2021

2021

Album Review: The Hyena Kill – “A Disconnect” 8.5/10 (Alt Rock)

March 18, 2021 Ellis Heasley

It’s hard to know where to start with A Disconnect by The Hyena Kill. Probably one of the best words to sum it up is ‘cathartic’, but that doesn’t really shed much light on what it actually sounds like. The Manchester-based four-piece’s second full-length is difficult to pigeonhole for sure, but chances are if you enjoyed relatively recent offerings from the UK underground like Phoxjaw’s Royal Swan or Black Peaks’ All That Divides, you should get on pretty well with this. It’s also difficult not to hear a heavy dose of the alternative metal of the likes of Tool and Deftones (neither a huge surprise given the band was drawn together by a shared love of both those artists, among others). […]

2021

Album Review: Draken – “Draken” 8/10 (Prog Rock)

March 16, 2021 Noob Heavy admin

Prog as a genre has become meaningless these days. Half of all the metal/hard rock bands have prog somewhere in their genre and the other half write music that display characteristics of what has historically been called prog. Then you have bands that just call themselves prog. Yeah? Prog what? I’m a bit of a newbie to prog rock and I always thought it was basically Rush and Gentle Giant. It had clean production, was usually happy, and rocked in a more cerebral way. Then I heard Norway based prog rock power trio Draken and they’ve kinda changed what I thought prog rock could be. Dropping on March 26th, Draken’s self titled debut has a retro vibe that harkens back to metal and hard rock of yore but with a new, exciting reimagining. […]

2021

Album Review: Portrayal Of Guilt – “We Are Always Alone” 8/10 (Blackened Hardcore)

March 15, 2021 Noob Heavy admin

A really good blackened hardcore release and no one specifically told me about it? I had to find it all on my own months after release? Christ, you guys are really letting it slip this year. The whole merging of black metal and hardcore variants like post-hardcore or screamo has had a huge come up in the last few years and it’s pretty much my porn. Finally, a scenario in which black metal can be good. […]

2021

Album Review: Brand Of Sacrifice – “Lifeblood” 8/10 (Deathcore)

March 13, 2021 zaxrecordreviews

Whether you like deathcore or not, it’s pretty easy to see that the genre isn’t exactly in its heyday right now, and there’s a couple of reasons for that. Almost all of the biggest bands in the genre have either fallen from grace or faded from the limelight. That leaves fans looking for the next big thing, and unfortunately they aren’t really getting it, because young bands are really struggling with innovation. It is of my opinion that the band currently carrying the whole fucking scene on their back is Brand of Sacrifice, here’s why. […]

2021

Album Review: Breaths – “Lined In Silver” 8/10 (Post Metal)

March 12, 2021 Noob Heavy admin

Lined In Silver is simultaneously familiar sounding and also filled with intrigue. Disband your expectations and let the album unfold because it does not persist as it initially presents, which is something much closer to Deftones. It’s a comforting album that I play regularly, there are great storytelling instrumentals narrated by a very capable vocalist with alt rock and shoegaze roots. They’ve really honed in on a specific sound and rode it out to completion. […]

2021

Album Review: DVNE – “Etemen Ænka” 8.5/10 (Post Metal)

March 11, 2021 Ellis Heasley

With a runtime of 67 minutes, Etemen Ænka, the third album from Edinburgh-based progressive/post-metallers Dvne, makes for quite the undertaking. While hardly a rarity for music of this kind, records this long tend to go one of two ways. Either they stretch out as painful unfocused slogs which struggle to maintain their listeners’ attention; or, less often, they have the mind-bending effect where time appears to fold in on itself and the lengthy runtime hardly registers. Fortunately in Dvne’s case, it’s definitely the latter. Etemen Ænka is a gargantuan record whose ten tracks draw comparisons to some of the most respected and creative names in metal, including the likes of Cult Of Luna, Mastodon and The Ocean. […]

2021

Album Review: Feculent – “The Grotesque Arena” 8/10 (Death Metal)

March 10, 2021 Kep

Releasing on March 19, The Grotesque Arena is the debut album from Brisbane’s own Feculent, one of a number of fantastic bands to come recently out of Australia. This could almost be called a supergroup, if that term meant anything these days, as it features a whole slew of great musicians that you might know from other bands: Matthew Budge of Resin Tomb, Siberian Hell Sounds, and Consumed on vocals, Kaleb Doherty of thrashers Idle Ruin on guitar, Jim Dandy of Descent on bass, and master-of-all-trades Brendan Auld on drums. Auld is the mastermind behind grimy one-man project Snorlax, which put one of 2020’s most underrated death metal records, as well as a member of Resin Tomb, Siberian Hell Sounds, Consumed, and Necroseptic. He also does the production and mixing here for Feculent. Needless to say, this lineup is stacked, and boy does the music reflect that. […]

2021

Album Review: Dread Sovereign – “Alchemical Warfare” 7.5/10 (Death Doom)

March 9, 2021 Noob Heavy admin

Formed in Dublin back in 2013, Dread Sovereign has been around for a while but never caught my attention. Their first two albums were released on Ván Records but ALCHEMICAL WARFARE is their first to be released on Metal Blade Records. I was looking through the selection of promos last week and I decided I would take a chance on Dread Sovereign’s latest release, ALCHEMICAL WARFARE. I say “taking a chance” because the description said something like “Classic Doom mixed in with some Venom”. Personally, I am not a fan of Venom, and as for Doom Metal, my tastes lean more toward the Funeral, Blackened, and Death/Doom variety. […]