Albums sometimes communicate things to Scuttlegoat before he has even heard them. Sometimes this is done via the promo blurb telling him to be wary. Other times, a combination of album cover, album and track titles will tell him what to expect. While more casual metal listeners often sneer about anything that pushes beyond the 5 minute mark, to Scuttlegoat colossal song lengths might also communicate to seasoned metal listeners like himself that the album at hand is advanced listening or at least making an attempt at being a more profound, distinguished work.
Read moreSuldusk – Anthesis Review
When Emily Highfield released her debut Suldusk album Lunar Falls, Metalligator wasn’t particularly convinced. For its few harsh edges, the folk music did not particularly strike a chord, and the album just flowed by without making much of an impact. But Anthesis? What the folk happened here??
Read moreCaligula’s Horse – Charcoal Grace Review
For Caligula’s Horse, Charcoal Grace is a return to the kind of songwriting that attempts to develop a lot over their runtime of extended-length songs. This band is very adept at their vocal hooks, so it’s no surprise that they lean into the vocals for this newest album. This is NOT a horse of a different color. But it is prog!
Read moreMidnight Odyssey – Biolume III: A Fullmoon Madness Review
The final part of the Biolume trilogy is nigh, and A Fullmoon Madness is a maddeningly exhaustive venture totalling just over two hours. Is this significant length worth your time to soak in the astral laments and cosmic invocations, or is this an ouroboric cycle of exhaustion? Madness would be not reading more before hitting play.
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.
Read moreMournful Congregation – The Exuviae of Gods: Part II Review
For a band like Mournful Congregation, whose material is both epic in scope but meticulously crafted, it might be less exhausting and frankly more realistic to produce two interconnected EP’s. The challenge is that, by connecting the two EP’s thematically, the same has to be done musically. Are The Exuviae of Gods: Part I & II individual stories, or do they form a cohesive whole? Find out in this review…
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