Osi and The Jupiter
Larvatus
Releases July 18th on Eisenwald
Genre: Neo/Nordic Folk
On the band’s newest album, Osi and The Jupiter brings a harrowing, longing and encapsulating nature to the band’s newest album Larvatus. With the gorgeous string section on the album opener “ “Saged Incantations”, bringing a feeling of old world history and emotions of longing, loss, strength and hope throughout the full ten-minute runtime. Almost cinematic style aesthetics and tone throughout the album. Pieces like “A Dark Carriage Lead by Blind Men” build presence and deliver empathy and relatability in its haunting, atmospheric and forlorn, saddening tone. Giving the listener a chance to build the visual representation of their music with each track. Even creating a folk-laden, campfire vibe with “Snake Healer”, before switching to reverb-soaked soundscapes and layering on “Wild Host”. A beautiful, entrancing record that is worth a listen to find your center, relax your mind, and channel the true path you are searching for as you meditate to the sounds of this record.
SCORE: 5 / 5
Ba'al
The Fine Line Between Heaven and Here
Releases July 18th on Road To Masochist Records
Genre: Black/Sludge/Post-Metal
On Ba'al’s second album, the band continues to dwell into the sludge/post-metal soundscape of bands like Neurosis and Isis. To the haunting keys on the album opener “Mother’s Concrete Womb”, into a wall of distortion and layering in the production, the band comes thundering in with full force. Nick Gosling’s soaring guitars, combined with the hammering drum strikes of Luke Rutter, add such a force of nature in the band’s weight and sound. Joe Stamps’ shrieking, black metal-esque vocals truly pierce the thundering sound of the band’s music. With shrieking highs and guttural lows being predominant on “Waxwork Gorgon” and “Well of Sorrows”. A standout track for me was “The Ocean That Fills A Wound”. A solid record, with moments that I felt hit some of the same notes from the band’s debut Ellipsism, but I feel not expanded upon enough compared to that record. Good record for any sludge/post metal fan to check out if you like the brash vocals of Stamps and the chugging heaviness of the rhythm section of the band.
SCORE: 3.5 / 5
Band’s Page on Road To Masochist Records
Mawiza
Ül
Releases July 18th on Season of Mist
Genre: Groove Metal/Metalcore
Chile’s Mawiza second album’s opener “Wingkawnoam”, this groove metal act truly captures the groove of Chaos A.D.-era Sepultura with some moments of modern Gojira. Guitars are front and center in the mix, with the drums adding that tribal, thumping, almost ritualistic undertone to the band’s music. Songs like “Pinhza Ñi Pewma”, “Mamüll Reke” and “Lhan Antü” truly add that bounce of groove metal, with tinges of ritualistic tribal drumming and vocals, soaked in modern metal production. Though that is something that does hurt the record is the production. It seems like there are moments where the vocals get hard to hear or buried amongst the rhythm section of the band. A solid record that delivers that Gojira/Sepultura tone, but stumbles in the production and sound in the final product.
SCORE: 3.5 / 5
Stomach
Low Demon
Releases July 18th independently
Genre: Drone/Doom/Sludge Metal
From the booming, droning, and bleak sound on the album’s opening track “Dredged”, Stomach grabs the listener by the hand and pulls them down the dark rabbit hole of the band’s second album. This duo truly create a punishingly heavy, bombastic and dirge-like tone that fans of Crowbar, Primitive Man and Sunn O))) would soak up. “Bastard Scum”, for me, draws comparisons of a sludgier Godflesh in it’s slowed-down, almost funeral-doom pacing. Songs like “Get Through Winter” pick up the pacing and structure, but still beat the listener over the head with the thundering chugs and drum hits. A record that just sounds like desolation and bleakness, combined with a feeling of drowning in the depths of the unknown. Heavy as all hell record and will deliver that stank-face delivery with every slowed-down, chugging, gritty tone throughout the almost forty-five minute runtime.
SCORE: 4.5 / 5
Oskoreien
Hollow Fangs
Releases July 18th independently
Genre: Melodic Black Metal
With demo-like distorted guitars and a gnarly as hell production tone, Oskoreien’s third album starts off with cascading, distorted tremolo on “Prismatic Reason”. Vocals have so much snarl and visceral disgust in them, capturing the tone of early second wave black metal in the production. On “Bernalillo Sunrise”, the melodic black metal sound builds and intensifies throughout the track. With peaks and valleys sweeping across the seven-plus minute runtime. At only five tracks, the band truly packs a bunch into each song and can definitely compared to a lot of it’s melodic black metal peers like Uada & Groza. Though there were some moments in one or two tracks where it went on a bit too long or formulaic, the music was good overall to not hurt it too much. Worth a listen for that brash production, with moments of uplifting ascension, before being dragged down to hell with shrieking vocals and distorted, jangly guitars.
SCORE: 4.5 / 5
