Converge - The Dusk In Us
“After half a decade without fresh music – the longest break the band have ever taken between studio albums – Converge’s current direction was rather uncertain. But The Dusk In Us turns out to be everything you ever wanted from a Converge record, and everything you couldn’t even imagine. As it was to be expected, the four-piece didn’t just create a merciless burst of aggression and energy but a complex piece of art.”
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Cannibal Corpse - Red Before Black
“When Cannibal Corpse burst onto the scene with their seminal debut, Eaten Back To Life, in 1990, they seemed just as dangerous as the maniacs that featured in their gore-laden lyrics and artwork. Banned by numerous countries over the years, the Buffalo-born but Tampa-raised death metal band went on to become both the benchmark setters for their subgenre and the scourge of conservative America. While some of that unhinged menace is missing from the modern-day incarnation of Cannibal Corpse and the shock factor has admittedly grown a little stale, they still remain an explosive force of nature musically, and album number 14 is a brutal and unrelenting beast.”
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Adimiron - Et Liber Eris
“The Gojira comparisons that abounded on their last album, Timelapse, were probably a blessing and a curse (”We don’t sound like any other band” is a favourite statement from many aspiring outfits) and this might explain why Et Liber Eris has toned down the nihilistic foghorn vocals of its predecessor. It’s also their first album with new singer Sami El Kadi, replacing Andrea Spinelli. In some ways Et Liber Eris is an extension of Timelapse. That record, too, was a tumbling maelstrom of left turns and multiple layers that pointed heavily to a desire to stick a rocket up progression’s arse, and now their ammunition is carried by the rumbling undertones of new bassist Cecilia Nappo.”
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Annihilator - For The Demented
“2013’s Feast felt like the well might be finally approaching dry, with a technically formidable yet familiar-sounding collection of colour-by-numbers thrash, but on For The Demented, their 16th campaign, Jeff and co tap back into the raw urgency of their mid-80s output, fusing hard-driving riffs and fist-pumping bursts of speed metal with more of Jeff’s melodic fretwork. Annihilator’s diehard fans aren’t looking for the new Opeth – they’re tuning in for some old-school, denim’n’leather headbangers, which they’ll find on tracks like Twisted Lobotomy, The Demon You Know and The Way.”
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Moonspell - 1755
“A concept piece devoted to the year that saw Lisbon devastated by a colossal earthquake, 1755 makes its lofty ambitions known from the start. Opening overture Em Nome Do Medo brashly reaffirms the band’s symphonic credentials, as Moonspell vocalist Fernando Ribeiro howls at the moon from within a startling conflagration of choral bombast and shimmering melodrama. When guitars finally kick in on the title track, it’s instantly obvious that the Portuguese veterans have rediscovered the swagger and defiant eccentricity that made early albums like Wolfheart and Irreligious such potent and enduring benchmarks for extreme metal’s gothic wing.”
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Psychedelic Witchcraft - Sound Of The Wind
“A band whose sound resonates perfectly with their name, Psychedelic Witchcraft are going to dazzle doom fans once more with their second studio album, Sound Of The Wind. The Florence-based four-piece rise above their peers thanks to the mesmerising, smokey snarl of Virginia Monti’s vocals and the blues/classic hard rock guitar of Jacopo Fallai, adding a sexy, wicked vibe to their occult lyrics.”
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Tetragrammacide - Primal Incinerators Of Moral Matrix
“Metal bands have been trying to conjure a suitable soundtrack to the impending apocalypse for decades, but Tetragrammacide have just recorded an album so ugly, violent and unstoppable that you might conceivably choose Armageddon in favour of exposing yourself to this utterly insane eruption of unholy noise.”
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The best metal albums you can buy this week: Savage Messiah and more
