On This Week in Reviews, we look at three brand new albums and a DVD guaranteed to get attention. We’ll do the rundown after the jump.
William France finds plenty to like in his 4/5 contemplation of the new record Misery from Australia’s Disentomb.
“If you could somehow mix Suffocation, Disgorge and Rivers of Nihil with Oceano and Gorguts, you would get Disentomb.”
Hmm that’s quite a concoction. In fact William finds that from the basis of straight forward Death Metal, there’s just enough other stuff to keep things interesting.
“There is a hauntingly dissonant riff in the last song, ‘Sentinals of the Bleak’ that is very much something you would expect to hear from Vildhjarta. Much like the high vocals, this is one of the only songs that features this kind of composition. The way these aspects are implemented so sparecely throughout the album provides each track with an element of character, making the songs, and the last third of the album in particular, stand out.”
Eden Kupermintz finds this record from Richmond, Virginia’s Inter Arma almost “too daunting to review.”
Eden says this 45-minute “EP” The Cavern is true to its name, it is indeed cavernous with room for lots of people to shine.
“At its core lies an absolute dedication to its main theme, verbalized via a heady mix of doom metal, lush with insanely varied synths and guest spots aplenty, including the brilliant violinist Meg Mulhearn of Divine Circles, the enchanting voice of Dorthia Cottrell from Windhand and Shibby Poole from Yautja on the aforementioned synthesizers. The genius of these features is that they’re interspersed prudently throughout the album: a touch of violin at beginning, middle and end, a vocal guest spot from Cottrell to twist the knife right into your heart and a smattering of synths throughout to vary the aural landscape.”
Eden finds almost nothing to dislike here in his 5/5 review.
Spencer Snitl says a lot of new progressive metal coming out these days is either hit or miss but that the new record Belighted from St. Petersburg, Russia’s iamthemorning a little bit of both.
“The first thing that any listener will notice after one listen to this record is that it is piano heavy. There is piano all over the place, and it’s not something to be taken lightly. The band, it seems, tend to think of themselves as a “classical” rock band. They use the piano as an instrument of choice simply because it adds something different. While there are some parts that could have used a synthesizer or keyboard, the band chose to stick with pure ebony and ivory, fluctuating from major to minor and creating an album that sounds as much rock as it does classical.”
Spencer praises studio drummer Gavin Harrison but says the vocals “seem like they’re from a different band.” Throughout it all, our reviewer finds a band still struggling to find a direction and a voice. 3.5/5 for Belighted.
Between the Buried and Me – Live at the Fidelitorium
Heavy Blog is Heavy founder Jimmy Rowe doesn’t give a score to the new DVD from North Carolina’s Between the Buried and Me but he isn’t faint with praise for it either. He recalls the band’s first live DVD for the album Colors recorded in front of a live audience in Nashville and compares that with Live at the Fidelitorium which is in more of a studio atmosphere.
“Musically, much of Live at the Fidelitorium is indistinguishable from its non-live counterpart. Between the Buried and Me are renowned for their technical prowess, and are more often than not tightly locked in step. No doubt the band are kept tethered to the material through the very same click track they used during the recording sessions, as evidenced by the fact that much of the tracks maintain their exact runtime as the album versions. It’s easy to forget that you’re listening to a live performance during many instrumental sections, only to be snapped back into reality during frontman Tommy Rogers’ imperfect vocals or an ever so slightly mismatched harmony sneaks into axemen Paul Waggoner and Dustie Warring’s fast-paced leads.”
Jimmy says it’s exactly in those imperfections that this version of Parallax II: Future Sequence shine.
“Hearing the notes not lining up perfectly or hearing Rogers increasingly tiring voice humanizes the band in a time when swathes of young bands are dabbling in the mechanical and soulless. The environment in which the band performs compliments this idea beautifully as well, with the band baring all and given nothing to hide behind in an intimate performance of a conceptual opus. The idea was to present the band in an environment that feels stripped-down and natural, as if the band were jamming in their rehearsal space, and they’ve successfully captured that vibe on Live at the Fidelitorium.”
So fire up your Blu Ray player and check out the latest from Between the Buried and Me
Looking in the cookie jar, I already see some delectable reviews in the work for next week so stick around.
-BS