The May assortment of albums. Seven metal albums and a punk rock... but plenty of catchy and pop-like music. It was a rather good month, even if the end-of-the-semester period is crazy for me, and I haven't got the time to properly listen to new music.
Korpiklaani: Noita
I'm only an occasional listener of folk metal, and while I like Ensiferum and Turisas a lot, Korpiklaani just never appealed to me all that much. This is a very fine album if you enjoy folk metal, even though some songs get repetitive after a while.
Kamelot: Haven
Oh yeah, the melodic kinda genres. Normally, I'm only a moderate fan of power metal, but when it's paired with the kind of instrumentalisation Kamelot's known for, I'm a huge sucker for it. It's cheesy in a slightly over-the-top-gothic way, and I unashamedly love that. This is not their best album, but a very decent expected Kamelot quality. Fun with a hint of seriousness.
Listen to: Veil of Elysium, End of Innocence, Revolution
Arcturus: Arcturian
(I love this artwork a lot. It's a real piece of art. It's perfect)
This is what I talk about when I talk about good progressive metal. I'm pretty sure this is my favourite record to come out in May. It's interesting musically, be it the composition or the themes themselves. It has just that perfect fluctuating mood which is so great about the kind of progressive metal which isn't only about the technical prerequisites of the genre. It's not straight up prog metal, clearly taking some black metal influences, which is exactly what makes this band so great.
Listen to: The Arcturian Sign, Crashland, Game Over
Veil of Maya: Matriarch
This is the hundredth time I lose all my metal cred, but - I still like poppy metalcore. Granted, Veil of Maya used to fall more into the deathcore/djent variety, which I do dislike. I never listened to them before. But, when I saw the tracklist, I just knew I had to check this record out - each and every song is titled after a female character, how cool is that? And since they've taken a turn into metalcore territory, it's listenable to me; in fact, it's kind of catchy in the good way.
Cain's Offering: Stormcrow
This is some serious cheese. I'm not kidding, proceed with caution. It's thoroughly great, straightforward, traditional power metal of that kind, so fans of the genre will not be disappointed. It's an even more fun album than Kamelot's, and even though I'm less of a fan of this particular genre, I still enjoyed it a lot.
Pyramaze: Disciples of the Sun
A little quality music to balance out the cheese-fest and the poppy albums. A heavier power metal offering, it's a fantastic balance between something more technical and the expected majesty of the genre. It's incredibly catchy while never feeling like it let's up on the seriousness of metal, and all that without sounding pretentious.
Obsequiae: Aria of Vernal Tombs
I think this is the most obscure stuff on this list, but it's also one of the best. My recent obsession with atmospheric and melodic death metal surely has something to do with it, but I do think this album is awesome. It's probably the one record which is really best appreciated as a whole - it has a very good composition, and the whole experience is just entirely different when listening to it like that.
Anti-Flag: American Spring
And a punk rock record for the end. Yeah, I only listen to sell-out bands or whatever - but as much as I like punk, it's for completely different reasons than metal. Punk rock as a strictly music genre does jackshit for me - it's unarguably not the epitome of music as far as sounds go. I listen to it for a little middle-class anger and catchy hooks and the energizing flow of the music. For that reason, this is just perfect. This world's going to shit right now anyway.
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