Heavy Music HQ Reviews: Week of September 20, 2024

This week’s Heavy Music HQ reviews include releases from Blighted Eye, Coffin Rot, Death By Gong, Dreamless Veil, Dungeon Crawl, Giant Walker, Glacial Tomb, Groza, Kanonenfieber, Michael Schenker, Odious Spirit, Seether, Sweet, Unto Others, Wings Denied and Winterfylleth.

The ratings are on a 5 star scale.

Blighted Eye – Agony’s Bespoke (Beyond The Top)

Blighted Eye have been deep into progressive death metal since their first EP, 2020’s Wretched, but their debut album, Agony’s Bespoke, has a transformative streak that wasn’t accounted for on their EP. Acoustic guitars and singing are utilized sparingly, making their inclusion one that isn’t used as a crutch. A holdover from Wretched is longer compositions, save for the minute-long interlude “Nightingale.”

By album’s end, the listener would have gone past the hour mark, experiencing a swarth of tempos and crafty guitar solos. Blighted Eye doesn’t give away much downtime even as songs near the double-digit mark. The members of the band are involved in other projects that range from black metal to tech death to funeral doom, and while this album isn’t any of those styles directly, there’s traces of all of them blended into their thoughtful death metal.

Rating: 3.5
(Dan Marsicano)

Coffin Rot – Dreams Of The Disturbed (Maggot Stomp)

Pacific Northwest death metal crew Coffin Rot’s second album is Dreams Of The Disturbed. On “Perverted Exhumation” the band do a great job of blending traditional death metal with doom and a flair for melodic into something unique and complex, even if it is covered in blood and dripping all the same. “Lurking in the Cemetery” is more death metal from a different era with some back-and-forth vocals that feel like Glen Benton and/or Corpsegrinder are in the room with you.

If you want death metal to be structurally straightforward and have flashes of personality both from the primordial ooze that birthed death metal and pieces of influences from other places, Coffin Rot will satisfy that carnal lust. Dreams Of The Disturbed provides the pummeling that autumn deserves.

Rating: 4
(Tom Campagna)

Death By Gong – Descalator (Crazysane)

The new band Death By Gong consists of veteran musicians Jobst M. Feit (Radare), Peter Voigtmann (ex-The Ocean) and Chris Breuer (Zahn/Heads). Voigtmann also produced the group’s debut album Escalator.

The band shifts from accessible alt rock songs like “Troy Toy” to electronic flavored tracks such as “Everything Is Given” to heavier but no less melodic numbers such as “Distant” and “Heavy Air.” Death By Gong utilize a varied musical palette that incorporates genres ranging from shoegaze to rock to pop to metal. The mellow vocals tie everything together, giving Descalator a cohesive feel as the band shifts tempos and intensities. The latter half of the record has some of its strongest songs, wrapping up with the catchy “In Despair.”

Rating: 3.5
(Chad Bowar)

Dreamless Veil – Every Limb Of The Flood (Relapse)

Dreamless Veil came together during the pandemic when Artificial Brain band members Dan Gargiulo and Mike Paparo were roommates. From the isolation and self-containment came Every Limb Of The Flood, an album lost in unimaginable pain. Paparo wrote the lyrics with a main character who goes by the name of Grief, which is as on the nose as it gets in expressing his thought process. The duo brings in Psycroptic drummer Dave Haley for that stiff rhythmic jab.

Black metal with death metal patches is Dreamless Veil’s aim, making this project stand away from their other ones. There’s an endless array of emotions, mostly negative, being worked through on Every Limb Of The Flood and the group makes it sink-or-swim for the listener. Either they will welcome the depression or become unable to process it; that’ll be the barometer that will land the band those willing and able.

Rating: 3.5
(Dan Marsicano)

Dungeon Crawl – Maze Controller (Carbonized)

Nothing is more metal than Dungeons and Dragons, and Dungeon Crawl show just that with their second album Maze Controller. With a delicate balance crafted between thrash and symphonic metal, it creates a unique but familiar blend for fans of both TableTop games and metal.

The mood is instantly set with “Roll For Initiative” as it captures your attention and sets the stage for the adventure you are about to partake in. The flow crescendos nicely into the title track where the spectacle is out on full display from harpsichords to wicked guitar solos. “The Forbidden Scrolls” capstones this album nicely with a fitting dungeon synth style instrumental. For this to be their second album, Dungeon Crawl have managed to stick the landing with Maze Controller, tapping into thematic elements not often covered by many mainstream acts, allowing them to pave the way for something truly unique.

Rating: 4
(Dalton Husher)

Giant Walker – Silhouettes (Church Road)

The UK prog band Giant Walker emerged with their debut album All In Good Time in 2022. Now, signed to Church Road Records, they are unveiling their second full-length, Silhouettes. Their style can be categorized as heavy prog rock, though they explore both mellower and heavier parts on the album.

This isn’t the type of progressive album that meanders, with the nine songs clocking in at under forty minutes. There are heavier tracks like “Make Me” and “Use On You” along with mellower songs such as the title track and “So You Say.” No matter the tempo, Giant Walker inject moments of prog alongside melodic and catchy songs. Vocalist Steff Fish utilizes a variety of styles as well, from soulful to poppy to rock-oriented. Silhouettes is both progressive and accessible.

Rating: 3.5
(Chad Bowar)

Glacial Tomb – Lightless Expanse (Prosthetic)

Sludge-infused death metal is the spot Glacial Tomb land in on their second album, Lightless Expanse. The five years between full-length releases has hardened the trio’s perspective both musically and lyrically. There’s no other way to look at a song like “Wound Of Existence,” with its incendiary riffs and rambunctious guitar solo. The latter is something the band puts more emphasis on, as solos are all over the record, a departure from their self-titled debut album.

Another change is that all the tracks are under five minutes. They haven’t forgotten about the sludge though, as the title track and “Stygian Abattoir” maneuver around it as an effective means of raising anticipation for the eventual descent into peak death metal. Lightless Expanse is a focused sophomore album that made good use of the years Glacial Tomb spent crafting it.

Rating: 4
(Dan Marsicano)

Groza – Nadir (AOP)

German black metal band Groza‘s third studio album is Nadir, a title that signifies the lowest point, the point of greatest adversity or despair. It leads to a 42-minute journey through fierce melancholic, nihilistic, and misanthropic black metal. Groza’s musical path, from Unified In Void to The Redemptive End and now Nadir, is a thought-provoking and impressive journey.

It showcases Groza’s ability to break free from dependencies to a particular sound of a particular band and embrace a tone that, while not entirely personal and unique, offers a comprehensive, dynamic perspective of modern nihilistic black metal. Nadir is well-written and well-executed. It is intense and burning, each song contributing to a cohesive album that serves as a powerful narrative of life’s darkest moments and human emotions. The last song, “Daffodils,” featuring members of Harakiri for the Sky and Karg, is a fitting conclusion to this narrative and one of the best album finishers of the year.

Rating: 4
(Arash Khosronejad)

Kanonenfieber – Der Urkatastrophe (Century Media)

Not many bands do war metal like Kanonenfieber. It’s not just that they’ve jumped on the WWI bandwagon like other bands; they’ve always had an interesting approach to black metal, one more rooted in melancholy and history than aggression itself. The same is true in Der Urkatastrophe.

The band uses its signature black n’ roll to portray one of the darkest periods of human history. It’s unrelenting but produced with elegant simplicity. Perhaps the only issue I find with the album is that it sounds a lot like everything else Kanonenfieber have released before. There’s no dramatic change to the formula. I don’t think the band needs to innovate dramatically, but it’d be interesting to hear them try something different. Either way, I still think Der Urkatastrophe is one of the most interesting black metal releases of 2024.

Rating: 4
(Carlos Tirado)

Michael Schenker – My Years With UFO (earMusic)

Legendary guitarist Michael Schenker spent several years with UFO in the ’70s. He appeared on numerous albums from 1974’s Phenomenon through 1979’s Strangers In The Night. He returned in the band in the mid-’90s, with 2002’s Sharks his last studio album with UFO. Now Schenker revisits those days with My Years With UFO.

It features an impressive lineup of guest musicians. The singers include Dee Snider, Joe Lynn Turner, Axl Rose, Jeff Scott Soto, Stephen Pearcy, Kai Hansen and more. Rose does a great job with “Love To Love,” while Soto’s pipes are perfect for “Lights Out” and Hansen shines on the epic “Rock Bottom.” Roger Glover, Carmine Appice, Slash and Adrian Vandenberg also appear on the album. My Years With UFO is an interesting trip back to Schenker’s youth, with a star-studded group of musicians honoring classic UFO songs.

Rating: 3.5
(Chad Bowar)

Odious Spirit – The Treason Of Consciousness (I, Voidhanger)

Odious Spirit blur their death/thrash metal to the point of falling to pieces on The Treason Of Consciousness. In the vein of a group like Krallice, Odious Spirit keeps the music buzzing along with intentional repetition. Even the four-minute “Gnawing The Fabric Of Time” feels like it could be doubled in length if the band wanted it to be without any major repercussions. The excitement in this is wondering how long they can keep it up for without collapsing in on itself.

At over 11 minutes, “The Hissing Pyre” tests this theory to the limit, trading flash in for mesmerizing fluidity. The instrumental “Illuminations” does this in an ambient way, though at the sacrifice of snipping the breakneck pace of The Treason Of Consciousness. It feels better suited as a coda to a merciless debut album instead of its current placement in the center of it all.

Rating: 3.5
(Dan Marsicano)

Seether – The Surface Seems So Far (Fantasy)

The gold and platinum records on their walls are testament to Seether’s ability to pen rock radio-baiting anthems. The U.S.-by-way-of-South African outfit have been at this caper for more than two decades, and The Surface Seems So Far is sure to satisfy their sizeable audience. Opener “Judas Mind” reinforces the group’s sound; a melange of hard rock, post-grunge and alternative rock. It’s also boasting a pop sensibility that’s propelled them to venue-filling stardom. Moody “Paint the World” and catchy “Illusion” are two of the stronger cuts, and it’s a heavier LP overall than recent efforts, with chunky riffs, angsty moments and screams peppered throughout.

But in many places, it’s also a finished product that, while well-executed and carefully honed, is sanitized and custom-built for airplay, without much in the way of real edginess. Country-tinged “Beneath the Veil,” for instance, feels as generic as Times New Roman font; ditto “Walls Come Down” and the Nirvana-lite of “Same Mistakes.” There are probably five potential singles here, which is a handful more than many other heavy rock acts currently treading the boards. But despite, or perhaps because of, this album’s rather homogenized feel, these songs still ought to continue the band’s chart domination.

Rating: 2.5
(Brendan Crabb)

Sweet – Full Circle (Metalville)

Lone original member, guitarist Andy Scott, keeps the Sweet banner flying on Full Circle, claiming this will be the band’s final album. As with most “legacy” acts still recording and touring into their fifth decade, these U.K. glam rock legends are mostly staffed by replacement players. Unfortunately, this effort bears little resemblance to Sweet’s over-the-top flamboyance of yore.

Not that Full Circle is a bad album by any stretch, but the combination of more serious-minded rock tunes and slick production on “Burning Like A Falling Star” and “Changes” has more in common with Def Leppard’s Hysteria than the glorious pomposity of Give Us A Wink. The chorus of “Everything” finally delivers something identifiable as Sweet, via the stupendously high falsetto harmonies. Ultimately, Scott and company deliver a solid hard rock album, but one lacking in what made the band so staggeringly unique in their heyday.

Rating: 3
(Gino Sigismondi)

Unto Others – Never, Neverland (Century Media)

Never, Neverland, the third album from Portland’s Unto Others is their latest foray into a mix of metal, goth, and hard rock. The album is complete with the wonderfully seductive vocals of lead singer Gabe Franco, who undoubtedly sounds more tremendous each time out, especially with the leaves falling from the trees.

“Butterfly” is a great opener that gives off gothic vibes while also being catchy enough to garner radio attention beyond the metal populous. The album offers 16 tracks in less than 50 minutes with only two of those tracks topping four minutes for maximum replay-ability. A special shout out to “Time Goes On” for properly marrying dark vibes and melody to a small reference to The Legend of Zelda in one of those full circle moments. Unto Others continue to harness their sound without feeling constrained to do the same thing repeatedly. Never, Neverland is a fun rock record that balances light and dark elements well.

Rating: 4
(Tom Campagna)

Wings Denied – Just The Basics (Self)

It has been a decade since Washington D.C.’s Wings Denied released their debut full-length Mirrors For A Prince. It took a while, but the band’s latest effort is Just The Basics.

There’s a connection between the two albums, with “Saudade” a lyrical continuation of “Six Years And A Day” from their debut. Variety is the name of the game on the album, with each track traversing a unique musical path. Heavy riffs drive “Black Legend” while “Lost In It All” is more free-form and “Lifebroker” relatively straightforward hard rock. Just The Basics showcases everything from prog rock to grunge to metal, making it a difficult album to categorize, but an easy one to enjoy.

Rating: 3.5
(Chad Bowar)

Winterfylleth – The Imperious Horizon (Candlelight)

The well-respected U.K. black metal band Winterfylleth had released a studio album every two years like clockwork starting with their 2008 debut The Ghost Of Heritage. However, there was a four year gap between The Reckoning Dawn and their eighth album The Imperious Horizon.

As on previous releases, the compositions are atmospheric and varied with a lot of dynamics and intense vocals from Chris Naughton. Short, focused songs like “The Edge Of Tyranny” and Emperor cover “The Majesty Of The Night Sky” are exceptions. Winterfylleth lean more toward epic songs that let them explore more musical territory. There are two versions of the album’s lengthiest track “In Silent Grace,” one with guest vocals from Primordial’s Alan Nemtheanga. Even the mellow instrumental “Earthen Sorrows” draws in the listener and avoids being mere filler. The Imperious Horizon was worth the wait, another in a long line of quality Winterfylleth albums.

Rating: 4
(Chad Bowar)