Category: Album Review

Much like the abstract nature of the album cover, Sumac never paints a traditional straightforward sonic picture. This is Aaron Turner. Dude is going to tinker. Dude is going to twiddle some knobs. Dude is going to explore around the sonic edges of his instrument. It feels like Sumac is simply an exploration of the abstract. Sometimes it’s maddening. Other times is results in something beautiful. In still others, you’ll find yourself in a bombastic shelling of some of the heaviest riffs you’ll stumble upon.

The experimental nature of Sumac makes each album a grab bag of sorts. Sure, Sumac has a sound, but it’s always unclear as to whether things are going to gel into a cohesive whole or not. May You Be Held might be the most coherent of Sumac’s releases. The album is bookended by a couple of instrumentals that showcase the aforementioned tinkering, but the meat of the album features three fairly caustic and cohesive tracks. There’s not a lot of time wishing the guys would just kick things into gear.

I guess ultimately I dig this one. It’s definitely an acquired taste and if you’re a fan of Turner’s other post-Isis work, you’ll probably dig it. If you’re the type of person that needs immediate gratification in your music or if you suffer from ADD, this one might try your patience a bit.

3.5 flip flops out of 5

If I’m not mistaken, I think Kataklym’s two-faced mascot has been running around since 2006 holding his heart in his hand after ripping it from his chest. Maybe just put the thing down at this point, buddy? I mean, we get it. You’re full of rage and shit, but doesn’t it make it hard to get anything done during your day having to hold on to that goopy, drippy mess all day long. You obviously don’t need it to survive. Much like the binky you loved so much as a child monster, maybe it’s time to just put your heart down for a while.

Sorry. I digress. Kataklysm has a new album out! These guys are kind of like an AC/DC version of death metal. They’ve always been pretty consistent with their sound and their straight ahead he-man approach to death metal. These guys are very, very manly. Their music is the kind of metal that you put on during a workout at the gym. In many respects, Kataklysm is kind of the musical equivalent of an Affliction t-shirt or one of those Ford Raptor pick-up trucks. It’s almost comically oversaturated in masculinity. The latest album sees the band throw in a couple of minor changes to things in that it feels like guitarist Jean-Francois Dagenais has lightened his sound a bit and they actually throw in some keyboards/programming loops in a couple of places. Dagenais crunchy riffs have always been a major draw of this band. It feels as though the bite and intensity of his riffs are scaled back a bit on this album and it feels like this is probably this album’s biggest drawback. Other than that, this album doesn’t really contain any real surprises. It’s basically just a generic Kataklysm album. One that doesn’t really measure up to their more high quality material.

If you’re interested in exploring this band, I’d start back in 2006 with In the Arms of Devastation, where our lovely aforementioned mascot made his first appearance, rather than investing much time in this latest release.

3 flip flops out of 5

Yeah! The Rush of black metal is back!!

Caveat up front: I just love the everliving shit out of these dudes. They have been amongst the vanguard of traditional black metal bands that have been dragging the genre into a more progressive realm for years now. What Opeth did for death metal, Enslaved has done for black metal. This review may be a bit of a lovefest even though this particular album may not be at the pinnacle of their power.

This latest album sees the band continue in their very Opeth-y direction. Granted, it’s not a full embrace of 70s prog that Opeth has chosen, but this is a very proggy album overall. But keep in mind that this is still a very metal album. It’s just that the song structures feel a little more straightforward and almost poppy in their presentation. Vocally, you’ve got about an even split between the hard blackened growls and clean vocals and also about an even split between English and Norwegian lyrics. I will say that the addition of new keyboardist/clean vocalist, Hakon Vinje, has been a great addition to the band. He is just a fantastic vocalist and his range really opens up quite a few new sonic areas in which the band can play.

All in all, this is another solid slab of metal from Enslaved. I’m not sure it is quite in the realm of some of their classic material, but that’s not really meant as a slight at all. With the catalog these guys have produced over the years, it’s a tall order to continually top oneself. This is just a nicely produced slab of proggy black metal. They are just one of the true dependable entities we have in metal today.

4 flip flops out of 5

If you checked in on the blog yesterday, you’ll notice that we have a bit of an Ocean theme going this week. Today, we’re looking at the Part II continuation of The Ocean Collective’s Phanerozoic double album. Part I came out last year and made it into the Top 20 Best of Metal list for 2019. How’s Part II stack up to Part I, you ask? It’s pretty good. I think Part I is the better of the two halves, but Part II still has quite a bit to enjoy. I still think it would have been nice to release this thing as one single piece instead of releasing them separately a year or so apart. I’m still going to have to sit down and listen to them both back-to-back to see if the two pieces actually fit together as a cohesive whole.

Part II is definitely more mellow and more experimental than the first part. You’ve got a bit more electronic bits and pieces driving the musical landscape on this one. Jonas Renske of Katatonia is brought in for a guest vocalist spot once again to match his contribution on Part I. Robin Stapp continues to be one of the more compelling songwriters in the game today. He’s one of those guys who has a very distinctive style, but never falls into stale routines. In certain ways, he reminds me a lot of Daniel Gildenlow of Pain of Salvation in this regard. Stapp is always pushing the Collective into new and uncharted territories. The Ocean Collective may not be considered a classic “prog” band, but they definitely have a very progressive approach to the course of the band’s discography.

4 flip flops out of 5

I’m kind of torn on writing up this review. Oceans of Slumber is a band out of Houston that I’ve seen a number of times opening up for other bands and I’ve been a fan of their unique spin on metal. In a way, these guys are a difficult band to peg into one specific genre because they span quite a few. They have sort of blended doom, prog, goth, a sort of theatrical metal and a dash of death metal into one entity. This myriad of styles works in some respects and kind of hinders them in others.

The latest album is beautiful, but I’m just not certain yet whether it really stands together as a cohesive piece. By and large, this is a showcase for vocalist Cammie Gilbert. And shine, she does. She’s got a very unique and powerfully epic voice. And the band is doing everything that they can to craft some epic song for her to sing over. My issue is that the epicness of this thing starts to verge into the land of over-the-top melodrama and histrionics that just leaves me feeling flat. The songs are so grand in their production that the feeling is just squeezed completely out and it just starts to feel stale and antiseptic after a while. With a song title such as “I Mourn These Yellowed Leaves”, “The Adorned Fathomless Creation”, and “The Soundtrack to My Last Day”, you can kind of get a sense of where this record is headed thematically. It’s fucking epic, man. Plus, it’s also long as fuck. Seriously, pack a sack lunch before starting this journey because you’re going to need a snack halfway in.

I don’t know. Maybe this one just caught me on the wrong day, but I just kind of wish these guys would cut loose a little more. There’s talent in this band, but this latest effort just seems to wallow a bit too much in its own grandiosity for it’s own good.

3.5 flip flops out of 5

Plague Years provides a nice entry into the old school crossover thrash metal canon. This one reminds me in so many ways to Power Trip in the recording techniques used and the structure of the songs. The vocals sound as if they were recorded in a deep, dark underground bunker. It sounds as if there is an echo effect used to make vocalist Tim Englehardt voice sound as if he is located far away from the remainder of the band. Englehardt doesn’t have quite the dynamism of Riley Gale, but the recording effect gives him the same sort of sound that Gale used. The guitars are also in that same sweet crunchy riffs and whammy bar heavy solos that Power Trip favored. In addition to Power Trip, it feels like old school Sepultura might be a big influence on these guys. The biggest variation that Plague Years brings to the crossover school of metal is a lot longer songs than one normally finds in this genre. As a result, this one feels a little more meatier than you’re typical minute and a half to two minute scorchers that are typical of this genre. Ultimate verdict, this is a keeper if you’re still feeling the loss of Riley Gale and are looking for the next band to pick up the mantle set by Power Trip. This feels like a promising band.

4 flip flops out of 5

I think we may have a winner for album/album title/album cover that captures the spirit of 2020 perfectly. It seems fitting that Napalm Death would be the band that accomplishes this feat.

Honestly, this album presents a bit of a dichotomy. On the one hand, it’s subject matter is bleak as fuck. Barney Greenway remains one of the most pointed and vitriolic lyricists going today and the present endtimes have given him plenty of material in which to issue some scathing polemics. On the other hand, musically this album is about as accessible as Napalm gets. I really feel that this would be a great album to use as an introduction to the Napalm Death curious. There are quite a few songs on here that hover in that mid-tempo groove and are almost pop-oriented in their structure. Shit, there are quite a few songs on here that are downright danceable.

It’s always nice to see a band this far into their career pull out what feels like a very relevant and timely release. It doesn’t feel like the dudes of Napalm have lost a bit of their fire or spite. The world is a better place for it.

4 flip flops out of 5

If you had Marilyn Manson and Shooter Jennings collaborating on an album on your 2020 Bingo card, congrats. You are the big, big winner.

I can’t say that I’m a huge Manson fan, but I’ll admit that I always find myself curious about what direction he’s going in whenever he puts out something new. I was really curious about this new album with the inclusion of Jennings on the writing and production side of things. Was this going to be Manson with a southern rock/country twang? Because that could get interesting.

Sadly, there’s no such mash-up on this thing. This is kind of a straight-ahead Manson album and it kind of reinforces my thought that the dude really just wants to be David Bowie when he grows up. The main thing on here is that it’s a very piano/keyboard driven album and that there is a surprisingly lack of abrasion. It’s got a pretty mellow gothic feel going on throughout. Which is surprising after you get hit with the album opener, Red Black and Blue, which is very heavy and one of Manson’s better songs in some time, in my opinion. Overall, I think this is an album Manson diehards are probably going to enjoy. It’s fine for what it is, but I really wished there would have been a bit more experimentation and boundary pushing. All in all, I’m not sure this is an album that will be remembered as one of his better efforts.

3 flip flops out of 5

I’m not sure why I always feel like I need to roll out a disclaimer about an album or band having a Christian bent, but it’s just something that’s there. It’s not like Christianity and Metal are diametrically opposing forces, but it’s just that normally Metal is firmly in the darker side of things. I’ve always said that I don’t really give a shit about where a band is coming from as far as religion just as long as they have sufficient musical chops to back up whatever message they feel like rolling out into the world. Jesus. Satan. I don’t give a fuck. Just make it jam.

Neal Morse is just a relentless force. It really feels like he’s at least putting out one or more albums every year under his various entities. I’m not really sure where the dividing line between The Neal Morse Band and his solo releases come down. Musically, they really cover the same sort of ground. It does feel like his solo releases have more of an overt “Jesus Is Lord!” message and the albums are usually composed by the trio of Morse, Mike Portnoy and Randy George. This latest release also sees appearances by the other two members of The Neal Morse Band…which kind of blurs the line between the two entities even further. If you’re already a fan of Morse’s solo work and past Spock’s Beard material, this latest album won’t be much of a surprise. It’s a solid slab of modern sounding Yes-inspired prog rock/metal. There’s really not much to complain about on here. I’m not sure it is quite up to the level of the past two double albums of The Neal Morse Band albums, but I think it is right up there with anything else he’s put out under his solo banner.

4 flip flops out of 5

It feels like a major trend in metal these days is to look backwards and pay homage to the masters of the genre. By and large, a lot of the bands going this route tend to fall into the copycat realm of things rather than using their influences to bring something new to the table. Not so with All Them Witches.

All Them Witches feels like a modern spin on classic rock/southern rock/blues rock tropes. The thing that I really like about these guys is that their sound, albeit feeling familiar, is quite unique. Even though you can hear influences, their music sounds like All Them Witches. Compare that to other bands where you can tell “This is a Sabbath clone.” or “Obviously, they’ve listened to a shitload of Skynyrd.” You can tell where All Them Witches are coming from, but everything they have put out has their distinctive spin on it.

This latest album is something that I would love to hear on the radio. It makes me so mad that staid classic rock stations don’t roll out bands like All Them Witches or Clutch or Baroness into their rotation. The songs on this latest album are pure classic rock gold and would fit right in place in between cuts of Zeppelin or Thin Lizzy on your local FM rock station. These songs just feel like they are clamoring for a large audience. Great guitar work, hooks for days and great vocals/lyrics. And they’re a power trio. Everybody loves a power trio. Go buy this album.

4 flip flops out of 5