This post collects the reviews posted to Instagram for the week. They cover mostly metal, but other genres might be considered. Blog exclusive reviews from other writers are featured, as well.
Scuttlegoat's Curmudgeonly Critiques
Behemoth - Opvs Contra Natvram
Genre: Blackened Death Metal
Label: Nuclear Blast
Release Date: 16-09-2022
Behemoth have exploded into an outright critical darling since 2014's The Satanist. I have never been that fond of the direction Behemoth have taken on that particular album and beyond, though. I wasn't aware of the background of the album at the time and had always felt that people were imposing their knowledge of how it was made on it. I ultimately found the stylistic choices on it to not go far enough, including with unengaging filler sections. It also saw Behemoth shoot for a more subtle production. All of that being fair, but just not what I had wanted out of the band. The rock and alternative elements that had crept into the sound, however, were an interesting idea more than anything else. The influence they had in that regard, inspiring such albums as Blaze of Perdition's lovely The Harrowing of Hearts album, is important and can be felt. But other bands have always done it better.
Opvs Contra Natvram sees the band take a step back into the death metal realm. This could partly be a reaction to the mixed reception of I Loved You at Your Darkest or an attempt to separate Nergal's auteurial obsessions - Me and That Man had exploded since, after all. The rock influences haven't really gone away, however they are not as on the nose anymore and also now interact with some very subtle attempts at more avantgarde ideas. What makes me very happy about this album is that the rhythmic engagement is back - especially the back half had me tapping my foot a lot of the times and certain sections recall the start stop aggression found on albums like Demigod - in my opinion their best work. In comparison to an album like that, Opvs Contra Natvram doesn't quite perform as well, of course. Maybe only because I am very familiar with these ideas and because the more martial sound of the past suited them just a little bit better.
Rating: (high) 6/10
The Mars Volta - s/t
Genre: Latin Pop
Label: Warner / Universal
Release Date: 16-09-2022
The Mars Volta were once an exciting act. Prog had been all but dead in the early 2000s, with the genre mostly having devolved into sad experiments with polyrhythmic grunge and unoriginal throwback efforts. The bands debut record Deloused in the Comatorium felt like a breath of fresh air in many ways. Clearly rooted in the structural and conceptual ideas of the 70s but drawing on the members own specific set of obsessions, they didn't really inspire many imitators. Because the band drew on such specific sounds, they were hard to imitate without seeming like an outright pastiche: Latin music influences, naturally informed by the musicians roots, collide with a heft brought over from their time in At The Drive-In. Sadly, this heft is what this new record is lacking.
The Mars Volta is, when it comes down to it, a latin pop record and no amount of superficial extravagance can really hide this fact. The Mars Volta join the ranks of bands who have made their self-titled effort their most marketable one, which I've always found a frustrating and cynical trend. I am aware that the band has cited the former breakup and hiatus of the band as a reason for wanting a clean slate and to break with all their progressive rock influences for it. I am also aware that this is, in many ways, a personal record and dealing with Bixler-Zavala's families struggle with the abusive practices of the Church of Scientology. It is probably my distaste of the inherent structures of a pop record that makes me so frustrated with this album. Fundamentally, The Mars Volta never transcends the trappings of pop and neither does it seem like doing that is the bands intent. Yet, I can't feel that the band has told similarly personal stories much better in the past - and this is partly thanks to the more extravagant and sprawling elements of their sound that the band has broken with.
Rating: 4/10
Live Burial - Curse of the Forlorn
Genre: Death Metal
Label: Transcending Obscurity
Release Date: 23-09-2022
While Live Burial had started their career with material that is more firmly rooted in death doom, both of their full-lengths had made attempts to be, faster, meaner and more appealing to a death metal fan who isn't as much of a doomer, particularly on 2020's Unending Futility. I still think among those prior releases, the debut EP is probably the strongest and it was that release that was slowest and most sempiternal in sound. Luckily, Curse of the Fornlorn sees the band return to some of those ideas. And even luckier, they do so without turning the whole ordeal into an outright re-hash.
Like many good death doom records, Curse of the Forlorn knows what contrast is. If the slow sections are the goal, it makes sense to play fast also to make those slow sections seem like their most dirge-like. The promo sheet mentions Asphyx in the FFO Section, and I honestly think Asphyx are a much better comparison than the usual death metal points of reference. The lurking riffs never stop marching forward with a similar rotten tempo as we would be used to from big parts of the early Dutch scene. The album sidelines being an outright pastiche with their approach to lead playing, however. The lead guitars conversely remind me the most of finnish acts, not only in composition but in tone. The lead guitar tone has that indescribably Finnish feeling to it, slightly otherworldly and ethereal. Ultimately, I enjoy Curse of the Forlorn much more than I had Unending Futility. Curse sees the band do more of what they are good at and do it better, too. I do think that Live Burial have the potential for hitting the exact right spot for their sound, and this is a good move in that direction.
Rating: 6/10
Metalligatorrr's Additional Album Assesments
Tottal Tømming - Om Hundre År Er Allting Brennt!!!
Genre: Grindcore
Label: Independent
Release Date: 13-09-2022
Variety is the spice of grind. It's the one key thing I look for to get my grind kick. I've lost count of how many times I've put on a deathgrind album only to fall asleep because all the songs sound the same. Well, we've had an embarrassment of riches this year as grindcore seems to dominate 2022. Heavy hitters like Wormrot and Defect Designer make competition tough and there's a surprising variety of decent grind to go around. Let's add Tottal Tømming to that pile. Featuring past and present members from Norwegian band Trollfest, there's a certain sense of humor that carries over to this project. Fortunately, the execution here errs more on the Beaten to Death spectrum rather than a full on parody band. There's a bounce to the material that recalls recited Scandinavian folk tales and that gives this a character of its own.
But make no mistake, there are plenty of riffs to go around. Starting out well, the album introduces the variety on display on the first two heavy tracks before catapulting you across its first half with some quicker cuts. The material on these shorter songs often revolve around a single idea, often based in punky humor and an almost danceable groove. If there's one critique I have here it's that the material veers a bit close to getting uniform in the middle, at around "Et Feil Skritt I Rekti Retning". This is dangerous territory on a 31 minute grind album. But Tottal Tømming smartly avoid getting stuck there by pulling up the volume slightly on their death metal knob past this point. "En Grønn Ælva Schnørr" roars back with that variety while "Gøggeræitryne" picks up the creativity by introducing some black metal leads complete with some dissonance for something that suddenly sounds very modern. But not content with that, this song pulls in some doom riffs before rushing to its end. Despite consisting of longer songs (save one), this back half ramps up the intensity on an already intense album to great effect. "Om Hundre År er Allting Brennt" shows that there's something to the bass playing on this release but sadly the bass seems to be buried on most of the tracks. Nevertheless, the album ends on a high note and has me replaying it straight away. I know there's a lot of grind to go around this year but don't let that stop you from checking these guys out.
Rating: 7/10
Imperial Circus Dead Decadence - 殯――死へ耽る想いは戮辱すら喰らい、彼方の生を愛する為に命を讃える――。
Genre: Brutal Death Metal/Power Metal
Label: FABTON inc
Release Date: 01-06-2022
"Mourning - the thought of indulging in death eats up even the shame, and praises life for the love of life on the other side...", the new album by Imperial Circus Dead Decadence (loosely translated with DeepL) is a lot of things as you might have noticed. The thought of combining death metal, Japanese power metal, anime opening music and classical elements will make a lot of people feel sick on principle (like our dear Goat overlord). But a subset of you might be curious as to how the fuck such a dumb combination sounds. It's all in the execution, as the songs you'll find on Mourning... are all of a propulsive quality that uses extreme contrasts between sentimental sounding sugar rush pop melodies and pig squealing death metal freakouts. Music like this has a very special place in my rotation, along with bands like Fear, and Loathing in Las Vegas, as it's excellent working music when producing art.
Songs like "嚮導BRING+瞳EYES=死DEATH+齎INVITE" soar with poppy choruses and neoclassical riffs. The award for the most impressive feat here goes to the vocalist who sings clean, screams, wails, roars, drops pig squeal bombs and even insanely high falsetto wails. When it works, it works well. But most of the material here has to be heard to be believed (or hated). There's a lot of variety to this music and it's intense in a sensory overload kind of way that makes it divisive. For my part I enjoy the material on here more in the background because the album is quite long. I can sort of understand that the band want to come back strong after years of absence but with material as intense as this, 72 minutes is just too much to ask for most people, me included. While a lot of the material here is 7-tier I'll just add the caveat that the album structure is what drags the score down. Still, this is a band that combines an impressive array of styles to great effect, when it works. Give them a chance.
Rating: 6/10
Wolfheart - King of the North
Genre: Melodic Death Metal
Label: Napalm Records Release Date: 16-09-2022
Tuomas Saukkonen's albums all sound the same. This is both good and not so good depending on the result. At worst it can feel like uninspired material because the man is stretching himself thin. This is what I've always seen the Wolfheart project as, the leftovers from Saukkonens's more successful work. But there's a flip side to being this prolific and that is that you can also grow very fast and get into a flow situation where everything you produce is inspired. This seems to be the case for this guy lately. 2020's Dawn Of Solace album was a decent effort that reminded me a lot of what I consider to be Saukkonen's high watermark - Black Sun Aeon's Darkness Walks Beside Me. What is characteristic for this guy's style, what makes him unique, is a certain emotionality that he brings to his lead riffs. They walk a tightrope between being cheesy and deeply affecting when done with the right touch. That touch, I've found, is how developed the songs are. Enter Wolfheart, the home of Saukkonen's least developed songs.
Until now, that is. What defines King of the North is that the songs are developed so that they take some small turns off the beaten path of the verse - chorus - verse format. This is done just enough that the material makes the guitar playing shine enough to carry the songs. Another point of improvement here is heft. Some of the songs are both written and produced to feel like a ton of bricks are suddenly dropped on you, leading the way for the emotive playing (consider this relative to the genre though, fans of extreme metal won't be impressed). Other spots, like on "Knell" features some piano leads that remind me somewhat of how Barren Earth used them on Curse Of The Red River before echoing this tune with the guitar. "The King" sports an Amorphis influenced folk tune with some clean vocals that sound uncannily like metalcore cleans over actual melodic death metal. On paper that should make me puke but it just works. In fact, there are clean vocals used on a lot of this material but it's mostly not of the nasal variety and they are placed well. I'm in shock that I'm actually enjoying a melodic death metal album after the genre shat the bed this year. While I think a song or two could be cut to make it leaner and meaner, I admit defeat. This is good.
Rating: 7/10