This is the seventh album from Impure Wilhelmina, a Swiss post-metal band.
The music takes progressive post-metal/rock, post-hardcore, and indie/alt-rock, throws in a healthy amount of goth influences, and even has a blackened veneer in places. Continue reading “Impure Wilhelmina – Antidote (Review)”
Lacittàdolente are an Italian-based mathcore band, and this is their debut album.
Mathcore, hardcore, and metalcore collide across 27 minutes of music. Salespeople put me in mind of the past quite strongly, while also keeping a firm eye on the here and now. Continue reading “Lacittàdolente – Salespeople (Review)”
Wear Your Wounds are a post-rock band from the US and this is their third album.
Featuring current/ex-members of Converge, The Red Chord, Cave In, Hatebreed, and Trap Them, don’t let these band names fool you – this might not be what you are expecting. Rust on the Gates of Heaven is not a hardcore supergroup. Rather, it’s a 53-minute journey into reflective post-rock waters, and has more in common with bands like Crippled Black Phoenix, Mogwai, Angels of Light, Russian Circles, and, yes, hints of Cave In, than any of the other bands listed. Continue reading “Wear Your Wounds – Rust on the Gates of Heaven (Review)”
Cave In are a US post-hardcore/rock band and this is their sixth album.
Final Transmission is born out of and shaped by the trauma of catastrophe; the band’s bassist tragically died in a car accident prior to this album being finished. He plays on each song here, however, with the tracks fully Continue reading “Cave In – Final Transmission (Review)”
Brond are a Bulgarian rock band and this is their debut album.
Brond’s music mixes riff-focused modern rock and post-hardcore/rock, with progressive, stoner, and noise/math rock tendencies. Wow. Now there’s a description. Delivering eight tracks across almost 44 minutes of music, Graveyard Campfire is a well-realised and enjoyable release, despite my mangling together of various subgenres in an attempt to loosely categorise it. Continue reading “Brond – Graveyard Campfire (Review)”
Vexes are a US modern/post-metal band and this is their debut album.
Although Deftones are the obvious starting point for comparative purposes, elements of The Unguided, Poison the Well, Glassjaw, and Cave In can also be heard in the band’s sound, as well as some more atypical moments in the style of, perhaps, Norma Jean, Between the Buried and Me, and Isis. Feelings of the late 90s/early 00s are strong with this band, and from my point of view that’s no bad thing at all. Continue reading “Vexes – Ancient Geometry (Review)”
This is the debut album from Belgian rockers Minor/Minor.
Minor/Minor play modern, emotive rock that takes influence from a few different places. Think a mix of bands like Arcane Roots, Pink Floyd, Coheed and Cambria, Cave In, Filter, and Radiohead as starting points, maybe. Continue reading “Minor/Minor – Minor/Minor (Review)”
The Restitution is a one-man progressive metal band from the US and this is his second album.
2013’s Waves was a very enjoyable and impressive release, and I can’t believe it’s been four years since it came out. Continue reading “The Restitution – Into the Dark (Review)”
Dying Whale are a US hardcore band and this is their latest release.
Last Moments of Misery is a 34 minute mix of hardcore, punk, metal and sludge.
Starting with a firm punk/hardcore base to their music, metal and sludge influences are liberally thrown over the top of it to get the end result that they want. Continue reading “Dying Whale – Last Moments of Misery (Review)”
Sealclubber are a UK Sludge band and this is their début album.
Sealclubber play abrasive Progressive/Post-Sludge Metal that takes in elements of Crust and Hardcore to produce a lively and gritty 44 minutes of music.
The sharp Hardcore energy of some of the riffs is also alive in the harsh shouted vocals, which are full of both threat and feeling.
This is juxtaposed against the slower, more atmospheric parts that have a dirty Post-Metal sheen to them, like something struggling to be born whole out of a world of filth.
Add to this the emotive Sludge elements that the band seem to pull out of nowhere when they need to and you have a very well-rounded release that shows Sealclubber to be an uncompromising and multifaceted band who are capable of many moods throughout these six songs.
This puts me in mind of the old Cave-In and Botch releases where both bands really pushed what it meant to be a Hardcore band. Sealclubber have similar ambitions it seems, only coming from a Sludge angle and delving deeper into both, (quite divergent), Hardcore and Post-Metal routes at the same time. This split focus shouldn’t work, but it really does, marrying what little common ground there is between the two styles with a murky Sludge Metal coverall.
With divergent influences, comes great risk, but with great talent, comes great reward.
Loved it.
Wonderbox Metal 