Articles by zaxrecordreviews

2021

Album Review: Fawn Limbs – “Darwin Falls” 8.4 (Mathcore)

September 11, 2021 zaxrecordreviews

Interesting genre mashups are kind of my thing, so like, imagine my excitement jumping into a blackened mathcore album with dark ambient soundscapes, spoken word, and dark jazz??? Knowing that much, I was already invested in whatever this album had to throw at me, but nothing could’ve prepared me for the well of infinite darkness confined within the walls of this LP. If, after reading this review, if you decide to give this album a shot, you are in for a wild ride my friends. […]

2021

Album Review: Sallow Moth – “Stasis Cocoon” 8.8 (Death Metal)

August 30, 2021 zaxrecordreviews

With major thematic influences cited as Hellraiser and Magic The Gathering, I knew I was in for a ride going into this album, and I was, but it wasn’t quite the ride I was expecting. With a list of influences like that, paired with the album cover and a deep conceptual core, I was expecting a new age slice of hyper-technical wankery, which is something I dig so I was on board. Now, imagine my surprise when I throw this thing on to find thick, concrete motherfucking caveman riffs! That, my friends, is just the tip of the iceberg too […]

2021

Album Review: Lorna Shore – “…And I Return To Nothingness” 8 (Deathcore)

August 22, 2021 zaxrecordreviews

Man, my history with this band is dicey to say the least. I never thought their first vocalist Tom Barber was a good fit for them (despite him being directly responsible for the only good Chelsea Grin record) and I always found the instrumentals to be decent enough but fairly rudimentary. In 2018, Tom Barber left Lorna Shore and was replaced by CJ McCreery. I was previously a fan of CJ’s, so you’d think this could be where things turn around for them, right? Wrong. Literal weeks before the release of their album Immortal in early 2020, it was revealed that CJ was a scumbag predator. He was immediately kicked from the band, but myself and many others boycotted the record to avoid giving CJ proceeds. It was undoubtedly rough for the rest of the band, seeing all of their hard work soiled by some disgusting chode. […]

2021

Album Review: Summoning The Lich – “United In Chaos” 8 (Death Metal)

July 17, 2021 zaxrecordreviews

I’m a pretty busy guy. I listen to a ton of stuff, I’d listen to everything if I could, but it’s simply not in the cards. I heard about this new Summoning The Lich album upon release, but for a while there it just fell by the wayside for me. After some incredibly positive recommendations from friends and readers, and Noob Heavy’s own Carcassbomb putting the record on their mid-year best list, I decided to check it out! […]

2021

Album Review: At The Gates – “The Nightmare of Being” 8.5 (Death Metal)

July 10, 2021 zaxrecordreviews

I don’t think any band exemplifies the idea of carrying the whole game on your back quite like Sweden’s At The Gates. Every time they release something new, it’s a monumental moment for metal. There’s a tremendous amount of pressure on them to perform considering their influence. Every melodeath band to this day is still jocking At The Gates riffs, and the entire second wave of metalcore wouldn’t exist without them. Despite this pressure, they never fail to deliver quality tunes and keep death metal fans happy. […]

2021

Album Review: Hannes Grossmann – “To Where The Light Retreats” 8.3 (Prog Death)

June 13, 2021 zaxrecordreviews

Going into this record, I knew there was no way I wasn’t going to love it. The reason for that comes in knowing who Hannes Grossmann is, and if somehow you don’t, let me tell you! Hannes Grossmann is a legendary death metal drummer, having been a part of Necrophagist, Obscura, Hate Eternal, and Triptykon to name a few. He also has some great production credits under his belt, like the last Gomorrah album, or most recently, the fantastic new Mother Of All album. With a pedigree that stacked, my expectations are always sky high for his work. […]