Top Pick
The Ocean – Solaris (progressive post-metal)
Eden should be along with a proper review sometime in the near future, but it's safe to say this first outing from the new Ocean line-up is not only a bona fide success, but also stands out as one of their strongest albums to date. The jump in quality might not come as a surprise after the snoozefest that was Holoxene (2023), but there's an argument to be made that this is the best Ocean album since genuine GOAT-contender Pelagial (2013), or even outside of it.
At well over an hour and with songs and song-suites pushing the ten, fifteen and even twenty-minute mark, Solaris can be a tall order. Likewise, its expansive and layered composition works best when played in full and paying it complete attention, which is probably why I haven't listened to it nearly as much as I should have, even though we've had the promo for a month or so now. Rest assured though, that this is an album I will be playing and referring back to for years to come, and I doubt I'm alone in that assessment.
Last Week's Most Unjustifiably Overlooked Release
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats – Shapes of Midnight (occult rock/metal)
I didn't give this one a proper listen before posting last week's roundup, we got the promo early, but, after a quick sample I wrote it off as a good album from a band I respected but traditionally Wasn't For Me™. I should have paid more heed to Jordan's review though, because—while I'm not qualified to comment on whether this is the best Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats album—I can say its doing a whole lot more for me than any of their previous records have, or similar releases of its ilk have been lately.
In comparison to the shark-jumping self-parody of the new Green Lung record, Shapes of Midnight oozes class and sincerity, along with a compelling mastery of its craft. It also rocks super hard. Along with the expected malaize of psychedelic Black Sabbath worship that pervades their sound, "Psycho on the Loose" sounds like Turbonegro covering Turbo-era Judas Priest, while "Don't Let it Control You" almost sounds like Motorhead mixed with Hellhammer, with lots of bass fills that bring to mind "Born to Be Wild". Indeed, bassist Justin Smith may well be the man of the match, delivering a Meddle-esque Pink Floyd trudge on "When Evil Wakes" and plenty of Geezer Butler-isms throughout that help make Shapes of Midnight a surprisingly vital pre-summer soundtrack as the weather starts to get warmer down under.
Release Roundup
Aborym – Metachaos (progressive/insudtrial balck metal)
ADX – 13ème choc (heavy metal, thrash)
Aetherfrost – The Sorrow and the Stillness (symphonic metal)
AJJ – Dirtry Old Power (indie/noise rock)
Altarheart – Prone To Wander (shitty metalcore)
Amarok – Overcome (funeral doom)
Autumnfall – The Archaic Sins (gothic melodeath)
Banks Arcade – Second Place Superstar (who even listens to this?)
Barren – Verderf (deathgrind)
Bassaium – Wrapped in Death (shitty death metal)
The Bitter Pills – The Bitter Pills (hard rock)
Bloodstain – Bloodstain (Metallica babies)
Brat – Manslayer (hardcore, grind)
Burner – No One Is Coming To Save Us (metalcore)
Chemical Storm – Splintered, Crushed And Shattered (death metal/thrash)
Chosen Undead – Cinder of a Fading Dream (metalcore, meloeath)
Cloven Hoof – Never A Prophet In Your Own Land (heavy metal)
Coldrain – Optimize = Optdemise (pop rock)
Combat Shock – Nightmare Fuel (crossover thrash)
Consvmer. – Abgrund (hard/death-core)
Contract Killer – You Hate I Hate (groove death)
Critical Defiance – Rivers Of Blood (shitty black/death-metal, thrash?)
Crown Magnetar – The Hollowing Of Godlesh (death metal)
Dainsleif – Daudi Fenris (black/folk metal)
Death. Void. Terror. – To The Great Monolith III: Rifts (black/doom-drone)
Deathchant – Kova (trad rock)
Desolate Pathway – Visions in Death (melodoom)
Dreamseeker – A Trigger in Time: Part I (power metal)
Ethereal Tomb – Living to Dream Again (sludge death)
Europe – Come This Madness (hair metal)
Flame – Ignis Draconis Daemonicus (blackened death metal)
Forsaken Eternity – Shades Of Existence (meloblack)
Funeral – Funeral (soft/indie rock)
Gameface – All My Friends (alt rock/punk)
Gargant – Dead Night Defiance (heavy metal, groove thrash)
Gåte – Sigil (progressive folk-metal) Review
Godflesh – Decay (industrial metal)
God Mother – Köttvärld (grind/math-core)
Grave Dance Company – Ruins (goth rock/doom)
Hænesy – Esentia (post-black metal)
Invincia – Echoes From The Past (heavy metal)
Iskald – Curse Of The Mind (black metal)
JakkHammer47 – Dive Down for Liberty (heavy metal, thrash)
Keo – Put a Smile on for Me (rock)
Kongh – Dissolved In Time (sludge doom)
Krolok – Hričov-Súľov-Lietava (black metal)
Lacrimas Profundere – Lay Me Down O Silent Fear (alty mellowgoth, H.I.M. at home)
Love•Love•Love/Ølgod – Lovegod (crust punk, hardcore) Premiere
The Last Oblation – Axe (blackened melodeath)
Lord Gryphus – Summoning The King Of Death (death metal)
Ludgar – Violent Visions (crusty black metal)
Mama Doom – Eminent Womb (matriarchal doom)
Mason – Edge Of Destruction (pop rock)
Massteron – Second In The Spheres (noisy/deathened black metal)
Metalite – Discovery (melodic/pop metal)
Meurtrier – Messe de Fer (heavy metal)
Midnight Prey – Jenseitsritt (post-hardcore, goth-metal/screamo?)
Mikey Ball & The Company – Keep The Fire Burning (rock)
Mindvile – Old Continent (black metal)
Moloken – Moloken (blackened post-metal)
Mr. Bison – The Garden Of Forgotten Dreams (stoner rock)
Mucosal – Amalgamated States (death metal)
Mélancolie du Dhampir – Noblesse (noisy meloblack)
Nail By Nail – Internal Inferno (black metal)
Night Laser – Rats In The Cradle (bad rock, Slash at home)
Noctule – Extinguish Thy Flame (progressive melodeath)
Nordicwinter – A Hopeless Dawn (post-black metal)
Ordeathral – Medea (progressive melodeath, folk metal)
Or∞Chi – 劫炎 (The Unending Flames) (shitty black-death)
Oskaal – (A)live (blackened death-doom)
Pain Of Truth – Pain Of Truth (nu hardcore)
Pale Reflection – Fading Daylight (death doom)
Paul Laine – The Long Road Back (hard/pop rock)
Profanation – Ultra-Noise Warfare (death metal)
Protomartyr – Hotel Usona (weird/gothy post-punk)
Pure Reason Revolution – Terrifying Angels (prog rock/metal)
Pyre Of Descent – Albedo (goth doom)
Red Code – Traces Of Unease And Discomfort (Episode 1) (alt rock/metal)
Sacreligious – Brutality Incarnated (melodeath)
Sicksense – Funderals (nu metal/core)
Skumstrike – Flawless Intrigue From Hell (speed black)
Scorpion Milk – Flesh Masks For Skulls (goth rock)
Slaughtercult – Devoured By Perversion (brutal death metal)
Sons Of Cult – Revenge (heavy metal)
Stellar Rot – Where The Formless Ones Dwell (melo/black metal)
Storm Force – Truth (heavy metal)
Stryper – Throne Of Thorns (heavy metal)
Sunroad – Eclipse of the Rising Sun (bad rock)
Tenebrae Annex – The Rise Of Psychic Violence (Parts I-III) (ambient noise)
Test – Goatest (death metal/grind)
Theosophy – Line Before The Event Horizon (black metal)
Tom Morello – Everyone Gets Everything They Want (please stop)
Tombstalker – Chaos Monolith (death metal/doom)
Überchriist – Daemonic Apotheosis (meloblack)
Vengeance Within – For Now, A Slow and Painful Death (goth melodeath)
Victims of Contagion – Egregore (tech death)
Volucrine – Chapter V: Renewal (mellow alt-metal)
Watcher – Mistress Of Our Time (heavy/trad metal)
Wharflurch – Mycodeath And Rebirth In The Outer Clusters (death metal)
Windswept – A Sign Of The Cloven Hoof (meloblack)
Wodos – From The Grave (shitty thrash)
Yarotz – Resurgence (hardcore)
Zealot Cult – Psalms of Filth (death metal)