September first and foremost means 'back to university', or as we say, sleepless nights and long commutes. Both give to long hauls of listening to music, either to tune out the melody of Budapest's infamous metro 3 line, or to keep me from going crazy as I pull yet another all-nighter. September this time round was a great month for metal, even if I'm still hung up on a few summer albums. (Specifically Be'lakor's Vessels, and Thrawsunblat's Metachthonia.)
Heaven Shall Burn: Wanderer
I'm only moderately fond of metalcore, but there's something in the radio-friendly tunes that keeps you up at 3 am with a project. Good metalcore has those moments and songs full of youthful energy; and there are good moments like that on Wanderer. Overall it's less diverse than what I'd like, but it's a good record. The stuff that casual listeners of metal usually bump into, and for that it's perfect.
Barishi: Blood from the Lion's Mouth
Blood from the Lion's Mouth is a rather oppressive-sounding progressive metal record, full of nice little melodic touches, and dramatic moments. It's surprising and fresh and the ideas are nicely fleshed out, but not drawn out too long. Anyone who appreciates and is searching for good progressive metal should check it out.
Neurosis: Fires Within Fires
Now, this is not the record that keeps you up at 3 am. Generally I don't think that's what sludge metal us supposed to do, so one can't really fault the record for that. The progressive leaning make this interesting to me, however, the vocals are a bit of a drawback - to me, they sound really uninspired. I think fans of sludge metal would love it, and it's a good record through which to get acquainted with the genre and its more modern branches.
Insomnium: Winter's Gate
Winter's Gate was the album I most looked forward to out of all the records of 2016. This shouldn't surprise anyone who knows me or my blog at least in passing; I probably love the band too much to ever say anything objective about them. ((But then, what is an objective critique of art anyway, doesn't that miss the point of art, but pointers, history, music theory, etcetera whatever.)) I know that Shadows of the Dying Sun, which I dearly love wasn't universally well-received by critics, whilst Winter's Gate was almost unequivocally lauded everywhere.
While I don't love this record more than the previous record, I can tell the difference. Being a concept album of a 40-minute song, its composition and the progression of the album, both the story and the musical arch, is smoother and more engaging. In many ways it's a truer melodic death metal record, completely lacking the pop-esque fillers à la Lose to Night or Collapsing Words (or the clean vocals). What is even more impressive that while it's easily a trademark Insomnium album, it is by no means a rehashing of any older material. It sounds completely new, rich in ideas, yet not unlike themselves. I honestly recommend it to everybody who loves metal, especially Scandinavian death and melodic death.
Listen to: There are highlights - the galloping lead intro in Part 2, the variations onward 4 minutes in part 3, the guitars around 4 minutes in Part 6, or the heartbreakingly beautiful outro of Part 7 with the whispered vocals - but this record is really best listened to as a whole.
Alcest: Kodama
The only reason I wasn't crazy waiting for this album is because I went crazy waiting for Winter's Gate. The first time in my life I listened to a short interview with frontman Neige, and I really shouldn't have, as this grown-ass man seemed so genuine and excited talking about incorporating themes from Miyazaki-movies, specifically Mononoke-hime, that afterwards I just couldn't stop thinking about the album. (Anyone with a passing knowledge about me knows I used to be the weeb of weebs back in high school, but Miyazaki is obviously something I stand by.) Alcest remains to be the band that I can listen to when I want to chill out and that I can out on even with friends who are less than appreciative of metal. But while Shelter veered as far from black metal as possible, Kodama goes a bit back, and I couldn't be happier with the return of that old Alcest feel. The musical influences of the aforementioned movies are light, done with a delicate hand and beautifully incorporated - the title track evokes that precise same feelings of strange nostalgia that a Miyazaki film does. Incidentally, I think this sounds like the happiest Alcest record so far.
Epica: The Holographic Principle
I'm going to tell you how I write these review blurbs; trust me, it's important. I listen to the albums once or twice before, I pick my favourite couple songs (4-5-6 or the whole album if it's really that good or that short on songs). Then I listen to those more, on the way to school, while drawing; if they're interesting, I might stop what I'm doing and get lost in the music; if they aren't, I might forget that I even heard them. And when I write these, I sit down and listen to my couple favourites for each album while I write that specific review.
Now, I had to stop listening to Alcest to listen to Epica, and I was mad. I admit, I don't love symphonic metal as much as I used to, but just recently I put on a best of Within Temptation and sang along (nobody heard thus nobody died). Yet I cannot listen to this album without getting bored. It's full of drama and more drama, but it gets tedious after a while, and nothing stands out. I think the album could have used more gentle moments like in Once Upon a Nightmare. This isn't chugging death metal, and it should offer more reprieve for the listeners. Yet, of course, lovers of symphonic metal should definitely check it out, after all, Epica is still Epica.
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