A Winged Victory for the Sullen - "The Undivided Five" (neoclassical)
At turns ambient and vibrant. Stays mostly away from the muted piano noodling that a lot of online neoclassical projects can turn into. Nothing to make me weep in ecstasy or desolation, but it made me feel good. What more can you ask?
Hive - "The Mirthless Kind" (deathcore/djent)
The varied, clanking, shrieking, pounding, janky riffs are the real star of this show. Props to the drumming, too. The production is a little fuzzed-out and blended, making it sometimes difficult to hear what's going on, but it's better than a loudness war approach, and may even aid the evil atmosphere of this EP. Hive delivers.
I Built the Sky - "The Zenith Rise" (instrumental prog/djent)
Well-produced, cheerful, and occasionally driving. Some noodly soloing, but mostly not too show-offish. And, finally, IBtS has a snare tone that isn't so overcompressed as to pain my head :)
we.own.the.sky - "Home" (post-rock)
It was fun. Some sober-minded parts, but mostly doesn't take itself too seriously. There were two "choral" parts in this otherwise instrumental album that I found jarring, but the other songs flowed well and maintained a healthy variety without straying too far from a core sound.
Dawn of Disease - "Procession of Ghosts" (melodic death metal)
I mean, it was fine to listen to? The riffs were fine, but they all sound the same. "Procession of Ghosts" kinda felt like the same song over and over for its 50+ minutes. A procession of the same ghost, one might say, haha. At least it was a good ghost.
PDG/MV - "Morvan" (dark ambient/experimental)
Technically released yesterday, but whatever. Pierre Georges Desenfant and Maxime Vavasseur team up for a joint release on Past Inside the Present. First time hearing about these artists. An initial poke at the album was intriguing, so I listened through it; it did not hold up to my curiosity. Many of the tracks had cessations or almost-breaks in odd places near the middle of the tracks, as if they were two songs glued together with nothing holding them fast. (Perhaps each half by one of the two artists?) There were some good moments, but I felt that "Morvan" was lacking compositionally, and failed to hold my interest. (I will be checking out MV's solo project, Witxes, so "Morvan" was evidently not a total turn-off.)
