Top Pick
Lord Dying – Clandestine Transcendence (doomy sludge prog)
The sludge/stoner sector of the metal continuum is one I don't frequent all that often. I'm also quite partial to when bands from genres I don't like blend a bit (read: a lot) of prog and/or riffage into their sound, which is to say was quite partial to Lord Dying's previous outing, Mysterium Tremendum (2019), which proved that, amid all the requisite doom and gloom, sludge could also be expansive and uplifting, and a ton of fun to boot.
Clandestine Transcendence is an entirely different beast. Rather than the lush, post-Crack-the-Skye-stylings of its predecessor, the Oregon outfit's fourth outing—as its more ominous and monochrome album art suggests—is a much darker affair, which has far more in common with more recent Paradise Lost records and Nick Holmes-era Bloodbath, as well as more experimental and esoteric fare like Tryptikon and even Ihsahn at his most nihilistic (i.e. Eremita (2012)), than anything in the vicinity of Mastodon or High on Fire. At almost an hour long, Clandestine Transcendence can be a lot to take in, and its darker atmosphere can become somewhat stifling at times. Repeated listens, however, will reveal a masterfully constructed record with hidden progressive depths that far surpass its already ample sludge showings.
It really irks me when fans and critics equate excelling and experimenting within a genre with leaving it behind entirely, but with Clandestine Transcendence Lord Dying have truly transcended their humble sludge origins and become a full-blown progressive metal band, and one which has set the bar for the year to come incredibly high in the process.
Release Roundup
A/Oratos – Ecclesia Gnostica (proggish black metal)
Abhoria – Depths (death metal)
Advocacy – The Path Of Decoherence (prog metal)
Andracca – To Bare The Weight Of Death (black metal)
Autumn’s Child – Tellus Timeline (melodic power metal)
Becoming The Lion – Turning Point (postish rock)
Boundless Chaos – Sinister Upheaval (blackish death metal)
Breaths – Melt Away (post metal, prog gaze)
CobraKill – Serpent’s Kiss (hard rock)
Cold In Berlin – The Body Is The Wound (goth metal)
Corvus – Immortals (space dudes rock)
Drakon – Thunderdome (black metal)
Final Coil – The World We Inherited (sludgy alt rock)
Fugit – Bury Me Here (progressive post black metal)
Gothic – Underground (melodeath)
Gotus – Gotus (hardish rock)
Grand – Second To None (melodic/soft rock)
Green Day – Saviors (wine-tour punk)
Horrorgraphy – A Knight’s Tale (weird symphonic blackened doom metal)
Inver – On This Earth (trucker-hat goth)
Kontact – Full Contact (the cover made me think this would be cooler)
Lazarus Dream – Imaginary Life (progish metal)
Malist – Of Scorched Earth (progressive black metal)
Master – Saints Dispelled (death metal)
MesaVerde – All Is Well (prog rock)
Methedrine – No Solution, No Salvation (thrash)
Modern Life Is War – Tribulation Worksongs (hardcore)
Neck deep – Neck Deep (pop punk, emo)
Night Thieves – Polarity (heavy metal)
Notorious – Marching On (heavy metal)
Resin Tomb – Cerebral Purgatory (brutal blackened death metal)
Ribspreader – Reap Humanity (brutal death metal, melodeath)
Rob Favotto – Kalki (instrumental metal)
Saxon – Hell, Fire And Damnation (heavy metal)
Scarlet Anger – Martyr (groove thrash, melodeath)
Seid – Svartr Sol (black metal)
Sgàile – Traverse The Bealach (prog folk, melodeath)
Sovereign – Altered Realities (death metal)
Tim’s Favourite – amaConda (like Wednesday 13 singing for Helmet?)
Touché Amoré – Is Survived By: Revived (post hardcore)
Underneath – From The Gut Of Gaia (brutal deathcore)
Upon Stone – Dead Mother Moon (melodeath thrash)
Vemod – The Deepening (post black metal)
Verona On Venus – Popular Delusions (groove death)
The Vice – Dead Canary Run (blackened gothmetal)