Integrity - Howling For The Nightmare Shall Consume
“Where other hardcore bands avoid venturing too far into metal territory, Integrity have long harnessed metal’s precision and dramatic power. Here, the supposed dividing line is lost in a blur of sheer, unforgiving heaviness. Fading in like a vicious stealth hangover, Fallen To Destroy’s spiralling melodeath harmonies morph into the hellish punk panic of Blood Sermon and on, through the genuinely startling fury of Hymn For The Children Of The Black Flame and I Am The Spell’s maelstrom of disquiet. But as Howling… reaches its midpoint, things start to become vastly more terrifying.”
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Boris - Dear
“Judging by the skulls and bones adorning the cover of Boris’s new album, and how opener D.O.W.N. -Domination Of Waiting Noise- favours the dronequake of the band’s formative years, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the Japanese experimentalists have settled solely on metallic emissions for their latest and umpteenth album after a quarter-century of musical deviations. You’d only be partly correct, though. As has often been the case with this wonderfully eclectic band over the last 25 years, Dear has many strings to its bow besides heavy amplifier worship.”
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Execration - Return To The Void
“Unlike their elders, Execration’s evolution has been spread over three albums, meaning that while Return To The Void – their first for Metal Blade – is their most far out yet, it’s also their most condensed work despite its stern production values. “
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Bad Sign - Live & Learn
“There are moments when Bad Sign’s debut album feels like a mixtape of the best melodic metal of the last 20 years. Gloriously unburdened by the shackles of a specific subgenre, the London-based trio are free to mount a sonic assault that encompasses elements of everyone from Rage Against The Machine to Tool, with more than a nod to the metallic post-hardcore of early Thrice.”
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Wren - Auburn Rule
“Coming from the more desolate end of post-metal, Wren have used their ultra-dark palette to paint a mural of pain and desperation. Keeping the overarching themes and lyrical content as vague as possible, the London-based four-piece’s earthy sludge is relentlessly bleak, offering little in the way of salvation. “
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Ewigkeit - Cosmic Man
“Pesky radical impulses forsworn, Ewigkeit employs the retro time-scoop that all the cool kids have been using this decade, pulling nuggets of 70s prog, doom, NWOBHM and Voivod out of 40-something childhoods like a kid in a sweetshop. And it’s glorious, the sound of a man falling in love with metal all over again.”
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The best new metal albums you can buy this week
