2021 - WeMetalheads

Cynic – Ascension Codes

November 26, 2021 Published by WeMetalheads

Country: USA
Style: Progressive metal
Label: Season of Mist
Release date: 26 November 2021

Ascension Codes is the fourth Cynic full-length and the first since 2014’s Kindly Bent to Free Us. It arrived after the band lost both former drummer Sean Reinert and longtime bassist Sean Malone in 2020, leaving Paul Masvidal to carry the name forward with new players. Matt Lynch handles drums and Dave Mackay covers the low end on bass synthesizer and keys, which changes the band’s sound more than any lineup shuffle before it.

The record is built as one long flow. Short numbered interludes sit between the proper songs, so it plays more like a suite than a tracklist. “Mythical Serpents” is the centrepiece, six minutes of glassy guitar figures and Masvidal’s soft, treated vocal floating over Lynch’s busy, precise drumming. “Architects of Consciousness” has the most bite, and “Diamond Light Body” closes the main arc on a warm, almost hopeful note.

Anyone waiting for the death metal side of Focus to return will be waiting a long time. This is Cynic as prog rock with a metal pulse, and the synth bass makes it smoother and stranger at once. Some of the interludes feel like padding. The songs themselves are beautiful, and given what the band went through to finish it, the calm at the heart of the album hits harder than any blast beat would.

Best tracks:

Mythical Serpents
Architects of Consciousness
In a Multiverse Where Atoms Sing
Diamond Light Body

Author’s rating: 8.4/10

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Black Label Society – Doom Crew Inc.

November 26, 2021 Published by WeMetalheads

Country: USA
Style: Heavy metal / Groove metal
Label: eOne
Release date: 26 November 2021

Doom Crew Inc. is Black Label Society’s eleventh album, recorded at Zakk Wylde’s Black Vatican studio and named as a tribute to the band’s road crew. It sounds exactly like you hope: thick, sludgy riffs, wah pedal on everything, and Wylde howling over the top.

The difference this time is Dario Lorina. Wylde set it up as a proper two-guitar record, and the trading solos and harmony lines give songs like “Set You Free” and “Destroy & Conquer” more lift than the last couple of albums had. “End of Days” is the heaviest groove here, and the ballads, especially closer “Farewell Ballad”, are as sincere as ever.

Twelve songs and very few surprises. Nobody comes to BLS for surprises.

Best tracks:

Set You Free
Destroy & Conquer
End of Days
Farewell Ballad

Author’s rating: 7.8/10

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Swallow The Sun – Moonflowers

November 19, 2021 Published by WeMetalheads

Country: Finland
Style: Death-doom / Gothic metal
Label: Century Media
Release date: 19 November 2021

Swallow The Sun have never been a cheerful band, and Moonflowers is one of their heaviest records emotionally. Juha Raivio even painted the moon on the cover with his own blood. That tells you most of what you need to know about the mood.

Musically it’s their familiar mix of crushing death-doom, gothic melancholy and Mikko Kotamäki switching between deep growls and fragile clean singing. “Moonflowers Bloom In Misery” sets the tone, “Enemy” is the most immediate song, and “Woven Into Sorrow”, with backing growls from Stam1na’s Antti Hyyrynen, is as bleak as the title promises.

Oceans of Slumber’s Cammie Gilbert guests on “All Hallows’ Grieve”, and her voice gives the album its most beautiful moment. The deluxe edition adds the whole album again in classical versions with strings by Trio NOX, which is worth hearing at least once.

It’s long and slow, and some songs blur together. But nobody does this kind of grief quite like them.

Best tracks:

Moonflowers Bloom In Misery
Enemy
Woven Into Sorrow
All Hallows’ Grieve

Author’s rating: 8.4/10

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Obscura – A Valediction

November 19, 2021 Published by WeMetalheads

Country: Germany
Style: Technical death metal / Progressive death metal
Label: Nuclear Blast
Release date: 19 November 2021

Steffen Kummerer brought back guitarist Christian Münzner and fretless bassist Jeroen Paul Thesseling for A Valediction, with David Diepold on drums, and you can hear the reunion straight away. That rubbery fretless bass is all over these songs again, sliding around under the riffs instead of just doubling them.

It is also the most melodic and compact Obscura record yet. Fredrik Nordström mixed and mastered it, and the sound is bright and punchy rather than clinical. “Solaris” is short, tight, hooky tech death, and the title track has a chorus melody that sticks after one spin. “When Stars Collide” goes furthest, with Soilwork’s Björn “Speed” Strid adding clean vocals over a lead line that would not be out of place on a melodeath record.

Not everyone will love how polished it is. The opener “Forsaken” still delivers the technical fireworks, and “Devoured Usurper” is pure fretboard violence. Eliran Kantor’s cover is gorgeous as well. A strong, very listenable record from a band that easily could have fallen apart.

Best tracks:

Forsaken
Solaris
A Valediction
When Stars Collide
Devoured Usurper

Author’s rating: 8.7/10

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Exodus – Persona Non Grata

November 19, 2021 Published by WeMetalheads

Country: USA
Style: Thrash metal
Label: Nuclear Blast
Release date: 19 November 2021

Seven years after Blood In, Blood Out, Exodus came back with Persona Non Grata, a record that was pushed back by drummer Tom Hunting’s health battle and the vinyl pressing jam of 2021. You’d never guess any of that from how it sounds. This is Bay Area thrash played by people who are clearly still having a blast.

The title track kicks the door in, and “R.E.M.F.” keeps the pace savage. Gary Holt and Lee Altus trade riffs that feel like they were written to start pits, and Zetro sounds as nasty as he did in the eighties. “The Beatings Will Continue (Until Morale Improves)” is the obvious anthem, all gang shouts and mean groove. “Clickbait” is snotty and funny.

It’s long at twelve songs, and a couple of tracks could have been trimmed. But Andy Sneap’s mix is massive without sounding plastic, Pär Olofsson’s cover is gloriously over the top, and the riffs just don’t stop coming. Self-produced, loud and proud. Exodus at full strength.

Best tracks:

Persona Non Grata
R.E.M.F.
The Beatings Will Continue (Until Morale Improves)
Clickbait

Author’s rating: 8.7/10

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Silent Planet – Iridescent

November 12, 2021 Published by WeMetalheads

Country: USA
Style: Progressive metalcore
Label: Solid State Records / UNFD
Release date: 12 November 2021

Silent Planet have always written metalcore with more on its mind than breakdowns, and Iridescent pushes that further than anything they’ve done. Twelve tracks, a lot of them dealing with mental health, and Garrett Russell’s screams sound genuinely unhinged in places.

What surprised me most is how cinematic it gets without going soft. “Panopticon” is a dense, heavy dystopia with a riff that just won’t quit. “Terminal” flows straight into the short interlude that follows it, and the pairing hits like one long track. Then “Anhedonia” lands one of the best choruses of the year.

There are electronic textures and ambient pauses all over the record, but they work as breathing room before the next impact rather than filler. “Till We Have Faces” and the title track close things on a bleak, oddly beautiful note.

Honestly, this is the record where Silent Planet stopped being a well-kept secret. Heavy, smart, and painful in the right way.

Best tracks:

Panopticon
Terminal
Anhedonia
Till We Have Faces

Author’s rating: 8.8/10

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Omnium Gatherum – Origin

November 5, 2021 Published by WeMetalheads

Country: Finland
Style: Melodic death metal
Label: Century Media
Release date: 5 November 2021

Omnium Gatherum have never been shy about melody, and Origin leans into it harder than ever. This is glossy, keyboard-rich melodic death metal with choruses you can hum after one listen. “Prime” and “Paragon” come out swinging, Jukka Pelkonen’s growl sitting on top of Markus Vanhala’s bright, singing leads.

“Reckoning” is the obvious single and deserves to be. Then there is “Solemn”, a slow-building piece that lets the band stretch out and finally breathe. Some fans will find the whole thing too polished. Fair enough. But the songwriting is tight and the hooks are real, and on a cold night “Tempest” does exactly what it promises.

Best tracks:

Reckoning
Paragon
Tempest
Solemn

Author’s rating: 8.2/10

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Whitechapel – Kin

October 29, 2021 Published by WeMetalheads

Country: USA
Style: Deathcore / Groove metal
Label: Metal Blade Records
Release date: 29 October 2021

Kin is Whitechapel’s eighth full-length and continues the story told on 2019’s The Valley. Mark Lewis is back in the producer’s chair, David Castillo mixed it, and the result is the band’s most varied record so far.

The deathcore backbone is still there on “Lost Boy” and “Anticure”, but “A Bloodsoaked Symphony” and “Orphan” lean on melody and clean-sung hooks the early Whitechapel would never have touched. The title track closes things heavy and wistful. Not every turn lands, yet the risks mostly pay off.

Best tracks:

Lost Boy
A Bloodsoaked Symphony
Orphan
Anticure

Author’s rating: 8.4/10

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Mastodon – Hushed and Grim

October 29, 2021 Published by WeMetalheads

Country: USA
Style: Progressive metal / Sludge metal
Label: Reprise Records
Release date: 29 October 2021

Hushed and Grim is a Mastodon double album with fifteen songs across two discs. It was produced by David Bottrill and made in the shadow of the death of the band’s longtime manager and friend Nick John, who died in 2018. That loss is all over it.

This is the band at their most patient. “Pain with an Anchor” opens on a lurching groove, “Sickle and Peace” turns into one of their best progressive workouts in years, and “Teardrinker” is a genuinely sad, melodic single that hits harder than you’d expect. On “Had It All” Soundgarden’s Kim Thayil adds a guest solo that fits the mood perfectly.

Not everything earns its length. The second disc has a couple of tracks that wander, and you can feel the album sag before “Gigantium” pulls it back together with a slow, huge closing build.

Still, at its best this is the most emotional Mastodon has ever sounded, and the riffs remain very much theirs. Give it a few full listens. It needs them.

Best tracks:

Pain with an Anchor
Sickle and Peace
Teardrinker
Had It All
Gigantium

Author’s rating: 8.6/10

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Archspire – Bleed the Future

October 29, 2021 Published by WeMetalheads

Country: Canada
Style: Technical death metal
Label: Season of Mist
Release date: 29 October 2021

Bleed the Future is Archspire’s fourth album, eight songs of near-absurd speed. The Canadian band worked with producer Dave Otero again, and his clean, punchy sound keeps every note audible, which matters a lot when Oliver Rae Aleron is spitting syllables like a machine gun.

“Drone Corpse Aviator” opens at full tilt and “Golden Mouth of Ruin” is the one everybody remembers, with Spencer Prewett’s drumming somehow staying human at tempos most bands wouldn’t dare. The title track and “Acrid Canon” prove they can write real hooks inside all that chaos.

It’s over in just over half an hour, and that’s exactly right. Any longer and it would flatten you. Eliran Kantor’s cover art is the cherry on top.

Best tracks:

Golden Mouth of Ruin
Drone Corpse Aviator
Bleed the Future
Acrid Canon

Author’s rating: 8.9/10

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Tag: 2021

Cynic – Ascension Codes

Black Label Society – Doom Crew Inc.

Swallow The Sun – Moonflowers

Obscura – A Valediction

Exodus – Persona Non Grata

Silent Planet – Iridescent

Omnium Gatherum – Origin

Whitechapel – Kin

Mastodon – Hushed and Grim

Archspire – Bleed the Future

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