In this post, I collect my instagram reviews for the week for albums released in 2022. All my non-2022 reviews are gathered in a post as soon as a decent number has accumulated. I listen to mostly metal, but I do not limit myself to any genre.
Viande - L'abime dévore les âmes
Genre: Death/Black Metal
Label: Trancending Obscurity
Viande are very easy to sell to me on a blurb. The concoction of death and black, here dubbed "Atmospheric Death Metal" is something I am very much into lately. It is just satisfying to see a band manage to bring atmospherics while not sacrificing aggression or pacing. Right now, Aeviterne made the album to beat for the style in 2022. Viande´s approach is rather different to Aeviterne´s, however, as they settle into a slower pace and textures that are more traditional. Sadly, I feel it doesn´t manage to stick out for these very reasons.
It would be easy to just label Viande Sludge, actually. The pace is always mid-paced to slow, tries to groove a lot and oscillates between riff focused on one end and semi-textural on the other. While some of it does make my foot tap, most of it is just a little too unengaging and if a groove is established, it can rarely keep up. Basically, while the album is very similarly paced throughout it cannot manage to settle into a flow that would make it worthwhile for revisiting. This is heightened by the fact that the album is very drumfoward - they want to groove, clearly - with the guitar and bass tones feeling too thin for what they are trying to achieve.
Rating: 5/10.
Morgue Supplier - Inevitability
Genre: Death Metal / Grindcore
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Bands are pushing for more and more extremes, often into territory that, if we´re being honest, is at least a little silly. Morgue Supplier telegraph that fact through their name. With a name that is just a convoluted way of saying murderer, Morgue Supplier tell us that they don´t fuck around. With a style of Deathgrind so vicious and unrelenting, many people will probably opt out from it rather quickly. And they´re just a two-piece, too - a fact that I did not pick up on at first, as the quality of the drum samples is really good. But after a while, it is pretty obvious that no human would be able to play this - and I like that. If you employ a machine as your drummer, might as well go as hard as possible with it.
Going as hard as possible seems to be the motto, anyway. Morgue Supplier push their style as extreme as they can without outright devolving into noise or War Metal territory. Maybe that is why they felt the need to include the Interlude 'Departure', which goes into atmospheric, distorted cello territory and breaks up the pace. I personally did not need a breather after only 3 real tracks and I do think that the album would have been stronger without it - even if it does tie into the outro, which does employ similar textures. But a single flawed interlude doesn´t make or break an album and the 6 tracks proper we get absolutely annihilate.
Rating: high 7/10
Inhumankind - Self-Deification
Genre: Contemporary Classical / Modern Creative Jazz
Label: I, Voidhanger records
Often, when bands decide to make other genres but with inspiration from Metal, it either ends up being a shallow pastiche, only played on different instruments or it ends up just being the usual fair for the genre, but a little darker. The former holds very little attraction for me, as the material often ends up being undercooked and limited by the different limitations of the chosen instruments and the latter can sometimes be interesting, but is rarely as advertised. INHUMANKIND play a mixture of contemporary classical and jazz. The core lineup only consists of Flute and Double Bass, but is here joined by a piano that adds some of that immediate heft that I associate with metal more than anything else.
INHUMANKIND give me a lot to unpack and my initial impression is being somewhat impressed, but also not quite understanding the whole. A lot of the material reminds of technical metal genres, especially second track 'Godspit', which reminds me of technical death metal or mathcore. The choirs that pop up from time to time seem to emulate doomy guitars and the finale of last track 'Infaust' is somewhat inspired by atmospheric death metal with its spacey textures. However, I can say all of this because the band told me they´re inspired by metal and had I not known, I would have likely just assumed this to be contemporary classical. That doesn´t mean its bad, in fact I think INHUMANKIND are quite good at what they´re doing. But the connection is, maybe, not always obvious.
Rating: 6/10.
Undeath - It's Time...to Rise from the Grave
Genre: Death Metal
Label: Prosthetic Records
The hype train sure was running for Undeath. As so often, I wasn´t quite sure why this band specifically got hyped so much in anticipation of their new album. For what its worth, their Debut 'Lesions of A Different Kind' was one of the strongest Death Metal releases of 2020, with its odd mixture of Cannibal Corpse and Incantation inspired riffs infused with an insane amount of groove. Undeath manage to sound similar on 'It's Time...To Rise from the Grave' without outright copying their debut, which is good. Similarly, they manage to keep their odor of the underground intact, which is always a risk when a band becomes bigger. While Undeath remains good, I don´t think this album is particularly great.
Death Metal, at least for me, will always be rated on somewhat of a gradient. Undeath are competent and groovy, but they don´t offer much more beyond that. In advance of the album, a supposed traditional metal influence has been discussed in some circles, but I don´t find much of it here beyond the amount of groove and swagger undeath bring to it. The rather uniform pace of the album also prevents me from remembering much of it, even if I enjoy it moment to moment. Still, I believe many people will be rather happy with what they´re getting on 'It's Time...To Rise From The Grave', even if it won´t enter my personal general rotation.
Rating: 6/10.
Thou / מזמור - Myopia
Genre: Sludge Metal / Funeral Doom
Label: Gilead Media
One thing that is as cool as it is unique about Roadburn is the special sets, often consisting of special musical pieces specifically composed for the festival. Combine that with the fact that the Festival holds secret shows at the local skatepark, and you get an insanely unique experience. What Thou and מזמור have done here, however, is really next level. 'Myopia' is a collaborative piece specifically written for Roadburn, written in secret and only played at a secret show once - one I couldn´t even have made, since I was on the festival only the day prior. Thou slowly work through their bucket list of the who´s who of low and slow and they seem to want to collaborate with all of them. But making the one single live performance of the piece a secret show at roadburn is a new level of obscure.
'Myopia' is a good piece of music. As so often with Thou, some self-editing and maybe development might have done the piece some good and the involvement of מזמור can only work so much against that. After all, מזמור is one person and could probably only have so much influence because of it. Thou really is the dominant force here and Thou is mainly what you get - harsh, semi-blackened sludge with an unexplainable grunge influence permeating it all. I must say that this is some of the better writing Thou have done, though, and maybe thats where the מזמור influence comes in, after all. While it could have used some trims, it is definetely a potent piece of sludge.
Rating: low 7/10
Comments