Anvil – Pounding The Pavement (2018) – Anvil are back and as the name implies, they’re pounding the pavement once again. Though just like the band’s previous effort, they’re still rolling strong. “Bitch In The Box” is a great Accept influenced opener, with a little bit more thrash injection to be found in “Ego.” A more structured flow appears in “Doing What I Want” even though the pounding doom with a hint of prog that makes up “Smash Your Face” is much more interesting in my opinion. The album also includes a instrumental shredding session in it’s title track, in addition to a lengthy and somewhat grandiose number in “Nanook Of The North.” As we continue on, we’re hit with more catchy metal numbers like “Black Smoke”, “World Of Tomorrow” and bonus cut “Don’t Tell Me” which all seem to showcase Pounding The Pavement as real competition for the traditional heavy metal scene. I know that people haven’t always gravitated towards Anvil, but with this one, I feel that they have managed to pull something very special and true to form out of their hats. I would definitely recommend this one and am starting to consider Anvil a real heavy metal powerhouse right now. People might have written them off a few years back, but now might be time to take these Canadian metal veterans seriously. Yes, I really mean that. Along with Priest’s Firepower, Anvil’s Pounding The Pavement seems to continue an oncoming trend of killer traditional heavy metal. Are we ready for it?
(12 Tracks, 45:00)
8/10
Magnum – Lost On The Road To Eternity (2018) – Another old staple that keeps on kicking is the UK’s Magnum. Believe it or not, this is their twentieth album, and it is just as strong as anything they’ve done prior. As a matter of fact, number twenty is looking pretty good for these Brits! “Peaches and Cream” opens the disc on a catchy number, and it continues the catchiness right into what is sure to be a crowd favorite in “Show Me Your Hands.” Now at first, I felt the track was a little corny, but it’s a great sing-along and that sells singles and records quite easily. I thought “Storm Baby” was going to be a ballad, which would have been perfectly fine – but it actually kicked up steam into something with a harder rock vibe. I will say that despite the obvious AOR and keyboard synths pervading throughout the disc, it seems to have a more rocking atmosphere throughout and almost encroaches upon traditional heavy metal in some instances. In fact, even Avantasia/Edguy frontman Tobias Sammet joins in on the disc’s title track, for a definite dose of heavy metal royalty. That being said, Lost On The Road To Eternity is absolutely not a pummeler, a thrasher a pounder or any other sort of term you would use to describe a heavy disc. But what we’re getting here is a synth-heavy eighties rocker with some real heft, a true sense of purpose and an overall continuation of the work that the band have shown proficiency in for decades. Magnum are still at it after all this time, which is remarkable in hindsight alone. That being said, many might look at this review and say, “Well, who are Magnum?” and this record would be a wonderful place in which to discover that and work their way backwards. I haven’t heard every disc from these guys, but everything I have heard as of late seems to suit my palette – and not surprisingly, Lost On The Road To Eternity seems to be no different. I’m already looking forward to your twenty-first disc, gentlemen. The wheels are on fire and there’s no need to slow down.
(11 Tracks, 67:00)
8/10
Bloodshot Dawn – Reanimation (2018) – A record that released to mixed reviews and was dogged heavily on Metal Archives, I myself have mixed feelings about the disc. First of all, the frontman wanted to go for a much different approach to vocals which feels like they’re injecting an unnecessary hardcore gut punch into what was relatively intriguing melodic death metal. In order to fit in with the continuing post-core technical death metal trend, it would seem that these guys have almost overhauled their sound completely, except for melodic leads here and there that briefly recall the brilliance of that Swedish melodeath scene and make me want to relive it – more than this album, to be honest. It is a record that comes across overly technical, but does manage to have a few interesting sections here and there which are peppered by the Arch Enemy influenced (or I should say Micahel Amott influenced) leads and solo sections. There are also some rather hefty grooves that I don’t mind, even though by the second or third song, the barks from the frontman have already gotten on my nerves. I know of a few people who would stop the listen more or less immediately after they’d heard this kind of vocal being attempted, and even though I respect the band’s attention to detail in the vein of melody, there are so many Japanese melodic death metal acts that I would rather jam over this, like Veiled In Scarlet. Bloodshot Dawn just feels like modern extreme metal to me, and it doesn’t really carry anything with it that wasn’t crafted to appeal to the new generation. As an older listener, I do recognize these melody lines and hope that they’ll inspire a new generation of metal fans to pick up some of those old melodeath classics – or add them to their Spotify playlists, as I have seen them do often. In an age where the kids chew through albums like myself and a box of Mike & Ike’s (despite my rather small frame) it often makes me wonder what kind of tunes will roll out of their social media conditioned and mobile app powered minds. That could very well be a reason for the surge in extremely fast and technical music, which has given everyone on the planet something akin to ADHD. I have to be honest though, the guys are giving it their very best here in the studio and I do find some of this to be a rather dazzling storm that quickly passes overhead with the kind of speed I’d have expected on a Dragonforce album. Coupled with the groove sections and melodies I noted earlier, it’s actually worth a listen for fans that may have put it off based on bad reviews. Though chances are that you weren’t waiting on me to tell you to check out a disc that’s been out for three months already, were you?
(12 Tracks, 44:00)
7/10
Borealis – The Offering (2018) – I once wrote these Canadians off as a Evergrey knock-off, but it would seem that with this sophomore effort, Borealis are shaping up to be something truly noteworthy. I think the real reason for that might very well be their frontman Matt Martinelli, who is a dead-ringer for a young Tom Englund. That being said, Martinelli seems to bring his own approach to the chorus lines here, which hit fast, hard and heavy enough to get implanted upon your consciousness from the first listen. It’s just that kind of album and a real sing-along at that. I can’t sing like either Tom Englund or Matt Martinelli, but the record certainly makes me want to try emulating such wonderful performances. Also, I like that Martinelli doesn’t over sing on the disc quite like many of the singers on Fox’s version of American Idol or NBC’s The Voice. That being said, I really wish that I could say something about the rest of the band, but the synths are too low in the mix and nearly non-existent, while the drums pound and the leads are almost completely destroyed by the vocal mix. I mean, I know that singing along with Martinelli is the reason that I would go out and by this album, but the fact of the matter is that aside from some solos here and there, the record doesn’t offer much more in lieu of guitar work. Yes, while Martinelli and Ken Fobert are both killing it as far as the guitar solos are concerned; aside from a handful of melodies, there’s just not much else to be had. You sing along with the vocals, you pull out your air-guitar and you do that from song to song until the disc reaches it’s climax.
If you want me to be perfectly honest, listeners are getting slightly technical (you know, djent here and there) and slightly progressive (in the vein of an act like Scar Symmetry, minus the death metal bits) melodic power metal with slight punches here and there. Again, it isn’t a bad performance, but know that what you’re getting here sounds a bit pretentious in it’s level of synth-orchestral pomp glitter. What’s more, is that they even cut off some solo sections (The end of “River” for example) which has always been a pet peeve of mine. That means that listeners will have to see the band live in order to hear the entire song. But I digress. In the end, there’s nothing ultimately wrong with the performance and I’m sure that you’ll jam it out and love it just the same as you would any of their previous recordings. They didn’t make a rap metal disc or experiment with polka this time around, so we can be thankful for that. Borealis aren’t really giving us anything that we haven’t already heard before, but with a performance like this, you won’t find me complaining all that much about it. In fact, many of my issues here were slight nitpicking and just a little bit of bitching on my part. Simply put, Borealis continue to do what they do best here on their fourth outing; which I think fans of melodic metal are going to jump up and down for. But instead of doing that, they should probably run down to their nearest record shop and pick up a copy of the album for themselves.
(12 Tracks, 61:00)
8/10
Necrophobic – Mark Of The Necrogram (2018) – The first time I listened to this record, it was when I had been in a terrible mood over an incident at work. It was just the kind of thing that I needed to drown out the world however, and many boxes were stacked that day. During my menial labor though, I began to think of all the great acts that we have to thank for this sound, like Dissection… whom were still around at the time and couldn’t have been an inspiration. I suppose it’s time for The Grim Lord to start checking out early Necrophobic albums (this is my first) because I was so blown away by this effort, and I greatly look forward to that now as yet another reason to continue living. In any case, Necrophobic really blew the roof off with this thing, giving me that iconic blackened death metal sound that still feels tied up in thrash where it breathes best, rather than becoming a technical nightmare with no real sense of purpose. What’s more, is that frontman Anders Strokirk has the same style of harsh vocal that I loved so much from Henri Sattler, Jens Rydén and Jon Nödtveidt, which to me feels like the definition of a harsh vocal, the very thing that you’d expect to hear from an actual demon if you’d summoned it to appear before you. I want vocalists to sound like demons in this kind of metal and on this record, Strokirk manages that perfectly. He doesn’t go into cleans, death growls or some sort of silly gut-punch approach that you’ll hear on many other discs that only pretend to sound evil. Even if the material here is based on horror films, at least it dresses the part and makes me smile with sadistic glee. As we may expect from the guitar selections here, an obvious hardened black metal edge is uttered, coupled with a mountain of memorable melodies and solo efforts that seem to recall horror film soundtracks as well as middle eastern folk music – two distinct sounds that meld surprisingly well together. I will say that I find it very hard to hear Sebastian Ramstedt and Johan Bergebäck’s guitar riffs at times, even though that could be my speaker tuning and may not affect your listen. Please keep in mind that the guys wanted to keep it raw on this album, so there’s still a little bit of a classic nineties feel that is going to resonate more with older listeners than it will the new breed. Chances are that if you didn’t get into the new Bloodshot Dawn that I covered a few days ago, this is going to be your thing. There is definitely a little bit of modernism here and there to be found, though not much – and that’s a good thing. Again, if these guys went into the technical and core-laden nonsense that has overpowered metal in the last number of years, I’d have probably jumped off a cliff. There’s one quite close to my place too, so don’t tempt me. I think it can be said simply, that if you love Dissection, Thulcandra, God Dethroned, Naglfar and several similar acts that I live for when it comes to this genre (I still don’t know how these guys ever skipped my mind, though clearly I have some research yet to do) then you’re going to love this record as well.
A Metal Archives reviewer who typed up more paragraphs than I have socks (and I have a lot of socks) uttered that he thought it was “just another Necrophobic album” and ultimately gave it an 85% over there. Well, I quite liked this album a bit more than that and feel it is one of my personal favorite discs of the year. A record like this offers the kind of performance that I can put on any time that I need therapy. Though I don’t recommend it as music affects us all differently; I find that Necrophobic embody enough rage and malice to serve as a potent stress and anxiety reliever, which equals out to a better sleep session and ultimately more alertness during the drudgery of the next day. Yes, I have a very stressful day job, but Mark Of The Necrogram is wonderful medication to help with that. In addition to that unsuspected notion, the record also kicks a metric ton of ass – just as I’d expect for traditional black/death (not war metal) which we really need to appreciate more as a society. Definitely one of the best genres in heavy metal for me, and it’s one of the reasons that The Grim Tower exists in the first place. Go buy this album, The Grim Lord commands it!
(10 Tracks, 49:00)
9/10