Brief Noise: Brief metal album reviews.
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Metallica – 72 Seasons Review
Load meets …and Justice for All with a twist of old-tallica and Death Magnetic. The new opus by the bay area thrashers is probably the most irrelevant record in their whole career mainly due to weak song-witting, long duration and synthetic production of the songs. The groovy-riff approach can be directly compared to Load (1996)…
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Gorod – The Orb Review
The Orb is full of groovy technical death with crazy riffing. The Frenchmen manage once again to compile a varied, well-written album with many different parts per track without falling into making them sound awkward or different songs glued together. Listening again to the singles “Breeding Silence” and “Victory” just confirms the statement, making them…
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Necropanther – Betrayal Review
Necropanther walk the thin line between melodic death and blackened thrash in a sound that is best described by citing some of their influences and sound-alikes such as early Revocation or Skeletonwitch. Blazing fast and catchy because of the guitar work, both in rhythm and lead guitars, this is not as fresh as Xoth but…
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Frozen Dawn – The Decline of the Enlightened Gods Review
The trio from Madrid success delivering a great melodeath-black record that drinks directly from Dissection and Necrophobic -being the closer a cover of theirs-, or more specifically from Dissection‘s copycat band Naglfar circa 2003, when they released Sheol. What’s interesting in The Decline of the Enlightened Gods is both songwrittng and production are more interesting…
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Battlefield – We’ll Rock Again Review
Battlefield play plain and simple heavy metal. Guitar driven, here’s enough variety and good ideas, but some of the tracks in the first half are just too long and repetitive. The production is clean with the drums sounding a little bit too hollow at times. The vocal performance is too forced sometimes, with a singer…
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Galneryus – Between Dread and Valor Review
If you’re not familiar with the nipponese Galneryus, just imagine going back to the early 2000s euro-power metal scene, where neoclassical was the cournerstone of the genre. Add virtuosos playing each instrument, specially axeman and founder Syu, and top with Japanesse vocals that of course will sound like they are straight outta your favourite anime…
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Insomnium – Anno 1696 Review
Anno 1696 is far more varied that their previous endeavor, and maybe because of that, a little less memorable. There’s time for everything from melancholic ballads to blast beats, with the guitar trio Markus Vanhala / Ville Friman / Jani Liimatainen being a clear highlight, not to mention Niilo Sevänen’s distinctive harsh vocals. What’s new?…
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Mansion – Second Death
Enter Mansion, a Finnish doom project characterised by a gloomy atmosphere, occult themes, a modern production and Alma’s but also Osmo’s vocals. Hypnotic at times, ambient soundscapes and multiple layers in the mix adds greatly to the experience. Percussion is also a highlight maybe for the same reason, but also for the use of different…
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Toxik – Dis Morta Review
Combining technical thrash and speed with progressive elements and even power metal, Toxik‘s first new material in 33 years is without a doubt one of this year’s surprises. Despite a big modern production, there’s a certain old-school aftertaste mainly because of the Eric van Druten / Josh Christian’s guitar duo sound and the powerful yet…
Got any album recommendations?