Top Picks
Brotthogg – Ved Veis Ende (good black metal)
There are lots of big names amid this week's round up, but—to be honest—the whole thing's kind of bumming me out. I'm sad to report that the only song/track worth listening to on the new Nine Inch Nails Tron soundtrack is the one everybody's heard already, which is a shame, because it's probably the best thing they've put out for at least ten years, if not twenty. Moreover, as much as I love everything Paradise Lost put out from 1995–2015 (including Host (1999), I've found everything they've released since then pretty boring, and this new one is maybe the epitome of that, and it's definitely way too long. After surprising me with a half-decent record that I've been back to more times than I'd like to admit, I Prevail are back to sucking such enormous amounts of ass, that I'm pretty sure they were the pool filter in that "Guts" story. Heretoir promised a mix of post-balck and metalcore (check their Bandcamp tags), but lean too far into the former for my tastes; Yächtley Crëw is a hilarious idea for a comedy sketch, but definitely not an entire album, or even an entire song; same for Igorrr really; and and that uninspired Many Eyes EP is making it very hard to defend my ongoing preference for that band over Better Lovers. Oh, and Vanna are back as well, if you're into that sort of thing.
The only true standout this week comes from realms with which I am largely unfamiliar and often reluctant to visit, let alone anticipate. Nevertheless, Norwegian band Brotthogg (oo-er!) have rolled out the welcome carpet and managed to entice me with their rather supurb take on melodic and progressive black metal. I was shocked to see their previous releases labelled as black thrash, based on this newest release. Ved Veis Ende is less far thrashy than the Brotthogg albums that preceeded it, leaning in a much more more atmospheric and even progressive-leaning direction at times. Contrary to Boeli’s review, my one problem with the album is that I find it's compositions fairly unmemorable, but it remains thoroughly enjoyable while it's on, and that just means I get to rediscover its joys all over again.
Release Roundup
Abyssalis – Adaption (brutal tech-death)
Ael-Fierlen – All Is Far Away (post-meloblack, folk metal)
Airborn – Lizard Secrets: Part 3 – Utopia (power metal, not Airbourne)
Aleister Cowboy – Neolithic Blood Rites (death metal)
American Television – You Are Not Alone (pop punk)
Anal Stabwound – Enshrining the Many-Fingered Grasp (ew)
Ancient Thrones – Melancolia (progressive/blackened tech-death)
Antiversum – De Nemesis Omnes et Omnia (progressive death-doom)
Aramis – Terralith (death doom, thrash)
Ashbreather – La Grande Bouffe (sludge doom)
Ashtray For Aliens – Symptoms of Sanity (bad band name metalcore)
Black Hole – After the Shot (groove metal/death)
Castle Rat – The Bestiary (doom metal)
Catsclaw – Perfect Death (djentcore)
Chaoseum – Life 4 Sale (nu metal)
Cult Member – Gore (crusty crossover)
The Damnnation – Eyes of Despair (death metal/thrash)
Darkness Surrounding – Is There Salvation? (progressive mellowdoom)
Dawg Pound – Welcome 2 Tha Pound (hardcore)
Deaf Club – We Demand A Permanent State of Happiness (mathcore, noise punk) Anatomy of
Doomsday Profit – Doomsday Profit (blackened death-doom)
Dreadnoughts – Polka Pit (folk metal)
Dusted Angel – This Side Of The Dirt (stoner metal/doom)
Dying Remains – Merciless Suffering (death metal)
Egocide – Mortichnia (death metal)
Esoterica – Ether Metal (progressive metal)
Evilcult – Triumph of Evil (speedy black metal)
Feanor – Hellhammer (heavy metal)
Firmament – For Centuries Alive (prog-rock metal)
Fuck Your Depression – Right, but Dead (slamming brutal death)
Galundo Tenvulance – Insomnis Somnia (symphonic melodeath)
Gawthrop – Kuboa (funeral death-doom)
Gawthrop – Kuboa (sludgy death-doom)
Ghettorectomy – Cephallic Excoriation (slamming brutal death)
Godzilla Was Too Drunk To Destroy Tokyo – Sideral Voivod (stoner/garage rock)
Greywind – Severed Heart City (pop punk/rock)
Haraball – Fear Of The Plow (postish punk)
Hartmann – Twenty Times Colder (hardish rock)
Hellbearer – Darker Fates (thrash)
Heretoir – Solastalgia (post-black metal/core?)
I Prevail – Violent Nature (nuish metal/baddie-wcore)
I See Aura – Etherstatic (djentcore)
Igorrr – Amen (wacky prog-metal) Review
In the Name of God – Faces (death metal)
In Your Grave – Gates of Torment (deathcore)
A Karmic Gray – Carnepolis (melodeath, metalcore?)
Kamra – Unending Confluence (progressive/blackened death-doom)
A Killer’s Confession – Victim 2 (nu metal)
Korypheus – Gilgamesh (prog metal)
Krigsgrav – Stormcaller (meloblack/death)
The Last Oblation – Asunder Dreams (melodeath)
Litterbox Massacre – The Nine Paws of Hell (brutal deathcore)
A Lost Asylum – Feeding The Nightmare (bad metal/core)
Maahes – Nechacha (post? Black metal)
Many Eyes – Combust (ETID-lite)
Meridian – Meridian (prog metal)
Mesarthim/Various – Isolate X (post black)
Mind:Field – An Atonement For Existence (weird/progressive death-thrash)
Motion City Soundtrack – The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World (pop punk, emo)
Naevus – Back Home (doom metal)
New World Depression – Abysmal Void (death metal, melodeath)
Nexion – Sundrung (deathened black metal)
Nine Inch Nails – Tron: Ares (industrial rock, soundtrack)
Novembers Doom – Major Arcana (mellowdoom)
Ousted – How Do You Cope? (hardcore)
Paradise Lost – Ascension (goth doom)
PRDX – Manic Episode (nu metalcore)
Ravager – From Us with Hate (thrash)
Sadistic Goatmessiah – Violence (black thrash)
Sauerkraut – In Madness (alt/groove metal)
Scatter The Tribe – The Human Condition (melodic metalcore)
Scorpion Milk – Slime Of The Times (post punk, goth)
Sister Murder – Resurrecting The Wounded Psyche (brutal death metal)
Sölicitör – Enemy In Mirrors (heavy metal)
Soulkeeper – Join Us In Creating Excellence (brutal math/deathcore)
Species – Changelings (prog-death thrash)
Stoned Jesus – Songs To Sun (stoner rock)
Structure Sounds – Stolen Sounds (alt punk)
Summerbruise – Infinity Guise (indie/pop punk)
Sunniva – Hypostasis (black doom)
Surrender The Crown – Travails (butt doom)
Tezza F. – Echoes from the Winter Silence (power metal)
The Theander Expression – Chaos, Dreams & Love (AOR)
Thormesis – Nevertheless (post-black metal)
Tithe – Communion In Anguish (blackened death-doom)
Torizon – Meliora (post-hardcore, alt rock)
Tyrannosaurus Dimension – Part 3: Visions Beyond (instrumental prog-sludge)
Undead – This Side Of The Grave (death metal, melodeath)
Vanna – Time is Violence (metalcore, post-hardcore)
Ville – A Bottomless Curse, A Bottomless Sea (progressive deathcore) Premiere
Vintersorg – Vattenkrafternas Spel (melofolk) Review
Viscerate – Before You Die Suffer (crossover death metal)
Vitrectomy – Valediction Universe (brutal death, slam?)
Vittra – Intense Indifference (death metal)
Wolfheart – Draconian Darkness II (death metal, melodeath)