Quicksand - Interiors
“There are certain, special friends that come along who you can go for years without speaking to, but when you are given a chance to reconnect, it’s as if no time at all has elapsed. That’s exactly what the return of Quicksand feels like. It’s been 22 years since their last album, Manic Compression, and in that time they all moved on – frontman Walter Schreifels went off to form the excellent Rival Schools and various other projects, and bassist Sergio Vega ended up replacing Chi Cheng in Deftones. Quicksand, however, clearly never quite left them, because Interiors feels like coming home, as, workmanlike, they pick up where they left off without the slightest hint of nostalgia. This is post-hardcore to make the heart sing.”
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Sinsaenum - Ashes EP
“When Sinsaenum released their debut album, Echoes Of The Tortured, last year it was one of the rare occasions when the results of a band dubbed a ‘supergroup’ were actually positively lauded for their music, rather than just the sum of their parts. Listening to Ashes it’s apparent that much of their success lies in harnessing the individual sum of their parts and showcasing them within an extreme metal framework, so, obviously, Joey Jordison’s instantly recognisable OCD kit attack perfectly fits that approach, as does Attila Csihar’s croaking, screeching vocal tics. But the man who gives Sinsaenum that little something extra is Dragonforce guitarist Frédéric Leclercq.”
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Entheos - Dark Future
“If Entheos’s debut album, The Infinite Nothing, suggested they were poised to morph from a promising project into tech metal titans, Dark Future confirms it. The American four-piece certainly have the required riff chops, but they’re now demanding much more from themselves. Ablaze with crushing grooves, chugging blastbeats and intricate polyrhythms, both The World Without Us and Melancholia hurtle towards you at 200mph.”
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- Watch Quicksand’s new video for Cosmonauts
- Sinsaenum launch video for their brutal new track Ashes
- TeamRock+ Exclusive Festival Offer
- Quicksand's track by track guide to new album Interiors
Impureza - La Caída De Tonatiuh
“It’s fair to say that the worlds of flamenco music and death metal couldn’t be any further apart. Helping to bridge the gap between genres are French-Spanish band Impureza, who marry both traditions to create a different, distinctive and often diabolically good sound. Much more than a mere gimmick, the flamenco flourishes are every bit a part of the music’s DNA as the brutal breakdowns and guttural growls throughout their second album. “
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Statues - No Grave, No Burial
“An album based around a fictional civil war was always going to be aggressive and desolate, and these are two moods that Perth’s Statues paint across a vast canvas. The fertile soil of Australia’s heavy scene has birthed many hardcore bands in recent years, and this five-piece are amongst the most progressive.”
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The Dark Element - The Dark Element
“For someone who’s long been regarded ‘controversial’, there’s very little in Anette Olzon’s (ex-Nightwish) new venture that could be considered so. Together with guitarist Jani Liimatainen (ex-Sonata Arctica), on The Dark Element the pair channel the power and melodrama of their former bands while doing away with orchestral complexity in favour of effervescent synths.” Read the full review | Buy the album
Converge, Cannibal Corpse and more: the best new metal albums out this week
