This Has Got to Be the Month with the Biggest Split Between “Awesome” and “Boring” So Far
A lot of these lists thus far have lived in a nice comfortable zone where most of the records I listen to are at least pretty good with maybe a handful of outliers on either end. This month, there are so many albums I’m wildly enthusiastic about, but also so many that were about as interesting as a single saltine laying on the floor. Even the albums occupying the middle of the tier this month have moments of “oh wow!” balanced out by long stretches where I just go “uuuuugh.”
Behold! The List!
Wait, what’s Rise Against doing here?
Rise Against aren’t metal, but…
Look, I listened to their newest album Nowhere Generation and needed to talk about it somewhere because I’m doing it here. Given how it’s in the lowest spot… well, prepare for Opinions™.
S-Tier
Thy Catafalque — Vadak
Thy Catafalque is a project that’s sat on my “oh, I’ll get around to them one day” list for like, five years. Now that I’ve finally gotten around to them, I’m made I hadn’t sooner.
This was so insanely good. It’s like it was tailor-made to push all of my particular enjoyment buttons. The heavy riffing, the odd instrument mixtures, the blend of clean and harsh, the songs that meander but build… this was excellent. I do think Vadak runs out of steam towards the back end, but I don’t care. I’m just so damn thrilled about this album!
A-Tier
White Ward — Debemur Morti
Much like the above, White Ward are also pioneers of experimental black metal. This two-song EP of theirs knocks it out of the park, really managing to bridge beautiful sounds and absolute hellish noise in a way I can’t get enough of. More bands should incorporate saxophone.
I wrote some more words on this EP here.
Hannes Grossmann — To Where the Light Retreats
It’s not often that drummers are the ones to embark on self-named solo projects, it’s usually guitarists and vocalists, even in metal. But Mr. Grossmann is a drummer extraordinaire, having performed with the likes of Obscura and Necrophagist, which is some tech death pedigree right there.
I wish I had more to say about the drumming on this record, but I don’t. Partly because I have no ear for what constitutes good drumming, and partly because the riffs on this record slap.
Grossmann picked some ace collaborators for this project. It’s a wild prog-death journey. I’m especially a fan of “Death and the Vast Nothing” which has an absolutely evil section of pizzicato orchestral plucking.
Duskmourn — Fallen Kings and Rusted Crowns
Duskmourn sound like a more riff-centric version of Insomnium. It’s great.
Also, I was in a very crappy headspace when first listening to this, but the big sounds combined with melodic passages was just the catharsis for my soul I was needing.
Pestilence — Exitivm
The legends are back at it for another album! I don’t have much more to say other than this record just slaps.
B-Tier
The Hirs Collective — The Third 100 Songs
There are only 95 songs on this album. Posers.
Jokes aside, this album is a magnificent slice of grindcore with some real vicious hardcore attitude. Being that it’s grindcore, most of the songs are under a minute, making the running time about an hour twenty. There’s so much great stuff in here.
This is a compilation record, which I wouldn’t normally listen to, but given that it pulls from like, a dozen EPs and splits, plus has oodles of unreleased or otherwise hard to find material… I’m happy this comp exists.
I’m also happy this band exists. This is the sort of unabashedly queer and scathing protest music I need in my life. And something a couple of bands lower on the list could take notes on.
And also it’s 105 songs if you get the album on Bandcamp.
Helloween — Helloween
This was a surprise. I’ve never liked Helloween — I’ve said many times that power metal is not my bag — but now that I’ve given this a listen a few times, I’m amazed how much I like it. Obviously, I don’t think it’s astounding given it’s in B-tier, but it is astoundingly compelling.
It’s over the top, it’s goofy, it’s corny, but god does this thing have good hooks.
Flotsam and Jetsam — Blood in the Water
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: I am a sucker for a well-executed, no-frills thrash metal record.
That’s it. That’s all I have to say about Blood in the Water.
Anti-God Hand — Wretch
This was a neat find! Some very noisy black metal that really just.. nails the constant anguish of having to constantly Exist.
Machine Head — Arrows in Words from the Sky
I guess this is a three-song single rather than an EP but… whatever. I listened to it, I liked it. Machine Head are basically a Robb Flynn solo project at this point, but I have hopes for the new album — whenever that drops.
C-Tier
Witch Vomit — Abhorrent Rapture
Every time I listen to Witch Vomit I can’t shake the thought that I should really like them a lot more than I do.
Boss Keloid — Family the Smiling Thrush
Literally what the fuck are they singing about, what are these lyrics and song titles.
I like the style a lot and there’s a handful of memorable moments but something just didn’t click for me. But I’m curious now and may have to give some of their previous work a looksee.
Darkthrone — Eternal Hails……
The double ellipses in the album title are vital to convey the true ponderousness of existence.
There are a lot of bands I like that are influenced by Darkthrone but still haven’t clicked with me somehow. This was enjoyable, but it never ascended to greater heights than that.
Siderean — Lost on Void’s Horizon
It’s fine.
Cerebral Rot — Excretion of Mortality
Some of these songs are real boring slogs to get through. In fact, I found listening to this album the whole way through to be a chore since Cerebral Rot have only a handful of tricks up their sleeve to keep me interested, so as the album wears on I just was pleading for it to end.
And yet, listening to these songs every now and then on a playlist is a much better way to listen. They don’t have the time to tire me out so much.
God knows why the closer needs to be eleven goddamn minutes.
D-Tier
Fear Factory — Aggression Continuum
I’ve always found Fear Factory boring as shit. I don’t know why I thought trying out their new record would change my mind.
It’s a shame because I do actually like industrial-tinged stuff like Ministry, KMFDM, and Dawn of Ashes, and you’d think that since Fear Factory trends towards thrashier riffs they would really start my engine but… no.
Bossk — Migration
This album put me to sleep.
Go Ahead And Die — Go Ahead And Die
I like the anarchist, smash-the-state, antifascist sentiments of this record.
It’s a shame none of the songs are any good.
There are maybe three cool riffs on this album. Most of it is uninspired chugging, which is disappointing for such potent subject matter. Unlike Hirs Collective, which use the incendiary themes to make bold choices and flex their riff mastery, Go Ahead And Die are painfully bland when it comes to their approach to punk-tinged metal.
Seputus — Phantom Indigo
This album could have been so cool. It’s clear that Seputus have a lot of neat ideas, but they all just slid right out of my brain.
AMENRA — De Doorn
I like the song “De Evenmens”. Other than that, this was an extremely tedious listen. There’s “being slow to build tension” and then there’s “being so slow I wonder if this is actually a song.” It’s not like they’re doing a Sunn O))) thing where the extreme slowness leads to an almost trance-like experience, it’s just regular slow for most of the album occasionally punctuated by brief surges of excitement before trudging back into slowness.
Also, their language is Dutch and there are spoken word sections.
F-Tier
Rise Against — Nowhere Generation
I like Rise Against. They’re not my favorite, but the songs I like of theirs scratch a real itch for me. Catchy, slick music with a handful of unique punk quirks that hit the spot in a way no one else can do.
Their latest effort is not that. In fact, they sound like a ripoff of themselves.
The lyrics are all so vague and unspecific that each song blends into a mush of “generic rebellion”. It’s clear that there are topics they’re trying to hit on like wage inequality and climate change, but there’s absolutely no unique perspective on it, just blandness. There are no memorable verses or choruses, and the one moment that made me go “oh hell yes!” for the briefest of seconds was when McIlrath unleashed the only hardcore punk scream on the record during the song “Sooner or Later”, but then it led into a completely uninspired bridge with a riff that totally thinks it’s badass even though it’s just a limp noodle in corpse paint.
This sucked. How can punk sound so uninspired in the age of fascism and plague? How?
Whoof, that was a lot
Turns out, when I have actual strong opinions on things, I tend to want to talk about them more. Funny how that is.