Top Pick
Exuvial – The Hive Mind Chronicles Part I: Parasitica (progressive tech-death)
We all know there's a new Opeth album out today (and honestly it all sounds a little "Opeth-by-numbers" to me), but what about newer progressive death metal bands? Exuvial are one such up-and-coming act, who boast something of an established pedigree by featuring ex-Fallujah and current Muldothra drummer Andrew Baird, along with features from Inferi guitarist Sanjay Kumar and Greylotus's Ben Towles. Both bands are good points of reference for Exuvial's basic sound, which can perhaps be described as if those latter acts were more prog/tech-focussed acts, or maybe if Allegaeon were less of one. Obscura are another potent point of reference, which goes to show that, while Exuvial might not be the most original prog-death band out there, the company they keep and comparisons they invoke suggests an impressive quality and execution that Parasitica certainly proves.
This commendation does comes with two rather large reservations, however: 1) that it's very long, and 2) that it gets very samey very quickly. The second reservation is mainly confined to the first 4–5 tracks, most of which make up a single "Hive Mind" suite. Even then though, it becomes very repetitive, and even after listening closely to this album for months now, I still find myself checking to see if the early tracks aren't stuck on repeat, or have accidentally doubled-up somehow. For my money, things get a lot more interesting and discernible during the record's back-half, with the epic almost-Ne-Obliviscaris-leaning "Autonomic Awakening" and "Where the Lime Live"/"Ocean Gateways" etc.-esque "Subterranean Swarm" standing out as particular highlights. These latter tracks more than the album's earlier missteps and, although Parasitica often falls prey to some of progressive metal's most notorious tendencies, it remains extremely promising as a foundation for further exploration.
Release Roundup
10,000 Years – All Quiet On The Final Frontier (stoner sludge)
Accuser – Rebirthless (thrash metal)
Aeon Gods – King of Gods (godly power metal)
After Smoke Clears – Intentions (groove metal/core)
Akaamelda – Death Equals Relief (melodeath)
Ante-Inferno – Death’s Soliloquy (deathish black metal)
Artery – Last Chance (death thrash)
Body count – Merciless (crossover thrash, rap metal)
Carnal Savagery – Graveworms, Cadavers, Coffins and Bones (death-doom)
Chasing Zeniths – Epochs Changing (prog metal)
Coilguns – Odd Love (noisy post-harcore)
Conjonctive – Misère de Poussière (blackened death metal)
Crimson Dreams – Reign In Crimson (garish black metal)
Cyclops Cataract – Imperial Might (blackened death metal)
DeadlySins – Age of Revelation (death thrash)
Defeated Sanity – Chronicles Of Lunacy (brutal tech-death)
Distant – Tsukuyomi: The Origin (noisy deathcore)
Dxvxdxd Sxlf – Glorious Atmosphere Of Death (melodeath)
Entomophthora – Instinctual Disease (blackened deth metal)
Father John Misty – Mahashmashana (cool rock)
Fellowship – The Skies Above Eternity (pop-power)
Goblin Hovel – Gobischkevrot! (folk metal, goblin bullshit)
Golgothan Remains – Bearer of Light, Matriarch of Death (blackened death metal)
The Grey Men – The Shape Of Noise To Come (ambitious drone)
Gutless – High Impact Violence (brutal death metal)
Harmonize Oracle – Before The Oracle (melodic power metal)
Healthy Junkies – Listen To The Mad (punkish rock, hair metal)
Heaven-Gemini – Luonnonoikku (prog metal/thrash)
High Warden – Astral Iron (blackened trad-doom)
Hirsh Gardner – Third Time’s A Charm (melodic rock, AOR)
I Declare War – Downcast vol 2. (deathcore)
Immortal Force – Mystic Seance Unrealities (death metal, goregrind)
Iniquitous Savagery – Edifice of Vicissitudes (slamming brutal death)
Internment – Legacy of Blood (blackened death metal)
Kiko Loureiro – Theory of Mind (killer shred)
Kim Deal – Nobody Loves You More (alt/indie rock)
KingCrown – Nova Atlantis (heavy/power metal)
Kings Never Die – The Life & Times (celt punk)
Kruelty – Profane Usurpation (hardcorish death metal)
Lightower – Moonbath (ambient electronic)
Love Ghost x Skold – Love Ghost x Skold (shitty goth-rock)
Maat – From Origin to Decay (blackened groove-death)
Mallavora – Echoes (modern/progressive metalcore)
Mauvais Sang – La Flore (industrial)
Mourning Of The Heretic – To The Shadows Betrothed (blackened goth-doom)
Mudshark – Beware Of The German Shepherd (modern/alt metal)
Múr – Múr (post-folk metal?)
My Wall – Over (blackened sludge)
Mystery Moon – Shine (melodic/prog? metal)
Nekropsalms – The Devil Never Reveals Himself in Vain (death metal)
No Favors – The Eleventh Hour (Bon Jovi)
Ocean Grove – Oddworld (nu metal)
Opeth – The Last Will and Testament (big daddy prog-death)
Orso – Caffè? (post metal)
Osy Mainty – 666 (who even…)
Pestilectomy – Soundtrack to an Embalming Room (brutal death, slam)
Phil Vincent – Master Of Deception (hardish rock)
Poisöned Speed – Roadkill Music Vol. 1 (heavy/speed metal)
Polar – Five Arrows (groove rock/metal)
Primordial Woods – Apotrópaios (dungeon synth)
Purgatorial – Fading Whispers of Voidbound Souls (blackened death-doom)
Raptore – Renaissance (heavy metal)
RedHook – Mutation (electro metalcore, pop rock)
Repuked – Club Squirting Blood (gross death metal)
Rvkkvs – Antithesis of Prosperity (deathgrind)
Schädlich & Söhne – Zweckpessimismus (folk doom)
Sign of the Jackal – Heavy Metal Survivors (heavy metal)
Silent Winter – Utopia (progish power-metal)
Slať – Elegie propastná (sludge doom)
Starwraith – Distant Shores (symphonic folk metal)
Stenched – Purulence Gushing from the Coffin (death metal)
Storace – Crossfire (bad AC/DC)
Sunstorm – Restless Fight (heavy/melodic metal)
Svartfjell – I, The Destroyer (doomy black metal)
Thunraz – Incineration Day (death metal)
Tyrannic – Tyrannic Desolation (crusty black metal)
Tyrantti – Ihmispyramidi (heavy/homoerotic metal)
Unholy Night – Atomic Sorcery (black thrash, speed metal)
Vixenta – The Oubliette (blackened doom)
Warhog – The Dystopian Chronicles, Vol. 2 (heavy metal)
Weight Shift – Haled from Aether (alt-sludge, doom)
Weite – Oase (post/prog rock)
Xandria – Universal Tales (symphonic metal)