New Music Report – May 22, 2020
Another somewhat light week for new music, though no less exciting. I’ve been looking forward to the second part of the Old Man Gloom double release for a while now. And of course, the new metalcore keeps pouring in this year, and I’m super happy about that.
Old Man Gloom – This is actually the second album they’ve put out in the past few months. When they recorded this last album, they recorded a whole second album that they kept secret. So, they released the “second” one first, shortly after the lockdown started, in anticipation of the release of this one. And they’re both spectacular. These albums are the band’s first in 6 years, and the first after the passing of their bassist, Caleb Scofield (also of Cave In). And honestly, after dealing with profound loss and the passing of time, it doesn’t feel like they’ve skipped a beat, in fact they’re hitting harder than ever. And whether that’s a reaction to the passing of Scofield, or the introduction of Newton’s songwriting, I’m not sure, but I’m here for it. It’s hard to pin down the sound of OMG, it’s sort of a sludge, doom, post-metal, space rock, noise amalgamation that makes a bit more sense when you consider the background of the members of this hugely under rated supergroup (Isis, Converge, Cave In, Sumac, Zozobra, etc). It really does sound like a very well calculated mishmash of all of those sounds. And if you check this out, do yourself a favor and listen to both albums.
Singles
Currents – Gah, this band is just so good. Literally the only thing good to come out of 2020 is metalcore, and with their new album coming out in two weeks, I think that’s about to be stepped up to a whole new level. All the singles that have come out for this album so far have pointed towards this being an instant classic.
Northlane – One more single that I want to talk about this week. It’s no secret that I was a big fan of Northlane’s somewhat experimental take on modern nu-metal with last year’s Alien, so it goes without saying that I really loved this single. I’m not sure who had to make the call to cut this off the album, but it must have been an incredible difficult call to make.