1. Mechina
– Cenotaph 2. August
Burns Red – Death Below 3. Insomnium
- Anno 1696 4. Born
Through Fire – Purify And Refine 5. Babymetal
– The Other One 6. Malleus
- The Fires Of Heaven 7. Unearth
– The Wretched; The Ruinous 8. In
Flames – Foregone 9. Thy
Darkened Shade - Liber Lvcifer II: Mahapralaya 10. Kamelot
– The Awakening 11. Angus
McSix – Angus McSix And The Sword Of Power 12. Celebrity
Sex Scandal – Convergence Of Infinite Sequences 13. Bury
Tomorrow – The Seventh Son 14. Twilight
Force – At The Heart Of Wintervale 15. Metallica
– 72 Seasons 16. Orkrist
– Luea 17. Godsmack
– Lighting Up the Sky 18. Ahab
- The Coral Tombs 19. Scalp
- Black Tar
Yo that new Cattle Decapitation album is fucking crazy. A completely unexpected favorite for the year. They’re a band I never really liked much, and Grindcore as an entire genre, because of the whole “wall of sound” thing going on. It leads to every song sounding the same and melting together, where nothing stands out or catches you. There’s only so much you can do wit 300 BPM nonstop blast beats on every song.
But they’re almost a completely different band now. Night and day difference in the actual songwriting and structure. Not to mention how much cleaner the engineering is now, which makes all the difference in the fucking world. At this point they’re basically what I would call….Melogrind? If that even exists lmao idk if there’s many other bands doing that type of approach to it, if any at all. I can’t believe I’m sitting here wit Grindcore songs stuck in my head, who’s hooks and riffs were catchy enough to get stuck in my head after one listen.
When I was doing my recent Metal catch-up, I did listen to CD’s most recent (At the time) album, Death Atlas, even tho I didn’t like them back then. But I was basically checking out every single prominent name that came to me regardless to see what they were doing these days and if they switched it up, got better, etc., and I did like Death Atlas to an extent, and they were starting to experiment wit this type of sound on that record as well, but it wasn’t as refined or catchy, you could tell it was an experiment in progress, especially after hearing this new album. I know their core fans prolly wouldn’t agree, but Goddamn this should have been their sound from the get go, they woulda been a favorite of mine a long time ago if that was the case. This fits them so much better IMO.
I even like the weird ass “goblin” sounding clean vocals he does now. Normally shit like that would irritate me, but it somehow fits the whole mood of it all perfectly. Shit literally sounds like impending doom and a soundtrack to the apocalypse so it aesthetically fits. Honestly one of the more natural sounding approaches to clean vocals that I’ve heard on any form of Death Metal. Normally it jus straight up doesn’t work and sounds awkward and forced. Like I can’t STAND The Faceless’s clean vocals on the last 2 albums, they completely ruin it.
The dopest thing about having such a long hiatus from listening to any Metal and then catching back up like I have been is getting to see all at once how bands either switched it up and matured and legitimately got better or essentially became a new band altogether, or stayed the exact same and kept dropping the same album for 10+ years lmao. But in the case of the former, a lot of it takes the form of bands focusing more on the actual musicality and songwriting of it all. Honing in on actual groove and melody and structure that actually reels you back in instead of repetitive chaotic blast beats and tremolo picking that sounds like 1,000 other bands. Or you have a lot of Core bands that over time turned more traditional/technical Metal and less chug chug and trendy lol. Like WhiteChapel slowing it all the way down and doing a lotta clean vocals now, or how JFAC went from Deathcore to straight up Necrophagist-esque Tech Death. Or you see how bands completely refined and perfected their sound and how that was clearly the intent from the beginning, and it jus took a while to completely nail it. Like Born Of Osiris’s most recent is legitimately their best album because front to back it’s the most consistent, no filler, and catchy ass ANTHEMS that stay in your head. And while they’re slightly less heavy now and more Metalcore than Deathcore, you go back thru the discography and see that they were always still toying wit that same concept and approach, and the newest sounds like a culmination of all that previous work. Shit like that. I think it ultimately comes down to the fact that a lotta these guys jus straight up mentally matured and got past that lame ass elitist mindset of “If I do this I’m selling out.” or “If I do this I’m a poser and it’s not real Metal.” cause that shit is and always will be sorry as fuck and nobody actually gives a shit anymore lmao jus make good music and people will respond accordingly.
And this album is a perfect example of all of that. I said before that my absolute favorite thing in Extreme Metal (Specifically like Black and Death because Core subgenres are inherently easier to make catchy.) is when bands are able to create a brand of it that is still somehow catchy and infectious and creates earworms, whether that earworm is catchy vocal delivery, catchy memorable riffs, or both, without also sounding campy and forced and corny. Like they literally “sold out” and are specifically trying to make a watered down radio friendly version of it. Because that and catchy are not one in the same whatsoever. Behemoth are masters of it, and CD nailed it on this album. I wish more of their discography was like this asides from Death Atlas, but I’ll take this for now cause this is fucking FUEGO.
Been so much good fucking music so rapidly this year, makes me happy as a mf. These top 5 are honestly like a 5 way tie for #1 and are all interchangeable, ranking is irrelevant on those ones honestly. I’m sure by year end I’ll be able to more definitively rank them based on what sticks wit me most and what ends up replayed the most consistently, but as of rn all 5 are on a constant loop and I can’t stop listening to any of em.
#1: Sleep Token - Take Me Back To Eden #2: Cattle Decapitation - Terrasite #3: Veil Of Maya - [m]other #4: Crown The Empire - DOGMA #5: Amir Obe - after. #6: 6LACK - Since I Have A Lover #7: THEY. - Nü Moon #8: DevilDriver - Dealing With Demons Vol. 2 #9: Currents - The Death We Seek
1. Currents - The Death We Seek 2. Invent Animate - Heavener 3. August Burns Red - Death Below 4. Veil of Maya - (m)other 5. The Amity Affliction - Not Without My Ghosts 6. fromjoy - fromjoy 7. Unearth - The Wretched; The Ruinous 8. Judiciary - Flesh + Blood 9. Periphery V: Djent Is Not A Genre
Kind of a tentative list but damn good year for music so far
1. Love Lines - Nuovo Testamento 2. Awake/Asleep - Sløtface
3. Alles Klärchen Bärchen - Lulu & Die Einhornfarm 4. The Answer Is Always Yes - Alex Lahey 5. Teeth - Die Spitz 6. Cerebral Circus - Initiate 7. Only Constant - GEL 8. Fun In The Dark - Groovie Ghoulies 9. What Still Gets Me - Shit Present 11. ICHIJIKIKOKU - Atarshii Gakko! 12. Desire Pathway - Screaming Females 12. Songs for John Darnielle - Local News Legend 13.Warm Blanket - Worriers 14. This Is Crime Wave - Codefendants 15. Ten Stories High - The Bouncing Souls
1. Mechina
– Cenotaph 2. August
Burns Red – Death Below 3. Insomnium
- Anno 1696 4. Born
Through Fire – Purify And Refine 5. Babymetal
– The Other One 6. Malleus
- The Fires Of Heaven 7. Unearth
– The Wretched; The Ruinous 8. In
Flames – Foregone 9. Thy
Darkened Shade - Liber Lvcifer II: Mahapralaya 10. Kamelot
– The Awakening 11. Angus
McSix – Angus McSix And The Sword Of Power 12. Grot
– Beneath The Waves Of Eternity 13. Celebrity
Sex Scandal – Convergence Of Infinite Sequences 14. Bury
Tomorrow – The Seventh Son 15. Twilight
Force – At The Heart Of Wintervale 16. Metallica
– 72 Seasons 17. Orkrist
– Luea 18. Godsmack
– Lighting Up the Sky 19. Ahab
- The Coral Tombs 20. Scalp
- Black Tar
1. Kalmah
– Kalmah 2. Mechina
– Cenotaph 3. August
Burns Red – Death Below 4. Insomnium
- Anno 1696 5. Born
Through Fire – Purify And Refine 6. Babymetal
– The Other One 7. Malleus
- The Fires Of Heaven 8. Unearth
– The Wretched; The Ruinous 9. In
Flames – Foregone 10. Thy
Darkened Shade - Liber Lvcifer II: Mahapralaya 11. Immortal
– War Against All 12. Kamelot
– The Awakening 13. Angus
McSix – Angus McSix And The Sword Of Power 14. Grot
– Beneath The Waves Of Eternity 15. Celebrity
Sex Scandal – Convergence Of Infinite Sequences 16. Bury
Tomorrow – The Seventh Son 17. Twilight
Force – At The Heart Of Wintervale 18. Metallica
– 72 Seasons 19. Orkrist
– Luea 20. Godsmack
– Lighting Up the Sky 21. Ahab
- The Coral Tombs 22. Scalp
- Black Tar
Yea undisputed #1 as of rn is Sleep Token. What an amazing fucking album. Favorite song changes on every spin. Only skip is Are You Really Okay? and not even cause it’s bad, jus cause it’s a heavy listen. Not tryna listen to “Please stop cutting yourself and tryna commit that.” on a regular basis lmao, song is beautiful tho. Kinda remains me of a more modernized version of an 80s power ballad.
The new Avenged Sevenfold is pretty cool. I say this as someone who really only likes Sounding The Seventh Trumpet, and really doesnt like M. Shadow's voice. I appreciate how weird and experimental this album is.
Finally listened to the new A7X. Was holding it off cause of how bad I initially hated We Love You lmao.
It’s….alright. I actually liked We Love You a lot more after a second listen thru good headphones, but still not really my cup of tea. I think overall this sound simply doesn’t fit them. This album is clearly an emulation of a combination of bands that do it better and wit more technicality; I heard splashes of Dream Theater, BTBAM, Polyphia, Etc., and I also forget that the band is 40+ years old now, so no surprise that their more mature influences would shine thru at this point, especially since Gates is extremely musically talented from a purely technical standpoint, he’s literally a college graduate in music theory lmao. But it felt like diet versions of all those, like exactly what it is; A band attempting a style that isn’t theirs. But wit that said, this could have been an absolute unlistenable trainwreck, but it’s actually halfway decent, and I applaud the balls to experiment and throw the Hail Mary at this point in their careers, when they could have jus cashed in on some cheap Dad Rock. Shit maybe that’s exactly why they switched it up. They made their money, had their radio hits, so fuck it we comfortable now, let’s do something different. They actually already toyed around wit this kind of sound back in the day on “A Little Piece Of Heaven” from the self titled album, but that was only a single song. I feel it was pulled off better and a lot catchier in that example tho.
Funny enough, I think really the main thing that makes this feel like it’s not their sound is specifically Shadows. I don’t dislike his vocals at all, but I don’t at all feel like they fit this style at all. They’re great for what they were doing previous, that Poppier catchy hit style of Metal, but I feel like they fall flat here and stick out pretty badly. There’s a lotta dope funky ass moments here instrumentally that actually do work very well, and I think as an instrumental album, this actually wouldn’t sound out of place or half baked at all, but the vocals are the glue that jus kinda fails here.
Overall tho I liked it enough that I definitely wanna give it some more spins, prolly like a 6.5/10. Definitely the most different record in their entire discography.
1. Kalmah
– Kalmah 2. Mechina
– Cenotaph 3. Beneath
The Hollow – Misery Loves You 4. August
Burns Red – Death Below 5. Insomnium
- Anno 1696 6. Dystersol
– Anaemic 7. Born
Through Fire – Purify And Refine 8. Unearth
– The Wretched; The Ruinous 9. Babymetal
– The Other One 10. Malleus
- The Fires Of Heaven 11. In
Flames – Foregone 12. Gloryhammer
– Return To The Kingdom Of Fife 13. Angus
McSix – Angus McSix And The Sword Of Power 14. Usnea
– Bathed In Light 15. Thy
Darkened Shade - Liber Lvcifer II: Mahapralaya 16. Immortal
– War Against All 17. Kamelot
– The Awakening 18. Brewmaster
– Mead Dew 19. Grot
– Beneath The Waves Of Eternity 20. Celebrity
Sex Scandal – Convergence Of Infinite Sequences 21. Frozen Soul – Glacial Domination 22. Bury
Tomorrow – The Seventh Son 23. Grimmold
– Forgotten Sorrows 24. Avenged
Sevenfold – Life Is But A Dream… 25. Twilight
Force – At The Heart Of Wintervale 26. Metallica
– 72 Seasons 27. Orkrist
– Luea 28. Godsmack
– Lighting Up the Sky 29. Ahab
- The Coral Tombs 30. Scalp
- Black Tar
Comments
2. August Burns Red – Death Below
3. Insomnium - Anno 1696
4. Born Through Fire – Purify And Refine
5. Babymetal – The Other One
6. Malleus - The Fires Of Heaven
7. Unearth – The Wretched; The Ruinous
8. In Flames – Foregone
9. Thy Darkened Shade - Liber Lvcifer II: Mahapralaya
10. Kamelot – The Awakening
11. Angus McSix – Angus McSix And The Sword Of Power
12. Celebrity Sex Scandal – Convergence Of Infinite Sequences
13. Bury Tomorrow – The Seventh Son
14. Twilight Force – At The Heart Of Wintervale
15. Metallica – 72 Seasons
16. Orkrist – Luea
17. Godsmack – Lighting Up the Sky
18. Ahab - The Coral Tombs
19. Scalp - Black Tar
I even like the weird ass “goblin” sounding clean vocals he does now. Normally shit like that would irritate me, but it somehow fits the whole mood of it all perfectly. Shit literally sounds like impending doom and a soundtrack to the apocalypse so it aesthetically fits. Honestly one of the more natural sounding approaches to clean vocals that I’ve heard on any form of Death Metal. Normally it jus straight up doesn’t work and sounds awkward and forced. Like I can’t STAND The Faceless’s clean vocals on the last 2 albums, they completely ruin it.
The dopest thing about having such a long hiatus from listening to any Metal and then catching back up like I have been is getting to see all at once how bands either switched it up and matured and legitimately got better or essentially became a new band altogether, or stayed the exact same and kept dropping the same album for 10+ years lmao. But in the case of the former, a lot of it takes the form of bands focusing more on the actual musicality and songwriting of it all. Honing in on actual groove and melody and structure that actually reels you back in instead of repetitive chaotic blast beats and tremolo picking that sounds like 1,000 other bands. Or you have a lot of Core bands that over time turned more traditional/technical Metal and less chug chug and trendy lol. Like WhiteChapel slowing it all the way down and doing a lotta clean vocals now, or how JFAC went from Deathcore to straight up Necrophagist-esque Tech Death. Or you see how bands completely refined and perfected their sound and how that was clearly the intent from the beginning, and it jus took a while to completely nail it. Like Born Of Osiris’s most recent is legitimately their best album because front to back it’s the most consistent, no filler, and catchy ass ANTHEMS that stay in your head. And while they’re slightly less heavy now and more Metalcore than Deathcore, you go back thru the discography and see that they were always still toying wit that same concept and approach, and the newest sounds like a culmination of all that previous work. Shit like that. I think it ultimately comes down to the fact that a lotta these guys jus straight up mentally matured and got past that lame ass elitist mindset of “If I do this I’m selling out.” or “If I do this I’m a poser and it’s not real Metal.” cause that shit is and always will be sorry as fuck and nobody actually gives a shit anymore lmao jus make good music and people will respond accordingly.
#1: Sleep Token - Take Me Back To Eden
#2: Cattle Decapitation - Terrasite
#3: Veil Of Maya - [m]other
#4: Crown The Empire - DOGMA
#5: Amir Obe - after.
#6: 6LACK - Since I Have A Lover
#7: THEY. - Nü Moon
#8: DevilDriver - Dealing With Demons Vol. 2
#9: Currents - The Death We Seek
2. Invent Animate - Heavener
3. August Burns Red - Death Below
4. Veil of Maya - (m)other
5. The Amity Affliction - Not Without My Ghosts
6. fromjoy - fromjoy
7. Unearth - The Wretched; The Ruinous
8. Judiciary - Flesh + Blood
9. Periphery V: Djent Is Not A Genre
Kind of a tentative list but damn good year for music so far
2. Awake/Asleep - Sløtface
4. The Answer Is Always Yes - Alex Lahey
5. Teeth - Die Spitz
6. Cerebral Circus - Initiate
7. Only Constant - GEL
8. Fun In The Dark - Groovie Ghoulies
9. What Still Gets Me - Shit Present
11. ICHIJIKIKOKU - Atarshii Gakko!
12. Desire Pathway - Screaming Females
12. Songs for John Darnielle - Local News Legend
13.Warm Blanket - Worriers
14. This Is Crime Wave - Codefendants
15. Ten Stories High - The Bouncing Souls
2. August Burns Red – Death Below
3. Insomnium - Anno 1696
4. Born Through Fire – Purify And Refine
5. Babymetal – The Other One
6. Malleus - The Fires Of Heaven
7. Unearth – The Wretched; The Ruinous
8. In Flames – Foregone
9. Thy Darkened Shade - Liber Lvcifer II: Mahapralaya
10. Kamelot – The Awakening
11. Angus McSix – Angus McSix And The Sword Of Power
12. Grot – Beneath The Waves Of Eternity
13. Celebrity Sex Scandal – Convergence Of Infinite Sequences
14. Bury Tomorrow – The Seventh Son
15. Twilight Force – At The Heart Of Wintervale
16. Metallica – 72 Seasons
17. Orkrist – Luea
18. Godsmack – Lighting Up the Sky
19. Ahab - The Coral Tombs
20. Scalp - Black Tar
1. Kalmah – Kalmah
2. Mechina – Cenotaph
3. August Burns Red – Death Below
4. Insomnium - Anno 1696
5. Born Through Fire – Purify And Refine
6. Babymetal – The Other One
7. Malleus - The Fires Of Heaven
8. Unearth – The Wretched; The Ruinous
9. In Flames – Foregone
10. Thy Darkened Shade - Liber Lvcifer II: Mahapralaya
11. Immortal – War Against All
12. Kamelot – The Awakening
13. Angus McSix – Angus McSix And The Sword Of Power
14. Grot – Beneath The Waves Of Eternity
15. Celebrity Sex Scandal – Convergence Of Infinite Sequences
16. Bury Tomorrow – The Seventh Son
17. Twilight Force – At The Heart Of Wintervale
18. Metallica – 72 Seasons
19. Orkrist – Luea
20. Godsmack – Lighting Up the Sky
21. Ahab - The Coral Tombs
22. Scalp - Black Tar
It’s….alright. I actually liked We Love You a lot more after a second listen thru good headphones, but still not really my cup of tea. I think overall this sound simply doesn’t fit them. This album is clearly an emulation of a combination of bands that do it better and wit more technicality; I heard splashes of Dream Theater, BTBAM, Polyphia, Etc., and I also forget that the band is 40+ years old now, so no surprise that their more mature influences would shine thru at this point, especially since Gates is extremely musically talented from a purely technical standpoint, he’s literally a college graduate in music theory lmao. But it felt like diet versions of all those, like exactly what it is; A band attempting a style that isn’t theirs. But wit that said, this could have been an absolute unlistenable trainwreck, but it’s actually halfway decent, and I applaud the balls to experiment and throw the Hail Mary at this point in their careers, when they could have jus cashed in on some cheap Dad Rock. Shit maybe that’s exactly why they switched it up. They made their money, had their radio hits, so fuck it we comfortable now, let’s do something different. They actually already toyed around wit this kind of sound back in the day on “A Little Piece Of Heaven” from the self titled album, but that was only a single song. I feel it was pulled off better and a lot catchier in that example tho.
Funny enough, I think really the main thing that makes this feel like it’s not their sound is specifically Shadows. I don’t dislike his vocals at all, but I don’t at all feel like they fit this style at all. They’re great for what they were doing previous, that Poppier catchy hit style of Metal, but I feel like they fall flat here and stick out pretty badly. There’s a lotta dope funky ass moments here instrumentally that actually do work very well, and I think as an instrumental album, this actually wouldn’t sound out of place or half baked at all, but the vocals are the glue that jus kinda fails here.
Overall tho I liked it enough that I definitely wanna give it some more spins, prolly like a 6.5/10. Definitely the most different record in their entire discography.
2. Mechina – Cenotaph
3. Beneath The Hollow – Misery Loves You
4. August Burns Red – Death Below
5. Insomnium - Anno 1696
6. Dystersol – Anaemic
7. Born Through Fire – Purify And Refine
8. Unearth – The Wretched; The Ruinous
9. Babymetal – The Other One
10. Malleus - The Fires Of Heaven
11. In Flames – Foregone
12. Gloryhammer – Return To The Kingdom Of Fife
13. Angus McSix – Angus McSix And The Sword Of Power
14. Usnea – Bathed In Light
15. Thy Darkened Shade - Liber Lvcifer II: Mahapralaya
16. Immortal – War Against All
17. Kamelot – The Awakening
18. Brewmaster – Mead Dew
19. Grot – Beneath The Waves Of Eternity
20. Celebrity Sex Scandal – Convergence Of Infinite Sequences
21. Frozen Soul – Glacial Domination
22. Bury Tomorrow – The Seventh Son
23. Grimmold – Forgotten Sorrows
24. Avenged Sevenfold – Life Is But A Dream…
25. Twilight Force – At The Heart Of Wintervale
26. Metallica – 72 Seasons
27. Orkrist – Luea
28. Godsmack – Lighting Up the Sky
29. Ahab - The Coral Tombs
30. Scalp - Black Tar