I Listened To More Albums
Remember how last month I complained about listening to too many albums? I listened to way more March releases over the course of April. Oops.
Which is why this is going up at the beginning of May. I’ve culled my April release listening to be much more reasonable. I hope.
Anyway.
Behold! The List!
Jesus Christ.
MUCH TOO MANY. OH GOD.
You’ll notice a few things. My only S-Tier has an asterisk next to it because it actually came out in February, but I liked it so much I had to bring attention to it. There is nothing in the F-Tier, mostly because I feel like I have to save it for stuff that I truly hate after last month. I added the “I Tried” category for stuff that I couldn’t get through, but didn’t feel passionately enough to dish on. They just weren’t for me. I won’t be talking about them here, but I will note that they were Seemannsgarn by Nadja and The Mad King by Warrior Path if you want to check them out yourself.
The majority of March releases didn’t provoke strong opinions in me. Most of the projects here had their high points, but nothing I was super enthusiastic about, nothing that made me mad. A very even-keeled list.
S-Tier
Lost In The Waves — LANDMVRKS *
As I said, this came out in February but I needed to talk about it because it is one of the best metalcore releases I’ve heard in ages. LANDMVRKS goes to some real unexpected places on this project and it pays off in spades. They nail the typical sound while merging the atypical in a way that doesn’t feel forced or novel for the sake of novelty. Read a more thorough review here.
A-Tier
Crime and Punishment — Regional Justice Center
Music to abolish prisons to.
Demonic Wealth — Krallice
Krallice never disappoints. Some of the best in the black metal genre and this time they’ve leaned into the whole “isolated recording” thing to create some real cool sounds. You can read more of me gushing about the album here.
Kill Grid — Enforced
There’s something to be said for simply doing a genre really, really well. Enforced don’t bring thrash metal to new heights, but they do create a record that’s a blast and a half to listen to.
Vazio — Sepulcros
the sounds are big and my monke brain likes it
Mirrors — Pupil Slicer
Pissed-off metalcore with enough twists to elevate it far above most of the genre.
B-Tier
The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy — Rob Zombie
“Dance Metal” isn’t much of a thing, but goddammit I like it and Mr. Zombie is one of the only people with enough chutzpah to give it to me.
Katedralen — Mork
Music to burn churches to.
ERRA — ERRA
ERRA are like Periphery if Periphery exclusively did standard verse-chorus pop structure songs. Despite that, they create a lot of compelling, if not particularly adventurous, music on their self-titled album.
A History of Nomadic Behavior — Eyehategod
Their first release in seven years contains some of my favorite tracks they’ve ever laid down. The album is front and back loaded with most of the good ideas, leaving the middle part to sag a bit, but I really dug this.
Hellrduk — Isgherurd Morth
Very similar to the Sepulcros album above, just not as good.
To the End — Memoriam
Music to beat up fascists to.
Elasticity — Serj Tankian
This EP is weird (shocking) and I wasn’t super into it at first, but it really stuck with me on multiple plays.
Necro Sapiens — BAEST
BAEST get better with each release. Keep it up and they’ll be titans of the death metal genre.
Impermanence — Stortregn
I appreciate a lot of what this album is going for, but they hit the same ideas a few different ways and not all the iterations are compelling.
Bionic Swarm — Cryptosis
Just good thrash metal. Don’t have anything more to report on that, really.
Symphony of the Night — Ulthima
They’re basically a Children of Bodom ripoff, but they do it so well that I kind of don’t care. There are some real great tracks in here.
C-Tier
Etemen Ænka — Dvne
This is one of those albums the metalsphere has been raving about and I don’t get it. There are some really great moments on here, but those moments are sandwiched into songs that are too long and — and this is my inner Philestine talking — too boring.
Through the Gate Eternal — Demiser
That’s a thrash metal album alright.
Ни царя, ни бога — Koldovstvo
I want to see where they go. They show a lot of promise on here.
Biolume, Pt. 2: The Golden Orb — Midnight Odyssey
The opening 20-minute song is awesome and epic and everything I could have wanted this project to be. The rest is fine and has no reason to be nearly two hours long.
Coven of the Dead — Crypts
Spooky Scary Skeletons: All Grown Up!
Royal Destroyer — The Crown
Honestly, this should probably be in B-Tier, but I had to knock it down a peg because the awesome parts are so awesome that it makes me even more annoyed that most of the album is mediocre.
Tonic Immobility — Tomahawk
Mike Patton and his gang of lovable idiots are never boring. Do give it a listen yourself. Most of it didn’t work for me, but I’m still very happy I spun it a few times.
Solar Paroxysm — Mare Cognitum
Very similar to the Isgherurd Morth album above, just not as good.
Dream Weapon — Genghis Tron
The long-awaited return of pioneers Genghis Tron! It’s fine!
Resident Human — Wheel
I’ve been going back and forth on how much I like this project. The songs build and twist into some really satisfying climaxes, but it just takes so long to get to them in a way that feels like they’re dicking around for the first few minutes of a song before going “okay, now let’s focus up and do the good stuff.”
D-Tier
He Whose Name Was Long Forgotten — Fossilization
Parts of this were almost great. They get smacked into D-Tier rather than C-Tier for not living up to their potential.
Über den Sternen — Empyrium
I wanted to like this so badly but — like a bunch of other prog albums on this list — it just took too goddamn long to get to the good parts. More damningly, the good parts here aren’t as strong as the good parts on Wheel’s album.
At Night We Prey — Nightfall
Two good songs. The rest are bland as fuck.
Curse of Autumn — Witherfall
Also only two good songs.
Tortured Whole — Sanguisugabogg
It should be illegal for dumb brutal slam death metal to be this boring. There are two good songs on here though.
Never Again So Many Albums
Never again.