You don’t have a brain If you’re not giggling to yourself when the band predictably drops a nu-metal breakdown in the bridge after the song’s second emotive chorus for three songs straight. If you didn’t stick around anyway and connect with the power of the record, then you don’t really have a soul either.

Yes, the songs on The Death of Peace of Mind are formulaic to a fault. But the sincerity and multi-faceted delivery behind every charged line by vocalist Noah Sebastian is absolutely magnetic. With lyrics like “no god, no religion, just bad bad decisions” and “can you hear me through the white noise…friend,” Noah is presenting us with a convincing and honest look at the emotional state of America’s new generation of adults. While there is certainly some finger pointing, the message of the record is primarily inward – it is up to us to make the changes we need to in our lives and relationships. And most importantly, unlike SOME metalcore-turned-pop-metal acts I could point fingers at (uhum…uhum… Architects… uhum), Bad Omens aren’t delusional enough to blame it all on climate change.

I wanted to rate this record higher, but it just strays too far into modern pop territory for my personal liking. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to see Bad Omens achieve as much mainstream success as they can muster. It is never a bad thing when heavy music blows up, least of all when it’s a band that feels as authentic as this. Should this pop orientation continue to yield success for the band, I will happily cheer on but as a bystander.

It seemed like not so long ago that progressive metal fans were lamenting Mastodon’s pivot away from prog-inspired sludge metal and into a more commercially viable riff-happy direction. While 2018’s Emperor of Sand signaled a minor but welcomed course correction for the group, Mastodon’s latest effort, Hushed and Grim, is nothing short of a triumphant return to form, perhaps in even greater measure that any time before in the band’s legendary career.

I’ll admit that upon learning Hushed and Grim was a double record spanning almost 90 minutes, I assumed it was going to be yet another covid-lockdown-inspired slog; an under cooked serving by another artist bored and unsure of what to do with themselves with all their new-found time. Bucking this trend, Mastodon have managed to utilize the time to commit every ounce of creative and pent-up emotional energy they could muster to crafting what is an album that is every bit as heavy, psychedelic, technical, experimental, and proggy as anything else they have ever done in their career. While it might be tough to justify a 90-minute run time, it is truly remarkable just how every track has at least something about it to admire.

The record’s only real flaw is the muddy mix that tends to drown out the finer textures of the melodies and riffs. This gets particularly upsetting when comparing the mix to the crisp clean gloss of their previous effort. But putting that flaw aside, Hushed & Grim forces even casual Mastodon fans like myself to come to one inescapable conclusion: this band is simply incapable of making a bad album. And whether you fancy the progressive greatness Crack the Skye or the raw but subtly ambitious onslaught of Leviathan, I think you’ll find Hushed & Grim a worthy contribution to the Mastodon discography.

While At the Gates' output over the past decade or so since their reunion has undoubtedly been enjoyable, I think all but their die hard fans would agree that it has fallen short of the expectations one would have set for one of the most enduringly influential death metal bands of the 90's. But hey, there are death metal acts far less competent and important that have managed to string together a several decades-long career churning out the same recycled noise. If At the Gates wanted to spend the rest of their career riding the trends that, at the start of it all, were largely of their own making anyway, it would do nothing to tarnish their legacy.

And yet, with the release of The Nightmare of Being, At the Gates have announced to the world that they have no interest in sitting on their laurels and letting the opportunity to keep making worthwhile music this late into their careers slip away.

The Nightmare of Being starts off unassumingly with track 3, the title track, only beginning to tease what would follow. But from the tracks "Garden of Cyrus" through "The Fall into Time," the band strings together arguably the most unique and forward thinking stretch of music of their entire careers with instrumentation and chord progressions you would hardly ever expect to find on a record like this. The progressive ambition caked into these tracks belies a band both confident in their abilities and rife with inspiration. As front man and co-songwriter Tomas Lindberg told Loudwire, bringing in Jonas Stålhammar, a guitarist with a strong prog-rock foundation, to replace founding member Anders Björler enabled the group stretch their wings in ways they would not have previously dared to try.

The album's weakness is that it just doesn't commit enough to this new direction. The record is bookended by fairly standard melo-death fare. Its mesial section stands out, like a juicy and tender piece of meat between coarser cuts - edible but inferior. Still, The Nightmare of Being has succeeded in stoking my excitement for whatever At the Gates has in store for us going forward. How many veteran metal bands can we actually say that about?

In the mid-aughts, Trivium, a metalcore/melo-death band that quickly rose to prominence during the New Wave of American Heavy Metal, at some point began to catch flack for sounding "too much like Metallica." While the group's music was obviously inspired by Metallica, it was vocalist Matt Heafy's clean singing voice's uncanny resemblance to James Hetfield's voice that seems to have invited these comparisons. Why these comparisons invited disdain is anyone's guess. Artists wearing their influences on their sleeves is, in an of itself, not sufficient reason to ridicule them.

This brings us to Orbit Culture, and their latest record Nija, a record that all but spells out its influences on the album sleeve. Metallica, Gojira, and At the Gates sounds are all front and center. And if we're being honest, in somewhat serendipitous fashion, vocalist Niklas Karlsson, kind of sounds a lot like Matt Heafy from Trivium. But by competently and reverently tying these influences together, influences that no modern metal band can really claim to have escaped, Orbit Culture has crafted a near definitive "snapshot" of the state of modern heavy metal. Nija IS the state of heavy metal in 2021 and the state is doing fine... but perhaps a little short on inspiration.

As infectious as some of the riffs can be, the album falls short in those big moments that are supposed to carry a bit more emotional heft. I suppose this is where it would indeed be fair to criticize an artist for being overly dependent on their influences. An authentic emotional response from the audience requires some more authenticity on the part of the artist.

On Nija, Orbit Culture establish themselves as promising young act. Will their next record catapult them to greatness? If they hone in on their unique voice within the framework of their influences, then the answer is a resounding yes!

"Progression or evolution is best served if it does not include dismissing either the past elements or the future possibilities. Being all about regression makes music rotten from the inside in the long run, while total futurism tears up roots and make the tree fall," said Ivar Bjørnson, founding member and guitarist of Enslaved, in an interview with Metal Bite when Below the Lights first dropped in 2003. While referring specifically to the philosophy behind the music on the band's latest record, Ivar's comments could easily sum up the raison d'etre of many progressive and avant-garde metal acts leading up to and immediately following the turn of the millennium. This was an era where an open frontier of metal music remained undiscovered and many Nordic acts, Norway's Enslaved included, answered the call of exploration.

Below the Lights does its part in advancing these exploratory efforts by expertly threading together the most haunting elements of mellotron based 70's prog, Viking-inspired folk, and modern black metal. Coupled with an iconic album cover and esoteric lyrics, this is a record that fosters a palpable sense of impenetrable mystery. Who exactly is trapped below that snow covered forest? How does their pain and misery square with the abject euphoric beauty explored on tracks like "The Crossing"? Who exactly is having these mystical visions of impending darkness? I am not equipped to even attempt answering these mysteries. I am content with letting that mystery permeate through the music.

Despite the above praise, I'm still unable to afford this record a perfect rating. As I have mentioned in my reviews in the passed, black metal as a style is, for my own personal taste, a liability. Compared to a death metal growl, black metal vocals are thin and grating. If death metal vocals attempt to capture the power and terror of Satan himself, black metal vocals imitate the sounds of the small imps running around stirring trouble on Satan's behalf. Additionally, black metal guitars and drums are too keen on using tremolo techniques as the foundation of entire passages. "As Fire Swept Clean the Earth" could easily have been improved had those tendencies been tamed.