New Music Report – October 8, 2021
This might just be a bit of a cop out, I know there are a bunch of good albums coming out this week that I’m not covering with a full review, but it’s honestly mostly cause I just don’t have enough of an opinion on them to say much. I’ve always loved Atmosphere, but I’ve had trouble getting in to modern Atmosphere and mostly just fondly remember the God Loves Ugly days when I discovered them. The World is a Beautiful Place is a well done, beautiful album but I don’t have enough to compare it to in my personal collection. And Kowloon Walled City is really cool, out there, sludgy post rock and I enjoyed it but I know it’s a bit out there. All of these are definitely worth your time, but apparently not worth my time to really write something out about them haha.
Trivium – Trivium are one of those bands that never really stopped working when the rest of the entertainment industry shut down. They took to Twitch and social media with live streams, video games, and just about every sort of content you could imagine. Which is pretty forward-thinking stuff from a metalcore band that has effectively been around forever. And man, they sure were cool in the early-00’s. They combined that New Wave of American Heavy Metal sound with typical early-00’s metalcore (along with bands like Shadows Fall, etc.) and made something genuinely special. There was awhile there where it really felt like it didn’t age very well, and maybe it didn’t, but be it a resurgence or purely nostalgia, the sound has come around again. This new album is meant to be a concept album that leaves the interpretation up to the listener, and I guess that’s a cool idea, but it almost feels unnecessary. It’s just a solid metalcore album that will give you exactly what you expect from Trivium, and it’ll be a good, enjoyable listen. I’m not in love with it, but it was very well done, so I’d say it’s worth checking out.
Singles/Albums – The World is a Beautiful Place and I’m No Longer Afraid to Die (LP, Post-Rock/Emo), Atmosphere (LP, Hip Hop), Kowloon Walled City (LP, Post Rock), Veil of Maya (Metalcore), The Last Ten Seconds of Life (Hardcore), Maybeshewill (Post-Rock), Bullet for my Valentine (Metalcore), Monuments (Metalcore), SeeYouSpaceCowboy (Screamo)
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New Music Report – October 1, 2021
We’re really getting into album release season now and things are starting to heat up. There are tons of INCREDIBLE albums coming out during the remainder of this year, and this week is a perfect example of the strength and diversity of these releases. There’s so much going on here from nonsense mathcore to ex-Attack Attack fever dream post-hardcore, and some new Converge and Devil Wears Prada thrown in for good measure, and I love it so much. So, check out everything if you can, there’s sure to be something for everyone.
Frontierer – I’ve said this a few times over the years, probably cause I listen to a lot of mathcore, but I’ll say it even strong for this one: This album is pure chaos. Oh my god, absolutely nothing makes sense here, it’s just absolute nonsense from start to finish and I love every second of it. Mathcore has lots of weird little subsets, where sometimes it seems very calculated, and sometimes it’s absolute destruction, and this sort of resides somewhere in the middle. Where everything on this album feels incredibly deliberate, but deliberately created from a mind that makes absolutely no sense. All while avoiding the trap of being chaos just for the sake of chaos, which isn’t always an easy thing to do with this sound. They manage to make this crazy mess of dissonance intelligent and captivating, while still being difficult to pick out a groove. It’s a hell of an experience, and I highly recommend it to any fans of mathcore, djent, just about any sort of nonsense that people are calling music.
Dying Wish – What an incredible surprise this album was. Dying Wish has been causing some stirs in the scene for a bit now, including a recent stint on the road with some all-time favorites of mine, Silent Planet. But as is often the case, until you really have a full sample size of what to expect from a band that you can really only get from a debut full length. It made me really cool off on my Spiritbox hype, and subsequently made me turn up the Dying Wish hype considerably. This album is nothing short of fantastic. It’s incredibly gritty, screamo-y metalcore, jumping on the current wave of screamo-reemergence and capitalization on nostalgic sounds and styles from the early-00s. And I’m kinda blown away by that whole movement cause most of the time that sort of thing feels too forced, but so many of these bands, Dying Wish included, are doing it so, so well. It’s familiar, but still their own sound, and executed on such a level that you rarely see from debut albums except from truly special bands.
Wage War – To put it simply, the last Wage War album was terrible. It was really just basic, boring, pseudo-radio-friendly metalcore. It lacked focus, substance, and really the passion or their previous album. So, I didn’t really have high hopes for this new album, I was really expecting it to be more of the same, just another album where they phoned it in so they could get some plays on Sirius XM. The singles leading up to this album gave me a bit more hope, but I still wasn’t expecting a ton. And I will say, the results are much better than I was expecting. In fact, it might just be their best album yet. Still not groundbreaking, it’s still mostly generic metalcore, but still pretty solid generic metalcore. And for what it’s worth, being generic isn’t really the worst thing in the world, not every band is going to set out to redefine the genre, some are just out there to make a specific, existing style of music, and make it as good as they can. And that’s exactly what Wage War did here, and I’m into it.
Singles/Albums – Full of Hell (LP, Deathgrind), The Devil Wears Prada (Metalcore), Converge/Chelsea Wolfe/Stephen Brodsky (Sludge/Metal/Post-Metal), Shadow of Intent (Deathcore), Bilmuri (EP, Post-Hardcore), Explosions in the Sky (LP, Post-Rock/Soundtrack), Archspire (Progressive Metal), Mastodon (Metal), Trivium (Metal)
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New Music Report – September 24, 2021
There has been a ton of hype around a lot of the releases coming out this week, and for good reason, really. None of them were huge up on my list, but I really was looking forward to them for their own reasons. It’s also nice that there’s a lot of diversity in the releases for this week, it should have a little bit for everybody.
Sleep Token – Sleep Token is very, very difficult to explain. They’re kinda metal but not super heavy, they have a very strong and talented vocalist and one of the most entertaining drummers I’ve literally ever heard, and have moments of real heavy music, but it’s more a heaviness through intensity than what you would traditionally expect. They also have the whole “masked band” gimmick with their own personas and story and so on, more like Ghost than Slipknot, but I’ll let that part slide. The album itself is, as the music would suggest, filled with a kind of slow burning intensity. Now, I like slow burning intensity, but this might be even a little bit slow for me. It’s a good album, don’t get me wrong, but definitely a bit out there, and something you have to be in the right mood for. But holy fuck, that drummer is a god damn monster. I’ll listen to this album on repeat for the drums alone.
Signs of the Swarm – For a while there, I wasn’t too hot on deathcore, it all kinda sounded the same and it was really difficult to do something new and innovative. Thankfully, that is no longer the case with excellent bands like Lorna Shore, Shadow of Intent, Mental Cruelty, etc, really pushing the boundaries of what you can do with deathcore, but it’s still easy to get lost in the deathcore scene. It’s so easy to just do the exact same thing as everybody else, and do it well enough to fit in but not stand out, but Signs of the Swarm are doing a damn good job at making sure they aren’t one of those bands. I didn’t care TOO much about this album on the build up to its release since it was, as noted, just yet another deathcore album, but upon first listen it was very clear that I did not give these guys enough credit. This is a hell of an album. It’s not going to reinvent the genre, and it’s not going to rise to the top far enough for me to mention them in the same breath as the bands listed above, but it certainly stands out enough on its own to warrant a listen.
Singles/Albums – Underoath (Metalcore), SeeYouSpaceCowboy (Screamo), Whitechapel (Metalcore), Fit for an Autopsy (Deathcore), 156/Silence (Metalcore), Attack Attack (Crabcore), We Butter the Bread with Butter (Weird German Electronicore), Rivers of Nihil (LP, Death Metal)
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New Music Report – September 17, 2021
Man, this week is HUGE. I can’t even begin to have enough time to cover all of them, but I’m making sure I at least cover some of the big ones. And by big, I mean two of these albums are ones I’ve been looking forward to for over a year now, and I’m fairly certain I’m not the only one. Spiritbox and Eidola have both been teasing these forever and I’m SO stoked to finally get to sit down and listen to them. There are tons of honorable mentions in the album list like the new Thrice and Employed to Serve, and some HUGE new singles from Silent Planet and ETID, so definitely take the time to check those out too.
Eidola – I absolutely adore this band. I’ve been saying for years that these guys are the best thing to come out of the swancore group by such a large margin, it isn’t even close. And this new album is just more evidence as to why. They avoid being a cookie-cutter of other progressive post-hardcore bands out there and maintain their own identity while still falling very firmly within familiar territory. Andrew Wells, singer, songwriter, and touring guitarist for Dance Gavin Dance is the mastermind behind this project and now, with the addition of guitar genius Sergio Medina, they’ve managed to step up their game once again. I’m not sure I’m in love with this album quite as much as their last one, but that sense of familiarity can’t be replicated immediately. What I do know, is this album is good enough to have the lasting power in my song rotation to know that one day it will be just as important to me, and that’s not an easy feat these days.
Spiritbox – This was easily one of the most hyped metal releases coming out this year and I’ll have to admit, I had some preconceived notions about it. About this time last year, I had “Holy Roller” on repeat and I thought this band would be huge, but as more and more singles rolled out I started to cool on them a bit. I don’t know why, it was still good, it just didn’t quite have the same impact. I was fully prepared to be underwhelmed by this album. But it turns out I was just looking at it the wrong way. Spiritbox are incredibly talented musicians and songwriters, and they’ve basically just fast-tracked their career to late-stage-Architects style metal. It’s a lot more accessible and “radio-friendly” than most metal, but still very technical and hits very hard. I think this will be an incredibly successful project for them and I certainly hope so because they deserve it. Not everything has to be crushingly heavy or djenty to be good, this album is exactly what it needs to be.
Mono – This is one of my sleeper hits of the year. I know a lot of you read this for my metal and hardcore recommendations and most of you aren’t as familiar with the post-rock bands that I follow but trust me when I say that this is one of the absolute best of the best. Mono, from Japan, have been some of the most emotional, powerful, and innovative post-rock bands out there for more than a decade now, so a new album from them is absolutely something to celebrate. They claimed that this album would have more electronic influences than other albums, which I guess I kind of see? I think it’s more in the atmospherics but regardless, it adds a ton of depth a complexity to an already strong album. This is one of those bands that you already know is going to put out something remarkable, but this album is just next level, even for them.
Singles/Albums – Silent Planet (Metalcore), Every Time I Die (Metalcore), Employed to Serve (Hardcore/Metalcore), Thrice (LP, Alt Rock), The Plot in You (LP, Post-Hardcore), Carcass (LP, Metal), Vulvodynia (LP, Slam-Death), Attack Attack (Crabcore), Sleep Token (Metalcore-ish), Comeback Kid (Hardcore/Metalcore), Wage War (Metalcore), Dying Wish (Metalcore)
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New Music Report – September 10, 2021
Man, I’m way behind on these things at this point haha. Thankfully, this past week was a slow one so it gave me a chance to get everything out of the way. I want to get this all done cause this coming Friday, the 17th, is absolutely HUGE. Since I packaged all three of the past weeks together though, there’s still tons of new music for everyone to check out. There have been a lot of quality releases over the past few weeks, so please take the time to work your way back a bit and check these out.
Trophy Scars – While this band may not be unfamiliar to those of you that have been around the post-hardcore scene forever, seeing it pop up in this context certainly will be. These guys have been around the block for quite some time in a number of different iterations, from their New Jersey post-hardcore beginnings, to the experimental blues rock they play today. I know that’s quite the leap, even to make over the course of 20 years and 5+ albums, but holy shit, did they execute it perfectly. Admittedly though, it’s hard to figure this band out, they’ve made a career out of staying independent or on small labels to afford them the flexibility to do whatever weird shit they want to, and it’s worked out really well for them, even if it isn’t always accessible to the listener. As a result, however, not nearly enough people out there are going to hear this album. But if you’re one of the lucky few that finds it, you’re in for a brilliant, but extremely out there and challenging masterpiece. Give this one a shot, it may not be your thing, but it’s undeniably fantastic.
Singles/Albums – Emma Ruth Rundle (Dark Folk), Frontierer (Mathcore), Invent Animate (Metalcore), ten56 (Nu-Metalcore), Andrew WK (LP, Party Metal), Signs of the Swarm (Deathcore), The Plot in You (Post-Hardcore), Ice Nine Kills (Hot Topic core)
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New Music Report – September 3, 2021
Things were slightly slower this week, some good singles, a few good releases, but some quality heavy music. And when I say heavy, I mean HEAVY. The two bands I talk about this week are absolutely pounding, and they both killed it with these releases. Not to mention some very interesting singles that are hinting at some very promising releases coming a little later in the season.
Earth Groans – Earth Groans were one of my favorite underground finds of 2020, they put out a really incredible hardcore-leaning metalcore EP last year and I was absolutely blown away by the songwriting talent of these guys, and it turns out that’s exactly what they did again in 2021. This new release is a bit more structured than their last EP, while still leaning a bit on their mathcore influences that made their last EP so special. That isn’t to say they’ve taken the edge off themselves, it’s more like they’re maturing gracefully into something still heavy and chaotic, but a bit more coherent. This is still the same incredibly groovy yet aggressive hardcore that I feel for when I found these guys last year. These guys have an absolutely insane amount of potential and I’m so glad we’re consistently getting new music from them and getting to experience their growth in real time. I can’t wait for the next one, hopefully it’s a full length, but I’ll take whatever I can get.
Carnifex – These guys were basically proto-deathcore. Putting out deathcore records before it was ever really a thing and before anybody knew what to call it. So, in that sense, they’re definitely pioneers in the genre, but as with many pioneers, they were sort of eclipsed by the next generations of talent that innovated on the original idea and really cemented the genre as what we know it to be today. After they, they kinda hung around and just became a little gimmicky and cheesy, if I’m honest. I still respect these guys, it just didn’t do it for me. That is no longer the case. Do not get it twisted, there is nothing outdated or gimmicky about this new record. Sure, it may not be the most innovative thing out there, but it is very, very good at what it set out to be: really heavy, straightforward deathcore. And I’m kinda loving it. It’s set up a new precedent for the band and path forward into something fresh and exciting, and I’m here for it.
Singles/Albums – Bilmuri (Post-Hardcore), Whitechapel (Metalcore/Deathcore), Portrayal of Guilt (Blackened Hardcore), Zeal & Ardor (Avant Garde Metal), Animals as Leaders (Instrumental Djent), Eskimo Callboy (Electronicore), Imminence (Metalcore/Post-Hardcore), Archspire (Progressive Metalcore)