My God, He’s Timely!
And by that I mean it didn’t take until midway through July for me to get around to putting this together.
Behold! The List!
I guess I’m just not very opinionated
There are so many albums I put into B-Tier this month. I stand by my choices, but still. Makes me feel like an indecisive little something something.
And yes, in the list below I’ve changed it to “Artist — Album” rather than “Album — Artist” because the way I was doing it before just felt wrong. Is that going to make that irrational organizational compulsion in my brain very angry? Yes. It’s worth it. It’s always worth it to do the Right Thing.
S-Tier
Yautja — The Lurch
45 minutes of pure death metal bliss. It hits hard and the songs twist and turn in just the most fantastic ways. It’s also chock full of that gritty old-school style I love so much.
A-Tier
Panopticon — …And Again Into the Light
I was really lukewarm on this at first, but wow did it grow on me. These songs are almost operatic in an odd way. A real journey.
Esoctrilihum — Dy'th Requiem for the Serpent Telepath
This band is my happy place. Big, evil sounds with cool symphonic elements, rad riffs, and unpredictable song structures that still balance tension and release expertly. Keep crankin’ the albums out! I’ll listen!
Silver Talon — Decadence and Decay
This whips. I’d never heard of this band before, but now I need to dig through their whole back catalog. You tend to either get badass riffs or catchy vocal melodies, but no both. If there are both, they have a tendency to be segmented apart from each other, like what bugged me about the Soen release from earlier in the year. Silver Talon gives you both in spades — and at the same time no less — without it feeling like a clashy mess.
B-Tier
Solstice — Casting the Die
The album cover is bad, but the riffs whip.
Stylistically, they’ve gone back to their early days with the more hardcore shouted style vocals as compared with To Dust’s growls. I liked what they did on that album, but hey — this rocked. If “back to basics” is what you need, then go for it.
Dawn Ray’d — Wild Fire
I mean, look: It’s a single. It’s two songs. Part 1 is great, Part 2 is interesting but not particularly compelling.
Dordeduh — Har
Their songs have a little too much meandering dead time in them for my liking, but there are some moments on here that are just sublime.
VOLA — Witness
I’ve never met a VOLA album I didn’t like. They’re repeating some of their tricks a little too much, but goddamn are they good tricks.
Violet Cold — Pride
Fight the power. And listen to some good music while you do.
Portal — Avow
The first half of this album rules. The second half just sort of peters out.
Almost Dead — Brutal Onslaught
Guitarist Zach Weed is a pal of mine. He wrote some absolute ripper riffs for this record. This is music to smash furniture to.
An Autumn for Crippled Children — As the Morning Dawns We Close Our Eyes
This is music to gaze into the middle distance and ponder the meaning of it all to.
C-Tier
Nadja — Luminous Rot
There are parts of this sludgy record I like, but overall I don’t think I “get” Nadja quite yet. But I’m intrigued. I’ll check out their back catalog.
Ungfell — Es grauet
Neat little folk metal project. I can’t quite put my finger on why I’m lukewarm on it, but I just am.
Vulture — Dealin’ Death
Do you want some kinda bland speed metal worship? Then this is for you!
Look, I admit that I have a soft spot for 80’s thrash metal throwbacks, but this didn’t really do anything for me. The riffs weren’t particularly memorable and didn’t have harsh enough of an edge for my tastes.
Grave Miasma — Abyss of Wrathful Deities
I tend to really love this grimy, old-school, off-kilter style of death metal — such as that S-Tier Yautja record above — and I’ve really enjoyed Grave Miasma in the past, but man… outside of those stylings this was very much a swing-and-a-miss. Just felt creatively spent. I’ll come back for the next one — hope they get some verve back for it.
Nopes — Djörk
I enjoy that Nopes don’t take themselves too seriously with song titles like “Son of Sam’s Club”, but the songwriting leaves a lot to be desired.
D-Tier
King of Asgard — Svartrviðr
This album has been getting a lot of praise and I just don’t get it. It’s not without merit, but I found it tedious to listen to. Every time I listened to this, I would go “Oh boy, I can’t wait until this gets good!” and then it never got good.
I have been a good boy
Tell me I’m a good boy.