Kings first quarter digs
Everyones doing this so i'm hoppin on the train a bit late. List is what i've listened to since the beginning of this year. |
| 1 |  | Falls of Rauros
Vigilance Perennial
5/5-Atmospheric/folk black metal. You can check my review if you'd like but i'll still give you a summary. Very blissful, melodic black metal in the vein of bands like Agalloch. The composition here is absolutely stunning and tracks flow into each other so fluidly, like rivers intertwining at the mouth of the sea. If you're at all a fan of Atmospheric Black metal you'll enjoy this. |
| 2 |  | Persefone
Aathma
5/5-Progressive metal/death metal. Blazingly technical yet sweet and spine-chilling. Other then occasional slightly awkwardly implemented Cynic-like vocals this album is a masterpiece (also am I the only one who absolutely loves "Prison Skin"?) |
| 3 |  | Venenum
Trance of Death
4.5/5-Psychedelic/Blackened Death metal.If you dig swirling chaotic death metal this is your shit. It's dark, heavy, massive, and at points somewhat psychedelic. If you want freaky death metal here it is. |
| 4 |  | Pallbearer
Heartless
4.5/5-Doom metal. Pretty sweet, soothing doom metal that's surprisingly uplifting being the type of music that it is. The vocals are all cleans but they're just so alluring that no harsh vocals are totally fine (i'm a dude who digs his sewage gutturals in doom, e.g Ahab :p) |
| 5 |  | Immolation
Atonement
4/5-Death metal. For those who don't know Immolation-Good riffs good drums good music good sengs. For those who know Immolation-it's Immolation. For real though, they bounced back nicely after taking a small dip in quality on "Kingdoms of Conspiracy". |
| 6 |  | Benighted
Necrobreed
4/5-Death/Grind. Also reviewed this (quiet nicely if I do say so lol), but for a fast description, picture this. You're in a room and everyone is mentally deconstructing, emitting the most shocking inhuman noises while severing their own limbs to distract themselves from the pain they feel in their own heads. Actually that's Nespithe by Demilich yeah just read the review. |
| 7 |  | Mors Principium Est
Embers of a Dying World
4/5-Melodic Death metal. Pretty standard melodeath in that it's hardly groundbreaking but the riffs are solid and there are a small number of female cleans that are goddamn stunning. Also synths are good. |
| 8 |  | Violet Cold
Anomie
4/5-Atmospheric Black metal. I don't actually know what the fuck you can call this, it's really hard to label genre tags on this. although it fits under the very broad Atmospheric Black metal term. Very soothing with somewhat cheesy yet cathartic spoken word parts, also some cool middle-eastern inflections are shown through the music. |
| 9 |  | The Menzingers
After the Party
4/5-Alt rock/Punk (sort of?). Only jammed this once unfortunately but it's essentially a bolder more matured Menzingers. Good hooks and an overall sense of exuberance make for a pretty solid record. |
| 10 |  | Witherfall
Nocturnes and Requiems
4/5-Neoclassical metal. Imagine King Diamond bore a lovechild with a less pretentious sounding Dream Theater and you basically have this record. |
| 11 |  | Gorephilia
Severed Monolith
4/5-Death metal. Pretty traditional death metal with more modern production styles. There are pummeling blast beats and those riffs are like a storming wall of tanks. Nothing super stellar but if you want headbanging death metal this is it. |
| 12 |  | Darkest Hour
Godless Prophets and The Migrant Flora
4/5-Metalcore (sort of). The really pretty album name lured me in. It's crushing and energetic with some heavily thrash/punk inspired riffs. I don't remember too heavily what I thought of this but yeah it was certainly solid. |
| 13 |  | Havok
Conformicide
3.5/5-Thrash. Riffs hard. Drums hard. Shrieking gravel-in-throat vocals. Immature lyrics that wear off pretty quickly. Good if you're lifting weights maybe, but not if you want something groundbreaking (e.g Terminal Redux). |
| 14 |  | Hands
New Heaven / New Earth
3.5/5-Metalcore/Post-Hardcore. I don't even remember why I listened to this or how I found it but it was good. |
| 15 |  | Mutiny Within
Origins
3.5/5-Metalcore. Really catchy riffs and a whole lot of energy, somewhat reminiscent of a mix between Killswitch Engage, Scar Symmetry and (to a lesser extent) radio rock. For a more elaborate idea Gameofmetal did a pretty sweet review. |
| 16 |  | Eldamar / Dreams of Nature
Split
2.5/5-Atmospheric Black metal. Elegant to an extent but bores incredibly fast because the repetition is really monotonous. Dreams of Nature had more energy but not enough to really save the Split. Still, it's not long, so it's worth checking out if you already dig either of the bands. |
| 17 |  | Black Malachite
Rage
1.5/5-Talking about this is really redundant but this list IS everything i've heard this year thus far so I had to include this. |
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