Album Reviews Archives - Page 179 of 545

UNFLESH: “INHUMATION”

Mar 162021

(Here we have Nathan Ferreira‘s review of the forthcoming second album by New Hampshire’s Unflesh, which is set for release on April 2nd.)

I can’t remember where I first heard it, but use of the term “bread and butter listening” to refer to a certain type of album is an expression that’s always stuck with me. You know, the kind of thing that doesn’t do anything new, it just rules and you listen to it a lot. The stuff that scratches your most frequent musical itches, that album that you can just throw on at any time and you know it’s going to give you exactly what you need. Mood music? Who needs that?

Inhumation, the new album by tech-heads Unflesh, is exactly that type of snack for a tech-head like myself. Ever since Necrophagist burst onto the scene with their melodic, almost neoclassical angle on death metal and Obscura took extra steps in making it into a full-fledged substyle, this type of music has been by no means groundbreaking, but man is it ever tasty.

It’s hard to find new bands that can execute it properly, and if you do, they’re already snapped up by The Artisan Era as soon as they get noticed. That’s why I’m extra-intrigued that Unflesh has decided to go the independent route in releasing Inhumation – the album blew my mind halfway through the first proper track and there’s no way somebody from a label heard this and wasn’t similarly astonished. Continue reading »

A TALE OF TWO WOLVES

Album Reviews No Responses »

Mar 122021

(In this post our contributor Gonzo reviews two wolfish records which were released one week ago — and this dual review would have been published one week ago except for our editor (me) having been brutally distracted by his day job.)

I feel like the onslaught of high-quality albums we’re already seeing in 2021 is a promising sign. Either that or everyone’s going out of their fucking minds without shows, travel, and the requisite level of creative outlets. (Hopefully not for very much longer.) Whatever it is, it’s already March and this month is chock-full of music that sounds urgent as hell, commanding your attention when the rest of the world continues to unfurl from its unending corridor of suck.

Last week, though, we saw the release of new music from Wolf King and Wolfheart. If the old legends are true and there are in fact two wolves that live inside of us all, existing in a perpetual state of conflict over which one gets to wrest control of our collective psyche in some kind of moral struggle for the ages, then… I dunno, maybe they were just really into wolves? My metaphor game is leaving some serious shit to be desired today.

Fortunately, the music released by both wolves today is anything but lacking. Continue reading »

WESENWILLE – II: A MATERIAL GOD

Album Reviews No Responses »

Mar 122021

(Andy Synn opts to finish off the week with a last-minute review of the brand new album from Wesenwille, out now on Les Acteurs De L’Ombre Productions.)

I doubt it’s going to be much of a shock or a revelation when I say that, historically, much of Black Metal’s (f)ire and fury has been fuelled by disaffection and dissatisfaction with the modern world.

Whether it’s materialism, consumerism, capitalism… pick your poison really… many practitioners of “the black arts” seem to consider themselves above and beyond such mundane matters, which is probably one reason (among many) why so much Black Metal seeks to recapture or rediscover the glories of the pagan past… regardless of whether those glory days ever actually truly existed.

On the flip-side, however, there are still those artists who, rather than simply rejecting the trials and trappings of modernity out of hand, choose instead to embrace and channel the alienation and estrangement of our empty existence into their music, exploring the urban concrete jungle of now rather than the great vast forest of then.

And A Material God, the second album from Dutch duo Wesenwille, is the latest attempt to provide a fitting soundtrack to our everyday experiences of existential dread and post-industrial ennui.

OMINOUS RUIN- AMIDST VOICES THAT ECHO IN STONE

Album Reviews 3 Responses »

Mar 112021

(Find out what our man DGR thought of the new album from San Francisco’s Ominous Ruin, out now on Willowtip Records.)

Ominous Ruin‘s first full length album – after a string of demo’s and EPs throughout the late aughts – Amidst Voices That Echo In Stone starts in a very different spot from where it ends up.

The band’s sound is one of multiple extreme genres in all-out combat with each other, fully unloading from the hyperactive Tech Death scene even as it drains the arsenal from a very Brutal Death inspired segment as well.

It’s an ambitious album for sure, but not one that feels intentionally crafted to become a journey – more that it just wound up that way as songs morphed over time, from that previously mentioned superspeed blast festival into something weirdly proggy, incredibly dense, and all too willing to dive headlong into some profoundly (and joyously) dumb caveman chug all over the course of nine songs.

If it seems like the Bay Area crew are one of those amorphous bands able to reach tentacles into a variety of places and drag down so much of it back into their maw by that descriptor, you wouldn’t be too far off, but the fact that they make it work here…now that’s worth talking about.

SHORT BUT SWEET: DISTASTE AND INORGANIC

Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET No Responses »

Mar 102021

(DGR jumps back into action once again with a pair of short but sweet EP reviews)

Three months in and although the review slate so far has been oddly stop-start – understandable given the shitshow we’re slowly crawling out of, especially when we can start complaining about being buried by our day jobs again – we’ve had some very choice releases so far.

So I figured after a bunch of long ass reviews I’d try to pick a couple of EPs to keep things shorter for you all, even as I keep on digging through everything else as it’s the only thing keeping me sane.

Right now I present to you some very much up-my-alley style of music though, one Grind release that I’m convinced I have spelled wrong every time it appears (despite the fact that I copy and paste it off of the bandcamp every time) and one so firmly implanted in the Brutal Death concrete that using a jackhammer to get them out would just be added instrumentation for atmosphere.

AUTARKH – FORM IN MOTION

Album Reviews 5 Responses »

Mar 102021

(Here’s Andy Synn‘s review of the debut album from Autarkh, set for release this Friday via Season of Mist.)

Metal’s relationship with electronic music – in all its various forms – is a long and fractious one.

For every artist who wholeheartedly embraces the fusion between the two genres there are a thousand more simply going through the motions, adding a few half-hearted glitch effects and booming sub-drops in a desperate attempt to be “down with the kids” or because they think (incorrectly) that it will somehow make them sound “futuristic” and otherwise make up their complete lack of vision (I think we all know who I’m talking about).

Still, the number of successful hybrids (from Godflesh to Fear Factory to Author & Punisher) can’t be dismissed, and Black Metal in particular has a remarkable history of combining pulsing electronic beats and pounding industrial rhythms with ear-scraping riffs and throat-scarring shrieks.

Into this tangled tradition steps Autarkh, the new project from former Dodecahedron guitarist/composer Michel Nienhuis, whose debut album aims to build on that group’s short but impressive legacy – with all the untapped potential and weight of expectations that implies – while also further blurring the lines between the organic and the metallic, the animal and the artificial.

And while Form In Motion is neither the direct sequel to Kwintessens that some might have (erroneously) expected, nor the paradigm shift that it perhaps could/should have been, it is certainly one of the most unique and unorthodox albums I’ve heard so far this year, with a distinct voice and vibe all its own.

KORPSE: “INSUFFERABLE VIOLENCE”

Album Reviews 2 Responses »

Mar 092021

(We present Aleksha McLoughlin‘s review of the third album from slam-tastic Dutch death-dealers Korpse, which came out recently on Unique Leader Records.)

2021 is already shaping up to be a better year than the 365-day horror story that was 2020, as we’ve already been graced with some truly excellent Death Metal releases, including Korpse’s third studio album, which is one of the best Slam records of the past five years.

And although it’s been a long time since the band released Unethical, all the way back in 2016, they’re as unflinchingly savage as they have always been.

This time around, however, in a similar vein to Vulvodynia’s 2019 record Mob Justice, Korpse have switched gears lyrically to address the horrors of the world, as opposed to gratuitous gore for gore’s sake, and it works well, as while Unethical only occasionally touched upon these lyrical beats, Insufferable Violence goes all in.

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): CRUEL LIFE INSIDE — “ECLIPSIS VITAE”

Album Reviews, Premieres No Responses »

Mar 092021

With their debut album Eclipsis Vitae the Italian band Cruel Life Inside have created a thoroughly captivating experience from start to finish. Inspired by both a commitment to channeling dark and intense emotions, ranging from pain and rage to suffering and hope, as well as by the rich landscapes of their Calabrian homeland, C.L.I. lead the listener through a continuously ebbing and flowing experience that is often dreamlike but also titanically powerful.

In crafting this wide-ranging musical journey, the trio that make up C.L.I. have deftly interwoven a variety of stylistic ingredients that include atmospheric black metal, melodic doom, post-metal, and prog-rock, as well as bringing in instrumental textures that include lush cinematic soundscapes, classically inspired piano performances, and acoustic guitar, with vocals that vary between evocative clean singing to vicious snarls.

Today it’s our pleasure to present a full stream of this remarkable record in advance of its joint release by Casus Belli Musica and Beverina Productions on March 12th, preceded by a few more thoughts about what you’ll hear. Continue reading »

STORTREGN – IMPERMANENCE

Album Reviews 2 Responses »

Mar 092021

(Today we present Andy Synn‘s review of the new album by Switzerland’s Stortregn, set for release this Friday via The Artisan Era.)

As some of you may be aware, I recently did a full, four album deep-dive into the discography of Melodic Black/Death Metaller’s Stortregn.

The benefits of this are two-fold. First off, it enabled me to re-acquaint myself with the band prior to the release of their new record. And, secondly, it means that I don’t have to waste time during this intro delving into the band’s origins and evolution – anyone who wants to do that should go check out the previous article from January – and can instead focus on the here and now.

This is particularly fortunate because their fifth album marks something of a turning point for the Geneva-based quintet, now signed to The Artisan Era, as they pivot even further towards a sound even more distinctly informed by the Melodic and Technical shades of the Death Metal spectrum.

FRACTAL GENERATOR: “MACROCOSMOS”

Album Reviews No Responses »

Mar 082021

(DGR catches up with the new record by Canada’s Fractal Generator, which was released in January by Everlasting Spew Records.)

You’ll likely be reading this one way out of chronological order given the tendency I’ve developed with this album to want to dive back in, write a little, crawl back out, and then dive back in again.

As a result, there’s been multiple discs from the moment this review started that have coasted into and out of my purview.

But, needless to say, as of recent I have been absolutely buried in a wall of incredibly dense Death Metal.

And while I’m talking about multiple albums one could also ascribe that feeling to Fractal Generator‘s newest album Macrocosmos all on its own.

Older Entries Newer Entries