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.
Hath - All That Was Promised
Genre: Blackened Death Metal
Label: Willowtip records
Budget Slugdge. That´s what I whenever I think of Hath. Hath ain´t even a bad group, not at all, but I always felt that Slugdge scratched the itch enough and I did not need an inferior clone. 'All That Was Promised' still wears that influence on its sleeve, with the melodic yet highly aggressive trem that still manages to qualify as a riff, unlike many contemporaries. The album is dominated by an enjoyable analogue sound that is warm and pleasant while maintaining enough bite to keep the aggression up. Yet, Hath mainly win me over with their atmosphere as I can barely remember any riffs or standout moments from it - memorability remains one of the biggest struggles even for talented bands.
At the end of the day, I can´t quite change the feeling that Hath wears its influences on its sleeve a little too much. Some parts tend to sound like variations on material that could be found on mid-period Slugdge material, albeit always less progressive and always a little more blackened than you would find. However, I do not mind this familiarity at this point in time. Maybe I perceive the similarities as less of an issue as the last Slugdge album was quite a while ago ('Of Rot and Ruin' had released a little too closely to 'Esoteric Malacology' in my book) and I crave that specific style that few bands do well nowdays. Hath does the style well and they do just enough to not be a complete rip-off of the Mollusc-worshipping brits. In a weak year, that is more than enough.
Rating: 7/10
Crowbar - Zero and Below
Genre: Sludge Metal
Label: MNRK Records LP
I have a coworker that was active in the 90s german hardcore scene which I got to talk to about sludge metal the other day. Regarding crowbar he said "Its all heavy and stuff, but also always kinda sad if you think about it". Yes, yes it is. I always felt a lot of the heavyness of Crowbar was in service of a certain kind of suffering, a sadness - saudade, if you will. The sysiphean album cover to 'Obedience thru Sufferring' (1991) really said it all. Crowbar always stood out for that reason, not as angry, but heavy nonetheless. As with every band that exists for so long, their glory days lay mostly in the past and they settled into a specific type of groove in their late period, mostly sticking to what they know.
Luckily, "Sticking to what you know" doesn´t mean half-assing it in this case. Crowbar still put the work in to make a good album. In particular, I think they did a good job with peppering little nuggets of variety throughout the album, like the sudden uptempo attack in 'Reanimating a Lie', the strangely atmospheric vocal harmonies in 'Denial of the Truth' or the wrestling into-music energy of 'It´s always worth the Gain'. Furthermore, I applaud Crowbar for not delivering an overlong mess, as the album sits at a very comfortable spot with its 42 minute runtime. I´ll take this album over the overlong, once-every-two-years type releases by other big acts.
Rating: 6/10
Vein.fm - The World is Going To Ruin You
Genre: Metalcore / Hardcore / Nu Metal
Label: Closed Casket Activities
Year: 2022
You´re probably going to look at the genre tag and think to yourself "He´s going to rate this one badly" and just not read this review. However, I am actually quite fond of Vein´s 2018 release "Errorzone" that managed to be wild and unpredictable in a genre where that is rarely the case. However, that was Vein, and this new band is called Vein.fm. Why the band felt the need to change their name, I don´t know; I am not aware that there are any legal reasons for it or that the band broke up in any way. This made me worries from the start - was this the band signaling that they were not the same anymore or, even worse, had "matured"?
"Matured" in a reviewers context rarely means anything good. Most of the time, it is barely more than an euphemism to hide the fact that the band has thoroughly sold out, sanded off the edges and lost what made them special in the first place - a euphenism enabling the writer to still write a good review. Sadly, Vein.fm seem to fall into this group. It starts out pretty alright, in fact, with aggressive chaotic breakdowns and functional, if highly compressed, sampling and guitars. As the album progresses, however, Vein.fm insert more and more elements into their style that are good for search engine optimisation (Geoff Rickly´s inclusion, surely) but not to keep the crowd moshing itself into oblivion. Vein.fm might appeal more to the pop metalcore fan, while Vein was quite capable to be digestible even by an extreme metal enjoyer like me.
Rating: 4/10.
Kostnatění - Oheň hoří tam, kde padl
Genre: Black Metal / Blackened Death Metal
Label: Mystískaos
Since the description of 'Oheň hoří tam, kde padl' mentions that each song is based on a turkish song of anonymous origin, I had assumed that Kostnatění was a turkish band. I was surpised to find that this band was american. Sure, its not rare that american musicians look for inspiration in the ethnic sounds of elsewhere, and especially superficial orientalism is quite popular everywhere in the metal scene (those phrygian seconds just sound so darn evil). But it is rare that something feels as authentic as 'Oheň hoří tam, kde padl' and it seems to me like artist D.L. took some effort to study the sound he was imitating, which is all that is necessary.
'Oheň hoří tam, kde padl' reminds me of the anatolian rock genre and what 'Kostnatění' bring to the table feels very unique for that very reason. Sure, everyone can look up a couple scales online and play some vaguely turkish sounding music, but something about the guitar tone and especially how the melodies are harmonised reminds me a lot of the music that is often blaring from a TV in the back of your local Kebap shop. The guitar tone aids 'Oheň hoří tam, kde padl' in this as well, as I feel the overtones in the guitars are very reminiscent of the anatolian string sound. Overall, this makes 'Oheň hoří tam, kde padl' a highly enjoyable little EP.
Rating: 7/10
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