Our 20 Favorite Heavy Albums of 2019 (Part 2)
- Seth Metoyer
- Dec 16, 2019
- 5 min read
Updated: Jan 3, 2020
Ribspreader - Crawl and Slither Ribspreader is a band you just have to listen to based on the band name itself. Crawl and Slither is full of those familiar chainsaw (buzz saw) guitars from the HM-2 pedal and hammers through the entire album.
I think my favorite thing about this band is the vocals. I just love that deep growl from singer, guitar and bassist Rogga Johansson. His vocals remind me a lot of another Swedish musician, Mikael Åkerfeldt from older Bloodbath releases. Throw this one on at least once and crank it up.
Standout Song: A Night To Dismember
How's The Mix?
For the most part this release is mixed well. It's fairly crisp, has some sonic presence and the guitar tones are typical for the HM-2 pedal you hear in similar death metal music. The bass guitar is more in the mix and are equalized well with the vocals. Drums are fairly standard for the genre. Overall it's a decent mix. One issue I found was that the mastering seems a tad off, especially noticeable at the transition between Maggotman and Time Heals Only Flesh. The decibels seem lower than the previous songs and the mix feels a bit muddier.
Final Production: 3.6 KNOBS out of 5
Cattle Decapitation - Death Atlas
Awe yes, the release most death metal fans have been waiting for. Death Atlas dropped a little over a week ago and it already hit many critics favorite/best album of the year list. Yes, it's that good and comes in as my overall second favorite heavy release of 2019, next to Infant Annihilator - The Battle of Yalabaoth. This album is brutal and if you want to hear more of my thoughts on it, read our Cattle Decapitation 'Death Atlas' review.
The first couple of listens through I was not a fan of the narrative speaking parts of the album. Including Anthropogenic: End Transmission. It fits with the theme of the album but I'm just personally not a fan of the "broadcast" type of spoken word parts separating songs. It tends to jolt me out of the musical listening experience. Including The Great Dying, Pt. 1, Pt. 2 and The Unerasable Past (although there's an eerie beautiful piano and clean vocal part in the song). After a few listens those parts don't bother me as much.
Travis Ryan's vocals continue to evolve and get better over the years. More of everything from the gutterals to "demon screeching" vocal style I always refer to as sort of kind of "Kind Diamond-esq" vocals. Travis harmonizes well when singing in the different styles, overlaying perfectly on top of one another. Cattle Decapitation guitar tones are probably my favorite in all of death metal, possibly next to Aborted's tones. The signature guitar tones are once again blazing throughout the entire album. In fact the CD guitar tones have been one of my favorite tones in the genre for years now. They just work. The drums are blistering in pace through the entire album. It's a double bass bukkake fest. There's great song structure here and even more melodic musical direction than previous albums. You don't want to miss this release.
The production on this is top notch. In fact Producer Dave Otero of Flatline Audio hit this one out of the park. The album is sonically strong up and down.
Standout Song: Finish Them
How's The Mix?The mix is tight and all the musical components are leveled properly. As an audio mixer, I like to think of each album as a painting. This one is a masterpiece. You can feel and hear all the strokes with all your senses and everything is crisp and slices through with a loud but sustained presence.
Final Production: 4.8 KNOBS out of 5
Gatekeeper - Deserted
Deserted by Gatekeeper is another heavy hitting 2019 album. Dark, grimy, somber and heavy. We've got low churning guitars, hard hitting snare drums and dark gasping growls filling the void between your ear holes.
Nothing overly groundbreaking here, just 43 minutes of hard driven Arizona death metal. There's some catchy riffs and melodic dips. This is an album to throw on in the background while reading a fantasy novel or pumping iron.
Standout Song: From the Ashes
How's The Mix?
The mix is solid. There's a lot of good balance here and the snare drums are front and center, but they don't drowned out the rest of the instruments which can often happen. I really like the tone of the snare drum. It's hard hitting and not too "pingy". The vocals and guitars are mixed well and the album flows well.
Final Production: 4.1 KNOBS out of 5
Rings of Saturn - Gidim
Rings of Saturn have released another technical death metal gem. There's always so much going on in their songs, my mind is often blown away by the delicious riffs and solos. Then of course there's the drums, which always blast through the speakers. Gidim is pretty much what I've come to expect from R.O.S, and I'm rarely disappointed with a release of theirs. Lots of technical writing and catchy melodic riffs. This album is tight and has found itself on repeat a few times in 2019.
Standout Song: Bloated and Stiff
How's The Mix?
As with previous Rings of Saturn releases, Gidim has a pretty sweet production. The signature guitar tones and guitar solo's are crisp as usual. The vocals have some decent FX on them, and they are mixed right up to what I'd call the acceptable level between crisp and muffled. The drums are mic'd and mixed well and overall the full mix sounds good. I really like this album.
Final Production: 4.2 KNOBS out if 5
Blood Incantation - Hidden History of the Human Race
This release jumped out to me because of the cool cover. Its alien theme was pretty cool, plus I believe the cover was utilized for an older science fiction book. A few sites were featuring a single from Hidden History of the Human Race, so I checked them out.
I immediately liked what I heard. It's a raw, hard hitting death metal album. The release itself is only 4 songs in length, so it's basically an EP, however, all the songs are over 5 minutes long, one being 7 minutes long and the last song comes in at a whopping 18 minutes long. So, it's still over 30 minutes long, which is full length for many releases. The vibe on this release is brutal and heavy. Definitely one of the top death metal releases of 2019.
Standout Song: Slave Species of the Gods
How's The Mix?
The album is pretty raw and the mix is a bit muddied. There's something appealing about that old school face melting rawness that is familiar, but I would love to hear these guys with a bit of a better mix. The drums kick ass and sound mic'd up pretty good. The snare tone is actually fun and I'd probably keep them mixed similarly to where they are on this album. The vocals have some reverb which is fine, but the growls get a bit muddied and lost in the rest of the music. The guitars need a bit more shine and crispness. Just some sonic tweaks and overall mind to the presence of balance would bode well for this album. Still fun and raw, give it a spin!
Final Production: 3.0 KNOBS out of 5
Seth Metoyer is the owner and audio engineer at AAMM (Affordable Audio Mixing and Mastering). Find Seth on Twitter or Facebook or email metoyermedia@gmail.com.
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