A MASSIVE week of New Music Monday this week, with plenty of massive albums being released. Let’s waste no time and dive right in to check them out!
Bring Me the Horizon: POST HUMAN: NeX GEn
Though this album has been know about and delayed for months at this point, it was almost still a surprise release, with the date being announced just the day before. 16 tracks, (six of which we’ve already heard) totalling nearly an hour of music. That’s a lot of meh! As much as I want to be a BMTH fan, and as much as I try to be, I simply cannot get into it at all. I give them all the props in the world for their sound reinventions and pioneering the style that has since become this post-Deftones ‘baddie-core’, but I’m certainly not it’s target audience, and it certainly isn’t for me.
If you’re a fan of the band’s modern sound, especially over the last five years or so, you’ll most likely love this. I don’t mind a few of tracks from their Sempiternal/That’s the Spirit era, so when they replicate that sort of sound I don’t mind it. They also have a couple of breakdowns that go pretty hard. But, and it may be a controversial opinion (especially when I’m not a fan of them), I think Bad Omens simply do the electronic/pop metalcore thing better these days.
It’s not a bad album; don’t get me wrong. Songs like ‘DArkSide’ and ‘AmEN!’ are personal highlights, being at least built on the same foundation of their earlier stuff. However, most of the rest ranges from average to, in the case of ‘DiE4u’, outright cringy. As I said, fans of the band’s current sound will love this, and it isn’t terrible. But I’m already seeing people GUSHING all over it, and, in this personal writer’s opinion, it’s going to be a very overrated album. It’s a ‘metal’ album for people who don’t like metal. So, for that, it gets a 3.5/10
Twenty-One Pilots: Clancy
Fun fact: Twenty-One Pilots’ last album was one of two reviews that came out on this site when we started up. You can find it here. As you can tell, we didn’t enjoy it all too much. Was this one an improvement over that, three years later?
Lol, no.
Is it necessary a bad album? No. Is it what I want out of the band? Also no. I got into them at Vessel and the sequel, which both feel demonstrably different to their current sound. However, after three albums of this now, I think I have to come to terms with the fact that this is Twenty-One Pilots now. If you liked Trench and Scaled and Icy, you’ll most likely love this. Again, it’s not a bad album, but I also wouldn’t call it a good album. It’s just kinda there. It’s fine for moody background music if you want to throw something on while you cook or drive. But not a thing, moment or track stood out to me to mention here. It’s just meh alt-pop music. And for that, it gets another 3/10
Lenny Kravitz: Blue Electric Light
The rock singer/guitarist is still going strong, over three decades after his breakout hit. Bring his first album in six years, and 12th overall, you’d be let off for assuming the nearly-60 year old is doing this as a cash grab or just putting out music for the hell of it because he’s written what he wants to. While both may be true, it’s also a good album.
Touching on everything from rock, blues and psychedelic to pop, electro and easy listening, the man’s songwriting and creativity are both still off the charts. And his vocals are still just as flawless as they have always been, fitting perfectly over the effortlessly interesting instrumentation. There’s a lot of 90s nostalgia packed throughout this album, and it’s anything but a bad thing. And yet saying that, it still has a modern edge to it. It doesn’t feel outdated, like some acts going 30+ years do sometimes. There are tonnes of highlights, from the song with the most jealousy-inducing music video of all time, ‘TM421’, to album tracks like ‘Human’, ‘Stuck in the Middle’ and ‘Bundle of Joy’.
The more I was listening to this, the more I was adding almost every song to my playlist. I’ve been a big fan of his since my childhood, but no way was I expecting an album this late in his career to be this good. It almost has magnum opus vibes. I’mma be listening to this a lot going forward, and I’d recommend the full album to absolutely anyone. The only slight issue is that it’s nearly an hour in length. However, when it’s this good, it’s hard to see that as an issue! It’s an easy 9.5/10 from me, damn!
Rotting Christ: Pro Xristou
The Greek metallers put out album number 14 last Friday. Given my questionable relationship with the genre to this point, I had sadly never really given this band a chance. I was certainly wrong not to though, as I loved this! Right from the album’s opener/title track, I was hooked, and that was cemented by the end of ‘The Apostate’. The epic feel throughout was amazing; the symphonic/operatic sound added to the heaviness being perfect and massively (Sorry blak metal fans) improving on the normal base formula of the genre. It probably helps that the production is excellent, too, and doesn’t sound like it’s been recorded on a potato like some of their peers. It’s like the perfect blend of Powerwolf and Behemoth, and I really dig it. Songs like ‘The Sixth Day’ and ‘The Farewell’ are also massive personal highlights, but I honestly enjoyed the whole album. It’s certainly one to listen to from front to back, and I’d recommend it to just about any metal fan! It’s an easy 8.5/10 from me!
Collateral: Should’ve Known Better
The UK sleaze-infused NWOCR band are back with their sophomore album. I’ve been a fan of the band for a few years now and have been pretty hyped for this album. It’s certainly not a let down either, it’s packed full of awesome songs. However, it does feel like something is missing. I don’t think it’s anything with the band either, more rather it’s a production issue. Even blasting it through my headphones, it felt like there was something missing in the mix. The songs remind me of the newer Those Damn Crows stuff, as much as old school Skid Row or Bon Jovi stuff, and I think a mix similar to all of that may have done better. The choruses don’t feel anywhere near big enough; the bass needs cranking and maybe some synth or something in the back just to really make it all sound massive. It sounds thin at times.
Having said all of that, it’s still a damn good hard/glam rock album. Songs like ‘Teenage Dreams’, the opener and the AOR-y ‘No Place for Love’ are all awesome songs, amounts an album full of them. I’d love to hear this whole thing played live, I think it’d translate perfectly to that setting and I’d get even more out of the tracks. Also, the mixing seems to work a lot better on ballad ‘On the Long Road’, the acoustic nature of the song fitting the powerful, multi-layered vocals perfectly. The album will probably grow on me more with subsequent listens, and I certainly love a lot of the infectiously catchy songs. But for now, it gets a tentative (but still good) 7.5/10
Travis Denning: Roads that Go Nowhere
The debut album of a sure-to-be future country megastar is a pretty huge release. Not only is it 15-tracks long, but features guest slots from the likes of HARDY and Josh Ross, and the singles from it so far have amassed millions of streams already. So safe to say, pressure is on this album!
It opens perfectly, with the Chris Stapleton-esque acoustic ballad ‘Why I’m Drinking’. It then heads into a more HARDY/Brantley Gilbert southern rock stomper in ‘I Know How it Sounds’. Songs like the HARDY featuring ‘Southern Rock’ and ‘Strawberry Wine and A Cheep Six Pack’ also follow this sound throughout the album. Then you have songs like ‘Better at Leaving’, ‘Going Places’ and ‘Things I’m Going Through’ that are slower, more radio-country feeling. ‘Someone that Isn’t Me’ is also a beautiful, heart-wrenching ballad, and another massive highlight of the album.
You may be saying to yourself ‘Joe, that’s awesome’, but you’ve only brought up the first two thirds of the album?’. You would be right, dear reader, and there is a very good reason for that. This album’s length hit me like a mac truck when I reached ‘Add Her to the List’. The song itself isn’t bad, but is a cheaper copy of ‘Someone that Isn’t Me’. The other five songs are slower-paced and okay (and the rather cringy Josh Ross-featuring track), but don’t live up to the first nine, in my opinion. It’s another awesome album, but one that could be perfect if it wasn’t for record label greed and stream-farming. I’ll still listen to a lot of this a hell of a lot moving forward, for sure, and I’m enjoying it more and more with each listen. I’d recommend it to any country fans reading this, but it does certainly start to drag by the end. It’s an 8.5/10 for now, but it may score higher with subsequent listens!
Evildead: Toxic Grace
I’ve said it multiple times on this series, but we truly do not cover enough thrash on this channel. However, it does mean when some excellent music in the genre comes along, like this, it makes it even more enjoyable. Heck, I didn’t even need to listen to it or be told that it was thrash, the name and artwork alone screamed it to me, both fitting perfectly with the music. The classic thrash band reunited for a second time in 2016, finally releasing their highly anticipated comeback album in 2020. Since then they have been not only touring, but plugging away at new music, and have finally put out their fourth record this last Friday.
It’s a very old-school feeling thrash album too, in the best way. It reminds me a lot of Anthrax’s early albums. Heck, opener ‘F.A.F.O’ gives off massive ‘N.F.L’ vibes. It’s also one of the many highlight tracks of the album. Others include ‘Subjugated Souls’ and the slower, evil-sounding ‘Bathe in Fire’. The riffing is incredible and it and the drums keep a stomping, thrashing pace throughout. And it also has some of the best guitar soloing I’ve heard all year, at least in metal. A couple of the lyrics are just a touch cringy, but they fit with the general thrash attitude well. My only slight issue with the album is that it’s so rooted in the 80 sound that they started with that it hasn’t really evolved at all. If you’re into that old-school sound religiously, like I know a lot are, you’ll love this a lot. Heck, I still think it’s great, but if they had taken a risk or two or evolved at all, it could be a truly unforgettable record. For now, it doesn’t quite measure up with the top echelons of metal over the last few years.
Still, it’s a damn solid album that I’d more than recommend listening to in full at least once for anyone into thrash. Heck, I’ll certainly be listening to it more moving forward, both individual tracks and the album as a whole. It’s an easy 8/10!