NE OBLIVISCARIS Exul | Weekly Heavy Metal Album Review

Released by Season of Mist on March 24th, 2023

Quick Background

Ne Obliviscaris (Latin for "forget not"; the motto of the Clan Campbell, one of the largest and most powerful of the Highland clans) is a six-piece Australian progressive metal band from Melbourne. Well actually they are now working with a session drummer so technically a 5-piece band. The trademark and uniqueness of their sound comes from having two singers, Marc "Xenoyr" Campbell responsible for the harsh vocals and Tim Charles who not only does the clean vocals but also is the full time violinist. 

The band is known from writing long pieces, that are dynamic and complex. Often using a string quartet and choirs in their compositions and arrangements. Their second album, Citadel, from 2014 made quite a splash that year being featured in several year-end lists. It consists of only 3 songs! But still clocks-in at 48 minutes. And honestly the other 2 albums are also quite good and also featuring just a handful of songs, so let's see what 2023 has to offer.

Exul

Exul is now their fourth studio album following 2017's Urn. It features 6 tracks in 52 minutes. The album has been in the works since 2020 but the pandemic caused several delays. Now here we are finally ready to enjoy a new Ne Obliviscaris album. And there's no kidding around, the album already opens with the single and longest song on the album, "Equus" and its 12min30sec of length. Within the first couple of minutes we already have a pretty decent sample of the Ne Obliviscaris sound. A solid rhythmic session with interesting drum groves and prominent bass sound, we also have a flavor of the violin and the two singers performing a duet in the second verse. Ah, and very nice guitar work, complex and interesting guitar riffs. The vocal lines, specially the clean ones, are melodic and even catchy at times. But that's of course in contrast with the harsh aggressive vocals.

"Misericorde" is a 17min-long song broken into two parts. Part I is titled "As the Flesh Falls" and it starts quite brutally, nice heavy riffs and harsh vocals. The bass is one of the highlights of this song and album. When the clean vocal kicks in the bass is shredding on the background. And it goes like this for most of the song. The mixing really helps as the bass sound is clear and prominent. I also love the violin heavy section, it's pretty Mozart-like. "Misericorde II - Anatomy of Quiescence" is mostly instrumental. It features a really beautiful start with soft piano and melodic string solos. This leads to a fantastic guitar solo, one of my favorites of the year. Honestly I did not know those guys were such good guitar players. Those 3 first songs are certainly my favorites of the album. 

"Suspyre" features a melodic intro leading into the harsh vocals and more beautiful violin phrases. It builds up into the clean vocals super catchy kind of chorus. During its 10 min the song continues this journey of ups and downs. Some cool features of this song are the acoustic guitars and relentless drumming. Both subtle but noticeable. "Graal" goes directly into a sort of heavy symphony, classical music meets metal sort of feeling. It's fast pacing and again we hear the bass shredding on the background and the drummer going nuts all over the kit. "Anhedonia" which is by far the shortest song on the album functions more as an outro and reminds me of Pink Floyd's "The Great Gig in the Sky" and while that's OK, I am not sure we needed an almost 4min outro.  

The Picky Guy

It's not always easy to keep focus when the songs are that long. I feel the band can improve their music writing skills further to make the full songs even more engaging from start to finish. Other than that, not much to complain about this album. It is however for prog music nerds, there's nothing direct and simple on Exul. 

Wrap Up Opinion 

Ne Obliviscaris is back with an album that builds on previous releases. The technical proficiency, a prominent string quartet and the melodic sensitivity combined with Death Metal influences is their hallmark. The songs are long and some may have difficulty keeping the focus. With that said Exul is a further improvement from previous albums as a whole. However, individually none of the 6 songs stood out compared to their older best songs. I think fans will dig this album and it won't change the opinion of those who didn't enjoy their previous releases. To me a good album, 81/100. 

SCORE: 81/100

Genre: Progressive Metal

Released by Season of Mist on March 24th, 2023

Rating System

99 - 100 Perfect
94 - 98 Excellent
87 - 93 Great
82 - 86 Very Good
77 - 81 Good
66 - 76 Mixed
58 - 65 Bad

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METALLICA 72 Seasons | Weekly Heavy Metal Album Review

Released by Blackened Recordings on April 14th, 2023

Quick Background

Obviously there's no introduction needed. Metallica ranks as one of the most commercially successful bands of all time, having sold more than 125 million albums worldwide as of 2018. The black album, from 1991 to this day still pops up on most sold albums list, say what? Yeah, it's just crazy. Despite being one of the first bands I fell in love with when I was a teenager, I haven't cared for anything they did after And Justice. Then Hardwire came and I was open to that, and it's an OK album. I even have it in vinyl. Now almost 7 years later let's check the super yellow follow up 72 Seasons.

72 Seasons

I came to this album as I did in 2016, with an open mind. The very first single was promising but also deceiving. I reviewed it on the channel, it is a short energetic song mixing Kill em All era with NWOBHM vibes. I didn't love it, but I liked it. Now the album came, and every of the other 11 songs are much longer than that. There's a lot of fat on this album, and no time was spent trying to trim it down. 77 minutes and 12 songs is just too much. Moreover, it's not that the songs needed to be all that long. No, they drag and mostly extend their welcome. "Too Far Gone?" with 4:30 is one pleasant exception. Nice Heavy Metal, notice not thrash, song with cool guitar harmonies and catchy groove and chorus. And even the closer "Inamorata" with its whopping 11 minutes and a Sabbath-like sound is an ok song and not the album's biggest problem. At least here they tried something different and explored new (heavy) avenues.  The problem are most of the other songs being around the 6, 7 minutes. Those could and should've been shorter. And it's not only the length but the fact that they are mostly mid-tempo with a lot of repetition and ideas being recycled. It all sounds familiar and too much the same.

For example, "Crown of Barbed Wire" sounds exactly like Glenn Huges song "The Liar" and from the same Live album "Room of Mirrors" reminds me of Deep Purple's "Stormbringer". Just exemples, because many parts resemble something out of And Justice or the black album (there's a "Enter Sandman" part 2 with " ").

With that out of the way,  there are some good moments, the first 4 tracks, for example, are fun with nice grooves, some cool ideas and catchy vocal lines. James is singing really well on this album. The singles "Lux Æterna"  and "If Darkness Had a Son" are also some of the highlights. During many songs, we hear some moments of cool bass lines that we can actually hear it, so that's cool. The drumming is not too bad, we know what to expect. And the production despite being too loud and pristine, at least the mix is OK. The guitar tones are also not that impressive. The artwork is horrible and the guitar solos substandard specially because we know what Kirk can accomplish. The 80's albums were hugely influential for me and some of those solos are iconic. But this...I won't even go there. It's mostly bad. 

The Picky Guy

"You Must Burn!", "Crown of Barbed Wire", "Chasing Light" didn't have to be in this album, they add no value or anything interesting.

Wrap Up Opinion 

I realize that this may sound too negative, but I actually see some value on this album and I still consider it a good 79/100 album. But, if 72 Seasons would be released by any other band, it would get no attention at all and nobody would care. But it's Metallica, so we try. I guess I mostly hoped that without any pressure from timelines or financially that those guys could use the potential they have to create something cool, heavy and sharp. We saw some light of it, pun indented, with "Lux Æterna". But it just feels that they don't care, the album is just an excuse to tour and sell new merch and on the bright side it does add some cool moments to the set list. That's just my opinion, and when it comes to Metallica everyone has one from love to hate and anything in between. So it's fine for me either way. Have fun with it or go check the new Overkill if you are on the hate it side. 

SCORE: 79/100

Genre: Heavy/Thrash Metal

Released by Blackened Recordings on April 14th, 2023

Rating System

99 - 100 Perfect
94 - 98 Excellent
87 - 93 Great
82 - 86 Very Good
77 - 81 Good
66 - 76 Mixed
58 - 65 Bad

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KAMELOT The Awakening | Weekly Heavy Metal Album Review

Released by Napalm Records on March 17th, 2023

Quick Background

Kamelot is an American power metal band from Tampa, Florida, formed by Thomas Youngblood in 1987. The Norwegian vocalist Roy Khan joined for the album Siége Perilous, and shared songwriting credit with Youngblood until his departure in 2011. On June 22, 2012, Youngblood announced on their website that their new vocalist would be the Swedish singer Tommy Karevik, who was first featured on Kamelot's album Silverthorn as the main vocalist, co-songwriter, and lyricist. 

The Awakening

The Awakening is the thirteenth studio album by Kamelot. It is the band's first studio album in five years, following 2018's The Shadow Theory, making this the longest gap between two of their studio albums. It is the first one to feature Alex Landenburg on drums and it's already the 4th album with Tommy as singer. His soaring vocals complement the band's sound, and his range allows him to transition from melodic ballads to powerful, high-energy anthems. No surprises there and good to see that the band could survive a difficult frontman change.

In addition to the intro and outro tracks, the albums features 11 songs and totals almost 53 minutes. The 11 songs stay very consistently between 4 and 5 min long and there are no epics or longer songs in parts. As always, the focus of the band is not on the guitars really, those are mostly chugging guitars and power chords, rarely we have riffs and long elaborated guitar solos. But the symphonic elements, choirs and keys make Kamelot to sound big and epic. That's their style. And most importantly, Youngblood focus have always been on melody and catchiness, so special attention is given to vocal lines and big catchy choruses. 

The first track following the intro is "The Great Divide", a trademark modern Kamelot in the  "Veil of Elysium" style, it's heavy and by the way it does feature a nice guitar solo. "Eventide" keeps the tempo fast and the heaviness, specially due to to the super heavy Post-Chorus while being catchy and melodic. It's a perfect Kamelot single and I dare to say a future live favorite.  It's also a nice way to bring us to another heavy tune, "One More Flag in the Ground" which was the album's first single. A stand out track is "Opus of the Night (Ghost Requiem)" featuring Tina Guo who has toured the world as a Classical Cellist soloing player. It's a cool song bringing back the Ghost Opera vibe. Tina also plays a major role in the ballad "Midsummer's Eve". I don't necessarily dislike ballads, and Kamelot has some good ones such as "Abandoned" and "Song for Jolee" but the only thing good about this one is Tina's presence. 

There's a lot of call backs on this album and "Bloodmoon" brings back the eastern music influences that we have seen in the past in songs such as "Nights of Arabia". "New Babylon" featuring Melissa Bonny, a Swiss heavy metal singer from the symphonic metal band Ad Infinitum, is one of my favorite songs on the album. Recently I reviewed the new album from Xandria, and this song reminds me a lot of it. But with the added benefit of the dynamic between Tommy and Melissa voices. The last song before the outro, "My Pantheon (Forevermore)" leave us on a high note, it's a good anthemic song.  

The Picky Guy

In addition to the 2 ballads mentioned before, I also find the over melodic "NightSky" a bit repetitive. Overall, that's my only concern with the album, repetition and similarity. Besides the guest appearances which added a nice flavor to the album, the band play quite safely in known territory. We've heard all of this before and it's difficult to distinguish songs and the last 4 albums as it is all sounding very much the same. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but for seasoned fans, the band is loosing that edge of appeal. For example "The Looking Glass" tries to recreate "Karma" and many others.

Wrap Up Opinion 

Overall, The Awakening is a solid album that showcases Kamelot being back to the roots. The album's themes and sound are well known to long time fans and well-executed, making it a must-listen for fans of the band. Despite not being too adventurous, it's still a good album deserving 80/100. 

SCORE: 80/100

Genre: Power Metal

Released by Napalm Records on March 17th, 2023

Rating System

99 - 100 Perfect
94 - 98 Excellent
87 - 93 Great
82 - 86 Very Good
77 - 81 Good
66 - 76 Mixed
58 - 65 Bad

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PERIPHERY Periphery V: Djent Is Not A Genre | Weekly Heavy Metal Album Review

Released by 3DOT Recordings on March 10th, 2023

Quick Background

Periphery is an American progressive metal band formed in Washington, D.C., in 2005. Their musical style has been described as progressive metal, djent, and progressive metalcore. They are considered one of the pioneers of the djent movement within progressive metal. Their self-titled debut was released in 2010 and the single "Icarus Lives!" was my gateway into the band. The Periphery II: This Time It's Personal released in 2012 was one of my top 3 albums of that year. Following years they released the double album Juggernaut: Alpha and Omega (2015), Periphery III: Select Difficulty (2016), Periphery IV: Hail Stan (2019). Now Periphery V: Djent Is Not a Genre is their seventh studio.

Periphery V: Djent Is Not A Genre

The album was self-produced by the band and the band's former bassist Adam "Nolly" Getgood. It features 9 songs in 71 minutes. Periphery always delivers long albums, but this time they have also kept the number of songs limited to 9 so obviously they are quite long. 6 are above seven minutes and two of the them (the last two) are 12 and 11 minutes long respectively. Now, we will see that often the length of those songs is driven by long outro sections. The single "Wildfire" opens the album and The song sets the tone for the album: heavy and yet catchy and melodic, full of jazzy or electronic long interludes, powerful vocal delivery and awesome guitar work. It's indeed my favorite song out of Periphery V. It's really heavy and a punch in the face. I love the vocals and the guitar work. Specially the guitar solo that sounds so Meshugga! The chorus is catchy and that jazzy interlude is a welcomed curved ball. A short symphonic outro take us to "Atropos" which despite the heavy opening riffs features a poppier feel to it due to the softer singing. But nothing to worry, it is one of the longest song of the albums, so after 2:30 minutes, things get very heavy again. It's a nice song. And here we another outro section, this time not too short and very cinematic. I dig it. It's a nice transition to the clean intro riff of "Wax Wings" which follows similar direction. This takes us to the second third of the album where we have the shortest songs on the album, 3 songs at about the 5min mark: "Everything is Fine!", "Silhouette" and "Dying Star". The first being a heavy modern song, with hints of Code Orange but without loosing a Periphery trademark stamp. The other two are to me the lowest points on the album. While I appreciate the change of pace, I just don't like the songs for being too mellow and pop oriented. 

This all leads us to the last third of the album featuring 3 long songs. The single "Zagreus" and its 8+ minutes is the first one. It's a return to what we heard with the first 3 songs. But here the vocal approach is even heavier going into brutal death metal for a few moments. We have again a cool atmospheric interlude feature a super melodic guitar solo and soft clean singing. This leads the song to proceed in an alt rock fashion, and close with another cinematic ending. "Dracul Gras" the longest song on the album and one of the highlights comes next. An adventures song with all the Periphery hallmarks packed in 12 minutes including an electronic music inspired outro. I wish this was the last song, the album would've been shorter with 8 songs and the last song doesn't add much to it. 

V showcases the band's technical proficiency and versatility as musicians, as they seamlessly blend elements of progressive metal, djent, and atmospheric and pop rock. Guitarists Misha Mansoor, Jake Bowen, and Mark Holcomb are the driving force behind Periphery's sound. They are renowned for their complex and intricate guitar riffs. But in this album I also positively surprised by super melodic and cleaner guitar solos. Drummer Matt Halpern often employs intricate rhythms, odd time signatures, and dynamic shifts to create a dynamic and engaging rhythm section. Finally, lead vocalist Spencer Sotelo again displays his powerful and versatile voice. He seamlessly transitions between clean and harsh vocals, often using a wide range of vocal techniques. I think he sounds even better than in previous albums. Finally love the album title and couldn't  agree more with their own statement!

The Picky Guy

As I mentioned a couple of songs did not work well for me. Moreover, the album's length can be overwhelming, particularly for casual listeners and this time around even more challenging as most of the 9 songs are quite long. The album's overall sound can feel overly polished or sterile at times for some metalheads.

Wrap Up Opinion 

Periphery's latest album, Periphery V: Djent Is Not A Genre, is a progressive metal musicianship journey. With complex and intricate guitar riffs, precise and dynamic rhythms, and powerful vocals, the band showcases their technical proficiency and versatility throughout the album. The band experiments with different time signatures and textures, keeping listeners engaged and interested. The album's impressive production quality and innovative songwriting make it a must-listen for fans of the genre.

SCORE: 81/100

Genre: Progressive Metal

Released by 3DOT Recordings on March 10th, 2023

Rating System

99 - 100 Perfect
94 - 98 Excellent
87 - 93 Great
82 - 86 Very Good
77 - 81 Good
66 - 76 Mixed
58 - 65 Bad

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