After the four-year gap since their last studio album, Massachusetts hardcore/metalcore act Converge return with something quite different. A collaborative effort, Bloodmoon: I (Epitaph Records) sees the band joining forces with Chelsea Wolfe, Ben Chisholm plus Cave In singer/guitarist Stephen Brodsky, the seven individuals all contributing to something a little out of their usual comfort zones.
Five albums into a career as one of the top bands in the modern Stoner Doom scene, Monolord offers their mellow, tripped-out effort to date with Your Time To Shine (Relapse Records). While there’s still plenty of dank fuzziness to go around, it feels almost like a backdrop at times as the cleaner guitar textures are given near equal priority and the vocals are at their most prominent. Fortunately, it feels like more of a culmination of a gradual trajectory rather than a radical shift in direction; after all, these elements started gaining traction on 2019’s No Comfort and it’s easy to imagine guitarist/vocalist Thomas V. Jager’s 2020 solo album rubbing off on the process.
Colorado’s The Flight of Sleipnir has maintained a consistent but eclectic sound for nearly fifteen years, mixing Doom and Atmospheric Black Metal with elements of Folk and Prog Rock in a way that should sit well with fans of Agalloch. Their seventh album mostly adheres to this genre blend and boasts the fuller production that was last seen on 2017’s Skadi. However, Eventide (Eisenwald) manages to tweak the formula as those Blackened elements seem to be upfront than before.
Lucifer – Lucifer IV
With Lucifer releasing albums of a consistent style at a workman’s pace, it’s easy to overlook the underlying trajectory that’s been gradually in motion. There’s not much of those Occult Doom roots left on Lucifer IV (Century Media Records) as the band has seemingly completed their transformation from female-fronted Uncle Acid to what sounds like Karen Carpenter singing over KISS riffs. Fortunately, it’s hardly a drastic change as Johanna Sadonis’ sultry croon and the freerolling grooves remain as common denominators.Continue reading
The albums that Grunge legend Jerry Cantrell has released across his solo career and his mothership Alice In Chains always seemed to have an intertwined relationship. 1998’s Boggy Depot and 2002’s Degradation Trip seemingly attempted to fill the void left in the wake of Alice’s hiatus and Layne Staley’s passing while Alice’s comeback albums with William DuVall on board essentially felt like Cantrell albums with extra riffs. This symbiosis turned cyclical with 2018’s Rainier Fog, which shared quite a bit of noticeable commonality with Boggy Depot . So where does Brighten, his first proper solo album in nineteen years, fit into this dichotomy?
E-mail comes in from my editor regarding some upcoming reviews. Okay, new Portrayal of Guilt, should be promising. Wait, this must be some kind of mistake on behalf of my editor. I already reviewed Portrayal of Guilt’s We Are Always Alone back in February. Album of the year type stuff. Another e-mail later clarifies that this new album is titled CHRISTFUCKER (Run For Cover). Alright, but who drops multiple LPs in one calendar year?
Having been involved in making underground music for nigh on thirty years, vocalist Gaahl has amassed a body of work ranging from high voltage Black Metal with Gorgoroth and the less polished Trelldom, to the traditional folk stylings of Wardruna, ramping up his progressive blackened leanings with God Seed, before releasing GastiR – Ghosts Invited (Indie Recordings), the debut offering of current vehicle Gaahls Wyrd, in 2019.
One thing became crystal clear very quickly after listening to MØL’s most recent effort, Diorama: this band can do it all. They’ve devised eight elegant tracks to prove just that, frankly leaving fans wanting more. Listed as “Post-Black Metal/Shoegaze” on the Metal Archives, these Danes dabble in Progressive Rock, Black Metal, Melodic Death Metal and even a snippet of Pop Punk. Another appealing aspect of MØL’s Nuclear Blast debut is the apparent influences vocalist Kim Song Sternkopf takes from fellow Scandinavians Dark Tranquillity and Omnium Gatherum. There is even a whiff of Parkway Drive.
When it comes to tortured, pained vocals, few do it quite like Dave Suzuki. The Churchburn front man led a cacophony of grimy, cavernous chaos on Genocidal Rite (Translation Loss) , a Death-Doom doozy from the Rhode Island-based foursome. With live musical performances on their minds (and who could blame them?), the group opens with ‘Toll Of Annihilation,’ a staticky and distorted affair that builds up before coming down via creepy bells sounding.
Emma Ruth Rundle seems to have become an artist with a licence to shift around stylistically as much as she wants while still maintaining, and continuing to build, her devoted fanbase. Last year’s revered collaboration with Thou — May Our Chambers Be Full (Sacred Bones) was dense, heavy, aggressive and complex. Whilst everything Rundle turns her hand to shares a certain delicate and fragile emotional openness, Engine Of Hell (Sargent House) in most other senses explores the opposite end of the Emma Ruth Rundle sonic spectrum.