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.