Slipknot

Kapnas – Kapnas Review

Kapnas – Kapnas Review

“We’ve all said, done, and worn things we aren’t necessarily proud of. Pants with legs that can hold a family of five comfortably? Yepper! Wallets with chains longer than an average CVS receipt? Been there, done that, got stuck on way too many things walking by. What I’m saying is that… well, in all of our lives, some cringe has happened. It’s unavoidable, yes, but we’ve moved on. Or at least some of us have. That leads us to the self-titled debut from masked Montreal “funeral doom” duo, Kapnas. All we are is dust on the weed.

Aeons – Consequences Review

Aeons – Consequences Review

Aeons play a form of progressive metal which, like most progressive bands, sounds an awful lot like what has come before, with melodies and deathcore vocals fighting it out. Don’t get too excited at this never-before-heard sound, however. This is Born of Osiris by way of Thy Art is Murder with a massive detour through Veil of Maya. If Aeons could be said to have an “angle,” it’s that it embraces its influences while incorporating an even broader palette.” Consequences and repercussions.

Sunken State – Solace in Solitude Review

Sunken State – Solace in Solitude Review

“Though childhood friends and siblings surrounded me with the stuff, the only two metalcore releases that stuck were Trivium’s Shogun and God Forbid’s IV: Constitution of Treason. And, depending on the mood, As I Lay Dying. The rest ain’t my bag. The reason I grabbed Sunken State’s debut record was mainly for the vocal performances. It’s an interesting melding of barks, rasps, and shouts. Solace in Solitude also combines their metalcore sound with melodeath, Lamb of God groove, and subtle hints of death metal. It’s an interesting combination of elements—especially for a band from South Africa.” Core tour.

Bound in Fear – The Hand of Violence Review

Bound in Fear – The Hand of Violence Review

“‘Be careful what you wish for, yo,’ they tell me. Well, they, and everybody else, also tell me to smile more, to not swear so fucking much in front of the children, and to stop stealing money from the holiday party collection jar to buy cigarettes and scratch tickets… take a wild guess how that’s going.” Scratch tickets and violent hands.

Sabaton – The Great War Review

Sabaton – The Great War Review

Sabaton has made singing about war nearly as lucrative a proposition as Motley Crüe made singing about their dicks. And unlike their cock rocking elder’s chosen idiom, nation on nation violence translates far better into the metal ethos. Tales of bravery, battle and death are the bloody blocks upon which metal was originally built, and it drinks deeply of that Bathoryian tub to this day.” Draft day.

Athanasia – The Order of the Silver Compass Review

Athanasia – The Order of the Silver Compass Review

“Our eventual overlords may be capable of incredible feats of logic and science, but they are still in their infancy when it comes to matters pertaining to the human heart. There’s something about how humans process emotional cues and meaning that the machines haven’t mastered and it shows when they’re tasked with creative work. Now, this is a metal blog, so you can probably guess where I’m going with this. What would it sound like if AI were to create a metal album to be marketed to the masses?” By the numbers.

Kill Everything – Scorched Earth [Things You Might Have Missed 2018]

Kill Everything – Scorched Earth [Things You Might Have Missed 2018]

“Saying something slams so hard that it sounds like getting disemboweled with a chainsaw while being force-fed a live colony of bees is more convincing and appealing than saying that a slam record has a bunch of killer riffs, is well-structured, and is worth listening to. In that spirit, Kill Everything’s debut album Scorched Earth sounds like bungee-jumping with your own intestines after having your skull caved in by a club.” Is this a good thing?