A Hungarian solo project with an extremely low profile, Faded Remembrance nonetheless deserves your attention this month, not least for adding a very rare instrumental combo to fairly melodic death doom. I mean, you wouldn’t expect trumpet and trombone to add a gothic touch to the songs on this sophomore release, but indeed they imbue songs like “Daydreaming of Salvation” with an epic medieval touch, improved by slightly rough and wavering recording quality. For listeners who worship the creative energy of European metal at the start of the ‘90s, Faded Remembrance will bring it all flooding back. (Edmund Morton)
Kerrigan’s debut LP Bloodmoon is an incredible addition to the ever-growing corpus of traditional heavy metal. The German duo have put together a masterful rookie release – one that will be very hard to top should they decide to follow it up down the road. It’s a nearly flawless record, with every track delivering rapid-fire riffs and catchy hooks the whole way through. But the real allure of Bloodmoon is the haunting, open harmonies that are stitched into the fabric of every track, and a pristine production that sets them in place as a counterbalance to the ferocity of the instruments. Without a doubt, this is a strong contender for the best heavy metal album this year. (Dave Hodges)
Soen’s sixth studio album is yet another masterpiece in a catalogue that is growing to be one of the most impressive and consistent in the prog metal genre. In many ways, Memorial continues the sonic evolution the Swedes had started with their previous LP Imperial, mixing Scandinavian melancholy with a hefty dose of hard-hitting American alt-metal goodness. In fact, this may as well be the heaviest opus Soen have released thus far. The fury and raw energy that pervade the songwriting is simply infectious, making this a very likely candidate to top my end-of-year album list. (Daniele Nosenzo)
I haven’t been taken by so much in the thrash vein recently, but Terminalist really stood out from first listen. Especially for anyone who finds Voivod a little too arty and weird or who now considers Vektor a dirty word, this bunch of Danes offer the solution with their second album, The Crisis as Condition. Ultra-tight riffing with attention to speed, groove, and technicality, tricky shredding solos, crisp rhythmic vocals, and even a slick sense of catchiness at times – it’s difficult to find anything missing. And since the album ends with a 10 minute epic, I’m going to say that’s because Terminalist have it all. (Edmund Morton)
Ever since the release of Altered State TesseracT has seemed like a band treading water. Altered State was a pinnacle, Polaris was weak, and Sonder was fine? But nothing overly impressive. For the new album it really feels like they’ve gone back to their sound from One. The compositions sound more complete, the hooks are there, but they’re not the center focus of the songs like on Polaris. This is a dense and interesting album, I’m not going to pretend I’ve come even close to truly plumbing its depths. But I can tell you that this is the return to form most of us have been waiting for. It’ll never be as good as Altered State, but that was almost a different band. This is the true follow up to One that we never really got (unless you listen to Daniel’s solo projects). (Ian Yeara)
