Anyone can make a concept album (which is not to say that it’s easy, but that it doesn’t depend on a particular musical style). That said, when it comes to the rock-opera-style concept album, the tendencies towards elaborate instrumental explorations and grand, dramatic spectacle often found in progressive rock and metal, provide particularly fertile ground. Pink Floyd, Queensryche, The Who, and many others have followed this path (coloured by their own particular musical approaches).
Inhuman Condition released just Fearsick last year and are already back with a brand new EP. Color me fuckin’ stoked! Fearsick was on my shortlist for the album of the year in 2022. When it comes to old-school slick and sick Death Metal, few do it better.
After a long-awaited return to NYC, progressive metal legends Cynic are welcomed back to celebrate 30 years of their album Focus at Manhattan’s Le Poisson Rouge. Joining them were fellow progressive metal and tech death titans Atheist. The tour also gave opportunities for openers from every city on the tour, and they surely did not disappoint.
To be perfectly frank, the biggest issue with Static Abyss’ Aborted from Reality (Peaceville Records) is that they decided to release the album the same year as Obituary’s recent destroyer, Dying of Everything. It’s been a consistent thorn on the side of Chris Reifert and Greg Wilkinson for quite some time as Obituary has always outshined their most well-known project, Autopsy, as well.
It has been nine years since Scar Symmetry released their previous album and the first in a planned trilogy, and time has seemingly not been the kindest to them since then with a plethora of delays (am pretty sure we can all guess one of them by now) preventing them releasing any form of follow up.
For a band named after one of ‘tallica’s finest songs from their early vintage period, you might be forgiven for thinking that Boundless Domain (MNRK Heavy) is a record full of modern Thrash Metal bangers … but you’d be wrong. Creeping Death purvey pure and unadulterated Death Metal, taking in all forms of the gory art with splashes of old-school, blackened, and doom thrown in the mixer.
Every once in a while, there is an itch in the back of my brain, and the only way to scratch it is to listen to Swedish Death Metal. With such luck, into my ears goes the full-length debut of Imperishable, appropriately named, Come, Sweet Death (Hammerheart Records). Blistering, chainsaw-like guitar riffs with epic leads, relentless drum work, and harsh raspy vocals is everything to expect from that sweet Gothenburg flavor of death metal. This scorcher of an album hardly lets up across the thirty-eight-minute blaze and will be sure to leave you either exhausted or ready to jump out of an airplane.
With a career that has spanned 30-plus years to date (factoring in a 16-year departure), Dutch Death Metaller’s Phlebotomized are a band with a legacy and a cult following even amongst extreme music. Attributed as being one of the first such bands to use additional instrumentation including synths, theirs was a sound that was considered by many unique and pioneering at the time and in part a clear influence on many bands since then and in the current day. With this in mind, how does the new Phlebotomized hold up in the current day? On the evidence of Clouds Of Confusion (Hammerheart), pretty well.
Church of the Dead are ready to release more crushing old-school Death Metal with their second album Beyond Death (Redefining Darkness). The band does a terrific job of infusing several different styles into their classic death metal assault, black metal, some light synths, and even some punk rock are all thrown into the mix. The results leave a riff-heavy album that relies more on sheer power and brutality than any over-the-top theatrics.
Vomitheist. It’s a band name that you hear or see and know exactly what you are in for. What exactly is a Vomitheist? Is it an instrument or a profession? Is it like an Atheist? Do they not believe in vomit, or do they worship it? Perhaps they are well-versed in all things regurgitation. Regardless of how or why they came up with their band name, what I can assure is that Vomitheist can write some sick ass and filthy Death Metal.