New Music Report – June 24, 2021
This past week was a very big one for good new music. In addition to the frankly excellent albums that I review below, there were also a few singles that I feel like are worth calling out by name so everyone can get a chance to check them out. Caskets, Make Them Suffer, Fawn Limbs, and ExitWounds are all the specific standouts from this week. There were also way more full-length albums than I had the time to cover that came out, but for sneak peaks of all of this music, be sure to check out my Spotify playlist linked below.
Amenra – I LOVE this band. I try to show this band to as many people as I can but it’s honestly such a strange, intense, niche sound that I don’t really expect too many people to get. It’s a bit hard to pin these guys down, they’re kind of post metal, kind of sludge, with vocals that are an emotional, shrieking combination of hysterical black metal and feral hardcore. And the result is absolutely unique, there really isn’t any other band out there quite like Amenra. Their live shows are presented as a sort of sermon; an intense, almost religious, cathartic experience, and their music has the ability to really draw the listener in to this whole experience, and feel the full breadth of this emotion, whether they’re seeing it live, or listening to it in their car. It’s an incredibly special thing to be able to accomplish and these guys do it time and time again. With strong builds, incredible tension, oppressive weight, and animalistic release, it has everything, and even if this sort of sound isn’t your thing, it’s impossible to not be able to identify with the emotional weight they convey. I cannot possibly recommend this band enough.
Beartooth – I’ll cut straight to the point, I did not think this album was going to go this hard. I thought Caleb Shlomo and Beartooth were working their way towards a more radio-friendly hard rock like Memphis May Fire did for years (and recently rectified on their newest single), and I wasn’t expecting a ton of really interesting music from this one. But man, they took a hard turn, this album goes way harder than anybody expected it too. It’s still hook filled metalcore with lots of clean vocals, but it’s super rowdy, very heavy, and tons of fun. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still a huge amount of cheese to this album that’s just impossible to ignore, but I don’t think you’re supposed to. It’s meant to be raucous and brash and a little corny at the same time. But the difference is there’s more than enough actual substance to back all of this up and it leaves the listener with an actually very interesting and very complete album that’s heavier than it has any right to be, and I’m here for it.
Singles/Albums – Carnifex (Deathcore), Fawn Limbs (Mathcore), Caskets (Post Hardcore), Make Them Suffer (Metalcore, feat. Courtney LaPlante), Eighteen Visions (Metalcore), Light the Torch (LP, Metalcore), Lotus Eater feat. Oli Sykes (Nu-Metalcore), Withered (LP, Grind/Death Metal), ExitWounds (Metalcore), Darkthrone (Black Metal), Employed to Serve (Metalcore), Scale the Summit (LP, Prog Metal), Left IV Dead (Prog Metalcore)