This album is a very good definition of what modern heavy metal is supposed to sound like.
In Flames – Foregone
Lorna Shore – Pain Remains
I’ve never used deathcore as a genre definition before, but it just makes so much sense after listening to Lorna Shore. Also, seeing “blackened death metal” as a genre on Wikipedia is part funny, part makes a whole lot of sense as well.
As for the music itself, this is an amazing blend of stuff that I like (which are noted in the above definitions). It’s also great focus music to me, as a backdrop when I’m not writing copy just doing design work.
Raging Speedhorn – Hard To Kill
Amazing stoner hard rock. Gives me all the mandatory vibes of the genre, feels fulfilling.
Slipknot – The End, So Far
I admire that this album starts with a song that’s not typical for Slipknot, it almost sounds like Queens of the Stone Age for the vocals or Nine Inch Nails with the piano. Mature, thoughtful, with lots of fine details. Still I can see how this is a Slipknot song: I can feel how it reflects the journey and experiences that these individuals have gone through. Just looking at the side projects and solo career of Corey Taylor, it is so well reflected in Adderall how he brings back his own development to the band.
Besides this aspect, the record at length has everything Slipknot owns, even pushing their signature nu metal further to heavy metal. Amazing album as always, scratches all my Slipknot itches, it just delivers.
Thrice – The Artist in the Ambulance Revisited
Time travel to high school. It was 20 years ago, omg. Still a kick in the teeth and stabs like a blade. Makes me wonder where’s life gone in twenty years and what my teenager self would think or do seeing me now. Would slap me in the face, that’s what.
ONI – Loathing Light
Just the right amount of melodic and hardcore metal.
Acid Witch – Rot Among Us
Doom metal with a psychedelic edge. I’m obsessed with Psychedeathic Swampnosis where otherworldly flute melodies is layered over some psy-doom metal pillars. It’s like the soundtrack of an old fantasy movie (the Labyrinth kind) but with metal.
Molybaron – The Mutiny
I mentioned this before when Lucifer came out as a single. Just putting the album on this shelf for the record, too, absolutely worthy as a full-lengh unpacking of what I’ve heard coming in the single. It’s an amazingly well crafted metal record.
Dog Fashion Disco – Cult Classic
Has every bit of Dog Fashion Disco in it I want in a Dog Fashion Disco record. Fits the discography like priest in a nursery.
Hand of Kalliach – Samhainn
It’s been quite a while that my attention was pinned down by a death metal album. Although this one ranges from death to black and melodic metal territories.
It’s so rare that speed gets put into such a great context and it’s not just going fast for the reason of technique showcase or mindless agression. I distinctly remember when I first starting listening to Slipknot as a teenager and I couldn’t listen to anything else anymore because other bands were just too slow. And that was also a case when speed has meaning and flavor. In the case of Hand of Kalliach I feel the same. The fast paced drums, guitars, and sometimes vocals flow so naturally with the overall sound they create, it just sounds amazingly fit there.