Albums of 5/17/24

The most interesting releases of the week!

Jared:

I’ve always had a weakness for stoner doom, and Italy’s Ufomammut have a massive back catalog that I still need to dig into.

My Arizona brothers in Gatecreeper putting out their Nuclear Blast debut, with an added twist on their trademark formula.

Danish black/death metal on the ever-prolific Dark Descent Records. Their last album was solid, so I look forward to hearing this.

Pittsburgh progressive death/thrash in the vein of later Death.

Serbian black metal about werewolves or something. Project featuring the current vocalist of Gorgoroth.

Nathan:

Some old school speed/thrash from Nuclear Blast. At times it sounds a little too much like Riley Gale should be singing. The first time I listened to Bat, the music came and went. Second time I thoroughly enjoyed it. Third time I couldn’t turn it off. Fans of bands such as Toxic Holocaust or the previously alluded to Power Trip will find a home here.

On Under The Crooked Claw, Bat play around with some rolling riffs and evocative vocals to create tight tracks. The songs here stay aggressive and short. Their songwriting approach may be simple, but it works for Bat, who convey large quantities of energy. Bat probably won’t make many top 10 lists because it’s not anything new, but thrash fans will find an old friend waiting for them on Under The Crooked Claw.

Metalcore Tesseract with a pink mohawk. PreHistoric Animals is a prog rock group with metal and pop influences. Their Magical Mystery Machine albums ended up sounding good but not great, but Finding Love In Strange Places sounds a step above. Fans of Redshift and The Dear Hunter will have a good time. Sometimes the music veers towards Riverside as well, but more often PreHistoric Animals remains way too happy for that.

Heavy music that leans into pop sounds can venture into dangerous sounds. But PreHistoric Animals never really commits to either. Finding Love In Strange Places will give a big pop chorus or fade into an ethereal haze whenever they start sounding too heavy, and PreHistoric Animals will go on a weird journey whenever they sound too pop. Apparently there’s a bizarre story to this release, but I’m less concerned about that then I am with the solid music.

Some of The Last Of Lucy‘s songwriting and production choices remind me of Alustrium. Others remind me of Peripheral Cortex. Both those bands are excellent, so good news for the tech death band and their newest release on Transcending Obscurity. While the songwriting doesn’t rise to the level of those two bands, what we do have is blindingly heavy and virtuosic tech death that sounds like a very strong trapeze artist juggling curled up polar bears while jumping on a flaming trampoline.

Sometimes Godform sounds as if The Last Of Lucy just did whatever they thought would sound the most ridiculous whenever they made a songwriting choice. This gets a bit forced at times. But when The Last Of Lucy successfully tape all of their weird decisions together the result is marvelous. Godform has its flaws, and people who aren’t into tech death won’t find anything they like here, but even the album’s failures are interesting.