Our Metalligator says Coronet Juniper is about to punch you in the face. While our Alice says that Coronet Juniper comes out the gates swinging with songs that stand shoulder to shoulder with Longhena’s best. This was never going to be a normal review for our Gridlink hopeful writers, so feast on two different takes of Gridlink’s latest. You’ll be drunk on Grind in no time!
Read moreSoen – Memorial Review
Soen’s inspirations always seemed clear to our Metalligator. Tool laid the base for their debut and Opeth’s best ex-drummer, Martin Lopez, has been a member from the start. 2019’s Lotus, however, revealed itself as a watershed moment, Soen sounding more confident than ever… To kill a mocking croc…
Read moreMassen – Gentle Brutality Review
A hazard of venturing into deeper waters of dissonance and the more extreme ends of Metal is that these genres have a hard time impressing on that end as they have to balance melody and heaviness. Despite this I still enjoy melody, groove and selectively catchy material but drift away from things that mix in overt aspects of Pop melody. Bands like Massen are instantly fighting an uphill battle for my interest, then. But impressively, this Belarus duo bring some serious skill to the format. Massenive skill.
Read moreGrand Cadaver – Deities of Deathlike Sleep Review
For all the talented people involved in Grand Cadaver (featuring members from Dark Tranquility and Katatonia, among other bands), their mission statement is simple: to write Death Metal songs that are conceived spontaneously and quickly, letting their passion for the music guide the way. Grand Cadaver are anything but sleepy.
Read moreMizmor – Prosaic Review
A.L.N has until now built a fascinating tool-set of sounds with his Blackened Doom Drone project Mizmor. Albums like Cairn and Yodh stand out as unique for their ability to mix genres that one could think should be at odds with each other. Though the loss of faith has fueled these journeys, should we still place our faith in Mizmor?
Read moreThe Night Eternal – Fatale Review
Finding good Heavy Metal amongst the modern output is hard. In the most classic genres of Metal it is harder to hide behind novelty, thus tight songwriting and performances matter become more important. The Night Eternal seem to know this as they write very melodic songs with a slight Gothic bend. Nothing new really, but does Metalligatorrr find any Fatale flaws?
Read moreTongues – Formløse Stjerner Review
Tongues hits many taste centers with uncanny precision. From salty waves of Doom riffs echoing on the back half to spicy Death Metal outbursts to the sour and dramatic tremolo riffs of Black Metal… Tongues has licks. Taste the black metal.
Read moreHorrendous – Ontological Mysterium Review
Rather than being a clear evolution, Ontological Mysterium comes off as a gross mutation. The album cover preemptively states this as the three skinless faces of Horrendous’ logo have merged into something altogether darker. Red is the new black.
Read moreKing Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard – PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation Review
At times this album sounds like what White Zombie or Ministry might have produced had they tried to make a modern Heavy Metal album. Apocalyptic? The title is, at least.
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