New Music Report – October 30, 2020
Apologies for interrupting your regularly scheduled doomscrolling, but I wanted to share some new music from this past week. There were actually quite a few albums here that I was really looking forward to and for the most part they were really good.
Emma Ruth Rundle/Thou – What began as a one-off collaborative set at Roadburn Festival last year became a full-fledged project that caused quite a stir when it was announced. Both ERR and Thou are incredibly well respected, and there was absolutely no question that this project would end up producing a dark, brooding masterpiece. It’s worth noting that this absolutely does not sound like Thou with a guest vocalist, but really a whole new project in itself, that takes strong influence from the most brilliant parts of either act while being entirely unique. There are incredibly huge ebbing highs and lows, from crushing, sludgy riffs to lighter folk or post punk passages, creating a meticulous and cohesive sound from two fundamentally different styles. In short, it highlights what makes them both great and brings them together and a perfect marriage of two complimentary but still fairly disparate sounds and the product of this meshing of inspired and unique takes on heavy music is absolutely sublime, haunting, and mesmerizing from start to finish. And more surprising still, it somehow managed to surpass even my incredibly lofty expectations of the potential of this project.
Like Moths to Flames – I’m not going to lie, I really like Like Moths to Flames, but I also felt like their scope was somewhat limited and part of them was still stuck in the Rise Records/Joey Sturgis cookie cutter metalcore era that they emerged from. Now, whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing is your perspective. But still, 10 years on, the sound has some nostalgic value. So that’s basically the value I was expecting to get from the album. Thankfully, it’s so much more than that. I wouldn’t say it’s groundbreaking, necessarily, but it’s very, very good. And frankly, while I enjoyed their last album, I’m glad they sacrificed a bit of catchiness for straight up riffage on the new album. Just about every track is a straight up banger; very well written, interesting composition, very good dynamic range both instrumentally and vocally, etc. It’s everything you want from a good, heavy metalcore record from one of the bands that have really left their mark on the genre over the past decade. I know the vocals are a little low in the mix, that’s a bit annoying, but that’s honestly the worst thing I have to say about this, so it’s more than worth listening to.
Puscifer – I wanted to give this one a shot. I’m pretty hit or miss on Tool in general, but Maynard has some interesting projects and despite being obnoxious and pretentious, sometimes they’re worth listening to, but man, I just couldn’t do this one. Not my thing. And from what I’ve heard, even people that do like Puscifer have been very ‘meh’ on this album. Good lord this is boring. And like, I listen to some very objectively boring music, I listen to Sunn O))) FOR FUN. It sounds like a demo track made in Garage Band titled “New Idea 5 (rough)”.
Draconian – This band is so god damn cheesy, but I love it. They’re basically goth/doom metal though, so honestly it suits them so well. Their sound has always just been so god damn epic, really nailing that often misused metal trope that juxtaposes heavy chugging riffs and gritty screams with soaring melodies and operatic clean vocals. But not many of attempts can really come close to what these guys have been doing for more than two decades now. I feel like the added gloom and weight from the doom influences complimenting the goth metal tones are really what makes it click with these guys, but regardless the final product is incredibly special. This album is actually a bit softer than other works from them, leaning a bit more heavily on the gorgeous clean vocals, but I’d hardly knock that as a bad thing, it’s just slightly less of a balance. Either way though, the album itself is brilliant and incredibly beautiful. I really don’t think this band gets nearly enough recognition for the truly excellent and innovative work that they do; all of the elements they work into their sound, from funeral doom, to atmospheric black metal, to melodeath, to goth metal all while layered with an incredibly complex and complimentary vocal dichotomy. This was really excellent.