Too Heavy To Hug #679
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Too Heavy To Hug #679

Welcome to THTH, Forte’s premier source of all things heavy, hard, fast and metal.

The top 5 metal releases for 2017 are:

5 – YLVA – Meta
YLVA’s debut album certainly focusses on varying volumes and on the darker shades within the spectrum, and these volumes and shades add to the album’s progressive parts, and strengthens the massive wall of sound it offers whilst maintaining its grim atmosphere. Meta is a predominately mid tempo journey into pounding drums, crushing guitar and dark interludes and most importantly, the sense of restraint, as you get the feeling these Melbournians could unleash all their heavy fury at once and be done with it. But they don’t and that’s what adds to how they’ve built their tracks, and this album.

4 – Genevieve – Regressionism
Genevieve swing between post metal interludes and frantic modern American black metal-esque and death metal-esque parts which create a messy, aggressive and chaotic yet complex and somewhat haunting and psychotic outing. And that description doesn’t fully do justice for Regressionism, it’s an album that is completely unconventional in every sense of the word and that’s what makes it such an interesting release, albeit initially inaccessible, the album can be penetrated with more spins and that is when the true menacing nature of the record can be uncovered.

3 – Satyricon – Deep Calleth Upon Deep
The Norwegian duo Frost and Satyr have again delivered another heavy slab of black-n-roll that is catchy as all fuck. Incorporating old school black metal the band is most renowned for along with dragging, low tempo gloom and doom passages, and pure rock n roll elements, this album weaves it all together to produce a cohesive journey through all things dark.

2 – Solstafir – Berdreyminn
Their previous album, 2014’s Otta snagged the top stop in the THTH top 5 for that year and Solstafir have again found themselves in the THTH top 5 this year with their follow up, Berdreyminn. The Icelandic post metal masters have delivered a fresh rocking album featuring fuzzy guitar riffs, 80’s inspired passages and a lot of beautiful arrangements and some unexpected turns. Berdreyminn is not Otta v2.0, instead it’s the logical next step for the band. A lot of preconceived expectations were high for this release and a lot seemed disappointed due to these expectations, but what Solstafir have done this time around is nothing short of breathtaking and remarkable.

1 – Dodecahedron – Kwintessens
The sheer twisted violence and malicious ferocity that is unleashed from this album is truly an experience to behold. Kwintessens is the second album from the Dutch avant garde black metal quintet and much like their first self titled album, this album also features tracks that are claustrophobia and anxiety inducing. Dodecahedron know this power of their album so, rather intelligently, they’ve offered respite throughout by splitting the album into three parts, each part preceded with a short (but amazing) interlude. By doing this, the band have spaced out the aural onslaught and have given the album longevity and instant repeat listenability which really helps because there’s a lot going on throughout Kwintessens. Also worth noting here is the amazing production that gives this album a thick, monstrous sound, as well as its encompassing atmosphere, which adds to the maniacal tones and gives the whole album more of a strength of conviction (not that it needed anymore of that). Above all, the seriously proficient songwriting and musicianship coupled with a deep understanding of the metal craft, all of which was on display of their first album, has helped the band push their sound, and metal forward.

If you have any news about local metal bands, shows or albums, let THTH know by emailing to [email protected] or get in touch via Twitter at @TooHeavyToHug

Written by Paul S Taylor