Music

Top 5 Metal Releases: July Edition

by Tyler Munro

Each month, tons of new music from many taste-spanning genres is released into a fast-consuming, unforgiving audience; it can be tough to get a handle on what’s new before it’s on to the next. In an attempt to highlight the standout releases, at the end of each month, AUX staff re-cap the month in Punk, Metal, Indie/Pop/Rock, Hip Hop, Pop, and Dance with the top five releases in each. Consider it your cheat sheet for year-end lists.

Top 5 Metal Releases: July Edition

Satan’s Host – By the Hands of the Devil

By the Hands of the Devil is what happens when first wave black metal meets the unironic spirit of Manowar. It’s the mix no metalhead asked for but one they’ll all probably enjoy. It’s an album that’s so cheesy it has to be serious, and nothing makes that clearer than the remarkably powerful if overly-wailed vocals of frontman Harry Conklin (ex-Jag Panzer). Even if the guitar work is occasionally a bit shitty, this is an album defined by its energy. The combination of Anthony Lopez’s hyper-frenetic blast-beats and Conklins remarkable range and power work wonders to keep the music fresh even as the album closes in on the 60 minute mark. Their Beatles cover doesn’t hurt, either, because it’s like I always say: sure, “Norwegian Wood” is a pretty good song, but it’s always lacked that extra something. Namely low-to-highs and tremolo picking.

All Shall Perish – This Is Where It Ends

All of the energy and intensity that made All Shall Perish’s The Price of Existence a crossover deathcore gem seemed to scape the band by the follow up, but This Is Where It Ends has everything Awaken the Dreamers didn’t and then some. Here’s an album that puts the focus where it matters: on Hernan Hermida’s ear-tearing shriek-to-growl transitions and Francesco Artusato’s virtuosic (imagine Malmsteen if he actually musically competent) shredding. There’s variety here, too—far from just chug-a-lugging through one monotonous breakdown after another, This Is Where It Ends varies in tempo and melody. “There Is Nothing Left” is straight-up late 90s melo-death and strikes a chord as the best Darkest Chord song not written by Darkest Hour (sorry, August Burns Red) and they even recorded a Spanish version of “Royalty into Exile” (“Nobleza En Exilio”).It’s a little long, but it’s easy to cut the album short when the only song worth skipping (“In This Life of Pain”) also happens to be the longest, clocking in at 7 minutes (and the first few consisting of little besides useless, meandering piano).

Cannabis Corpse – Beneath Grow Lights Thou Shalt Rise

Legit-i-gimmick is a term I just invented that applies more or less exclusively to Spinal Tap and Cannabis Corpse. Unless you’re stupid, you’ve probably already figured out what it means. But if you are stupid, that’s okay, too! Maybe you’ll fill in the blanks after I tell you that Beneath Grow Lights Thou Shalt Rise might be better than anything Cannibal Corpse has ever done. For most that’s not saying much, but when you’ve surpassed the band you’re playing off of, that’s a hell of an accomplishment. For what it’s worth (and it’s worth a lot), this is an album that survives on its own merits. Sure, the Cannibal Corpse influence is obvious, but both Weedgrinder’s bong-bubbling low-end growls and Landphil’s and Nikropolis’ dual axe-wielding riffery stand above the obvious comparisons. When’s the last time Cannibal Corpse had leads as memorable as this album’s title track? Never. That this, a would-be parody album, stands atop during one of death metal’s strongest months is nothing to sniff at, even if they do seem to be running out of puns.

End of Level Boss – Eklectric

Eklectric is a stupidly named heavy metal time machine, mixing 80s prog-rock with early 90s stoner metal and mid-90s math rock. Somehow it all works, even if Harry “Heck” Armstrong does sound like Chris Cornell impersonating a howler-monkey mid-dump in “Red Grey Eye”. Self described as Kyuss meets King Crimson, there’s a definite pre-QOTSA edge to these songs but with a far more prominent tendency to build on the groove rather than to simply ride it ad nauseum. Moreover, these guys can flat out play their instruments. It’s never show-y, at least not overly so, but these guys use off-kilter time signatures as naturally as you and I’d use toilet paper. But music to dump to this is not: this is thinkin’ man’s (or woman’s) stoner metal….who knew such a thing was possible?

Disma – Towards the Megalith

Filthy death metal is the best death metal and Disma’s first full length is as nasty as it gets. But, then, what else did you expect from the hell-spawn of Funebrarum, Incantation and Disciples of Mockery. This is the kind of death metal where the guitars and bass bleed into one another and its slimy tempos bludgeon the listener. If most breakneck death metal is music to murder to then Towards the Megalith is the music you’ll need to chop apart and hide the body. Murder fantasies aside, Towards the Megalith stands outside of the recent old school death metal resurgence because it’s not a bunch of twenty-somethings playing dress up. These guys lived through the mid-90s death metal hey-day, and it’s not exactly worship when your new band is inspired by your old ones. And when those old ones include Incantation, and when your new one doesn’t sound like a shitty knock off, you’re on to good things. Great things if you’re Disma.

Surprises, disappointments and albums to watch for next month

Surprise of the month: There’s no surprise more pleasant to any metalhead than Decapitated’s ability to persevere after the tragic 2007 bus crash that took the life of their wildly talented drummer and threatened those of the rest of the band. Though they’ll never be the same without Vitek’s unmatched precision behind the kit, newcomer Kerim “Krimh” Lechner does a more than stand-up job in his place. Canival is Forever continues Decapitated’s departure away from their thrash-y, hair-whipped beginnings, but with Piotrowski’s improved vocals and a second chance we can take this album as a sign that the best, if we’re lucky, is yet to come.

Disappointments: It’s not that I expected Pestilence’s new album to be good, since it’s been about 20 years since they’ve actually mattered, but Doctrine is bad even by lowered standards. The album opens with Patrick Mameli sounding unsure of whether he wants to cough or cry, and once you get through the rest of it it’s not hard to see why. It’s not that Doctrine‘s massively unlistenable, but it’s still an epic mess. It blends a mixture of the band’s two signature sounds—the jazzy, noodly side with a crunchy death metal twist—with an inexplicably groovy backbone. This isn’t as bad as Morbid Angel’s Illud Divinum Insanus, but being better than one of the worst album’s of the past decade is hardly something worth aspiring to.

Out in August: Fleshgod Apocalypse’s Agony, Enslaved’s Thorn, Vader’s Welcome To The Morbid Reich, Today is the Day’s Pain is a Warning and Kittie’s I’ve Failed You…ha-ha, just kidding with that last one.