New Music Report – October 9, 2020
There were only a couple real albums of note that came out this week, but I’d say they’re both very much worth a listen. The Touche Amore, especially, is spectacular. But since it was an otherwise light week, I included a little piece on an acoustic EP that came out as well. But regardless of whatever my definition of a “real” album is, these are all very good albums.
Touche Amore – I’ve been looking forward to this album for some time now. Touche Amore are one of those bands that you can always count on to deliver. Their previous album, Stage Four, was an incredibly difficult and honest chronicle of singer, Jeremy Bolm’s journey through his mom’s late stage cancer diagnosis and subsequent death. That album, while incredibly well done, was often times too heavy and heartbreaking to listen to. It was such a shame cause it really was a beautiful album, but you really had to be prepared for it to wreck you every time you listened to it. Their newest album, Lament, is a clear next step to that. The pain is still there, and thoughts and feelings are still very much being processed; you can still very much feel the scars that Bolm lives with every day as he navigates life after such a tremendous loss. However, there is a different feeling in this album; moments of light and hope pervade the darkness that shrouded Bolm just a handful of years ago. It’s still difficult, but you can feel the optimism and hopefulness begin to creep in. Touche Amore has always been an incredibly raw and emotional band, and this album is really no different, it’s a solid companion album to Stage Four. Lament is somehow even more open and honest than previous albums, using the brilliant production and unexpected guest appearances to highlight the nuances and details that show the true resilience of Touche Amore. It’s an incredible experience; these guys are really pushing the boundaries of hardcore and making you feel something with every listen and it’s absolutely wonderful.
Crippled Black Phoenix – I could basically copy and paste a lot of my review of the new Ihsahn EP right here and wouldn’t have to change a word. This is an incredibly talented group of musicians, delivering a dark and gritty take on progressive rock. And while this style of music is often a little too polished and clean for me, the execution of this album is just dark enough for me to really enjoy it. It’s a really finely tuned balance of clean, progressive rock juxtaposed by dark, eerie soundscapes and the end result is a fairly unique blend of tones that are fairly captivating in their own right. And by all rights, this album shouldn’t even have happened – this band has an almost comical amount of drama. But somehow, they scrounged up enough members to put an album together and the end result is rather remarkable. Now, that said, would they have likely written a better album if they could have just acted like adults for a little while? Absolutely. This album is put together by the mastermind behind CBP and the remaining vocalist, plus a slew of guest spots. I can’t help but wonder what an actual comprehensive album from them would have sounded like. I enjoyed the bleak undertones and the epic atmosphere of this album, but I’ll always wonder what could have been with this one.
Wolves at the Gate – This isn’t a new full length album, this is an EP of acoustic covers of sons from their full length that was released last summer. This format is actually becoming really popular throughout the quarantine. That said, normally, I don’t cover albums like this. There have been a bunch of them and generally they’re pretty much exactly what you’d expect them to be, not that they aren’t good, they just aren’t really novel enough to comment on. This one, however, I felt was worth talking about. Probably because I loved the original full length so much, especially the vocal style, which is really accentuated further in this acoustic EP. It shows the flexibility not just of the vocals, but of the band itself to be able to not only create something entirely new with existing songs, but to bring new perspective on existing work. Obviously, I’d prefer to listen to the original album, but if you enjoyed that even half as much as I did, then this EP is worth a listen.
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New Music Report – October 2, 2020
These new music posts are getting longer and longer every week and I swear I’m not doing it on purpose, I just have a lot to say, as it turns out haha. I might try and tone it down a little bit, but in all likelihood that probably won’t happen, so I hope you all still enjoy them even though they’re a bit longer.
Sumac – Now, this is an album I’ve been waiting for a long time. Sumac is another one of Aaron Turner’s many projects (Isis, Old Man Gloom, etc) that continue to push the boundaries of just how heavy sludge and post metal can be. Along with Turner, Brian Cook (Russian Circles), and Nick Yacyshyn (Baptists) are no longer just pushing the boundaries of sludge metal but are now pushing the boundaries of what you can accept as metal and even music itself. When does a riff stop and a crushing, experimental soundscape begin? And that interplay is what makes this record really incredible. It’s a perfect mix of absolutely bone crushing riffs, with completely unstructured, immersive noise, and a consistently seamless transition between the two, creating one gigantic, epic, heavy album, capturing an incredibly diverse spectrum of music along the way. The origins of this influence are, in fact, incredibly clear, if you listen to the music they’ve been making ever since they started collaborating with Japanese experimental artist, Keiji Haino, you’ll see where this style came from. And while this album is all Sumac, the influence is clear, and they’ve proven that they’re able to drift away from straight sludge metal and incorporate these experimental vibes with incredible expertise. So once again, Aaron Turner can do no wrong, and has delivered one of the heaviest albums of the year, but not in the way that you’d expect.
Rezn – Honestly, I absolutely adore stoner metal bands that use their band name to unironically make a reference to weed. I know the idea is a bit played out – basing your entire personality around smoking pot – but man, when it comes to stoner metal it just hits different. And this is about as true to the spirit of stoner metal as you can get. It’s so on the nose and lacks any sort of subtlety whatsoever, but I mean, that’s basically the whole genre for you. If you’ve ever smoked weed and listened to Black Sabbath, you basically get the idea of stoner metal, and of this album. For what it’s worth though, this is an EXCELLENT take on the genre, leaning really hard into the psychedelic and experimental side of things; you can hear some strong Pink Floyd/King Crimson type influences throughout the record, and it really compliments the slow, drawling, heavy riffs incredibly well. To the point where just calling this a doom/stoner metal album is a bit of a disservice to the depth and complexity of this album. The mix of experimental journeys and just straight riffage is absolutely sublime. This album is really all over the place, but it does it so, so well, and comes away managing to feel surprisingly cohesive in the process.
Greg Puciato – Before we even get started with this one, I think it’s important to set expectations. For anyone unaware, this is the solo record from the front man of Dillinger Escape Plan. So, it’s weird. Real weird. Genre-bending, bonkers, weird. It’s awesome. If it were just about anybody else putting out this album, it would be seen as a fairly incoherent and unfocused mess, but since you’re inherently aware throughout that Puciato’s genius is at work behind the music, it all just sorta starts to make sense. It’s still an incredible experiment in the lengths that it’s possible to take heavy music, but it’s just coherent enough to come together into a strange, spontaneous amalgamation that just somehow works. I suppose at this juncture, after talking about how it’s a barely coherent mess and beyond definition, I suppose I should give you some idea of what to expect, but it really is a bit of everything, from acoustic guitars to heavy synths; it’s sort of close to the sort of projects you’d hear from Trent Reznor or Mike Patton when they’re really trying to push the limits. It’s a bit of an exhausting listen, but it is quite enjoyable.
Anaal Nathrakh – Jesus, where do I even begin with this? I mean, I guess with the album art. If you want some idea of what to expect from the blackened grind duo, just Google the uncensored album art. Done? Ok, the album sounds like that. It sounds like a pig with cocks in its eyes, which – I shit you not – is the title of one of the songs on the album. They’re not going for subtlety here. The whole album is a fucking nightmare, but as to be expected, I love it. There’s just something SO extreme and over the top about this album, that it’s absolutely brilliant. The clean vocals are actually incredibly catchy and just HUGE, and it’s a very small reprieve in an otherwise unrelenting onslaught of blast beats and chugging riffs. I honestly don’t even know what to say, by all accounts this should be a bit much, even for me, but it’s just so good, I can’t hate it. In fact, I love it so much.
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New Music Report – September 25, 2020
This past week has been a really incredible one for music. It’s actually been really hard to stay on top of everything cause I feel like I’ve been stuck on each of these albums individually for days at a time and I struggled to leave it alone to move on to the next one. Overall, that’s a pretty decent problem to have
PS. Not only am I late, but I went so overboard with this one cause all these albums are incredible, so enjoy.
Svalbard – This album is one of the reasons why I write these posts. Everyone knows about the Deftones, everyone is excited about that album. Svalbard is one of those underrated, special, relatively unknown bands that I’m just really excited to show to as many people as I can. This is a really cool combination of post-hardcore, post-metal, elements of shoegaze and atmospheric black metal, and even a little bit of screamo reminiscent of Envy, which is especially apparent in the interplay between the raw, desperate vocals and airy, atmospheric instrumentals. So needless to say, it’s really, really impressive and incredibly unique, there are so many unique elements coming together to create something truly special. This is just such a complex piece of music, driven by incredibly intense and honest emotions and a primal, raw power delivered throughout the album. And really, I could go on and on. There are so many individual elements of this album that are worth pointing out and drawing specific attention to, but in the end it’s really the final product that harnesses the beauty of the diverse and eclectic minutia to create an almost overwhelmingly powerful piece of music. It’s one of those albums that takes several listens to truly appreciate, not to say it’s overly dense, but the more you become accustomed to it, the greater the experience becomes, and the more familiar you are to all the details that have been lovingly written into this really beautiful album. Listen to this album. Listen to it like, 10 times.
Deftones – I mean, what is there to even say about this one? It’s the Deftones. How can you not be excited? I know it’s 2020 and you can’t really expect another monumental album like White Pony, really, but the Deftones can really do no wrong and they leave us all surprised time and time again by just constantly living up to the hype. It’s absolutely amazing how the Deftones have been able to create something truly special, decade after decade, somehow willing lightning to strike not only twice, but time and time again, with each passing album. And this is yet another example – an incredible example – of how the Deftones will never cease to create absolute magic. I think the charm has to do with the raw emotion combined with an undeniable, almost sexual energy, and a brilliant juxtaposition of heaviness and ethereal ambiance. The result is something truly gorgeous in a way that really only the Deftones can capture. The album has this captivating groove throughout layered with ambient textures and a latent aggression that all culminate in something that is just… magnificent. And maybe it’s just the flashiness of the new thing to obsess over, but this is definitely a top 5, maybe even a top 3 Deftones record, and that is no small task to accomplish. This is all just top tier Deftones, and absolutely deserves a place alongside White Pony or Diamond Eyes.
Alpha Wolf – I’ve been a bit of a broken record this year talking about all the great metalcore albums that have been coming out in 2020. Honestly, I felt like I was getting a little tired of it at this point. There have been so many good metalcore albums that I was starting to feel like they were all blending together. There were so many that I just didn’t really care about a new Fit For a King album. I went into this expecting more of the same, to be perfectly honest. But Alpha Wolf have proven that theory quite wrong. Man, did they prove me wrong. This isn’t the most technical album of the year, it’s not the most unique, not the heaviest, but it has this soul to it. It has this energy where every single piece and component comes together just right, and the end result is really remarkable. It has all the right ingredients in all the right quantities, and it came together to – and again, I realize I’ve said this a million times this year – one of the best metalcore albums of the year. At the very least, one of the best written metalcore albums, and one of the most interesting to listen to.
The Ocean – It kind of feels weird to track an album in anticipation for months and months these days. With the overload of information, albums come and go, and while there are a few that I’m more excited for than others, a lot of them blend in. But this one was absolutely remarkable. With an absolutely untouchable technical prowess and song writing ability, The Ocean have been setting forth to raise the bar yet again for progressive/post metal. In an upper echelon filled with a list of truly remarkable bands that have been pushing the limits for years and years now, it’s fairly hard to write something truly remarkable, but it comes as no surprise that The Ocean was able to meet and exceed the high expectations set by not only their contemporaries, but indeed by themselves as well. This album is the final installation of a two part release and it perfectly complements the earlier release, in fact I recommend listening to them in tandem. But either as a standalone or part of a greater story, this album is full of remarkable mood changes, superb pacing, and epic builds, interspersed with mind-bending technical sections and crushing breakdowns. This album really does have a bit of everything, and if you’re interested in hearing some of the most impressive songwriting in progressive metal, I would highly recommend this album.
Idles – This band is fucking bonkers. That’s really all you need to know going into this album. The whole thing is just a nonstop assault on your senses; just an onslaught of pure chaos and punk rock energy. And by the end, you feel like you’ve been hit by a bus. It’s exhausting, it’s insane, and it’s fucking brilliant. It’s really hard to say properly summarize this album. it’s awesome, it’s so, so awesome, but it’s also so challenging to listen to with intentionally abrasive hooks and just this incredibly weird vibe that just never lets us. And I guess that’s just it, this album is WEIRD and intense. It’s an excellent post punk album that fits incredibly well within the trying and honestly pretty fucked up landscape of 2020. That may or may not be a compliment, but regardless it vibes heavy with where we’re at right now, and if nothing else it deserves a lot of recognition for taking that burden directly head on and executing it in a really fun way that, despite all the oddities and difficulties inherent in this album, never seems too fatalistic, at least not at the expense of a good time.
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New Music Report – September 18, 2020
I would like to start this week’s new music post with a moment of silence. Today was supposed to be the release date for the new Every Time I Die record until it was postponed because of COVID. This is a huge deal, this was going to be my album of the year, bar none. I haven’t heard it yet, of course, but I was fully planning on stuffing the ballot box for this one. Anyway, the album is done, we’ll get it eventually, it’s just a shame. Thankfully, there’s still plenty of other good music coming out this week to almost make up for it.
Fit For a King – It’s kind of hard to explain how I feel about this album. It’s a very good album. Technically speaking, it’s quite good, it’s well produced, and it’s an accessible somewhat mainstream-facing take on metalcore. But that’s about where it ends. If you’ve heard a Fit For a King album, you’ve heard everything this album has to offer. It’s like they focused a little too hard on providing an album that was easily digestible that they lost a little bit of the depth, creativity, and dynamics that made Fit For a King really special. All the individual parts are there, it just feels like it was slightly watered down to the point where the album as a whole is rather forgettable compared to say, Dark Skies. Which is weird because all the key factors that should be important to an album are actually better than Dark Skies, but when the whole package comes together, it’s just not quite the same, unfortunately. That said though, give this album a listen. It’s still very good, it’s just not as impressive as I was hoping it would be, and not as special as Dark Skies. It’s store brand metalcore, what you see if what you get. And I guess the same recipe gets tired after a while.
Movements – This album is the highlight of this week, no question. The dreamy, ambient, and at times dreary guitar work compliments the passionate and thoughtful vocals incredibly well and the result is a really lovely album that just feels quite special. I know there has been a lot of hype around Movements with their earlier releases, so it’s hard for a sophomore effort to stack up to the early hype train, and certainly, I’d say that this album isn’t flawlessly strong. It features some of the best songs the band has ever written, but also some of the weakest. I don’t want to say ‘worst’ because these songs aren’t bad, but some of them feel like they were a little rushed and lack a little bit of substance that is indeed very important for bands like this. But ultimately, I loved this album. The whole vibe of it just made me feel good, I know it isn’t the most upbeat album, but it filled me with a breath of fresh air, and I enjoyed the hell out of it. And I think that’s the biggest difference between this and their first album. Honestly, their first album was probably objectively better, but this album had an undeniable vibe to it, which may be an intangible quality, but it counts for something, and I love it.
Knuckle Puck – I might catch some shit for this, but this album is neat but I’m just not loving it. It’s a step in a different direction for Knuckle Puck, and they’ve forgone some of their grittier pop punk style for something a bit smoother and a bit more upbeat. And, uh, it’s alright. For what it’s worth though, I didn’t like their last album either and I haven’t enjoyed anything they’ve done as much as, say, The Wonder Years, who I’m convinced accomplish the same idea as Knuckle Puck, but do it much better. I said what I said, and I’m sticking by it. But ok, more than that, it’s very straightforward pop punk, which I guess is the whole idea of pop punk in the first place. It overcomplicates precisely nothing and perfectly meets the standards of what you would expect from a mainstream angled pop punk album. And hey, if that’s what you want, you could do a lot worse than this. That said, I prefer bands in the genre that infuse other styles, add some more depth to their lyrics, etc. As mentioned before, The Wonder Years are my golden standard for this, and Knuckle Puck just can’t hang. But if you wanna party like it’s Warped Tour 2011, then you’ll dig this album.
Napalm Death – I have a massive amount of respect for Napalm Death, though admittedly this album wasn’t quite as high on my Most Anticipated list as some would expect. I guess the issue with bands like this, is that it’s easy to fall into a rut, not just in a career trajectory, I think they’ve proven that they can build a diverse, interesting career over the past 30 years, but on a more granular level, from album to album and song to song, the same unrelenting beatdown of extreme metal can get a bit tiresome. And you’re never quite sure which side of Napalm Death you’re going to get. This record, however, was quite a treat. It’s brilliantly diverse, and not just a straight up political grind album, which I sort of feared it would be. It’s got an incredible range, from the standard extreme metal that you’d expect, spanning all corners of heavy music, with influences from post punk, drone, to ALMOST black metal at times. I have to say, I stand corrected on this one, this is a really captivating and challenging album, I really enjoyed it.
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New Music Report – September 11, 2020
This past week was actually a pretty light one for music, as it turns out. Which is a weird feeling, cause fall is usually the busiest time of year for new releases. Back when I first started this several years ago, I would only do these posts when I felt there was enough to talk about, and around this time of year, I had like 5 or 6 albums every week to talk about. They’re still coming out, the schedule has just been a bit jumbled, but it’ll be interesting to see what effect this has in the long run.
Ihsahn – Ihsahn, likely better known as the vocalist and guitarist from the incredibly influential Norwegian black metal band, Emperor, is an absolute genius. He’s one of those musicians that you just can’t help but envy because he’s just so good at everything he does. He’s an almost untouchable songwriter, producer, and musician, and making it all seem so effortless. In that regard, he reminds me a lot of Steve Wilson, he’s almost unfathomably good, it feels like he’s working with some sort of cheat code that the rest of us didn’t get. And actually, in that regard, this album sounds a lot like the sort of thing that Steve Wilson would put together; in a lot of places it sounds very similar to Porcupine Tree or something like that. Very prog-influenced, a heavy foundation, and some strong, clean vocals over it. It’s a very cool execution, but at times I will say it gets a little boring. This may sound weird, but sometimes it’s possible to be TOO good at something, and when you do everything at a virtuoso level, you lose a bit of humanity and magic from your music. By all accounts, Geoff Rickley from Thursday is a god awful vocalist, but he’s forever going to be one of my favorites. It’s the idea that, while he isn’t perfect, his vocals are filled with an immense amount of emotion and passion, and it makes you feel something. When you have a song that’s little more than a technical showcase, you lose a bit of the emotion that, at least I, personally, believe is the reason that we all love music so much anyway. It’s supposed to make you feel something. And amazement is a feeling, I suppose, but it’s not always the one I’m looking for.
Mastodon – Just to be perfectly clear, this isn’t actually a new album. It’s a compilation of b-sides, live songs, instrumental versions, and a couple unreleased songs. But honestly, it’s always worth talking about Mastodon. There are a lot of cool little features on here, like the songs that they did for Game of Thrones and Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and a lot of very good quality live tracks, and for a band that’s as impressive live as Mastodon is, I think they’re absolutely worth checking out. There is also a very eclectic selection of covers like a Flaming Lips cover, a Feist cover, and a Metallica cover. The real gem here is the new unreleased song “Fallen Torches” which was released as a single preceding this album a few weeks ago, and it’s just fantastic. Honestly, there isn’t much else to say about this album, but if you’re a fan of Mastodon, I’d say it’s worth digging in to.
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