New Music Report – July 3, 2020
This week’s new music post should be another quick one, with just a few notable releases coming out and one awful release that you should steer clear of so you don’t pump up their weekly Pandora listeners/ego any further. That said, on the bright side, the two albums that are worth checking out are both INCREDIBLE. This is a solid week for sure. Also, I’m on time for once, so good for me.
Bury Tomorrow – Bury Tomorrow are another one of the hidden gems of metalcore that have been around forever pumping out incredible music. Those that have followed their careers to this point are all well aware of their consistently impressive discography, but unfortunately, they still seem to fly under the radar. They’re somewhat akin to August Burns Red in career methodology; putting out indisputably consistent releases that don’t really deviate too far from their core sound that they’ve developed over the years, but that’s given them the opportunity to truly hone that sound perfectly into something that no one does better. The instrumental foundation is just everything that an accessible yet progressive metalcore band should hope to be, teamed with aggressive screams with a strong range, and the most powerful clean vocals this side of Howard Jones. And Cannibal is another example of that impressive, polished progression, taking what they do well, and doing it even better. In fact, this record is actually a HUGE step up and I can say with complete confidence that is this their best album yet. And I don’t say that lightly. I know I’ve been saying metalcore is having a big year, but each release just steps that up higher and higher. This is gonna be hard to top, but at this rate, I’m sure someone is going to real soon.
AA Williams – I’m such a sucker for the “dark folk” trend that’s been gaining popularity over the past few years. There are so many different interpretations of it that it’s extremely unfair to lump it all into the same genre, but it definitely serves as an all-encompassing term to describe artists like Emma Ruth Rundle, Chelsea Wolfe, and all their contemporaries – like AA Williams – who basically make “folk music for metalheads”, whether the comparisons are directly appropriate or not. And honestly in this case it only sort of is, AA Williams is perhaps the darkest and bleakest in the genre and tends to fit in better with post metal bands like Russian Circles (toured with), Mono (collaborated with), or Cult of Luna (vocalist Johannes Persson does guest vocals on this album). Which is incredible company to be amongst. Much like the aforementioned bands, Williams music is deeply moving and incredibly intense, driven by the emotion felt through Williams’ haunting, powerful vocals. I love this album so much, it’s really incredible that this is her debut full length, the whole sound feels so mature and well executed. I know we’re going to be seeing a lot of great things from Williams for years to come.
Trapt – In this new release, Trapt deliver a deeply nuanced, thoughtful, and technically proficient approach to… Nah, I’m just kidding. Trapt sucks. Fuck this band, don’t support them.