The tempos and grooves on Les chants de l’aurore are far less driving than ever before, giving a feeling of stagnation. This album does not truly evolve that much from its initial presentation on "Komorebi" and the remaining songs don't do very much to justify their extended runtimes. Not only that, but the instrumental textures behind Neige's vocals feel more muddy and condensed than on Alcest's previous/best records.

I think many people will give Les chants de l’aurore a free pass because of how beautiful it is. Overall the texture is still very nice and a sound that you have come to expect out of an Alcest project. Neige is embracing even more of his clean vocals than even Spiritual Instinct as the harsh black metal shrieks become more textured window dressing. But a lot like with Knocked Loose earlier this year, if you're gonna give a listener just one texture for an entire record, it can become quite stale the longer that project chugs along. Les chants de l’aurore is not a long record, which should be in its favour, but two shorter interlude tracks ("Réminiscence" and "L’adieu"), the remaining five tracks do not perform nearly as well to carry this record to the stars.

Best Songs: L'Envol, Flamme Jumelle, L'Enfant de la Lune (月の子)

This brief little EP from Haken guitarist Richard Henshall is a very impressive piece. The compositions here are well done and do not feel hindered by the lack of a vocal lead. Melodies are robust and compliment the djent-y jazz grooves remarkably well. I cannot force myself to rate this any higher though because of the intrinsic nature of this kind of progressive, instrumental music. Sure, Richard Henshall is a competent performer and the compositions are of a high caliber, but it is still instrumental progressive metal. So you can expect to hear a fair share of instrumental wankery and just as much elitism from its fans. Still, if it was not an EP, I'd probably rank it lower so take this side project for what it is.

Best Songs: Granular, Mu, Land Aliens

Technical Deathcore eh? Well that's a genre that I don't see very often. Although a lot of deathcore bands use very technical/brutal death metal trends during their composition cycle as interludes between breakdowns, so this combination is not that uncommon.

Bestiary by Protosequence is an album trying to be about three artists at once. The first is (perhaps the most obvious one) Between the Buried and Me. The rapid style changes on individual songs are reminiscent of early BTBAM (Between the Buried and Me) albums such as The Silent Circus and Alaska. The issue here is that Protosequence are not super committed to the riffs as much of it falls into sounding very similar very quickly. The short passages of reprieve that the album gives you during the intro of "The Caveat" feel more like obligatory rests, which I do appreciate, but provide no value to the remaining material throughout the rest of the song.

The second and third acts Bestiary are replicating are Job For a Cowboy and Imperial Triumphant. Let's start with Imperial Triumphant, because this is in the production. Something about the instrumental timbre of this record just screams Alphaville just without the avant-garde instrumentation and it generally serves the album well when it comes to making the heavy sections sound heavy. The Job for a Cowboy comparison is more in the songwriting itself. These tunes are not as complicated as BTBAM, but their structure is quite similar to an early JFAC (Job for a Cowboy) release; specifically the "Entombment of a Machine" one. The vocals are furious in their delivery and show off a wide range of vocal capability, including pig squeals and gutturals, and the instrumentals can go from relentless death metal riffage to stank face breakdowns without warning. This is not really a style that I relate to very much at all since my attention span continues to get smaller every passing day, and the implication of "riff salad" leaves it half baked and missing that one connecting branch to lock it all together.

Two of these three comparisons look kind of familiar don't you think? BTBAM and JFAC both used to play a very technical, unfiltered kind of death metal, but both have moved on to greener pastures. Bestiary sounds like a record that wants to be placed firmly in the year 2005. That was twenty years ago. Come up with your own ideas.

Best Songs: Sam, The Caveat, Twelve Ropes

Five years ago, I was quite impervious when it came to technical death metal. My tolerance for the genre was very thin and I never felt like I could get anywhere with discovering the genre as an outsider. So when Ulcerate came along with their album, State Into Death and Be Still and showed me a new perspective on the genre, I was surprised. Turns out that technical death metal does not consist of just Cyptopsy, Nile, and Dying Fetus. One of the downsides however, is now that my palette of tech-death is where it is now, it becomes even harder to like those pedestrian tech-death bands because the bar was set so high five years ago!

If there was ever a band that could accurately describe their music without playing it, it would be Ulcerate. The bands sophomore album, Everything Is Fire, is a concise descriptor of the music found within. It's the hauntingly gorgeous beauty of staring out over a burning forest; nothing will be left except for burnt ash and rubble, while the wildlife of the forest are all left homeless with no protection from the elements, but you cannot help but stare dumbfound into its destruction. Suffice to say that Cutting the Throat of God was one of my most anticipated records of 2024. Did Ulcerate make the cut?  

Cutting the Throat of God is objectively a great album. I really enjoy the texture of the guitars and the pulsating drive they have. Ulcerate do not employ the traditional chugging patterns of other technical death metal bands and instead use open power chords and atmospheric melodic motifs. Percussion is relentless as is expected and while it can feel like too much at times, I never feel like the percussion is overbearing, or overtly technical for its own sake. The vocals are adequate enough; I haven't really spent much time with the lyrics themselves yet, but if they're only half as destructive as Stare Into Death and Be Still, they will be more than adequate for their performance and execution here. And while the bass is not immediately prominent, the record does have a lot of promise with its low end, doubled by the open chordal guitars.

Perhaps my biggest issue with Cutting the Throat of God is in the compositions. The album generally has a great flow to it and Ulcerate are well aware to give their listener breaks to relax between the intensity with these lovely post-metal interludes. But I feel like the record has too many of them? It's almost like they took my biggest criticism from Knocked Loose's album You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To and overcorrected. They can feel, especially later on in the record (i.e. "To See Death Just Once" and "Undying as an Apparition"), like a formality rather than a connecting link to the next loud, death metal passage. And so it was a pleasant surprise when the closing track, "Cutting the Throat of God" did not have these interlude sections.

Cutting the Throat of God is by no means a bad album. Ulcerate are making some of the most interesting technical death metal of the last ten years. It is somehow both a cataclysm of sound and also very melodic and thoughtful. Despite the density, every note feels meaningful and the performances are articulate. The runtime can feel a little bloated, but I think that's just in the nature of Ulcerate at this point. But maybe that's just what I want out my technical death metal.

Best Songs: The Dawn is Hollow, Further Opening the Wounds, To See Death Just Once, Cutting the Throat of God

Perhaps starting this review with the phrase "nu metal" might give a bad first impression. I've mentioned in other reviews of nu metal albums that I have a churning feeling in my stomach whenever I think about the edgelord gloop that was popular during my adolescence. But it was music that was substantial in refining my music tastes and what I did (and didn't) like about heavy music. And every so often, a new band comes along trying to recapture some of that nostalgic, early 2000s sound and I always prepare for the worst.

Reliqa are one of those rare breed of nu metal bands that don't sound incredibly dated or cringe. I adore Monique Pym's vocal timbre on Secrets of the Future from her powerful cleans and excellent chorus development and growth. And the rapping shows a lot of potential as well; Reliqa are not filling this album to the brim with Fred Durst or Mike Shinoda type rap vocals, instead they appear occasionally, almost serving as a pre-breakdown buildup where the a capella callout before the drop can be executed with authority.

The compositions on Secrets of the Future are really well done. I sometimes use the term "progressive pop" to refer to music like this, even though these two identifiers are not typically matched together. There is a style change during the bridge of "Killstar (The Cold World)" that is pulled off with the sort of technical precision that you would expect out of a Dream Theater album, but it effortlessly connects the outer two sections of this track without feeling like two completely different songs. 

Production wise, this album overall sounds a little too heavy, as if it was a casualty of the loudness war of the late 2000s. But this has become a modern trend in metalcore in recent years so I find it hard to blame Reliqa specifically, but that does not mean I have to like it! If the record was a little bit more compressed in the instrumentals, it could have allowed for these quieter sections with electronic percussion and synthesizers to sound more ethereal instead of acting more as an interlude before the next howling chorus. 

I had a hard time believing that my progressive friend group would have found Reliqa to be such an interesting and upcoming metal band, but one listen to this album's promotional singles and having sat with Secrets of the Future for a couple of weeks now it all makes sense. This is fancy stuff; it has that feeling of nostalgia for early 2000s nu metal without sounding like it came out of the 2000s, and Reliqa know how to write catchy pop metal without having them sound soulless. If they could find better producers for any follow up material, it would be safe to say that the future of Reliqa should be no secret to the wider heavy metal community.

Best Songs: Cave, Killstar (The Cold World), Sariah, Physical, Upside Down

It's another thrash album review. You know what that means...

This St. Catherine's based band have not been around for very long, but their second studio album, Silent Universe, recently crossed my radar and figured it would be in my best interest to give it a couple of spins.

Silent Universe does have some bright spots; the biggest of those being the compositions themselves. For a thrash metal album filled with riffs and guitar solos, Slave Agent have given this album a lot of variety. I'm sure those who have read many reviews of mine in the past are sick and tired of hearing me harp on variety and giving the listener a chance to breathe. I have made it no surprise that albums that give me one intensity for an entire runtime are not fun to listen to, so leave it to an obscure Canadian band to rectify this. "Ripped in Two" has a slow and deliberate groove that persists throughout the song and leads to some very poignant guitar grooves and vocals, and how this groove evolves throughout the track is very well done. "Dying Worlds" is a cool, relaxing interlude that allows the listener to calm down following the first three tracks, only to be hit by a proverbial truck with "Betrayer" and especially "Slaughter at the Gate".

I did not mind the production of Silent Universe. It certainly has that old school thrash sound that is driving in reverb, which works well for the more straightforward songs, but Slave Agent are lacking when they try to get more progressive. Without a prominent bass in the mix, it can start to go flat when the guitars are getting away from their chugging riffage and instead option for more guitar solos or leads. Not surprisingly, this is most egregious on the closing track, "Alien Tomb," but it does show its ugly head sparingly on other tracks like "Ripped in Two".

TL;DR: if you like the technicality of bands such as Autonoesis, but wanted them to be a little less black metal, more thrash, and less Opeth, then perhaps Silent Universe by Slave Agent can satisfy. I know that as a whole, Silent Universe is an album I will return to, but I'm not sure how much. 

Best Songs: Betrayer, Ripped in Two, Slaughter at the Gate

I'm still not sure what defines When Time Becomes Loss as technical thrash metal, but I know what I like and this record is certainly one of the better thrash metal albums I've heard in 2024. This record has all of the juicy aspects that I appreciate in a modern thrash album; short runtimes, catchy hooks, audible vocals, tasteful guitar solos that do not rely purely on wankery, and a discontent for extended instrumental noodling. I also really enjoy how nostalgic it feels; the record does have a production to it that is indebted to the past with lots of reverb and is similar to the earliest death/thrash albums by Death and Slayer, but with performances that sound closer to bands such as Vektor keep When Time Becomes Loss firmly in the 2020s. It's the kind of thrash that resonates with me that I didn't really expect, but with so many good modern trends in addition to nostalgia baiting, I found myself getting lost to time more than I care to admit with this album.

Best Songs: Call From The Abyss, Malediction, Conscious Descent, Reborn In Tragedy

Bring Me The Horizon sure took their time to finally release the full length album in the Post Human series didn’t they? The EP, Survival Horror, was a project that wanted so desperately to bridge the gap between power pop and mainstream metal but failed to meet expectations by having a baffling production choice. Now fast forward nearly four years and the first full length album from BMTH (Bring Me The Horizon) is finally out. I wonder why it took so long for this record to be released, because as far as I am aware, the first promotional single for this album, “DiE4u” was released in September of 2021. Frontman Oli Sykes claims there were “unforeseen circumstances” that led to its delay.

However, upon listening Post Human: NeX GEn, I wonder how much validity can be put into that claim from Oli. With a few exceptions; those being the Deftones influence of “liMOusIne” as well as Smashing Pumpkins on “n/A,” this hour-long album sounds eerily like another pop metal album that came out in 2022: Bad Omens’ The Death of Peace of Mind. It could stand to reason that this record was delayed under the pretense that it would be compared to that Bad Omens record, and likely ridiculed for stealing. And we couldn’t have one of the 2010s most popular metal bands be called plagiarists, right?

Alright, conspiracy theories aside, Post Human: NeX GEn is a far better produced record that Survival Horror. The guitars first and foremost actually have some grit and power behind them that were drastically missing in the mix on the last EP. The percussion is still heavy, but that might be because NeX GEn has even more electronic elements than before. And these are not just the occasional record scratch or synth line; we’re talking full on glitchy hyperpop production that reminded me of 100 gecs. Some of the records electronic breakdowns can be extremely jarring with their dynamic whiplash and its pin-point precision stop and start nature.

Like with 100 gecs, Oli Sykes has optioned for more synthetic vocal textures, including autotune. Surprisingly, the vocals are much improved from the last record and the sung/scream dichotomy of this album is more balanced. It does feel like a modern evolution of the BMTH sound from the early 2010s. The main melodic lines of “YOUtopia”, “DArkSide” and “LosT” are obvious standouts.

As for the remainder of the compositions, well I already mentioned the Deftones influence of “liMOusIne,” and with AURORA doing guest vocals, it does sound like BMTH doing their best to get on board the “V.A.N.” It’s solid enough of a song. “AmEN!” is the closest BMTH will likely ever get to replicating their Suicide Season or There Is A Hell… sessions, also calling on Lil Uzi Vert and Glassjaw’s Daryl Palumbo for greater emphasis and even louder soundscapes. “R.i.p. (duskCOre RemIx)” is the one song here that feels out of place; although the glitchy soundscape does fit right at home, the guitars are muddy, chopped and screwed, the vocals are painfully lacking, and overall, it just sounds terrible. “Dig It” closes the album and has some promise with a grand crescendo throughout its runtime and deserves its extended runtime (minus the two minutes of silence of course).

Although it does feel weird to say but Bring Me The Horizon are kind of playing catchup these days. Ever since 2015’s That’s the Spirit, this band has been experimenting with making metal more accessible. Although their efforts are not spectacular, I commend them for their resolve. However, with artists like Bad Omens and Poppy doing the BMTH shtick better than BMTH, and receiving mainstream recognition for it, where does that leave Bring Me The Horizon? Well it leaves us with Post Human: NeX GEn, an album pushing boundaries with its hyperpop production, but it feels surface level as if to only ramp up the volume.

Best Songs: YOUtopia, a bulleT w/ my namE, LosT, Dig It

Intervals might not be the first name that comes to mind when you think of djent-y progressive metal, but it's about time that you change that. Djent as a concept is never going to fully be embraced by most since it relies heavily on technical rhythmic patterns and, usually, lacking in any kind of melodic device to hold a song/album together. Intervals are a band trying to fill in that niche and they succeed mostly with their newest album, Memory Palace. The eight (8) new tracks have a very simplistic foundation, and that allows the listener to really focus in on the pin point precision between the guitars, percussion and bass. Guitar leads are varied, but do retain many of their core values to keep songs like "Mnemonic" and "Nootropic" sounding fresh throughout. The song themselves are not progressive wank fests, where the instrumentalists wail freely; guitar solos are tasteful with variety to really accentuate dynamics and growth as Aaron Marshall shows off their technical prowess.

Where the album falters has to do with the production and compositions. Fist, the production is lacking in a low end. Intervals do have a really nice synth lead such as on "Side Quest," but the bass is heavily lacking, since in this style of music, rhythm guitar simply duplicates whatever the bass is doing anyway, so bass can get lost in the shuffle very quickly. Also, even though songs are solid on their own, Memory Palace as a whole stays in a very comfortable key/tempo range throughout the runtime, meaning that the album can start to feel rather redundant about halfway through. Fortunately for Intervals, this is somewhat negated by the record having a nice brisk runtime; at just under forty (40) minutes, once you start noticing these repetitive tropes, Memory Palace is over. 

Otherwise, it's a really good starter album for approaching Djent and Intervals in general. I still would not consider their best record so long as The Shape of Colour exists, but the musicianship is really well put together, even despite some personal quibbles.

Best Songs: Mnemonic, Nootropic, Side Quest, Chronophobia

Knocked Loose are the sort of beatdown hardcore band that I will inevitably show some hostility to on the outset. They gained quick popularity near the end of the 2010s, especially with the release of 2019’s A Different Shade of Blue. It was a good display of aggression, but in terms of execution, Knock Loose were certainly in the learning phases.

Now maybe that’s me being too demanding in hopes that Knocked Loose will provide me with something beyond “ARF ARF” and down tuned breakdowns to bang your head into a brick wall. This is beatdown hardcore after all. I will say though that seeing You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To clocking in at just under half-an-hour gave me some intrigue. After all, some of my favourite “true hardcore” albums are of the short-and-sweet variety. And since I’m not allowed to leave until I’m supposed to (this review is finished,) I might as well provide some insight.

I think that heavy metal, more than any other genre, needs to give its listeners a chance to breathe. It’s already characterized by guitar distortion, drummers slamming the kit with the force of a thousand hammers, and abrasive vocals. But when an entire record is nothing but this, it can make for an unfulfilling experience. If a record uses dynamics well, it will allow these breakdowns of force to hit with even greater authority. With You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To, Knocked Loose have one dynamic only and it’s alarming.

What this means is the intensity is great near the start, but by the end of the record, the listener is drained and could not imagine going to the start and doing it all over again. No one believes that this narrator is this angry all the time.

Speaking of the narrator, Bryan Garris’ vocals are painfully lacking. Like with the instrumentals, Garris screams in a monotonous timbre throughout the entire album with no deviation. The albums two best tracks (“Suffocate” and “Slaughterhouse 2”) were the ones that featured an additional vocalist to run counterpoint to Garris. The change in timbre gave those songs a little more variety and made them more memorable than the songs without guest features.

And as for the mixing, Knocked Loose are still in the infancy stage almost five years between albums. Loud equals good is not a selling point. There is so much unchecked clipping in the guitars that it started to become uncomfortable after a while. It turned into an unwinnable battle between me and the volume controls.

And what of the songs themselves? For an album that prides itself on being a relentless assault of noise from the word go, it doesn’t really say much. Riffs might be scattered and quickly switch between punk grooves and metalcore breakdowns, but they are almost always hovering around the same tempos. And Knocked Loose are also not going to let you remember any of these riffs either, because as soon as one starts to become earworm-y, it’s on to the next breakdown and more sporadic neck pain. Will we ever hear that leit motif again? Probably not, but if you want to hear it again, why not try listening to the album from the top? I think I’ll pass for now.

Knocked Loose are well outside of my comfort zone when it comes to metalcore. And I’m aware that most of my criticisms of You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To might be what some Knocked Loose enjoyers want to hear, and I think that’s great. These songs would be ridiculous in a live setting. However, if you want a little bit more substance in your metalcore, I suggest looking anywhere else.

Best Songs: Suffocate, Slaughterhouse 2

I've been hoping to see Wheel thrive for a while now. My introduction to this Finnish band was through their full length debut, Moving Backwards, from 2019 and described by one friend as having a "mighty fine Tool impression," which immediately piqued my interest. Now I had a difficult time hearing the Tool comparisons on that debut, but was still impressed by the bands mainstream adjacent approach to progressive metal and was just catchy enough to survive my short list of the best albums of that year. 2021's Resident Human did not have the same sort of reaction and I found it rather pedestrian and boring, almost like the most recent Soen album, Memorial, from last year.

And now in current times, it's time for the bands third studio release. This time, the production is all in house and the music in general is wide in scope. I was expecting something a little bit different from the start, but what caught me off guard was crushing post-metal influence via The Ocean Collective on tracks like "Porcelain," or the almost sludge metal grooves on "Saboteur." With such a heavy emphasis on the instrumental grooves this time around, I can hear where some of those Tool comparisons came from; not to mention these grooves usually are in an uncommon time signature. Where the alterations happen are in the vocals of James Lascelles, who performs the vocals with way more range than Maynard.

Returning to those instrumentals though, the variety can be a bit of a mixed bag, but I feel like Wheel do have their hearts in the right place when it comes to effort. I really enjoyed the intro to the closing track "The Freeze" with its oddly timed groove, before the drums and vocals enter with The Ocean tempo. It really has the feeling of the best of both worlds. As the ten-and-a-half minute closer continues, I was greeted by a heavy Tool riff by the distorted guitar and how the whole thing would build up to the records epic conclusion. However, the excitement was cut short by some mixing issues, mostly in the low end feeling like an atom bomb instead of a foundational center (which also occurs on "Submission" as well). The guitar solo during the bridge was not impressive either.

While an improvement from the last album, Charismatic Leaders is not without fault. Songs like "Submission" and "Saboteur" smack in the middle of the record carry on for much too long and would have served better if they were separated. Because "Porcelain" and "The Freeze" feel closer to the progressive formula and not just filler. The hybrids of sounds and styles on Charismatic Leaders is easily one of Wheel's best showings, but transitions out of soft sections into louder metal romps don't sound great. If they could find a decent producer who knows how to mix acoustic/electric dichotomy well (Insomnium, Mikael Åkerfeldt, Adam Jones, etc.) Wheel could be in a league all of their own. As it stand right now, it needs some refinement, but the charisma is here.

Best Songs: Porcelain, Empire, Disciple

I was quite harsh towards Unleash the Archers when I discovered their 2017 record, Apex. It was a record that had potential by being directly influenced by classic Iron Maiden albums, while also providing some modern flare. Most notably in the vocals by Brittney Hayes, whose timbre was not typecast to arbitrary operatic vocals as is commonplace in many power/symphonic metal bands with female leads. But some truly awful production and how ideas ran out of steam remarkably quickly left Apex as a bit of a dud for me.

But look here, UtA (Unleash the Archers) are becoming slightly more progressive with this new concept album, Phantoma, which deals with the dangers and hypotheticals when artificial intelligence takes over the world, and the personality of art is deemed meaningless. Yeah, about that….

Phantoma is not a record that has learnt from its mistakes. The low end of the album is still lacking any presence, which leaves the rhythm guitars to do a lot more of the heavy lifting. And guess what? UtA seem to be aware of this. That’s why you’ll notice a lot less of the Iron Maiden-esque dueling guitar solos and instrumental breaks in general. Having less variety in the melodies leaves much of this album feeling very predictable. And that leaves most of the melodic heavy lifting to Brittney Hayes, who unfortunately has taken a step down when it comes to performances. They are not delivered with the same emotional weight as before and feel compromised by the mixing. Some of the harmonies during choruses are nice. What is not nice is the compressed harsh vocals that are hidden behind the wall of chugging breakdowns in the guitars.

The other big concern I had with Apex that has not been addressed here is the albums length, or rather, the individual song lengths. There is one (1) track on this album that is shorter than four (4) minutes (“Buried In Code”) and everything easily surpasses that. Almost every one of the remaining nine (9) songs burn out before their conclusions. It’s as if UtA had more information that they wanted to give to the audience, but not enough time during their presentation. Final choruses are extended beyond what is necessary and subtle changes such as final key changes on “Green & Glass,” or a post-black metal outro on “Blood Empress” are not quite as impactful because it has become tiring.

Longs songs/albums are not inherently a bad thing, but when they are poorly executed, it can leave a bitter taste in the listener’s mouth. For an album whose concept is about artificial intelligence and the dangerous slope that is A.I. generated art, Unleash the Archers made an album that is lacking in the humanity part of the story.

Best Songs: Ph4/NT0mA, Green & Glass, Seeking Vengeance

Death Doom Metal and me get along quite well. Traditional Doom Metal and me also like each others company. Myself and death metal is...complicated.

Unlike most of the regulars here at Metal Academy, my metal roots (barring the Gateway clan) come from the Guardians. This is quite the change of pace from the most extreme and dank sides of the Horde, North and Pit. I always enjoy a good melodic lead to keep songs alive and memorable beyond simple textures. Death Doom Metal has become my safe place when it comes to finding music that is death metal adjacent that also has its fair share of melodically driven tracks. That said, I've also grown impatient with Death Doom Metal. I thought the whole purpose of having "Death" in the subgenre was to imply the cacophonous nature of Death Metal, but it seems to just refer to a type of Doom that has harsh vocals.

Let's just say that I was hesitant with Maze Envy, the newest album from Civerous. And it was published through 20 Buck Spin. Their is no way that this album could possibly live up to my lofty expectations right?

Well for starters, this album takes the phrase "Death Doom Metal" very seriously. This record takes influence from Dead Congregation with albums like Promulgation of the Fall where it has influences in both genres. There are portions of this record where blast beats prevail, guitar chugging is filthy and Lord Foul's vocals are pummeling. On the other hand, slower, doom-y riffs that can sometimes feel like they have metalcore influence, with wailing guitar leads serve a well needed compliment to the restlessness. But most importantly, both of these ideas fit well together. Melodic connectivity is extremely well done and greatly improves both of this albums nine (9) plus minute tracks at its end.

Which leads nicely into this albums pacing. The album feels a lot heavier during its opening moments with "Shrouded In Crystals" (which itself is eight-and-a-half minutes), "Labyrinth Charm" and "Levitation Tomb" and they leave me wanting more. Civerous follow that up with those final two tracks; the title track "Maze Envy" and "Geryon (The Plummet)." The more doom focus here makes for a more enjoyable, melodic experience as themes ebb and flow in-and-out together leaving both of them feeling complete. This band is not playing heavy for the sake of heaviness and it shows in the runtime; this album could have easily exceeded fifty (50) minutes, but opening the record with shorter, heavier songs helps the longer closing tracks become more rewarding.

The mixing of Maze Envy is pretty good actually. It actually sounds heavy with booming guitars that, as mentioned previously, do have some metalcore spice added in during some of the albums doom-y passages. The vocals form Lord Foul are genuinely impressive; they do not reinvent the wheel in any meaningful way, but their presentation is splendid and help to accentuate the dark themes presented. However, like with a lot of power metal albums, the synths here are just bad. They could have replaced many of their synth leads with the strings or even an extra guitar lead to help make this album sound even bigger, but instead these moments take a pretty decent mix and turn it flaccid in an instant.

I really liked Maze Envy, despite my initial concerns. It's an album that knows the difference between sounding heavy and actually doing it. It's also not an album that is afraid of melodies and leads, which lends into its memorability. And the structure of the album is set in a way where the album becomes more atmospheric and surreal during its runtime. If it wasn't for the flaws in the production, Maze Envy might have been a classic. Either way, it is a wonderful little album that should satisfy all walks of metal life.

Best Songs: Shrouded In Crystals, Levitation Tomb, Maze Envy

I think that Full of Hell are a band that would benefit from just doing anything that they feel like doing at any given time. I don't admit to liking Full of Hell's main discography, but I have heard them collaborate with others in the past and always wondered why they would limit themselves simply to grindcore. Well on Coagulated Bliss, Full of Hell have decided to embrace their madness and made an album that takers influence from all of their friends! And to be honest, it is likely their best album to date. You still have the short songs and furious grindcore stylings of "Vomiting Glass" and "Gelding of Men", but the album has plenty of sludge influence, none more so than on "Bleeding Horizon". And none of it feels taxing or tiring; because the song styles are spaced out effectively, those heavy grindcore moments are a lot more powerful than they would be on a standard grindcore album. I suggest giving this a spin or two if you don't partake in grindcore very often because their is a lot more to this record than that descriptor would suggest.

Best Songs: Doors to Mental Agony, Coagulated Bliss, Bleeding Horizon, Schizoid Rupture, Gelding of Men

I am no expert when it comes to war metal. It's a style of music whose defining feature is not found within its instrumentation and performance, but rather the vocal themes. In that way, war metal has more in common with gothic and emo music than its similar North clan genre partners. Typically, I really enjoy these types of records, but I have reviewed a grand total of *checks notes* zero war metal albums before Antichrist Siege Machine's Vengeance of Eternal Fire. Not even Teitanblood has crossed my radar before this.

And according to other reviewers, Vengeance of Eternal Fire is not anywhere close to Teitanblood. This is much closer to the original War metal album experience. Short songs, unrelenting tremolo guitar and blast beats, and theme's of nihilism, death and the occult. You could be very well excused if you thought that Vengeance of Eternal Fire was a grindcore album.

Like with a lot of grindcore (which I also have not listened to very much of), the pure cacophony of the soundscape is very important and has the ability to rile up anybody's adrenaline. And Antichrist Siege Machine are fortunately able to do so with some decent production. The percussion is a little bit overwhelming, especially the snare drum, but overall, the blast beat formula is prominent, but not the focal point at any given time. 

The compositions, like with grindcore, are increasingly sporadic and unfiltered. The way in which songs can quickly swing between slow, almost doom riffs and percussion to ferocious black metal without so much as a warning is isolating. The record can barely finish what it has to say before carrying on to the next point of contention without ever giving listeners a definitive answer to the last statement/question. And with the album moving at such a frantic pace, none of the themes are allowed to really say anything. Either that or the sheer sound of the music is so overwhelming because everyone is shouting in your face at the same time demanding your attention. 

And I kind of get it: it's war metal. "It isn't supposed to be super in depth or philosophical. It's about fucking war! War is bad, it leaves nothing but death and destruction in its wake. What more needs to be said?" A valid point, but I kind of expect, even for as meat and potatoes of an album as Vengeance of Eternal Fire may be, that it has a little bit more to say than "Unga-Bunga caveman beat Oogle-Boogle caveman with stick."

Best Songs: Sisera, Prey Upon Them, Scalding Enmity

I've likely mentioned this in a previous album review, but as I get older, my tolerance for progressive metal becomes more thin. I still listen to a lot of progressive music or progressive adjacent music, but a lot of it goes by the wayside as not only becomes less distinguishable, but also loses out on many of the key factors that make music memorable in the first place; primarily the use of melodic motifs and growth throughout both a song, and albums runtime.

Dvne were a band I caught onto relatively late. When I initially heard their 2017 album Asheran, I thought it was okay, but played too heavy into the sludgier aspects of the genre were good, but found them too derivative of other bands like the Ocean and ISIS. Voidkind by comparison is still fairly derivative, but I can tell through influences that Dvne are carving more of their own path and I'm all here for it.

Initially, I noticed that this album sounded less booming as previous releases. That might seem strange given how "Summa Blasphemia" starts, but it's more relaxed aggression than before. The moment it clicked for me was on "Reaching for Telos" and how the soaring post-metal passages sounded eerily familiar to Alcest. That, paired with the sludgy, riff heavy "Reliquary" creates a huge dichotomy of sounds that still somehow connect together through motivic development. 

Voidkind has some great sound engineering on display. I already how much more this record sounds like traditional post-metal as opposed to sludge metal, so the guitar work is robust, but it never feels like the main attraction of the album. Both clean and harsh vocals can be heard with utmost clarity, the percussion retains the doom-y grooves; the snare and bass drums are not obtrusive, and not only is the bass prominent in the performance, but it also receives a fair share of independent moments as well. 

The reason I cannot rate the album any higher than this score has to do with connectivity of the whole thing. Now, usually this would not be a bad thing, but in Dvne's case, Voidkind feels a little bit too comfortable. There is some good variety on display as already mentioned, but my general feeling of the record is one of familiarity. The album starts off remarkably well, but around the time of the first interlude, "Path of Dust" Voidkind just meanders to its conclusion. This could be caused by a number of things, but the most obvious one is the lack of tonal shifts. Every song is either in the same key center, or a closely related key center from track one to track ten and it does make for a tiring full listen, even after multiple playthroughs. Add on top of this the almost one hour runtime and it leaves me wanting something more.

But I still cannot see myself not recommending Voidkind to post-metal and sludge metal fans alike. This will definitely be one of those albums that will be carried by the quality of its individual moments rather than its cohesivness as a full record. If you like the melodic, dense side of sludge metal, then there is no way this should not be essential listening in 2024.

Best Songs: Summa Blasphemia, Eleonora, Reliquary, Sarmatæ, Plērōma

High on Fire is the louder, more fun cousin of stoner metal giants Sleep and even features the same guitar player in both groups. Since the turn of the century, High on Fire have been releasing consistent, high quality sludge metal that does not really need to be innovative or breaking boundaries, since a lot of modern sludge metal takes far more influence from doom.

This time around on Cometh the Storm, you can expect much the same. The record contains plenty of thrash inspired riffage from the title track, “Burning Down” and “The Beating.” Although the record does feel a little bit more restrained than previous releases. High on Fire are no young guns anymore and will not be maintaining these burning grooves going for very long. The record contains more tracks exceeding five (5) minutes, plus a nearly ten (10) minute closer. “Hunting Shadows” for example, is a well constructed song despite its runtime; it has a solid enough melodic motif that feels developed during its runtime, while still having room for thrash/sludge instrumental breaks and solos.

The more subdued tempos do cause Cometh the Storm to be a tad bit simple and I found parts of this album to have a fair share of comparisons to music by Mastodon and/or Baroness. But for High on Fire themselves, I think it has the potential to be a great look. Matt Pike’s vocals are brash, but still have melodic sense to them and sets a nice dichotomy against the riff heavy instrumentals. Overall, it’s yet another great addition to the High on Fire discography and likely the bands best output since De vermis mysteriis.

Best Songs: Burning Down, Cometh The Storm, The Beating, Lightning Beard

I really wanted to enjoy the newest album from Eidola, since it has a lot of the new metalcore trends that I typically enjoy: great beauty/beast vocal dichotomy, production that does not sound like a brick, progressive focus on the instrumentals, and breakdowns that are anything other than fruitless.

It's too bad that Eviscerate suffers in much the same way as all previous Eidola albums. While the album starts off very solid and executes all of these elements mention previously very well, Eidola run out of steam around "Fistful of Hornets" and start making some very safe, unoriginal metalcore. I feel like I was supposed to be impressed by "Golgotha Compendium: Fifth Temple" with it's extended runtime and dynamic usage, but they forgot to include the ear infecting hook to push it over the edge into a progressive metalcore masterpiece.

That said, I do not think this records back half is bad from a structure standpoint. I think the mixing is great and highlights all of the important elements that make the first half as good as it was. I would imagine those looking for a more straightforward or transition point into the world of progressive metalcore would not mind this drop off in quality as much. But for me, Eviscerate kind of transforms into a big letdown.

It's always difficult for me to review drone type albums. For one, I find them to be mostly boring as this style of music is not really known for all-encompassing songwriting or dynamic growth. The other reason has to do with a sheer lack of effort. Drone music is notorious for having some of the least talented musicians of any genre, throw on some guitar feedback and match it with a barely salvageable bass line. It's the kind of subversive behaviour in music that really makes me question whether or not my diploma was ever worth it at all.

But every once in a while, someone comes along and provides life into a lifeless genre. A Chaos of Flowers by Big|Brave is Montreal's attempts making drone metal while giving the listener a slight bit of unease. I don't know what's going on with the echo effect in the guitar here, but it gives the instrumentals just a jolt of uncomforting grit and I think that it plays off quite well with the more gothic vocal stylings of Robin Wattie. Wattie's delivery can be monotonous, but performs them with just enough power to liken them to some of Chelsea Wolfe's most powerful moments in their discography.

I think that the percussion plays a big role in providing this record with the emotion that it has. The guitars can become quite loud and almost excessive throughout the recording, so for the percussion to stay back with these deliberately slow grooves, and likely played with brush sticks is nice. Having recently come out of a technical death metal backup, I was fully expecting A Chaos of Flowers to explode into this epic doom metal breakdown at any second, and yet the percussion never allowed it to get there. It helped me appreciate the space where nothing was happening and I was further able to appreciate the sporadic moments more.

While an improvement from last years Nature Morte, in terms of atmospherics and length, the album does seem a little bit lazy during "Chanson pour mon ombre" and "A Song for Marie Part III." I can see why this might be the case, but it cuts down on the albums length tremendously and almost makes it feel like less than a completed project. But if you enjoy the gothic sounds of Chelsea Wolfe, and the unsettling environment of a Lingua Ignota record, then I recommend giving A Chaos of Flowers a chance.

Best Songs: Not Speaking of the Ways, Canon : In Canon, Moonset

If I had a nickel for every time a reviewed an emo post-metal album in 2024, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's kind of weird that it's happened twice so far.

Artificial Bouquet is the second full length release from Illinois based post-metal band Frail Body. It's been getting a lot of critical attention and given the nature of the style of music that is on display, I can understand why. This is the sort of blow out your speakers, unintelligible post-metal that music critics love to eat up in the 21st century. However I find it mostly above average at best. If we were to compare this to the other emo post-metal album I've reviewed in 2024 (Infant Island Obsidian Wreath), Frail Body are doing more with the sound and creating some haunting atmosphere. Something about the just off tempo, slightly out-of-tune nature of "Runaway" has my engineering ears screaming at the speakers, but that song manages to find some kind of resolution that Infant Island could not approach.

The album uses intensity and bends it to the breaking point. Throughout Artificial Bouquet, Frail Body are testing the blackgaze waters of Deafheaven and White Ward, and have the compositional awareness (like those bands mentioned previously) to give their audience a break. The calming post-rock interludes at the beginning of "Critique Programme" and all of "Another Year Removed" compliment the punk and black metal assault that exists throughout the rest of the record and they are pulled off quite beautifully.

The issue is, like with Infant Island, the vocals are painfully lacking, but by no fault of the vocalist. Shaffer's vocals are piercing as if the pent up frustration they have is being fed to us without so much as a second draft. They sound like Shaffer's vocal chords would be ripped to shreds when the recording was over. But good luck trying to decipher anything that's being said without a lyric sheet! The artist that I kept being reminded of while listening to this was La Dispute (again). I kept thinking "wouldn't the absolute evisceration of the vocal chords here be so much more impactful if they had the cleaner production of Jordan Dreyer?" And it would fit alongside the instrumental production, as a few passages sound thin; another point in this records favour of sounding D.I.Y. with only one guitar tone instead of multitracking.

So while Artificial Bouquet is good, it's far from great. Frail Body created an album that had aspirations of an in house recording, and mostly succeeded. But when it comes to emotional type lyricism, it kind of defeats the purpose when you hide it in the back behind all of the other instrumentals. Once again, I refer to Unreqvited, who do not have conventional vocals and instead use them as another instrument. And this has worked wonders for them recently. I would love for bands like Infant Island and Frail Body to learn this and either give their vocalists space to express, or do away with lyrics altogether. 

Best Songs: Devotion, Refrain, Runaway, Horizon Line

Surprisingly good and catchy mathcore from a band that I had no expectations for going in. It is very much derived from the Frontierer and Car Bomb school of mathcore with insanely loud soundscapes and very little room for the listener to breathe. However, Weston Super Maim do give their listeners just that little bit more space compared to their contemporaries. The album manages to sneak in some very subtle yet catchy melodic hooks throughout the record and they help to exemplify the heavy, bone shaking breakdowns.

Best Songs: Slow Hell, Johnny Menomic, Kryptonite Renegade 

Whom Gods Destroy come right out of the Dream Theater school of progressive metal. So much so that their original drummer was Mike Portnoy (while they were still under the name Sons of Apollo). And without Portnoy's compositional contributions to Insanium, this record sounds even less like progressive metal and more like straightforward groove metal with the occasional time signature variation. And yet it's still more enjoyable than recent Dream Theater output. What is wrong with me?

Best Songs: In the Name of War, Crawl, Keeper of the Gate

P.S. We can stop with these types of album titles any time now. They are honestly quite cringe at this point. They ran their course about fifteen years ago with Nightwish's Imaginaerium. 

In my never ending journey to find extreme metal that resonates with me, I recently discovered locals in the band Apogean and their debut, full length LP, Cyberstrictive. After hearing the bands EP, Into Madness, I was surprised by the quality of the musicianship and production for such a fresh face in this sphere. So after finally getting to this new record, I was even more surprised to hear how much this band has already grown in such a short period of time, with very little preemptive material to compare it to.

This is technical death metal with a melodic intent. Don't get the intentions of this album confused with one another; the sheer intensity of the death metal on "Thousand-Yard Glare" and "Polybius" are magnificent and give the album the sort of malicious intent that such a genre tag would imply. But these aspects are complimentary to the melodic leads, which are provided by some great guitar leads and the occasional repeated vocal motif. And what makes Cyberstrictive stand out amongst its peers is how well these two sides coexist together. I never felt like the melodic/progressive elements were getting in the way of the pummeling guitar riffing and blast beat percussion, or vice-versa.

The album has such a clean sound to it as well. It reminds me quite a bit of the prim and proper production of a recent Dying Fetus album in that regard. The album is filled with guitar solos that sound great, especially since they are not always of the face melting variety. The vocals are also not an afterthought. The low gutturals of Mac Smith are intense and match the ferocity of the music. The screeching highs however are a more hit-and-miss. They can sound good, but on occasion, they suffer from the Will Ramos effect of recent Lorna Shore albums where the highs are condensed so hard into the back of the mix. If these vocals were just embellishment (like on an Unreqvited album), this would not bother me as much, but since these vocals also have lyrics associated with them (i.e. "With Which Ear You'll Listen"), it does dampen their effect.

Beyond some minor nitpicks, I really enjoyed the debut album from Apogean. It shows a lot of potential for a debut and takes technical death metal to spaces that I rarely come across. It's brutal, but also melodic. It has straightforward and infectious riffage, but also isn't afraid to spread its progressive wings. A very solid recommendation from me, and certainly if you're into the tech-death stylings of Wormhole and Tomb Mold.

Best Songs: Thousand-Yard Glare, With Which Ear You'll Listen, Hueman (The Pleasure of Burn), Polybius

Judas Priest: what even left is there to say? The name alone strikes a sense of fear among the metal community. The albums titles are iconic: Sad Wings of Destiny, British Steel, Screaming For Vengeance, Painkiller. Some may be considered the greatest metal albums of all time. They are revered for their contributions to early heavy metal and continue even to this day, although to less of an influential status.

Last year I had the “privilege” of reviewing Metallica’s newest album, 72 Seasons, and I blasted it for being safe and uninspired, and spoke about the moment that Metallica “sold out” between the releases of St. Anger and Death Magnetic. Judas Priest should likely fall under the same scrutiny, considering the symphonic concept album, Nostradamus from 2008, felt conceptually similar to St. Anger. Since then, the band has released three studio albums (including this one) that are essentially return-to-form projects and were good. The issue is whether Judas Priest need to reinvent the wheel.

Well, when the formula is this precise and accurate, one can’t argue with the results. All things considered, Invincible Shield is an awesome piece of old school heavy metal that knows its history and is well indebted to the past, but also is not ashamed to make subtle changes to keep it from sounding derivative or uninspired. Granted, many of those subtle changes are surface level, as has been the case with many old-time heavy metal bands (i.e. Saxon), but the cleaner production does give a sound much closer to modern day progressive metal. I cannot say that I’m a huge fan of the production though. It doesn’t really fit the Judas Priest aesthetic and the lack of overabundant reverb that is present on previous albums, including Firepower, seems unnatural.

Invincible Shield understands the band performing it are from a time once past, and that does come through in the lyrical content. It isn’t much to dissect; lots of themes of religion and death, but the main theme of “Panic Attack” is bizarre. The phrase “disconnecting from the World Wide Web” during the bridge is quite the reminder that Rob Halford is in his seventies and likely views the world much differently than us thirty-somethings reviewing the music. Fortunately, it’s the only track like this and they get it out of the way right from the start, instead of awkwardly adding it to the middle of the record.

Like with a lot of legacy acts, to expect anything more than this will leave you dissatisfied. If you take Invincible Shield at face value, you’ll find a well crafted, well performed late-stage Judas Priest album. It’s a far cry from their best (hell I would say it isn’t even as good as Firepower), but I’m still amazed that they can release this type of quality after this much time.

Best Songs: Invincible Shield, Gates of Hell, As God is my Witness, Giants in the Sky

Borknagar continue to produce solid quality progressive metal after a nearly three decade career. Their brand of folk/melodic black metal has a very comforting warmness to it, despite the obvious winter themes over the bands last couple of records. For some reason, I feel like Fall is a heavier record than True North with more of Lars A. Nedland and ISC Vortex's harsh black metal screeches and black metal blast beats from Bjørn. Production is still very good; it has a distinct Century Media sound as the melodic passages, both in the instrumentals and the clean singing, have more of a gothic texture to them. The light touches of a warm synth/string arrangement beneath the bands metal sound is executed well and it never feels like these tones are taking over the mixing.

It all comes together in what should be a knock-out-of-the-park home run for Borknagar, but given the bands long history, it's hard to view Fall as anything more than decent. You certainly cannot go wrong with starting off with Fall as your first Borknagar album, but this is a well oiled machine at this point just going through the motions. It still feels like its being written with passion though, so I'm willing to continue giving them a free pass.

Best Songs: Summits, Moon, Unraveling, The Wind Lingers

The career trajectory of Job For A Cowboy has certainly been a fascinating one to follow. Arguably considered one of the first bands to popularize deathcore during the mid 2000s and helped to spawn the debate as to whether deathcore is even death metal at all with its patchy structure and metalcore breakdowns. Of course, by the time this conversation began going mainstream, Job had already moved on to more straightforward death metal anyway!

Now I did find some of JFAC’s (Job For A Cowboy) later records as decent (i.e. Ruination & Demonocracy), but given my progressive metal wormhole during post-secondary, they were a band that I never paid that much attention to. Now it’s been just over ten years since Sun Eater and JFAC are back with a new record that is more progressive than ever before.

And there are certain elements that are worth the price of admission. The independent bass lines are gorgeous and help the band distinguish differing timbres or textures at any given time. When the bass is near its low end, songs are crushing, when those bass lines are soaring, the intensity is unrelenting. Guitars are less noodly with more open power chords, and Jonny Davy’s vocals are intense. Compositionally, Moon Healer is more a progressive album than a technical one. I think it is important to distinguish between them because those expecting a Dying Fetus-esque assault from top-to-bottom might leave feeling disappointed. What this album reminds me of more is if what if Gojira made death metal. As for JFAC themselves, the more progressive shift means structurally, Moon Healer is more focused on melodic/harmonic repetition for memorization and enjoyability.

The record is produced very well. All you must do is listen to those bass lines on “Etched in Oblivion” and “Into the Crystalline Crypts” to hear this. It isn’t as clean as a recent Dying Fetus album, but this has more life put into it. JFAC are also aware of their past as well as a deathcore band and occasionally you’ll hear passages on “A Sorrow-Filled Moon” that break the immersion and feels like a subtle wink to the audience instead of a well incorporated idea.

Despite the positivity, I feel the same way about Moon Healer as I did with Tomb Mold’s The Enduring Spirit last year. It’s a good album, and I would recommend it to progressive metal fans trying to get into the more technical side. But it feels lacking in some way; as if the technical death metal aspects were not fully realized and took a backseat to the progressive techniques. If JFAC took the concepts of progressive metal and laid them on top of some punishing technical death metal, I think Moon Healer would have been great.

Best Songs: Etched in Oblivion, Grinding Wheel of Ophanim, Into the Crystalline Crypts, The Forever Rot

When Charcoal Grace is at its best, Caligula's Hose are playing into their very best elements and turning them up to eleven. This band has always been great at writing the long, ten minute epic that I always cry about whenever I see them on an album. They have also redeveloped a knack for melodic songwriting, which make for some of their most memorable tunes since Bloom. The decreased focus on djent inspired instrumentals is very nice as well. However, I can still detect that Caligula's Horse aren't really reinventing the wheel all that much. Not like they need to of course; but the album cannot maintain that 8/10 pace for an entire playthrough. This becomes especially apparent during the "Charcoal Grace" saga, which starts and ends very well, but is marred by two clunkers during the middle. I also felt less than impressed by the second ten minute epic "Mute" as well. 

Best Songs: The World Breathes with Me, Charcoal Grace (pts. I & IV only), Sails, The Stormchaser

This is the best version of Ihsahn I've heard in a long time. The old symphonic elements of Emperor have returned with a feverous intent and craft this new collection of songs into some remarkable ways. It feels like more than ever that Ihsahn is comfortable with his own voice and the occasional clean vocal passage is really well done. I've never had a problem with the number of guest vocalists that have appeared on these albums in the past, but something about this one just feels more complete. The record does an even better job than 2010's After of being a well crafted story and passing it on to the listener without too much down time or wasted space. The record can get a little derivative during the second half and its extended runtimes, but the quasi-black metal hits with grit and emotion. Not since After have I been so high on an Ihsahn album and quite comfortably fills a symphonic void that has been missing in Ihsahn's music since the final Emperor album.

Best Songs: THE PROMETHEAN SPARK, PILGRIMAGE TO OBLIVION, A TAST OF THE AMBROSIA, BLOOD TRAILS TO LOVE, AT THE HEART OF ALL THINGS BROKEN