Too Heavy To Hug #702

Welcome to THTH, Forte’s premier source of all things heavy, hard, fast and metal.
Holy shit will you look at the calendar? Mid November already! Time to start counting down THTHs Top 5 albums of 2018:
5) Sevendust – All I See Is War
For some reason this album found its way onto my speakers or into my earphones a lot this year since it was released in May. Why? Well it’s not like I have been a massive fan of the band, sure, I was into their 1997 debut album Home, and I really love their Southside Double Wide acoustic release in 2004 and I’ve kinda kept across their career since the beginning but they haven’t really done anything too noteworthy until All I See Is War.
Sevendust have pretty much decided they need to modernise and mature at the same time and with this release they have; their signature crunching guitar riffs, pounding drums and thick bouncing bass are still present but it’s all a lot less nu-metal and more straight up simple, hard rocking metal. Everything the band has learnt over their 20 plus year career has culminated in this release. Catchy? This album is so fucking catchy too both lyrically and musically. Lajon’s vocals have always been amazing and they’re even better this time around. And look, All I See Is War might be a somewhat subtle political album but I can forgive them because the political parts can be looked over for the most part.
For an example of irony look no further than the band’s most original sounding track to date, ‘Not Original’. Track four; ‘Unforgiven’, through to track twelve; ‘The Truth’ is a solid block of hefty track that flow well together and show the breadth of the bands new sound. Tracks two and three are the album’s weakest and track one, ‘Dirty’ would have sat best as the album’s closer. Why this album beats out a lot of other albums for fifth place is because it is so refreshing, simple and catchy and heavy enough to be metal, but not too heavy to fall into that easy listening type of metal.
In other news
Amon Amarth will release The Pursuit Of Vikings: 25 Years In The Eye Of The Storm, a retrospective documentary and a live album, on Friday November 16.
Amenra, YLVA and LO! will be at Max Watts on Saturday November 17.
The Metal in the Mountains 2018 day festival featuring I Am Duckeye, Grindhouse, Monarchus, As Flesh Decays, plus more, will be held at Beechworth’s Servicemen’s Memorial Hall on Saturday November 24.
Psycroptic will play Geelong’s Barwon Club on Wednesday November 28, then Ballarat’s Karova Lounge on Thursday November 29.
Ballarat’s Blaze Music Festival featuring Dead City Ruins, Hadal Maw, Dreadnaught, Whoretopsy and many more will be held at Karova Lounge on Saturday January 26.
The 10th annual Progfest featuring The Ocean and Monuments, with more to be announced, will be held at Melbourne’s The Croxton on Saturday January 26.
Alestorm will be at Melbourne’s Croxton on Saturday February 9.
Watain will play Melbourne’s Max Watts on Friday February 22.
Devin Townsend will release his new album Empath in March 2019.
Ensiferum will be at Melbourne’s Max Watts on Saturday March 2.
Download 2019 will be held at Flemington Racecourse on Monday March 11.
Soilwork will be at Max Watts on Saturday March 16.
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