New Music Report – June 11, 2021
Lots of cool new music last week, and it’s actually all pretty diverse too. Now, I’ve probably said enough about that Lorna Shore single but man, I’m still getting over it. But aside from that, there have been a ton of really quality albums that came out this week. From my oldest favorite band, AFI, to a newer band, WristMeetRazor, that are still scratching that nostalgia itch by doing brand new justice to an old sound that I grew up on. Plus, some more deathcore cause that’s just been cranking out lately, and I’m certainly not complaining.
AFI – AFI was actually my first real favorite band. Back when I was like 11-12 years old, I somehow came across The Art of Drowning, which had just then been released and the band completely changed my life. I’m fully convinced they paved the way for probably about 80% of my personal music tastes. And if you showed that 12-year-old Hogan this album, he would have HATED it. But 20 years later, both AFI and I have grown up quite a bit (mostly), and now, in 2021, I have to say this album is just about perfect. Gone are the hardcore, horror punk, goth rock, whatever days of AFI, and they’ve settled into a sort of post-punk masterpiece which has been the clear destination of their trajectory for a long time now whether anybody realized it or not. It’s the perfect manifestation of an AFI in the present day, with its members in their 40s, and the Days of the Pheonix behind them, so to speak. The whole thing has made me rather nostalgic and I’m sure I’m going to be stuck in the AFI discography for a while but for now, the new album has been steadily on repeat, and much as they were for me back in 2001, they’re still the perfect, reliable soundtrack for me here in 2021.
WristMeetRazor – Speaking of nostalgia, here is another one of the bands leading the screamo revival that I’m absolutely in love with right now. They don’t have as much of the chaotic mathcore elements of SYSC but it’s sort of like the more straightforward If I Die First sound, which is hardly a problem. It reminds me of that very specific sound from the early-00s that combined the energy of hardcore, the heavy At-The-Gates-Core brand of metalcore riffs and breakdowns (think early Atreyu, Eighteen Visions, Bleeding Through, etc), and the drama of post-hardcore and punk, all rolled into one crazy amalgamation of music that was absolutely perfect for the time. And as it turns out, it’s pretty damn perfect for today too. I’ve said this before, it might be partially nostalgia-driven, but I swear these newer bands reimagining this sound are doing a PHENOMENAL job making it sound fresh and frankly I can’t get enough of it. If you remember when Warped Tour was at Nissan Pavilion, this band is for you. Bonus points too, riffing on that hyper-localized reference, they’re a local DC band as well, and I’m always down for supporting local music.
Distant – I have been absolutely spoiled by good deathcore lately. It’s actually a pretty new thing for me too, there was a good long while there where deathcore just didn’t do it for me. I know the genre got a little stale for a while there, but these bands out there these days have been killing it. It’s so much more than relentless double bass and who can write the heaviest breakdown, it feels like there’s some real substance and diversity in the sound. Bands are switching it up and bringing in influences from black metal, death metal, metalcore, hardcore, etc, and it takes what is, frankly, a fairly one-dimensional genre, and adds some dynamic flavor to it. Distant have been doing exactly that. Now, I still stand by what I said, and I think that Mental Cruelty album is one of the best albums I’ve heard all year and kind of edges this one out, and I think the Lorna Shore EP might just take them both out. But new music is certainly a good thing, and I have to say, this is a very good album by a very good band and is definitely worth checking out.
Singles/Albums – Lorna Shore (Blackened Deathcore), Structures (Progressive Metalcore), Amenra (Post-Metal), Deafheaven (Post-Punk/Shoegaze), Times of Grace (Sludge Metal), Fear Factory (Industrial/Nu-Metal), Chunk! No, Captain Chunk (Easycore, if you miss good ADTR, listen to this), The Dead Rabbitts (Metalcore)