June was kind of weak concerning metal releases, slightly better in other genres - which I just don't really listen to these days. I also had considerably less time to spend on listening to new music due to exams and more exams. I did look through June releases afterwards too, and still nothing really stood out to me even genre-wise; I guess after being spoiled in May it was a slight disappointment. In any case, summer month are always less busy.
Young Guns: Ones and Zeros
This band is somehow one of the few alternative rock bands I don't find unbearably pretentious; they're only slightly pretentious. As far as their music go, it's a bit overproduced, it's lots of electronics, but it's rhythmic and catchy, which seems to be the standard in this genre, but still, it's not entirely insufferable.
Rise to Fall: End vs Beginning
I have a weakness for melodic death metal, which also means if all else fails, I'm at least going to check out the releases in said genre. Which is how I came across this record of a relatively obscure Spanish band. I'm afraid to say it's understandably so, because this particularly album is pretty generic, there are very few outstanding songs, and it's terribly loud. On the other hand, one of those, Murk Empire, for some inexplicable reason, really sticks with me. I hear the intro and I'm instantly happy. It's also one of the more adventurous tracks in terms of composition and instrumentalisation.
Listen to: Thunders of Emotions Beating, Murk Empire, Sustention
Disarmonia Mundi: Cold Inferno
A melodeath band of the Soilwork variation - catchy, with loads of same-sounding songs, but with a surprisingly good level of technicality and a few interesting ideas - a weird chorus here, a good riff there. It's a great album for fans of the particular sub-type of the sub-genre, but I think it would be uninteresting for most other metal fans. I quite enjoy listening to it, but it's nothing new from them.
Shape of Despair: Monotony Fields
I think this is a case where the band name and the album title really says most to be said about this music. It's funeral doom, which is every bit as gloomy and depressing as it sounds. It's disconcerting and leaden and languid, which means unnerving and unpleasant for the majority of the population, but it's also soothing and ethereal and beautifully haunting. There's a reason it's called funeral doom.
Borealis: Purgatory
Another overproduced power metal record! I blame the summer months for the happier genres on my palate, but it's not a bad album by any means. It's heavy, loud (all meanings, which is a bit of a bummer), cheesy (oh boy is it cheesy), so really it's everything one could need. It's not an album I'll listen to for many times to come, but it's definitely worth that one-two times.
Kingcrow: Eidos
This is actually a very, very good record, but one which I did not have proper time to listen to - I've gone through it in its entirety only once. However, it blew me away on that first listen, and I know I'm going to love it. For listeners of progressive metal, this album is a must.
Listen to: The Moth, Open Sky, On the Barren Ground
Refused: Freedom
Good old Swedish hardcore? Not as hard anymore, rather than catchy (dangerously catchy), but it'll excellently do for the month's supply of punk.
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