This week’s Heavy Music HQ reviews include releases from Advent Horizon, Antimozdebeast, Artillery, Crown Lands, The Ghoulstars, Jungle Rot, Junon, Lorn, Louder, Pro-Pain, Revenge Ritual and See You Next Tuesday & Chop X7,
The ratings are on a 5-star scale.
Advent Horizon – Falling Together (Self)
On Falling Together, U.S. progressive rock outfit Advent Horizon turn the lens inward, asking one of the most unsettling questions a person can pose: Are the beliefs I hold mine? Vocalist and primary songwriter Rylee McDonald spent over a decade re-examining value instilled in her during childhood, and that process of unraveling gives the album its backbone. This isn’t prog for technical showmanship; it’s prog in service of something deeply personal.
The album opens with its most audacious statement, the nineteen-minute “In A Lone And Dreary World,” a patient, emotionally layered thesis that announces exactly what kind of record this is. What follows balances compositional ambition with genuine accessibility. Songs like “Faith’s Window” and “Past Life Parable” examine inherited religion and social identity with honesty rather than contempt. The closing track “Animals” arrives at something resembling a conclusion without sacrificing complexity. What sets Falling Together apart is its refusal to let elaborate arrangements become a distraction. Every musical choice serves the emotional arc. This is a band that knows what it wants to say and says it compellingly.
Rating: 3
(Jeanetta Briski)
Antimozdebeast – The Vagrant Unkempt Grave (Self)
Gabriel Palacio formed the industrial black metal project Antimozdebeast several years ago, and has been very prolific. His latest album is The Vagrant Unkempt Grave. The proceedings begin with the 15 minute “Solitude” that shifts from stifling, intense metal to a droney interlude and back to the electronics.
None of the songs are straightforward, utilizing something out of the ordinary, whether it be heavy effects on the vocals, cacophonous experimentation or an abrasive instrumental. The Vagrant Unkempt Grave closes as it began, with “Conclave” another lengthy and varied track. Creativity and chaos abound on the album, but melodies are in short supply.
Rating: 3
(Chad Bowar)
Artillery – Made In Hell (Mighty)
Danish metal veterans Artillery return with a current snapshot of the band. Two brand new tracks, a track from their 1985 debut album Fear Of Tomorrow re-recorded with the current lineup and a live version of a song, also taken from Fear Of Tomorrow are neatly packaged into an EP.
Martin Steene (ex-Iron Fire) has a slightly more abrasive singing style than his predecessor Michael Bastholm-Dahl, but the style of Artillery – a mix of aggression with melody and tempo changes – is still recognizable. Onto that add some wild guitars and a solid rhythm section, making Made In Hell a promising indication of Artillery’s next full length.
Rating: 3.5
(Chris Galea)
Crown Lands – Apocalypse (InsideOut)
After issuing a couple of well-received prog rock albums, the Canadian duo Crown Lands went in a different direction. They released two instrumental albums last year. For their latest opus Apocalypse, the vocals are back, as they self-produced much of it along with collaborating with Nick Raskulinecz (Foo Fighters, Rush, Deftones) and David Bottrill (Tool, Mastodon).
Vocalist/drummer Cody Bowles has a potent set of pipes and a high range, giving the songs a distinctive sound. Most of the songs are streamlined as they inject plenty of hooks, both classic and modern vibes and progressive forays into a 4-ish minute song. The exception is the 19-minute closing title track. It unfolds slowly with plenty of shifts in tempo and texture and an ample supply of creative instrumental prog sections that help maintain interest throughout its gargantuan length. Apocalypse should help bring more global attention from prog fans to a very talented band.
Rating: 3.5
(Chad Bowar)
The Ghoulstars – The Dark Overlords Of The Universe (Season Of Mist)
What do you get when you let Finnish pop-culture junkies form a band with the style and musings of White Zombie? You get The Ghoulstars and their debut album The Dark Overlords Of The Universe, named after the 1986 cult classic Howard The Duck.
The album has a quaint low budget horror movie feeling that adds a little charm and helps it stand out among its contemporaries. With tracks like “Zombie Apocalypse” using lines from Night Of The Living Dead and “Graverobber From Outer Spce” paying its homage to Ed Wood’s Plan 9 From Outer Space to the backing of clean yet brutal riffs shows that you can have fun with the genre and still keep it heavy.
Rating: 3.5
(Dalton Husher)
Jungle Rot – Cruel Face Of War (Unique Leader)
Longstanding death metal collective Jungle Rot‘s twelfth album is Cruel Face Of War, the follow-up to 2022’s A Call To Arms. The band has had a relatively consistent career of churning out solid death metal with the occasional turn towards more thrash-oriented riffs and overall pace.
“Apocalyptic Dawn” is a fun opener that ups the ante and keeps the listener’s head moving throughout. On “Maniacal” the grooves slow down and allow you to catch your breath all and maintaining the proper level of heaviness, while vocalist Dave Matrise properly shreds his vocals. If you are a fan of Jungle Rot, you will get exactly what you want, an album chock full of vicious death metal riffs and a true yeoman’s job to traditional, meat and potatoes death metal. Cruel Face Of War is a solid entry into the band’s discography.
Rating: 3.5
(Tom Campagna)
Junon – The Golden Citadel Of The Astral Sphere (I, Voidhanger)
Junon’s The Golden Citadel Of The Astral Sphere is the kind of black metal hallucinogens were made for. This German group are a trippy bunch, taking feral music and jabbing it with repetitive motions. The 21-minute closer “Dolorosa” takes that to the extreme, almost daring a listener to give up before it’s over.
The hypnotic “Inanitas Cedit Profundo (Die Leere Weicht Der Tiefe)” precedes this finale with something of an elaborate introduction of forceful chanting and raspy spoken word passages. “Unterm Glutmond” is as traditional as Junon attempts to be, though there is a spot for quirky antics in a vocal performance akin to a Broadway star freaking out on mushrooms. The Golden Citadel Of The Astral Sphere is certainly atypical black metal, tying its eccentricities in a psychedelic package.
Rating: 3
(Dan Marsicano)
Lorn – Searing Blood (I, Voidhanger)
Lorn have reversed course on Searing Blood, hearkening back to when they were fully invested in instinctual black metal. That isn’t to say that the band, which now consists of multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Radok and a session drummer, have tossed aside the lessons learned from their last few albums, including 2017’s trippy Arrayed Claws. Brisk synths weave through “Gallows” and “Ordo Draconis.”
Searing Blood works from all angles, whether a monstrous assault like “Haderburg” or an atmospheric jaunt in the 11-minute “Leuchtenburg.” The distinction between these songs is what makes Lorn’s fourth album a way for the group to reconnect with their past while staying transfixed on a future that hopefully leads towards added prolificacy.
Rating: 4
(Dan Marsicano)
Louder – Devil’s Night (Fighter)
Devil’s Night, the debut album from the Colombian speed metal band Louder is a pummeling and vicious recording, but at the same time, traditionally laced. You’ll hear influences of bands like Motorhead in their sound. There is a very old school flavor to the songs, which have nefarious themes and cruise by at a fast pace, but sound generic. The raw feeling the album offers isn’t entirely promising.
The musicianship is good, but does not have the technical capabilities to pull off anything amazing. The flaw of Devil’s Night is that it sounds archaic, and compared to modern albums, this comes up somewhat flat. There is a vicious feeling to the songs at times and there is some charisma, but overall this is an underwhelming album.
Rating: 2.5
(Adam McAuley)
Pro-Pain – Stone Cold Anger (Napalm)
More than a decade has elapsed since the last album from NYHC legends Pro-Pain. Stone Cold Anger features the return of guitarist Eric Klinger, previously in the band from 1999 to 2007 and last appeared on Age Of Tyranny – The Tenth Crusade.
Pro-Pain have not lost an ounce of anger or aggressiveness in the lengthy span between albums. As always, Gary Meskil delivers the lyrics with passion and emotion. The songs aren’t breaking any new ground, but they change things up enough to keep the momentum going. Songs like the title track and “Uncle Sam Wants You” are anthemic and memorable while keeping the intensity ratcheted up. Stone Cold Anger is a welcome return for a band that has been filling pits since the early ’90s.
Rating: 3.5
(Chad Bowar)
Revenge Ritual – Arbitrary Punishment (Horror Pain Gore Death)
Arbitrary Punishment is not a name Revenge Ritual takes lightly for their debut album, dishing it out by various means. Crackling feedback is a big one for them, sometimes taking up over a minute of a song like it does on the self-titled closer. For “Killing Fields” and “A Passion For Murder,” it’s a shot of death metal fury.
There are sludgy tones ringing off of “Liars Guilt” and “Razorwire,” and dour acoustic guitars are used on the interlude “Throes.” Revenge Ritual doesn’t expect a major time commitment from a listener, as Arbitrary Punishment is over just as it gets past the 20-minute mark. Each song has something new to offer, a feat considering how quickly the record flies by.
Rating: 3.5
(Dan Marsicano)
See You Next Tuesday & Chop7times – Brothers (Sundown)
Michigan grinders See You Next Tuesday have teamed up with the one-man noisegrind act Chop Chop Chop Chop Chop Chop Chop, aka Chop7times for the collaborative album Brothers. Because there are ten tracks, you may assume it’s a full-length, but it’s definitely an EP with many songs under a minute and the longest barely 90 seconds.
With their pedigrees, intensity is expected and delivered in these songs. However, there are some mellower moments, like on the acoustic instrumentals “There Was Never Such A Time” and “Imperfect Flesh” along with the intro of the industrial-tinged “Thicker Than Blood.” Those are contrasted by crushing heaviness, swirling chaos and throat-shredding vocals on much of the EP. Brothers is an effective collaboration that flies by quickly and demands repeat plays.
Rating: 3
(Chad Bowar)
