Monday 5 December 2016

Album Reviews: November

November is busy and this poor college student has had more breakdowns that she could count on one hand, but nevertheless, here is the next - and last for the year - installment of the monthly album reviews. As such, regrettably, I haven't had the time to check out many new releases, but what I did check out was of really high quality, so they shouldn't disappoint.


Dark Tranquillity: Atoma
I begin with Dark Tranquillity's newest, because honestly, it's an amazing record, hands down my favourite from November - and not just because I'm a sucker for good melodic death (which of course I am). The album is a perfect composition of fantastic songs. It starts out with the modern-era Dark Tranquillity Encircled, followed by the insanely catchy title track, slows just the tiniest bit with Forward Momentum and Neutrality, to what I think is the peak of the album. Middle Force of Hand and Faithless by Default are among the best songs on the album, albeit for different reasons, the former being a futuristic form of that trademark DT sound, while the latter is a fantastic mix of the current DT and something that might as well have been on Damage Done. The relative mellowing out gives a bit of a breather - electronic sounds making a comeback in Clearing Skies - but one of the most poetic parts come with the clean vocals on Merciless Fate. My only complaint would be that the second part of the album feels slightly less gripping than the first, but in no way does it get boring. Also, the extras The Absolute and Time Out of Place could have easily been on the album, even if they are considerably less death metal - they are absolutely breathtakingly beautiful songs.

Vader: The Empire
Who's excited for Rogue One?? You're lying if Star Wars is not the first thing that comes to your mind seeing that band name and album title paired. Jokes aside, this is a very solid thrash/death record with some incredibly high-energy songs. The riffs are going to blow your head off.
Listen to: Tempest, Prayer to the God of War, No Gravity

Saor: Guardians
Saor's new album is amazing, probably their best yet. I might love it as much as the new DT, it really depends in which one I'm listening to. It's heavy, depressing, repressive, melodic, and strangely, ultimately uplifting. An album like this is best listened to in whole - anyway, it's only five songs - so one can be fully immersed in the atmosphere. The guitar riffs are repetitive, but it doesn't get dull, only serves to build up the mood, and the variety of the other instruments really makes it special.

Trees of Eternity: Hour of the Nightingale
A truly heartbreaking and beautiful album, especially so in possession of the knowledge that the album was released by Swallow the Sun's Juha Raivio after the death of the vocalist, Aleah. The melodies are haunting and genuinely depressing, full of emotion and intangible heaviness. It's hard to describe the emotions it evokes, probably because they were meant to be indescribable - so I can say nothing else but to check out for yourself.

Downfall of Gaia: Atrophy
As I've probably said, I'm not a huge fan of sludge metal, but this atmospheric, black-infused album has captured my interest. Really, it has more in common with those latter genres, and it does the heavy and repressive in a truly depressing way; it's slow and dragging in the way it was clearly meant to be, and there's not much that's uplifting here, which of course fully realises the objective.
Listen to: Woe, Ephemerol, Atrophy

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