Metal Reviews

pretty good song Goat, never heard it before.

One of the more melodic Slipknot numbers of late. I never loved Slipknot but aside from the odd boring song they never wholly made me hate them, either. Corey T blowing his voice and having to resort to the cleaner stuff is a solid argument in favour of embracing the extreme metal underground, of course - never get the likes of Martin van Drunen doing that!

In terms of bands that would never get onto M-A, had these guys pop back onto my playlist the other day. Missed the hype originally but quite good. Slightly random song choice but still need to delve deep into their more recent stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9GTEsNf_GU

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Cheers! Funny how that album is overlooked when discussing the LB, everyone talks about the huge commercial albums or their crappy recent stuff rather than the oddball ''what if we tried to be Rage Against the Machine" album they put out between.)

Yeah like you I'm neutral on Slipknot.

Thrice song is pleasant. Not buying the post-hardcore tag at based on this song, but then wiki is sometimes way off. So I listened to some of their earlier material from Artist and Ambulance: a bit harder sounding, very good instrumentals, singing is an acquired taste. Another band with the ever amorphous post-hardcore tag https://youtu.be/jHW7Qwr5d7k

Ah! Aware of these guys but never delved deep (perhaps because the name is a bit hard to remember?) Cheers for the reminder, I like the drumming especially.

Quite a few of these awkward post-hardcore rock bands around. Reminded oddly of these guys, who have gotten far more commercial as of late but were quite strange and new originally: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F28QD4eX1Sk

Rollo is normally much heavier, especially on their earlier albums. Majorly appreciate their unpredictable, varied songwriting. Speaking of band names, Biffy Clyro is a band I always ignored thanks to their name, but I clearly was missing out, at least on their earlier material which I will have to investigate further. Very fresh sounding instrumentals with cool twists and turns.

Another fails the puritanical metal-archives test which I've been listening to heavily.https://youtu.be/C0Bc4pkSGfU

Ah, heard the name and assumed it was some djent nonsense. Which it kinda is, but not in a bad way? I like the way they've styled it towards a more progressive take, and like their melodicism a lot. Solid pick, I think definitely to join my playlist soon.

Speaking of MA rejects, I think these guys are on there but they've definitely moved away from metal as of late, curious as to your take on this recent track... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKmaG5f9Zsg

Yeah I thought Cortortionist was djent nonsense too: have to thank some clever listeners in Code Orange discord for convincing me to get over djent bias and try Cortortionist fairly. Actually their first album is more deathcore than anything else but obviously they left that behind. They've really got a gift for melody that rises them above the crowd.

Ah, Ihsahn's backing band, aka Leprous. Didn't know they had a new album. Bilateral is one of my favorite neoprog albums but I had lost interest in them of late. This is...interesting. Not entirely wank which I appreciate: and reserving wank for the cello gets a pass. I like this more than recent Ihsahn, will have to give new album a fair shot.
This band somehow got into MA despite the post-hardcore tag. https://youtu.be/af_wt0ZVP5g

Interesting! Can hear the metal side to them but they're not exactly your usual M-A fodder. Hadnt heard of them before but will have to research further. I like the video art style too, done by the same guy who did recent Borknagar and Enslaved singles too I assume...

These are currently on my possibly review list, not sure how good post-metal stuff is sometimes, but they caught my ear at least: https://youtu.be/3txkDRp0DpQ

Oh wow, 13 minutes of instrumental post-metal? What did I do to deserve this? Plenty of good parts, like around 2:30 and 5 and 7 minutes, though I'm not sure the track needs to go past 9 as nothing really happens after that point. I will counter with another Cleveland hardcore band like Integrity that MA has deemed worthy of induction. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osHB9gAdP2k

Ha, I apologise, that was harsh in retrospect...

Cursing me with Ringworm, though! I've never quite got into them in the same way I accepted the charm of eg Madball, but then Ringworm don't have the streets charm of some of the hardcore punk mainstays. Allow me to slip sideways into lady grindcore's welcoming embrace...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Qt4UwwbIZs

I'll never understand MA's rules: the guitar complexity on this=metal? But Converge will never get in Anyway I appreciate the track length and it is a fun blast of aggression. Staying on the borders of metal, thoughts on this track and style which seems to be pretty popular now?https://youtu.be/miT0-qrdB3I

Who knows, it's all seemingly random!

I dig this, the glitchy tech-y chaos-core vibe is good right now and there are a few bands that seem to be doing this. Another example who have been on the back of my mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNJVbd24vmI

Glad you liked. That Frontierer album is a slog for me to get through entirely, but the choice tracks are a lot of fun.
I've listened to that Pupil Slicer album more than a few times as the band occasionally posts in the Code discord and I found out about them that way. I struggle with the more chaotic and shorter tracks towards the front of Mirrors but you linked a track I very much like towards the back: album closer Collective Unconscious was my top play on spotify a few months ago.

I don't think this band came up when the new Deftones was released so I'll post them. https://youtu.be/XlOs0kXVJfQ

Interesting, hadn't heard of these guys and enjoy their Deftones + post-metal vibe vibe, definitely be checking out that album. For a sideways shift altogether (because I can't think of any bands quite like that, sue me!) here's a recent track by a big name that's a way better and more creative take on their sound than they're given credit for...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wks1aBh49sQ

Nice. Are people still largely anti-CoF? Dusk and Her Embrace and Hammer of the Witches are two cornerstones of their subgenre released 20 years apart, pretty hard for gimmick bands to pull that off. Dani Filth still isn't my favorite vocalist but the strong melodic sensibility in their songwriting is present here again. I don't dislike Dimmu either, but CoF>>>Dimmu every day.

Switching directions again and going back in time a bit but just came across this album thanks to the Mithras connection.
https://youtu.be/z-o1hP5C02k

Sarpanitum! Not thought about these guys in quite a while, be nice if they'd do something else. Be nice if they had a better production, too, but what can we do. Definitely re-adding them to my playlist, anyway, not listened to them in a long while. Good pick!

Apologies if these guys have been brought up before, but they do have a similar blunt heaviness as well as trying to achieve something beyond: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfI78Cb6BEw

Love the slowed down section in the Gigan track around 3:00, made the track for me. Just had a thought for a possible new direction now that we are posting bands in metal-archives again: favorite riffs (from non big names) in general? This one at 0:40 quickly came to mind. https://youtu.be/yCNgLchC7UA

That's a good shout for a topic... and of course my mind goes blank when called to produce an example! These guys, though, if not from the same genre as Aosoth are just as underrated and produce an almighty racket full of great riffs like the one that kicks this monster off and drives it throughout (and that bass tone!). When the genre really does live up to the band's actual sound!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8bhxj1Z8kQ

Oh this was the Rex Brown album! I have to sit down and listen to one of their albums the whole through instead of just random tracks. Great main riff as hoped for. Here's one from a band whose vocalist has been at the center of quality metal in his country for over 30 years. https://youtu.be/luYQItUiOMw