New Music Report – Mar 6, 2020
I’ll start off by saying, there haven’t really been any releases this week that I was really excited about, which is fine, not every week is going to have a personal AOTY contender. That said, there are definitely albums that are worth talking about that I think others will really enjoy, including a single that I really feel in love with.
Silverstein – There’s a lot to be said for bands that have been at it as long as Silverstein and are still able to crank out consistently good albums. They have been able to build on a progression of a slowly maturing version of their original selves, and their last album was a perfect example of that. This one, however, is a bit off the course. It’s a bit poppier, a bit overproduced, a bit too far off of what I fell in love with Silverstein for. It’s still a pretty good album, I just didn’t enjoy it as much as their last album, and I think this was a softening of their remarkable progression over the years.
Body Count – Ice T’s hardcore band, featuring a few tracks with cool features like Amy Lee and Jamey Jasta. At this point, you probably know if Body Count is your thing or not. Personally, it’s not really mine, but I can still appreciate what’s going on here. Overall, this album goes super hard, and the aforementioned feature tracks are really good.
My Dying Bride – This is classic doom metal right here, which is basically what you expect from MDB, but it’s a bit more accessible than usual, And not to sound like an elitist, but it kind of suffers because of it. Their grand, long songs are a little repetitive, the production is a bit too clean, etc. It’s not bad, just not really remarkable.
Singles
Captives – God, this is so good. I love this band so much, and I really feel like they’re the UK’s best kept secret in post hardcore right now. They put out an incredible EP last year, and hopefully this is the first single from an upcoming full-length, but we’ll see. This is a really great example of modern, progressive post-hardcore, like what Hands Like Houses would sound like if they went the more progressive direction after Ground Dweller. I highly, highly recommend this single to anybody into post hardcore, as well as their EP from last year.
Saosin – This song is actually about 15 years old. I can remember jamming to the demo of this track back in high school and thinking it was just one of the best Saosin songs ever, even though it objectively sounded like shit – minus Anthony Green’s INCREDIBLE, but very raw vocals. Well, they finally re-recorded the instrumentals using the original vocal track and man, I feel like I just got closure on something I’ve been waiting on for half my life. This might be the best Saosin song ever, and they finally did it justice.