| 2022 |
| David Maxim Micic BILO IV | 4.0 |
| Nickelback Get Rollin' | 1.5 |
| Jared Dines the grey | 3.0 |
| Some cool stuff here. Disappointed that the first half is almost purely deathcore though. Insidious Majesty would be a highlight if a Jared was a better singer, it's a super interesting vibe. And then the rest of the album after that is also lot more melodic and experimental. Surprisingly I feel like this could get better with more listens, which is not something I'd expect to say from a Jared Dines album. |
| Chelsea Grin Suffer In Hell | 3.0 |
| Dayseeker Dark Sun | 3.5 |
| Fit for a King The Hell We Create | 2.5 |
| The Mid We Create amirite. As usual with Fit For A King (except for The Path) this does nothing either well or badly. It's mid.r |
| Architects The Classic Symptoms of a Broken Spirit | 2.5 |
| We Came As Romans Darkbloom | 2.5 |
| Nothing More Spirits | 3.0 |
| Lorna Shore Pain Remains | 3.5 |
| Alter Bridge Pawns and Kings | 3.5 |
| Lamb of God Omens | 3.0 |
| Slipknot The End, So Far | 3.0 |
| Novelists Déjà Vu | 3.0 |
| Eternal Closure At The Center of it All - Chapter I | 4.0 |
| Electric Callboy TEKKNO | 3.0 |
| The Devil Wears Prada Color Decay | 3.0 |
| Destrage So much. Too much. | 3.5 |
| Parkway Drive Darker Still | 2.0 |
| Muse Will of the People | 3.0 |
| I Prevail TRUE POWER | 3.5 |
As good as one might reasonably expect from a band like I Prevail. Decently creative for
something in this genre of music and has the perfect balance of catchy and heavy, a balance
they struggled with on Trauma. Also the guitar work is a lot more involved now, with a lot
more guitar leads and harmonies throughout. All in all a very well done album, though some
songs are a bit awkward and could definitely have been trimmed. |
| Unprocessed Gold | 2.5 |
| In Disarray Trauma | 2.5 |
| Arch Enemy Deceivers | 3.5 |
| Chaosbay 2222 | 3.5 |
| Anberlin Silverline | 4.0 |
Slightly disappointed that the EP doesn't have more bangers like Two Graves or Circles. The
other 3 songs are more in the style of what was found on Lowborn. The difference is that
these are actually all really excellent compared to Lowborn which was massively disappointing
as the band's swan song, so that softens the blow quite a bit. |
| Coheed and Cambria Vaxis II: A Window of the Waking Mind | 3.0 |
| Alexisonfire Otherness | 3.5 |
| Porcupine Tree Closure/Continuation | 4.0 |
| Spiritbox Rotoscope | 3.5 |
| Dir En Grey Phalaris | 3.5 |
| Motionless in White Scoring the End of the World | 3.0 |
| Why the hell is this rated so high. The singles are ok but there's no way this doesn't drop below 3.5. Also Timebomb is like their best song and it's not even on here. |
| Bleed from Within Shrine | 3.0 |
| As usual with Bleed From Within, the riffs are intricate and the writing is rock solid. However, it's again brought down by being so mid-tempo and repetitive, especially in the second half of the album. Most songs feel almost identical from afar. Highlights are: Flesh and Stone has a dark symphonic atmosphere along with blast beats which isn't what this band is known for. Stand Down is an absolute banger that feels similar to something from Brainwashed-era While She Sleeps. Paradise ends the album on a particularly heavy and oppressive note with a massive and creative breakdown. |
| Thornhill Heroine | 3.0 |
| Red Handed Denial I'd Rather Be Asleep | 3.0 |
Feels a bit more formulaic now. And there is not a lot of songwriting going on. The verses
and chorus often feel disconnected, the worst offender being Cloud 9. Still a few fun ideas
and Lauren Babic rarely disappoints vocally, even though her vocal lines aren't as inspired
as they used to be. I do appreciate the toned down heaviness and a bit of a return for the
Protest The Hero influences. |
| Memphis May Fire Remade in Misery | 3.5 |
| Not exactly an artistic statement or remotely emotionally affecting. It's due to a blend of it being overproduced and (funnily enough) how expertly crafted the songs are. The hooks and riffs all hit, despite it feeling so "fake". |
| Simple Plan Harder Than It Looks | 2.5 |
| Ibaraki Rashomon | 3.5 |
| Northlane Obsidian | 3.0 |
| Monuments (UK) In Stasis | 3.5 |
| Dynazty Final Advent | 3.0 |
| TesseracT Regrowth | 3.5 |
| Meshuggah Immutable | 2.5 |
| Animals As Leaders Parrhesia | 4.0 |
| This is Animals as Leaders in the most technical and heavy side of their sound. Those who loved the more jazzy approach the last two albums took will probably be disappointed. There are no Brain Dances here.rBut holy sh*t personally I found this to be a lot of fun. |
| ERRA ERRA (Deluxe) | 3.5 |
| Shaman's Harvest Rebelator | 2.5 |
| Some catchy moments but man those vocals suuuuck. The amount of obvious pitch correction is insane. |
| Wolves at the Gate Eulogies | 2.5 |
| Lol Kiss the Wave is literally a While She Sleeps song. But overall this is just a bore. Vocalist is great as always but he can only do so much. Lowborn is the best new song they have and it's not even on here. |
| Bad Omens The Death of Peace of Mind | 3.0 |
| Fall of Stasis The Chronophagist | 3.5 |
| The more folky stuff is not exactly the kind of stuff I listen to and sometimes the writing on the longer songs lacks a bit of a clear structure. But other than that, the blend of influences is top tier and the vocals work really well. Highlights: The Cult is a perfectly executed banger, Baron has the best melodies on the whole album and the title track is far and away the most interesting and well constructed song on here. Overall, I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would. |
| Allegaeon Damnum | 3.5 |
| Bloodywood Rakshak | 3.0 |
| This is pretty fun in parts but past the initial gimmick it doesn't do much for me. The formula gets really repetitive. Aaj is probably the best thing on this, dat flute solo tho. |
| Persefone Metanoia | 2.5 |
| Skillet Dominion | 2.5 |
| Shadow Of Intent Elegy | 3.5 |
| Shadow of Intent continue their path further away from Deathcore, leaning more and more on the melodeath/prog side of things. Singles are not the best tracks on this and don't quite represent the album's vibe correctly. Some tracks feel filler-ish and the songwriting sometimes uninspired, but overall there is some still some strong material on this. The opener and closing three tracks are top tier metal by any standard. |
| 2021 |
| Imminence Heaven in Hiding | 3.0 |
| Sion (USA) Sion | 3.0 |
| Some fun tracks but overall it's generic stuff carried by Howard's vocals big time. |
| Resolve Between Me and the Machine | 4.0 |
| About as good as modern poppy Metalcore can get. Lots of creativity and really fun production choices. DGGRS and the title track are clear highlights but not a lot of this is filler either.rBeau travail! |
| ten56. Downer Part 1 | 2.5 |
| Some cool ideas and vocals I guess but I'm so tired of the whole idea behind some bands being "we tune in triple drop F and make weird noises". It's such an easy and cheap way of making something "heavy". |
| Crystal Throne Crystal Throne | 3.0 |
| C'est nul y'a pas de feeling |
| Thank You Scientist Plague Accommodations | 3.0 |
| Volumes Happier? | 3.5 |
| Silent Planet Iridescent | 3.5 |
| Bullet for My Valentine Bullet For My Valentine | 2.5 |
| When all is said and done this is relatively mediocre. But just for the novelty of BFMV being heavy again, this is cool enough. It's just so basic for the most part. Also the singing and production definitely suck ass. |
| Limp Bizkit Still Sucks | 3.0 |
| Bad Wolves Dear Monsters | 2.5 |
Not terrible but the creativity, heaviness and
potential shown on the debut is all but gone.On
the Case is the only track that still has traces
of that. Lifeline and House of Cards are pretty
good and I like the new vocalist. |
| Attack Attack! Long Time, No Sea | 2.5 |
| Whitechapel Kin | 3.5 |
| Imagine thinking this is on the same level as FFDP. |
| Dream Theater A View from the Top of the World | 4.0 |
He was pretty good on Distance Over Time, but for the first time in the Mangini era he's
actually a highlight. The ways in which he orchestrates these drum parts adds so much to
these tracks, it's really really cool. Seems like he has finally found his place in the band
after all this time. Also helps that this is the best drum sound he's had since joining. |
| Coldplay Music of the Spheres | 2.5 |
| The Agonist Days Before The World Wept | 3.0 |
| Ice Nine Kills The Silver Scream 2: Welcome to Horrorwood | 3.5 |
| Twelve Foot Ninja Vengeance | 3.5 |
| Trivium In the Court of the Dragon | 4.0 |
| Asking Alexandria See What's On the Inside | 3.0 |
Alone Again is a pretty decent starter to the
album. Overall it's a step up from the last album
for sure but it's mostly just a softer version of
Hail to The King era Avenged Sevenfold. It's
enjoyable enough. |
| Wage War Manic | 3.0 |
| Sleep Token This Place Will Become Your Tomb | 3.0 |
| Rivers of Nihil The Work | 3.0 |
| Daughtry Dearly Beloved | 3.5 |
| Spiritbox Eternal Blue | 4.0 |
| Seven Spires Gods Of Debauchery | 3.5 |
| Jinjer Wallflowers | 3.0 |
| Phinehas The Fire Itself | 3.5 |
| Leprous Aphelion | 4.0 |
| Between the Buried and Me Colors II | 4.0 |
| Lorna Shore ...And I Return to Nothingness | 3.5 |
| Middle track is pretty meh and the breakdown feels extremely forced. First and last track are top notch though. To the Hellfire is almost scarily heavy to a grotesque level which is kinda obnoxious but also super memorable and a lot of fun. Title track is a nice change of pace with its lack of breakdowns and almost melodic vocals in the chorus. So yeah 2 killers, 1 filler. |
| Billie Eilish Happier Than Ever | 3.0 |
| Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! Gone Are The Good Days | 3.0 |
| Attila Closure | 1.5 |
| August Burns Red/Fit For A King Guardians of the Path | 2.5 |
Don't get the hype for this at all. Jake sounds awesome on God of Fire but other than that
the other 3 songs are substantially worse than their original version. |
| Times of Grace Songs of Loss and Separation | 3.5 |
| Nothing here comes even close to touching The End of Eternity and it's not for a lack of trying to emulate that sound.rMend You is really really good though. |
| Born of Osiris Angel or Alien | 2.5 |
| Booooooooooooooooooorrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing |
| Beartooth Below | 3.0 |
| Interloper Search Party | 3.5 |
| Atreyu Baptize | 3.0 |
| Damn most songs on this are under 3 minutes. How do you expect to explore any interesting song structure or build to climaxes properly. Superhero (on the last album) was a tad long and cheesy but at least it tried to be something bigger.rIt's a shame though because this has the energy this band has been lacking for a while. Some songs are way heavier than I expected and it's decent for what it is for the most part. "Underrated" and "Weed" kinda fuck not gonna lie. Also the screams from bassist Marc McKnight have always been better than those from Alex Varkatzas so there's definitely an upgrade there.rMain issue outside of song length (although probably related) is the disconnect between the verses and choruses, feels really off on songs like "Catastrophe" and "Save Us". Also second half of the album is noticeably weaker ("Warrior" is a shockingly bad closer outside its percussive bridge). |
| Black Veil Brides The Phantom Tomorrow | 3.0 |
The Wicked One has probably my favorite chorus
from them. Other highlights include Shadows Rise,
Fields of Bone and Crimson Skies. As usual with
the recent BVB stuff I wish the pace was a bit
quicker at times. It would add variety to what is
mostly a
collection of mid-tempo singles again. Probably
their best album overall even if it's not exactly
the highest bar to cross. |
| Alluvial Sarcoma | 3.5 |
| The Devil Wears Prada ZII | 3.0 |
| VOLA Witness | 4.0 |
| Stone Leader Falling Down and Future Bird are incredible songs outside of the 4 singles. These Black Claws gets a bad rap (pun intended) here but for me it's a masterclass in efficient groove, subtle songwriting and mood building. Also SHAHMEN's verse works extremely well too. My only gripe is that it really didn't need to go on for 6 minutes.rOverall though, except maybe Freak which is kinda forgettable, this album is wonderful. First VOLA album to really click with me. |
| Gojira Fortitude | 3.5 |
| Overall really well done if not a bit too slow paced for my taste. Grind, Born For One Thing and Into the Storm are what I prefer my Gojira to be. However, besides Fortitude/The Chant, most of the tracks here land. |
| Crusade (USA) Rising Visionary | 3.0 |
| Insatiable is a great track but most of the album just kind of left me feeling nothing. Probably a grower to some degree but I do feel like it lacks a bit of energy and overall memorability. The different vocalists definitely don't help give Crusade their own sound either. Might bump after more listens, we'll see. |
| While She Sleeps Sleeps Society | 3.5 |
| Liquid Tension Experiment Liquid Tension Experiment 3 | 4.0 |
| Instrumental Dream Theater. Doesn't exactly sound like LTE so some might disappointed. I am not in the slightest. |
| Termina Dysphoria | 3.0 |
| Some fun stuff in here if not the most original thing. Production definitely doesn't help either. |
| Jonathan Young Starship Velociraptor | 4.0 |
| LANDMVRKS Lost in the Waves | 3.0 |
| ERRA ERRA | 4.0 |
| A Day To Remember You're Welcome | 2.0 |
Out of the 5 singles, none is worth higher than a 2.5/3.The hooks are cheap and the
songwriting even more mind-boggingly simple then before. "Brick Wall" is the exception but
it's arguably the worst one of the bunch. Every section that shows promise gets thrown out
for a new non-sequitur segment that ruins it. The best track is probably "Resentment" but
even then it's probably because it's the heaviest and therefore the most easy one to relate
to their past material. Overall, there's just a distinct lack of fun and/or craft to these
tracks. The album could very well end up having some highlights but for now it's not looking
good at all. |
| Architects For Those That Wish to Exist | 3.0 |
| 2018 |
| CrazyEightyEight Burning Alive | 3.5 |
| Crystal Lake Helix | 3.0 |
| Memphis May Fire Broken | 2.0 |
| Shattered Skies Muted Neon | 3.5 |
| All That Remains Victim of the New Disease | 3.0 |
| Architects Holy Hell | 3.5 |
| Fractal Cypher Prelude to an Impending Outcome | 4.0 |
| Silent Planet When the End Began | 4.0 |
| Haken Vector | 3.5 |
| Disturbed Evolution | 2.0 |
| Greta Van Fleet Anthem of the Peaceful Army | 3.0 |
| Amigo the Devil Everything Is Fine | 4.0 |
| Hands Like Houses -Anon. | 2.5 |
| Atreyu In Our Wake | 2.5 |
| First of October Ten Hours | 3.0 |
| VOLA Applause of a Distant Crowd | 3.5 |
| Beyond Creation Algorythm | 4.0 |
| As much as this is isn't exactly something I would listen to all the time, I can't deny how well this is put together. The performances, the production, the melodies, beautiful stuff overall. |
| Monuments (UK) Phronesis | 3.0 |
| Nothing impressive about this album. Grooves are half-backed, vocals are overproduced, choruses are underwhelming, lyrics suck, guitar tone is awful and overall nothing comes close to a song like I, The Creator. |
| Ice Nine Kills The Silver Scream | 4.0 |
| Dir En Grey The Insulated World | 3.0 |
| Dead Letter Circus Dead Letter Circus (2018) | 3.0 |
| Fit for a King Dark Skies | 3.0 |
| ERRA Neon | 3.0 |
| Time, The Valuator How Fleeting, How Fragile | 4.0 |
A more energetic/catchy version of TesseracT
with the vocals from Hands Like Houses and a
semi-experimental edge. The first 4 songs is
one of the better stretches of music I heard
recently. |
| Chelsea Grin Eternal Nightmare | 2.5 |
| Between the Buried and Me Automata II | 3.5 |
| Obscura Diluvium | 4.0 |
| Bullet for My Valentine Gravity | 2.0 |
| The Night Flight Orchestra Sometimes The World Ain't Enough | 3.5 |
| Night Verses From the Gallery of Sleep | 4.0 |
| Sevendust All I See Is War | 3.0 |
| Bad Wolves Disobey | 3.5 |
| Parkway Drive Reverence | 2.5 |
| Godsmack When Legends Rise | 2.5 |
| TesseracT Sonder | 3.5 |
| Breaking Benjamin Ember | 3.5 |
| The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus The Awakening | 2.5 |
| Blessthefall Hard Feelings | 3.0 |
| Rivers of Nihil Where Owls Know My Name | 3.5 |
| Between the Buried and Me Automata I | 3.5 |
| Good Tiger We Will All be Gone | 3.0 |
| Lines In the Sky Beacon | 3.5 |
| Of Mice and Men Defy | 3.0 |
| Black Veil Brides Vale | 2.0 |
