Hello. I don’t know who you are, but hello. You might know who I am, or at least, you might know how I present myself on this blog. The chance that you know who I am is substantially smaller. Some people online know what I look like, what my full name is, etc. But even they don’t know me in person. I don’t think anyone who I know in person reads this blog, so the chance that you know me is very small (unless you’re that one person I met at a photography festival once with the Enslaved – RIITIIR hoody whom I shilled Hands of Despair to). What?? This doesn’t have anything to do with you, nor much with this blog. I’m just speaking in hypotheticals about myself (always good to talk about yourself, innit?). Clearly, I’m back on my bullshit.
But what else am I to talk about? Explain to you that the best albums of this month are good, and that you should listen to them? That these albums are good in a slightly slightly different fashion than that all previous albums of the month were good? That my underwear is on the place it should be instead of using it as an excuse not to buy earwarmers to compensate for the times I’m not wearing my headphones and my ears are freezing off because it’s cold outside? I’ve never done that, and I suspect it’s not an ideal strategy either. But let’s not completely go off on a nonsensical tangent. Originally I wrote a lengthy piece of associative nonsense that eventually concluded that wearing underwear on your head would lead to enlightenment, but Chris told me it was a bit too much BS, so (with some pain in my heart) I scrapped it. This is a music blog after all, not a place for me to dump lengthy associative rambles.
With that said, there actually are some more serious topics to discuss, and they are on-topic. This December month actually hosted some very high quality releases. Often December is a time for end-of-year lists, but I’ve never been a fan of that. To properly assess a year one cannot be in the year. It must pass first to observe and analyze it. Look at the things you missed, go over all your favorites again, and also absorb what has come out recently. There is always tons of good stuff in December that gets left out on these lists because they haven’t had any time to sink in yet. And this December is no exception to that. We have presented five excellent releases for you to sink your teeth into, and I hope you’ll enjoy them just as much as we did.
Royal Hunt – Dystopia (Denmark)
Style: Prog Metal, Symphonic/Power (Clean Vocals)
Pick by: Sebastian
Royal Hunt is a pretty old but respected band in the prog metal scene, but are fairly underrepresented as far as young listeners go. I want to be one to convince anyone who is into symphonic power metal to check this album out. It is a concept album about Ray Bradbury’s dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 where the protagonist must escape a society bent on eliminating all knowledge by burning every book. This album’s musical strengths are in its strong vocal choruses, energetic guitar solos and a gorgeous backing symphony. When one imagines an ideal album of these subgenres categories, Dystopia easily fits into that upper echelon of this area.
You can read the original review here.
Recommended tracks: Burn, The Eye of Oblivion, Black Butterflies
Recommended for fans of: Symphony X, Vanden Plas, Shadow Gallery
Growth – The Smothering Arms of Mercy (Australia)
Style: Technical/Avant-garde Death Metal (harsh vocals)
Pick by: Callum
This was the most demanding record to review in 2020 during my, albeit short, tenure reviewing for the blog. It’s a dense and chaotic riff-fest that gains inertia throughout the record despite starting fast and heavy from the get go. This unstoppable weight comes not just from the absolutely crushing riffs and relentless vocal performance from Luke Frizon (ex-Jack The Stripper), but also emotional weight from the main concept. Based on the reflections of someone suffering mental tribulations in psychiatric care, the themes are serious and approached with due respect.
The record is generally filled with angular riffs and jagged rhythms, although there is a good amount of variety between the straight forward big riffs, calmer moments of reflection and respite between the predominant absolutely nuts sections that are almost impossible to keep track of. The final three tracks are especially exemplary of the impressive and fresh songwriting Growth brings in their debut.
You can read the original review here.
Recommended tracks: Soul Rot, Something Follows, Gird Your Loved in Armour While Yet You Wither (in that order)
Recommended for fans of: Ulcerate, Gorguts, Car Bomb
Cryptodira – The Angel of History (US-NY)
Style: Progressive Death/Post-Metal (Mixed vocals)
Pick by: Chris
This was one of those albums that comes right at the end of the year, and blows a lot of stuff you had settled on as your top 5 of the year out of the water. Similar to their previous album, Cryptodira employ mathcore, jazz, death, progressive metal, and -core styles without sounding like 5 different bands and keeping things cohesive. This album has that Between the Buried and Me esque chaos factor, but also a real nice focus on more post-rock elements and melody. They employ a triple vocal attack that brings about some amazing moments, and the lyrics and delivery of said lyrics bring the written aspect of the band to the forefront much more than your average album.
This is an album that is lighter in nature than their previous, but it is no less heavy and dense when it wants to be. It has superb writing and thought put into it, and Cryptodira really bring home their ability to do basically anything they want in a song while still sounding like themselves. The Angel of History is album of the year worthy, and I promise that you’ll see it again somewhere on that list from this blog.
You can read the original review here.
Recommended tracks: Dante’s Inspiration, A Tendency to Fail, What Can’t Be Taken Back
Recommended for fans of: Between the Buried and Me, The Dillinger Escape Plan
Dawnwalker – Ages (UK)
Style: Post-metal (mixed vocals)
Pick by: Evan
There is a lot of post-metal. Fortunately, there is also a substantial amount of good post-metal, a group of bands of which Dawnwalker is a prime example. Ages is exactly what you would expect from a competent post-metal release: slow builds, mixed vocals, atmospheric interludes, etc. Dawnwalker truly understands how songwriting works in this genre. Despite a run time of almost an hour, and multiple tracks over ten minutes, the album remains captivating throughout. The concept of a dying world with disaster on the horizon is expertly captured through the climaxes of each track.
Dawnwalker has more than just good songwriting to offer: the album has some potent riffing (namely at the start of “Ancient Sands”), a solid vocal performance, and a unique folky tint. If you haven’t heard of this album yet (it got quite a bit of traction on other publications too) then it is definitely worth checking out.
You can read the original review here.
Recommended tracks: The Wheel, Ancient Sands, Colony / A Gathering
Recommended for fans of: Mastodon, Isis, The Ocean
The Advent Equation – Remnants of Oblivion (Mexico)
Style: Traditional Prog Metal, Melodeath (mixed vocals)
Pick by: Sebastian
Labeling this album with a genre is complicated. And do not be fooled by the album cover. I’m not sure if it’s quite heavy enough for prog death, but it has a lot of death metal moments for it to be just considered normal progressive metal. There is a fine line somewhere in our imagination that separates one label from another, and that line is different depending on the person.
Either way though, both parties would be able to agree that this is an excellent progressive metal album. Anyone who is a fan of the concept of progressive metal as a genre would find something they like about this album, because there are honestly too many influences in it to be named. Their songwriting is exceptional. Remnants of Oblivion has well written, heavy riffs and overall stellar instrumental synergy. This is a synth and keyboard heavy album as well, so that can make or break the experience, but Imo, it is done very well. Check it out if it sounds like something you would enjoy.
You can read the original review here.
Recommended tracks: Patterns of Spiraling Reality, An Eternal Moment
Recommended for fans of: Circus Maximus, Green Carnation, Persefone, Opeth
0 Comments