Some Quickies

Obolus - Lament
Already releasing an album is Obolus, shortly after their 2011 demo which was largely well received. This new album Lament is about as good as the demo was. I do wish it had a slower song similar to "Selfless" from the demo, cause that was really the song I played over and over. Lament does have a pretty diverse range of songs, but a lot of it is filler tracks that are just meandering instrumental songs. "Desolation" is a pretty awesome song though. Overall: GOOD

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Les Discrets - Ariettes Oubliées
Back in 2010 France's Les Discrets released a monster of an album with Septembre Et Ses Dernières Pensées, getting them a lot of nods from both post-rockers and metalheads. Their recent follow up album Ariettes Oubliées is much in the same vein, although it feels more like a cohesive album -- but with that there is also lack of intensity as their debut. It's still good and you should get it over the new Alcest if you are at all into metalgaze

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Pallbearer - Sorrow and Extinction
Pallbearer's debut has been much anticipated by most metalheads after their 2010 demo made a shit load of year end lists, and rightly so -- it was an awesome demo. Maybe that's why almost half of the album is recycled from their demo. Still, the newer material is just as solid as their previous stuff. Heavy riffing, awesome vocals, this will probably be one of the better traditional doom albums of the year. Gloomy Sunday is still their best song though.

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Earth | Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II
I'm almost hesitant to mention Earth since every review I have read continues to talk about Earth's releases in terms of their old doom drone. Stop talking about Earth 2! Now, Earth's Angels of Darkness sequel has been out for a while now and it is surprisingly different from part I despite being recorded at the same time. More of the songs were improvised in this go, but part II suffers from the same setbacks as part I in that the songs meander without much purpose. Their 2008 album The Bees Made Honey... is still the pinnacle of Earth's creations and what they are doing. It wandered with purpose, subtly building and crescendoing, albeit at a snail's pace. Both of the Angel albums wander, but more so because they seem lost.

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