Napalm Records

The official follow-up to 2016's insidious Trust No One -- the 2018 covers LP Outlaws 'til the End, Vol. 1 paid tribute to the band's country heroes -- Dealing With Demons I is the initial installment of an ambitious double album from the veteran Santa Barbara-based melodic death metallers. The exorcism begins with "Keep Away from Me," which sees frontman Dez Fafara confronting a lifetime of agoraphobia via a Molotov cocktail of djenty string bends, punitive blast beats, and funereal ambiance. The blazing ghost story "Iona" unspools in intricate patterns that harbor moments of dark, melodic grandeur, while the mosh-worthy title track plays to all of the group's strengths, administering wave after wave of terraforming grooves that leave behind nothing but pestilence in their wake. Closer "Scars Me Forever" presents itself as a ballad, but like everything that came before it -- including the slow-churning "You Give Me a Reason to Drink," a collaboration with Fafara's son Simon Blade -- eventually settles into a punishing cadence that marries melody and might with the kind of precision that can only come from years spent studying the dark sonic arts. The unrelenting Dealing with Demons bears all of the hallmarks of its predecessors, including cover art that belongs on the side of the world's most sinister boogie van, but it aims for catharsis instead of apoplexy. © James Christopher Monger /TiVo

The follow-up to 2016's Dust, A Dying Machine is the fourth album from Alter Bridge guitarist Mark Tremonti's band and the group's debut for Napalm Records. The band continues with its thrashy, high-tempo sound with melodic choruses and anthemic vocals, but this time with a faintly progressive bent. Produced once again by Michael "Elvis" Baskette (Trivium, Falling in Reverse), the album includes the title track single. © John D. Buchanan /TiVo

The follow-up to 2016's reliably punitive Trust No One, DevilDriver's eighth studio long-player asks the age-old question: Would Dwight Yoakam's "Thousand Miles from Nowhere" sound better with blastbeats? That same query is applied to Steve Earle's "Copperhead Road," Willie Nelson's "Whiskey River," and nine other classics of the genre on the competent and occasionally thrilling Outlaws 'til the End, Vol. 1. It's certainly the group's most adventurous outing to date, but that's not saying a whole lot, as DevilDriver have been cranking out shelf-stable slabs of death-focused groove-metal for over two decades. Still, it's fun hearing Dez Fafara and company pay tribute to their outlaw country heroes, especially when they allow themselves a bit of sonic wiggle room, as they do quite effectively on standouts like Hank Williams III's "Country Heroes" and Stan Jones' "Ghost Riders in the Sky," the latter of which delivers the perfect blend of brooding fury and power metal cheese. The familiarity of cuts like "Ghost Riders" and "Whiskey River" is tempered by the appearance of less-recognizable offerings like Richard Thompson's scathing anti-war rocker "Dad's Gonna Kill Me," which gets the full-DevilDriver treatment, and a guest vocal from Fear Factory's Burton C. Bell -- guest spots play a huge role on Outlaws 'til the End, with Randy Blythe (Lamb of God), Brock Lindow (36 Crazyfists), Lee Ving (Fear), John Carter Cash, and Hank Williams III all lending their talents to the festivities. Sure, it can be hard to suss out the source material when everything sounds like it's being filtered through a woodchipper -- it's unlikely that fans will be able to tell the difference between the band's originals and their Dimmu Borgir-inspired rendering of "Whiskey River" in a live setting -- but there's nothing on here that doesn't feel like a labor of love. © James Christopher Monger /TiVo

After a six-year gap between albums, California quartet Hoobastank returned with the pop-friendly Push Pull, a surprising sixth effort that traded their early nu-metal/post-grunge hurricane for a smooth, R&B- and funk-influenced rumination on love that was inspired by Duran Duran, Chic, and David Bowie. Fatherhood and marriage have changed the Doug Robb-fronted group, resulting in honest lyrics that address cooling passions, relationship tedium, and the real-life issues associated with trouble in paradise. For those expecting another "Crawling in the Dark" or "The Reason," Push Pull is jarring, to say the least, an outlier in the band's catalog that should prove divisive. Produced by Matt Wallace, Push Pull is an apt reflection of two of that producer's past collaborators: Faith No More and Maroon 5. Extracting some of Faith No More's funk-rock and weaving it with Maroon 5's smooth, blue-eyed soul-pop, Wallace reinvigorates Hoobastank's approach most blatantly on the strutting "Push Pull" and the achingly sweet "More Beautiful," one of the first examples of Robb's falsetto. These oddities of electronic disco-funk are tempered with more familiar rock tracks like the chugging "True Believer," a saucy number wherein cowbell and handclaps buffer Robb's romantic pleas to "Resurrect me, making me come/Make me come alive." While "True Believer" plays on unabashed sexuality, its counterpart, "Buzzkill (Before You Say Goodbye)," tries to recapture the same flame of desire with yearning honesty. Push Pull also includes a Muse-esque cover of Tears for Fears' "Head Over Heels," which fits with the album's overall sentiment, but is ultimately unnecessary considering the number of unexpected turns to digest elsewhere. This is a Hoobastank hitherto unseen, and the results are refreshing if listeners can move beyond this abrupt sonic shift. Hook-heavy, impeccably produced, and brave, Push Pull shines a light on all the ugly and difficult issues that face a matured and seasoned relationship years down the line when reality sets in and those sparks of new love have faded. © Neil Z. Yeung /TiVo