Hey there. I know that these days - despite my plans - I just don't write here as much. I don't have the time to write the more in-depth posts I'd want to, and I don't have the patience to write a usual one, say, about fashion (I didn't even have time to follow the fashion weeks). The one thing (thing, as in, beside people and necessary activities) in my life I always value enough to spend time on is music. So if nothing else, the album reviews are going to be here for a while.
February was a good month, especially compared to January - good heavier and more technical records, and some of my definite contenders for year-end lists.
Hyperion: Seraphical Euphony
After all the power metal in January, I needed some heavier and scratchier things, so what's better than some modern black metal? This record is the kind of melodic take on the genre that I really love; not too showy with the melody, good composition, and overall really enjoyable. One thing that intrigued me is that their band name's appearance is incredibly similar to Serenity in Murder's - I wonder whether it was made by the same artist. They are a really similar genre as well.
Fleshgod Apocalypse: King
In true Fleshgod Apocalypse fashion, this is as far as it gets from not too showy. It's heavy and sweeping and majestic, only better mixed and generally clearer than previous records. It's simply a fantastic album, even if the lyrical concept is a bit sketchy.
Listen to: The Fool (amazing. just amazing), Cold as Perfection, Syphilis
Frostbite: Etching Obscurity
Another black metal record, this time a heavily progressive one. As such, it's harder to digest - in fact, it's easily the least accessible album on this little roundup - but it's worth a try, just give it a few listens. It really growns on you.
Beyond the Black: Lost in Forever
I give a lot of leeway to symphonic and melodic death bands, so I listen to albums I'm less convinced will sound great. Well, this is not a very good album. It's basically a pop album, and a cliché one at that. Not because it's insanely catchy (because even as pop, it's mediocre), but because it's mellow and unmemorable and sappy (not cheesy like power metal, no, proper sappy). It'd go perfectly with a supernatural teen drama, which is many people's thing, but probably not mine.
Myrath: Legacy
This on the other hand is how you do a poppy and catchy album that is still really interesting. Some pretty standard progressive metal, only it's heavily infused with all these Middle Eastern (it's probably better identifiable, but I'm no expert - the band is from Tunisia) melodies. Top that of with the unique-to-the-genre vocals, and you have yourself a really engaging act. Legacy is a little less heavy than their previous outing, but still mostly metal, and more importantly, really good.
Listen to: Believer, Nobody's Lives, The Needle
Omnium Gatherum: Grey Heavens
Finally, the album I was most looking for, the band being one of my favourites. They didn't exactly disappoint, but neither do I think this is a particularly outstanding album. I still hold their 2011 record, New World Shadows, in extremely high regard - it's pretty much the perfect melodic death album for me, if we regard an album as a whole. One of the big failings of this album - because, don't get me wrong, it has many great songs - is that it doesn't have the same arc as their two previous records did. I know they wanted to write a heavier album, and maybe that was done in an attempt not to repeat themselves too much. It has come out a bit like that, a bit grey, but dark stormy grey, so still pretty good.
Listen to: Frontiers (it's brilliant), Foundation, The Great Liberation
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