Steak
No God to Save Ne Obliviscaris
Urn
I was looking forward to
London outfit Steaks release
with being a fan of their earlier
stuff, but nothing could quite
prepare me for just how powerful No God to Save would
be. From the lyrics, the tones, the riffs and the monster
rhythm section right through to the production, Steak are
firing on all cylinders, just check out album opener ‘Over-
throw’ or recently released video ‘Living like a Rat’!
The sheer weight of the album is enough to propel them
into the stratosphere and take on anyone that comes close
to them. A must buy album for any stoner rock fan, No
God to Save will stand the tests of time and cement them
in the genre as one of the future flag bearers without
question. Steak are legends in the making, and it all begins
here. The band keep upping their
game in terms of musicality and
songwriting, each instrument
is given moments to shine. The
band have only managed to improve with each album
which is amazing considering the previous albums have
all been works of art in the progressive death metal scene.
| Nominated by Ash Crowson.
Trivium
The Sin and the Sen-
tence
I know we’re sick of it by now:
‘Trivium are the next Metallica’
and so on. But this album was
the tipping point that absolutely confirmed it; Trivium are
truly one of those bands that we will look to for headlin-
ing our biggest festivals. A band with albums that we will
look back on as being the very peaks and lows of metal
music over decades.
The Sin and the Sentence signals a further step up in matu-
rity for the band who are showing they can be as concep-
tual as they can just straight up, badass metal composers.
It also must be said that Matt Heafy’s screamed vocals
are a welcome returning feature to the bands music, not
that he clearly hasn’t learned lessons from a softer vocal
approach giving the album a range previously unthinkable
from the band.
| Nominated by Sean Rafferty.
Betraying The Martyrs
The Resilient
It was one of the first albums I re-
viewed for RAMzine and I have to
be honest I’ve listened to it every
week since then, it’s such a step up
and was the soundtrack of spring 2017 for me.
| Nominated by Mike James.
| Nominated by Dale Unsworth.
Archspire
Relentless Mutation
This album is not just a landmark
for tech death - or even metal, for
that matter. This is a landmark
for music. Guitar solos are noth-
ing new, right? But how often do you hear a bass solo? Or,
even better, a VOCAL SOLO? Every minute of Relentless
Mutation is as exciting as the last. When you take inno-
vative songwriting, and couple it with curb-stomping
aggression, what you get is a spiritual listening experience.
Everything from the bass lines to the vocal patterns are
immensely intricate, and what’s strange is that it doesn’t
even feel like Archspire are showing off. What it feels (and
sounds) like is a band at the top of their craft. A band that
has conquered an entire genre in the space of 8 years and
still chooses to push itself beyond expectations. Exciting.
Unpredictable. Memorable. This album is everything
music should be.
| Nominated by Sam Hayler.
Eighteen Visions
XVIII
I couldn’t wait to see what
arguably one of the most under-
rated band’s from the heydey of
metalcore or should I say “fashioncore” era could bring to
the table after pretty much alienating the vast majority of
there audience with the self-titled “final” album, but low
and behold they totally smashed it out of the park with
XVIII. This record landing somewhere stylistically for me
between where the album vanity left off and obsession
picked back up with there signature slick but brutal blend
of metal. They look and sound as though they haven’t
missed a single step, proving that the orange County beat
down is still very much relevant in 2017.
| Nominated by Mike Thomas.
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