The first NMM of the new year, and we’re doing things a little differently this time around. Yep, we’re including EPs too! I felt that the separate EP posts weren’t drawing enough focus to some excellent releases, so I thought I’d try a combined one! Let me know if it works!
We have four excellent, heavy releases to sink our teeth into this week. Without further ado, let’s dive in!
1986: Carniveil
The debut album from the UK modern metalcorers goes HARD from start to finish, and is an excellent way to start the year’s releases. From the awesome riffing to the powerful screams, it’s old-school metalcore at its very best. Think Hatebreed over BFMV. And, from the opener to ‘Black Mirror’ to single ‘Static Burn’ there are so many awesome highlights. They lean into the hardcore elements a lot, and it makes for an incredibly fun listen. Even the production added to the overall product a lot. It all comes together excellently and makes for a great 40-minutes of heaviness. It’s a fantastic debut and sets the band up for a bright future if they carry on along this vein. A solid 8/10 from us!
Paleface Swiss: The Wilted EP
The first EP to feature on NMM, and of course it’s from the beatdown-deathcore titans who blew us away this time last year with their last album. They follow it up perfectly with this four tracks and an intro. Each track is as good as the last, and there really isn’t a bad song throughout. And, as good as the riffing and drumming is, Marc is of course the highlight again. One of the best vocalists in the music industry as a whole today, his range is off the charts, and on full display here. From surprisingly catchy choruses to brutal screams to his insane harsh rapping, and at least a few crazy laughs, it’s all SO GOOD. It fits perfectly over the instrumentation though, one not being as good without the other. If you are at all a fan of the band or just metal in general, I’d highly recommend this album. The band really cannot do any wrong right now! I can’t give it any less than 9/10!
Arcane Frost: Night’s Cavalry
Another debut album, this time from the German black metallers. It’s pretty straight-up black metal, not bells or whistles or combined sub-genres, just heaviness and darkness. If you’re into that sort of thing, this is definitely worth checking out! It’s a genre that’s definitely grown on me, and tracks like ‘Swarming Rats’ and ‘Withering Decay’ are personal highlights. The album is barely 30-minutes in length, making for an easy listen if you’re into this sort of thing. I enjoyed it, but have to admit with my limited bandwidth with the genre, I probably wouldn’t listen to it through much. However, it’s still good album, and I certainly wouldn’t turn it off if it came on again. Any black metal fans should certainly check this out! It’s a solid 7/10!
Woe: Legacies of Human Frailty
More black metal, this time from New York. Album number six from the band is unrelenting, going just as hard as anything they have put out previously. While I have pretty similar sentiments to the previous entry in this list, but I did appreciate the more epic nature of this release. The tracks are a little longer and it really gets everything it can out of every sound. Just six tracks stretch 45+ minutes, so the proggier nature definitely kept me more entertained. It reminded me a little of Rotting Christ, though not quite to that extent. It’s a good album, and once again one I’d highly recommend to anyone into the genre. It’s hard not to compare to Arcane Frost, but it is a little more my sort of thing, and will probably be spinning this again soon if I have the time. As far as black metal albums go, this is up there for me, and gets a damn solid 7.5/10!