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
7 H. Target - Yantra Creating
Genre: Psychedelic / Experimental Brutal Death Metal
Label: Willowtip Records
Release Date: 24-02-2023
It seems that it is a rite of passage for Tech Death acts to at some point play up the transcendental nature of their music. This usually manifests either as a buddhist influence or more general Indian mysticism. Meshuggah has done it, bands like Sutrah do it and Goratory has even parodied this trend in a particularly testicular manner. Very rarely do bands actually transcend anything, though. Pure technicality is not psychedelia and neither does it really push a genre that is already focused on instrumental virtuosity anywhere. 7 H. Target, Russian Slam weirdos, have now also committed to the trope. Luckily, they maintain their original weirdness.
The band had always had an experimental notion and has done many things that other Brutal Death Metal acts would never have done. The songs often take surprising turns and even the more straightforward Slam parts are often bizarre in indescribable ways. In the past, the production had always hindered their efforts with the drums being too loud and the mix in general being too messy. I understand that the Tetsuo: The Iron Man image informed a certain mechanistic style in the production. Now that Tetsuo is out and Indian mysticism is in, a more organic approach has taken its place. Songs like "Shiva Yajur Mantra", complete with female clean vocals in what I believe is Hindi over skronky, dissonant Slam, couldn't have been made by a different band. An ever expanding toolbox, like reverby, proggy leads and synthwork, round out the sound of a band that has always been ahead of the pack - and that now also have the production they deserve.
Rating: 7/10
The Human Race Is Filth - Cognitive Dissonance
Genre: Deathgrind / Beatdown / Metallic Hardcore
Label: Independent
Release Date: 10-03-2023
The Human Race Is Filth might have missed their window for fame by a few years. A couple years ago, the style of hardcore inspired Deathgrind they are playing was quite en vogue, with bands like Nails topping lots of year end lists. I am partial to some straightforward brutish barbarity, but there ultimately is not much you can do to the style. The strategy of being just meaner, faster and going harder is just nothing you can bank on consistently as a band. The Human Race Is Filth add a noise track to the mix that makes some of the material seem harsher and maybe a smidge more abstract than this style usually goes. I appreciate having something to listen to in an album like this and some of the noisy detail is quite pleasing, even if many other acts have done this kinda thing better and have been more committed about it.
Otherwise, the band is pretty honest about what they are and what they are trying to do. The D-Beat and Hardcore influences are front and center and the backbone of their sound. When it works, it does work and the groove does have a physical effect on me. Unfortunately, it is really only during one or two sections on the album where this happens. It is mostly an issue of writing and, again, oversaturation of a style. We have heard this kinda thing quite a lot, especially since Nails exploded in popularity, and everything unique that the band does they do not commit enough to. If the noise influences were more distinctly developed, it would seem like the band cared more about them beyond simply including them. There could more to this album than what we got. As it stands, it might be decent gym fodder for a while but will probably not enter the general rotation of many.
Rating: 5/10
Metalligatorrr's Chomping Commentaries
Host - IX
Genre: Goth / Synth-Pop / Alternative Rock
Label: Nuclear Blast
Release Date: 24-2-2023
I never understood why Host was such a hated Paradise Lost album. It came on the heels of One Second, an album where the band went into a kind of Goth/Alternative Metal mode that was already much softer than the Metallica inspired Doom of Draconian Times. Host jumped fearlessly into catchy Synth-Pop and somehow managed to keep Paradise Lost's sound intact, yet it was probably before every other metalhead had discovered Depeche Mode so it probably was a shock. But finally, people are starting to see Host for what it is: a competently crafted Synth-Pop album with a depressive edge that has some severely effective hooks. With this album's revival in image, main men Nick Holmes and Gregor Mackintosh understandably thought that now was the time to revisit the ideas behind the 1999 album, in a spin off project with the same name. Mackintosh has stated that this is not a repeat of Host, but rather an attempt to start from the same ideas and work through a more modern lens. Does it work?
The answer is not as simple as one might think. Nick Holmes is still in top form and imbues IX with much of the same vocal hooks that Host had. The music occasionally follows suit but it is clear that Mackintosh does not want to completely repeat the namesake album and so IX turns the volume up on the Rock aspect of the formula. Yet it comes off as a more subtle album that does not keep the tempo up with the same kind of barrage of hooks. Therein lies my main problem with IX: it is torn between what made Host a success and the writing style of Paradise Lost's ordinary albums, neither experimenting enough to stand out nor fully delivering on the catchy momentum of the original. The songs all have their good aspects, the production and tools are more modern with all the polish that entails and Holmes' vocals are as powerful as ever. I want to hear this kind of things from these guys, but in the end IX never grows past the long shadow cast by previous works from these talented artists.
Rating: (high) 5/10
Ulthar - Anthronomicon
Genre: Blackened Death Metal
Label: 20 Buck Spin
Release Date: 17-02-2023
Ulthar embraces chaos in their songwriting, which can manifest as a sound that's creatively unhinged or a sound that's flailing without direction—sometimes all at once. This certainly held true for Helionomicon, the sister album to Anthronomicon that you can read my thoughts about here. Anthronomicon follows the same path, only in shorter segments. Of particular interest for these separate works is that they are written 50/50 by band members Steve Peacock and Shelby Lermo. The feeling of the music being directionless covers this entire album as well but the "creatively unhinged" part of the albums seems reserved for the latter four of its eight tracks, making me wonder if the album is split down the middle between the two writers as Helionomicon was. I digress, but whereas sophomore album Providence felt more carefully written to provide variety and focus, Anthronomicon and Helionomicon follow an "anything goes" kind of approach that does not sit well with me.
What you will get out of Anthronomicon hangs on that question of what you appreciate about Ulthar as a fan (newcomers might want to start with Providence). If you are simply drawn to the chaotic sound itself, this is par for the course and there might be something to excavate in it after all. There are a lot of interesting riffs and whiplash swerves into brutal moments scattered across the album. The first half of the songs feature some bending melody in the background that sounds almost Sea Shanty-like in their rhythm (just listen to the opening moments of "Cephalophore" for this). Meanwhile the second half flies of the rails immediately as "Astranumeral Octave Chants" enters the fray and reflects what I think this album should have focused on: balls to the wall chaotic intensity. From the lurching riffs in "Coagulation of Forms" to the split-second-from-going-off-the-rails riffs in "Larynx Plateau", there is just a Death Metal intensity to the back half of Anthronomicon that flows better in its execution. And that is a shame, because when Ulthar are violently thrashing in the right direction they are deadly.
Rating: 6/10
Cosmo's Chaotic Curveballs
Ignominy - Imminent Collapse
Genre: Dissonant Death Metal
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Release: 10-03-23
If ever there was a genre of music that has significantly bloated in size over the last half decade, it is without a doubt Dissonant Death Metal. So many bands aiming to follow in the wake of hallowed greats like Pyrrhon, Ulcerate, Ad Nauseam, and Gorguts (among many others) have instead put forth fairly mediocre albums. Ignominy, a fairly new band from Quebec, has a challenge to overcome with the release of their debut album Imminent Collapse. Is this an album that stands out among the mediocrity, or is it one to fall beneath the waves?
Right off the bat, Ignominy starts the album with generic power chords that sound quite similar to what I heard last year on Dysgnostic. Unlike those Danes, these Canadians do not provide a sense of staying power. You can tell that this is indeed a Dissonant Death Metal band, but it's a genre that is rapidly becoming stale. The first major issue is that this band writes formulaic songs that lack memorability, and as a result the opening trio of songs are quite bland. Another point that does not help Ignominy’s case is the fact there are two instrumental interludes on a rather short (34 minute long) album. These are quite unnecessary and would be a boon if cut entirely. However, it does help that, unlike Mithridatum, from earlier in the year, Ignominy does not play with dissonance for the sake of playing with dissonance. To elaborate, the songs, while for the most part uninspired, have a sense of identity as songs. That's not to say the entire album is lifeless; on the contrary, the final proper songs ("Visceral" and "Visuals") are the two most interesting songs on the album.
"Visceral" has tasteful drum fills in addition to collaborating to the overall chaotic feel of the album, whereas "Visuals" is most indicative of the album title: a feeling of imminent collapse that ebbs and flows before screeching to a halt, ending the album. Imminent Collapse is through-and-through a Dissonant Death Metal album, but does not provide a strong sense of identity that makes me want to return to it in the future. In the next half-decade, it's going to be tough creating a valid reason why "x up and coming band" should be the ones to look to for new innovation rather than the olde and current purveyors of the sound. Hopefully Ignominy will innovate more on their sophomore attempt.
Rating: 5/10