This is the second album from Polish industrial metal band Kontagion.
Kontagion play industrial-tinged cybermetal, taking influence from the earlier of strains of the Fear Factory virus, and morphing itself into an altogether darker and more feral breed via some early Slipknot/Mushroomhead influences and a touch of Godflesh, (of which there’s a cover version here of Crush My Soul).
This really does have a late 90s/early 00s feel Continue reading “Kontagion – [R-!-E]lentless (Review)”
This is the debut album from US metal band Devil Gone Public.
Devil Gone Public play stoner/groove metal with a Southern flavour. Imagine a mix of Orange Goblin, Lamb of God, Red Fang, Black Tusk, Mastodon, Corrosion of Conformity and Down – this should give you a good starting point for what Devil Gone Public sound like.
The songs Continue reading “Devil Gone Public – Smokehound (Review)”
This is the début album by Shodan, a death metal band from Poland.
Shodan play modern death metal for the most part, but also incorporate a myriad of other influences and ideas into this atypical release.
The interesting thing about this band is how they develop their style for each song; it all revolves around a modern core of solid death metal, but each track uses this in its own way and incorporates different elements from Continue reading “Shodan – Protocol of Dying (Review)”
Jinjer are a metal band from the Ukraine, and this is their second album.
King of Everything mixes metalcore, hardcore, thrash metal, groove metal, melodic death metal and djent…Okay, that’s a lot of sub-genres. Let’s just say they cover a lot of bases.
That’s putting it too simply, though; in reality, Jinjer have managed to produce a complex and diverse album that has a whole lot more going on than you might expect for a band that’s labelled Continue reading “Jinjer – King of Everything (Review)”
Karnak Seti are from Portugal and play melodic/groove metal. This is their third album.
The Distance That Made Us Cold is an album that bursts out of the speakers with a strong and confident sound, polished to perfection but not lacking in some underground grit when the songs need it. Continue reading “Karnak Seti – The Distance That Made Us Cold (Review)”
Even the Dead Love a Parade are a groove metal band from the US. This is their début EP.
Featuring the bassist of Drowning Pool, this EP is 23 minutes of modern, rocking metal that has some thrash and hardcore influences – somewhat of a cross between Annihilator, Pantera and Vision of Disorder. Continue reading “Even the Dead Love a Parade – Even the Dead Love a Parade (Review)”
Whitechapel are from the US and play deathcore/metal. This is their sixth album.
2014’s Our Endless War saw Whitechapel effectively combining their death metal/deathcore roots with their more further-developed modern metal approach from their previous release into an album that made the most out of both of these influences.
Mark of the Blade continues where Our Endless War left off, providing a large chunk of heavy, aggressive music with modern, groove and djent parts welded onto their thoroughly metal core. However, the band have also progressed and expanded Continue reading “Whitechapel – Mark of the Blade (Review)”
This is the début album from 3rd Machine, a modern/groove metal band from the Netherlands.
This is rhythmic groove metal with keyboard enhancements that takes influence from the cyber metal scene.
Despite the modern production though, it has somewhat of a 90s metal feel to it to me. This is not meant in any detrimental way. 3rd Machine seem Continue reading “3rd Machine – Quantified Self (Review)”
This is the seventh album from this US metal band.
I’ve always enjoyed Devildriver’s combination of modern metal, melodic death metal, thrash metal, NWOAHM, classic metal, nu-metal and crushing groove metal. Sure, they’ve had their ups and downs over the years with some albums being noticeably stronger than others, but they’ve always had enough meat on their metal bones to make me happy to listen to them in some capacity or other.
This moves us onto Continue reading “Devildriver – Trust No One (Review)”
This is the second album from this US Metal band.
Tenth Amendment play modern Metal with groove and aggression. Back in the 90s when this kind of thing was just called either Metal or Hardcore rather than groove Metal or Metalcore, (usually due to how the band looked more than anything else), bands like Pantera, Fear Factory, Machine Head, Merauder, Skinlab and Pro-Pain we all staples of my CD collection, and Tenth Amendment very much remind me of that time.
Coming across as a combination of the aforementioned bands, we get song-based aggression with an industrial undercurrent that leans towards the heavier end of the spectrum. The album is very riff-based and there’s a purity of intent inherent in this kind of approach.
Wonderbox Metal 