Music

Top 5 Metal Releases: March

by Tyler Munro

Each month, tons of new music from many taste-spanning genres is released into a fast-consuming, unforgiving market; 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, and Pop with the top five releases in each. Consider it your cheat sheet for year-end lists.

Top 5 Metal Releases: March

3 Inches of Blood – Long Live Heavy Metal

As Manowar devolves further into self-parody with promises that their next album will feature “face-melting hymns of unity,” 3 Inches of Blood are quickly readying themselves to step up as heavy metal’s truest of the true. No, they’re not joking. These guys absolutely love heavy metal, and Long Live Heavy Metal is an exercise in proving it. From the Ronnie James Dio tribute “Look Out” to the thrashy “Leave It on the Ice,” this is an album that reeks of metal. Cam Pipes might the only member left from the band’s first full-length, but this sounds like the album 3 Inches of Blood’s been dying to make their entire career. Metal doesn’t have to be serious to be fun, but just because it’s not doesn’t mean it’s a joke. That’s key when listening to this album. Up the irons!

Gorod – A Perfect Absolution

Gorod’s A Perfect Absolution is a step-backwards in the best possible way, signalling that Process of a New Decline was but a blip on a the band’s near-perfect resume. While their songwriting has certainly shifted away from their groovier, more rhythmic beginnings, Gorod’s latest signals a return to song-centred technicality. While the band’s new vocalist (“Nutz”….no, seriously) brings some irritating qualities to the table (like the Lamb of God-like spoken bits in “5000 At The Funeral”), songs like “Carved in the Wind” do a sturdy job at showcasing the band’s ability to be at once melodic, brutal and frighteningly adept. Then there’s “Varangian Paradise,” which bases most of its melodies off of its introduction’s bizarrely effective use of the wah-wah pedal. “5000 At The Funeral” is the only dud on the album, beginning with a nonsequitur, plinky acoustic section before ultimately devolving into a wanky, melodic refrain that sits somewhere between Waking the Fallen-era Avenged Sevenfold and Necrophagist.

Black Breath – Sentenced to Life

Black Breath survives on unpredictability. Heavy Breathing took crust to its most metallic edge, sounding nothing like its dingier peers all the while warranting the comparison. Crazier still, its penultimate track was eerily reminiscent of Alannah Myles’ “Black Velvet”. Sentenced to Life works against expectations much differently, continuing the Seattle-based band down a uniquely Swedish sounding path, crafting an album that sits somewhere between a better version of Entombed’s early death n’ roll experiments and The God That Never Was-era Dismember, essentially placing the bands hardcore leanings and aesthetics into a Swedish death metal mould while lightening the demonic, spit-on-the-cross lyricisms of their debut. So is Sentenced to Life a death metal album? Is it a hardcore album? At this point, let’s just say its a bit of both. Just don’t call it deathcore.

Every Time I Die – Ex Lives

Every Time I Die’s oldest fans are perhaps still worringly blinded by the tantrums they’ve been throwing since Gutter Phenomenon came out that they’ll risk Ex Lives passing them by just so they can have something to complain about. And that, my friends, would be a fucking shame. This is the album Every Time I Die have been building towards since Hot Damn!. This isn’t just they’re heaviest album in years: it’s also the perfect union of that rediscovered anger and their new found melodic sensibilities. Sure, “Revival Mode” is pretty awkward, but the rest of the album is an absolute throat slitter. Let us settle the argument once and for all with this simple reminder: 2003 was a long fucking time ago and this could wind up as the band’s best when all is said and done. Get over it.

Sigh – In Somniphobia

In Somniphobia is everything you’d expect in a Sigh album, which if you’re following is a pretty expansive palette. And from the sax-solos and bongo chases of its early tracks to the Carlos Santana-meets-Zeppelin-meets-Venom flavour of its last track, this is an album that dares the listener to lose focus. Unfortunately it makes the challenge a little easy; In Somniphobia is its own worst enemy, clocking in an over an hour. As a result, early listens might take a few tries, but rest assured it’s worth the effort. This isn’t just Sigh’s most psychedelic album since Imaginary Sonicscape, but also their most successful symphonic endeavour yet. First explored in the late 90s (and later on 2007’s Hangman’s Hymn), Sigh’s stringed sections have long felt like peppered afterthoughts. That’s not the case here, with each orchestral element feeling like it was written with the song instead of as a compliment to it. In Somniphobia is 22 years worth of ideas crammed into a single album, which, in hindsight, might speak to its excessive length.

Surprises, disappointments and albums to watch for next month

Surprise of the month: Meshuggah’s Koloss is like I, Robot: The Album. On it, the machine becomes sentient, meshing its usual, mechanical precision with what almost feels like raw power and emotion. More impressively, it comes off as a giant fuck you to the nauseating DJent scene, reminding metalheads that not only did Meshuggah do it first, but they do it best. Moreover, that you need some actual songs written with those 7, 8 or 9 string guitars, and that if you don’t have a Thomas Haake backing you up on the kit, you’re probably wasting your time.

Disappointments: At times Torture comes close to being the gritty return to the 90s Cannibal Corpse had been promising, but cracking an egg isn’t the same as breaking it. “The Strangulation Chair” might be the best analogy for the album, breaking up four minutes of ubiquitous brutality with an uninvited bass-solo. Things happen, but most of the time they don’t matter. Except for “Scourge of Iron,” which is the absolutely filthy sounding exception to an otherwise boring rule.

Out in March: Municipal Waste’s The Fatal Feast, Cancer Bats’ Dead Set On Living, In Mourning’s The Weight Of Oceans, 16’s Deep Cuts From Dark Clouds, Running Wild’s Shadowmaker, DragonForce’s The Power Within and a hell of a lot more. April is looking like a solid month for metal.