Windrunner are a Vietnamese metalcore band and this is their debut album.
Billed as a progressive metalcore band, this means that on Mai we get 43 minutes of heavy stop-start belligerence mixed with elements of modern progressive metal spread out over 11 tracks. The end result is music that mixes aggression and emotion well to achieve a balanced style of modern heaviness. Continue reading
The Agony Scene are a US metal band and this is their fourth album.
Tormentor is the first release from The Agony Scene since 2007’s Get Damned. I always liked this band’s razor-sharp take on modern metal, so it’s great to hear them make a return. Continue reading
Cold Snap are a Croatian metal band and this is their fourth album.
I enjoyed Cold Snap’s 2015 album World War 3, which mixed modern metal and metalcore with a rare-these-days helping of nu-metal. Despite how that description probably sounds to some people, it was a recipe I quite enjoyed, so I’m now pleased to give the band’s latest effort a good listen. Continue reading
This is the thirteenth album from Canadian death metal veterans Kataklysm.
I hugely enjoyed 2015’s Of Ghosts and Gods, and loved being able to catch the band live on that tour, so this new album is warmly anticipated. Continue reading
This is the second album from Obliterate, a deathcore/death metal band from Canada.
As much as I’m partial to a bit of deathcore now and again, I much prefer it when it’s mixed in with some meaty death metal too. Enter Impending Death. Continue reading
This is the debut album from Italian metal band Gigantomachia.
Here’s a somewhat evocatively heroic release. Mixing elements of melodic, doom, death, and epic metal into a meaty metal base, Gigantomachia have produced 41 minutes of engaging metal. Continue reading
This is the debut demo from Pandrador, a death metal band from Poland.
Śmierć Baldura contains three songs, along with an intro track, and lasts 13 minutes in duration. Continue reading
Micawber are a US death metal band and this is their third album.
This is modern death metal, full of punishing riffs, crushing grooves, sharp melodies, blasting drums, and belligerent growls. Continue reading
Tantal are a Russian metal band and this is their third album.
Mixing elements of modern, progressive, melodic, and Gothic metal into 49 minutes of music, Ruin is the follow up to 2014’s Expectancy, which was a good starter for getting to know Tantal’s sound. Ruin sees the band Continue reading
Light the Torch are a US metalcore band and this is their debut album, (or third, depending on how you look at it).
Light the Torch have arisen from the ashes of Devil You Know, whose 2015 They Bleed Red was somewhat of a sleeper hit for me, one which I now regularly return to for a splash of modern song-based heaviness. Continue reading
