Cross's Q1 2017
Some stuff. Some stuff about the stuff. |
| 1 |  | Bestia Arcana
Holokauston
Some people from Nightbringer. better than Nightbringer. [[cavernous cultish black metal]]
4.1 |
| 2 |  | Blanck Mass
World Eater
not as harsh as his latest, which is a bad thing, but the album is no worse off for it surprisingly. [[idm/electronic/noise]]
3.9 |
| 3 |  | Darkest Hour
Godless Prophets and The Migrant Flora
so good to see a band come off an arc of bad albums [[still best death-leaning metalcore band]]
3.7 |
| 4 |  | Demon Hunter
Outlive
their third straight album of weak singles and bland melodicism, still some good moments when it gets heavier. [[mehcore]]
2.9 |
| 5 |  | Dodecahedron
Kwintessens
always looking for music that's supposed to be challenging rather than traditionalist, and I'm still not sure whether this is a success story or not. [[off-kilter experimental black metal]]
3.3 |
| 6 |  | Emptiness
Not For Music
it certainly isn't, I'm not sure what's going on with this or why [[eerie synth-goth with death metal as only a garnish]]
2.6 |
| 7 |  | Endon
Through The Mirror
if Discordance Axis and Dir en grey had a mutant, coked-out baby [[noise-choked longform deathgrind]]
4.1 |
| 8 |  | Falls of Rauros
Vigilance Perennial
manage to be post- without just sounding like Deafheaven, but their VERY lightly distorted guitars under that shitcan production makes an uncomfortable listen every time (on every album) [[post-black metal/folk bits]]
3.4 |
| 9 |  | Fange
Pourrissoir
sludge that can drag its knuckles as well as swing them wildly. French, have a song called "Ultra France". [[bludgeon sludgin']]
3.8 |
| 10 |  | Fen
Winter
double albums, maaaaan, especially of rock-ish black metal w/ some clean vocals that's not so stagnant [[post-rock/black metal]]
3.8 |
| 11 |  | Gorephilia
Severed Monolith
by the book but strictly unmemorable brutal tech death, a placeholder for better DM to come [[brutal tech death, not as gory as the band name implies]]
2.7 |
| 12 |  | Grails
Chalice Hymnal
dips into loungey 60s soundtrack, garage, bass-heavy post-rock, and a myriad of organic electro-ambient (an oxymoron?) [[post-rock/maximal ambient]]
3.7 |
| 13 |  | The Great Old Ones
EOD: A Tale of Dark Legacy
making Lovecraft metal acceptable in 2017 [[deathened black metal i suppose?]]
3.4 |
| 14 |  | Heretoir
The Circle
still kinda dig these leftovers from the wave of "post-black metal" a few years back, way lighter than Woods of Desolation went [[post-hardcore/blackgaze]]
3.1 |
| 15 |  | IDLES
Brutalism
Pissed, infectious and woke af Brits make angry sing-alongs [[noise punk]]
4.0 |
| 16 |  | Immolation
Atonement
better than Kingdom of Conspiracy, not as good as Majesty & Decay, everything's worse than CTAWB [[Immolation-style death metal]]
3.0 |
| 17 |  | L'Effondras
Les Flavescences
surprising amount of country twang and blues groove in this French heavy jam [[noise rock/blues jam]]
3.4 |
| 18 |  | Mastodon
Emperor of Sand
an improvement on the last two records, still too mild for my tastes, still criminally under-using Brent Hinds' vocals, but the best blend of their heavier and more lite-prog leanings [[sludge 4 kidz]]
3.2 |
| 19 |  | Mount Eerie
A Crow Looked At Me
I still haven't listened to this. I don't know if I ever will. [[death]]
? |
| 20 |  | Offerbeest
Black Teeth
Mories (Gnaw Their Tongues) just does. not. STOP. apparently this is all analog synths and pedals, some good destructive sound [[analog noise that sounds like dubstep dying from a horrible disfiguring disease]]
3.3 |
| 21 |  | Pharmakon
Contact
a brief and bland collection of her worst works, "Transmission" is the only passable track. hopefully she'll work her way around to making decent music again [[power electronics/disappointment]]
2.6 |
| 22 |  | Planning for Burial
Below the House
the Pepsi I drink when I can't have my Nadja-Coke fix. sadder and more post-rock influenced than doom-soaked. [[post-punk/heavy shoegaze]]
3.2 |
| 23 |  | Super Snake
Leap of Love
Trophy Scars dude time-travels to the 80s on an acid trip and brings back sleaze, beer and cock-riffs [[hawrd rawk]]
3.1 |
| 24 |  | Ulver
The Assassination of Julius Caesar
MY favorite Ulver was when they made black metal but hell if I won't take them doing ridiculously good bubblegum goth [[dark pop]]
4.0 |
| 25 |  | Ungfell
Tôtbringære
think demo-era Peste Noire, then make it German and you're about there [[lo-fi black metal]]
3.5 |
| 26 |  | Venenum
Trance of Death
death metal that pushes the envelope without being blindingly technical or watering down to a shitty Floyd clone, fantastic in its own right [[goooooooooood shit]]
4.2 |
| 27 |  | Xiu Xiu
Forget
you think "ok he's definitely going to cry this time" and then the bass drops [[sadboy fuckdub]]
4.1 |
|
