Our This Week in Metal post collects our thoughts on music released in or around this week in the music world. We cover mostly metal, but we consider other genres to allow our writers poseur flexibility. Follow us on Instagram too!
Metalligator's Chomping Commentary
We're lucky to have Norway's Madder Mortem, as they embody the word progressive to a fault, never doing the same thing between any of their albums. You can always recognize a Madder Mortem song, yet not point to a stale formula in its construction. This is the mark of a band that writes progressively rather than chasing trends. Be the change you want to see!
Scuttlegoat's Curmudgeonly Critiques
It riffs. The amount of times an album has been explained to me with just these two words is staggering. The quality of “having riffs” is enough for many a metalhead, thrashers in particular, to fall in love with an album. That said, Dissimulator riffs. But is that all?
There is nothing wrong with deathcore per se, but many reviewers cannot help but be frustrated at how often it gets packaged as something else to broaden its marketability. Spiritual Deception operate under the guise of being a progressive or even technical death metal band, but it might take a bit more than that to trick our Goat.
Cosmo's Chaotic Curveballs
Sparagmos is the Dionysian rite of tearing something asunder, be it animal or sometimes human, followed up by the consumption of the flesh. It’s fitting that Spectral Voice, the thicker, meaner counterpart to Blood Incantation, return after seven years with their sophomore full-length designed to tear you apart and leave you a mangled corpse. Pick yourself up love, it's really not that bad.
I wasn't too impressed with Vitriol's debut full length in 2019, as it lacked memorable songwriting, and the production sounded off. The glow-up this band has had in the nearly five years since has been immense, as the sophomore album not only defies the dreaded sophomore slump, but kicks it to the ground, punches it in the face, and kicks it a couple more times for good measure. Suffer & Read This Review & Become.
Drowned play a blend of primarily death metal mixed with some doom metal elements that wouldn't sound out of place on a Spectral Voice or a Mortiferum album. But how does this all come together? Semi-drowned?
