Another month has come and gone in our endless trudge through ruin and misery. Onward we march, accompanied only by our own thoughts…AND some kickass metal and metal-adjacent tunes. July saw some truly special releases, so we’re back to round up our favorites for you, and this time we’ve got Westin back with us after a hiatus!
The albums we reviewed in full aren’t eligible for this list, so if you missed one make sure to check out our articles on them:
Floating – Hesitating Lights
Clairvoyance – Chasm of Immurement
First up are our runners-up!
Westin: Mortual – Altar of Brutality
Ellis: Scalp – Not Worthy of Human Compassion
Kep: Malformed – Confinement of Flesh
And now on to our faves!
Westin: (TIE) Hypomanic Daydream – The Yearning
The second full-length release of this solo project from Marie McAuliffe of Putrescine and Mesa, The Yearning is a dizzying dive into the deep end of off-kilter falsettos, vocaloid melodicism, proggy keys, and juicy bass alongside punishing drums and riffs. The entire album is an exercise in maximalism and bizarre for the sake of the bizarre without ever falling into the territory of a shallow gimmick. A rewarding challenge.
(TIE) Phantom Spell – Heather & Hearth
The brainchild of Kyle McNeill, Phantom Spell owes as much to trad metal revival as it does to prog giants like Rush, YES, and King Crimson. The synths/keys, guitar licks, and constant acoustic moods give an organic, painterly feel to accompany the stellar artwork. McNeill‘s voice is haunting, carrying the tone of a man seeking to once more return to a realm entered only through song. You will be transported somewhere else in time and experience; Heather & Hearth is absolute magic.
Ellis: Scarab – Burn After Listening
It is no exaggeration to say that Scarab deal exclusively in rippers. You wonโt find a single weak track or detour or interlude across any of their 2023 demo or debut EP or two-track from last year, and the band have clearly seen no reason to turn to such methods to pad out the step-up to a full-length here either. Burn After Listening is a work of concentrated and staggering violence that careens by in a breathless and infinitely replayable 13 minutes. Fast parts, mosh parts, guest featuresโall dispatched with expert precision as vocalist Tyler Mullen goes to war with literally everyone (โI try peace every day / Everybodyโs in the wayโ). Also shout-out Rebirth Records who have been absolutely crushing it for a while and had a killer July, especially with this and the Terminator LP (riffs) and the Subversive Intent demo (coming to a Demolicious Derby near you soonโฆ).
Kep: Kakothanasy – Metagonism
Only their third release in thirteen years, this LP from the Swiss brutal death trio is special stuff. Featuring Florent Duployer of Anachronism behind the kit along with Lionel Testaz and Leo Zrehen of Grotesquerie (who put out a proper beast of an EP on the same day this dropped) on guitar and bass, this is the sort of Very Smart Dumb Shit that gets me all worked up. It’s got everything you want from high quality brutal death: tight and technical riff insanity, black hole-heavy slams, pingy snare, vicious gurgling vocals, production that’s clean and modern but doesn’t have that soulless processed tone. It’s ignorant as hell but also feels like it’s been precisely designed for maximum cerebral carnage. Metagonism is also one of those albums with preposterously long titles that mean nothing to me but bring a grin to my face regardless–“Ephemeral Demise Macro-episodes Merging in Successive Epiphenomenal Conglomerates”, etc.–so, you know, it’s got that going for it too.