New Music Report – June 4, 2021

Posted by admin on Jun 11, 2021 in Featured | 0 comments

Last week was a fairly light week for new albums, but man was it a cool week for singles. Even on these slow weeks, there’s been so much cool new music coming out that has been a lot of fun to talk about. Specifically, the new The Air I Breathe and the new Memphis May Fire singles were both on repeat for a long time. And both were complete surprises. We haven’t seen new music from TAIB in a decade, and Memphis May Fire hasn’t made good music in just about as long, but here we are, 2021 is full of surprises.

Red Fang – The problem with metal, well, one of them anyway, is that most metal bands take themselves way too seriously. Even the ones that have a bit of fun with it still have the super serious tough guy promo pics and everything, it gets a bit tiresome and one dimensional. Red Fang have never been like that. You could always tell that they were enjoying the hell out of themselves and their music. Because of that, their super lofi stoner/doom metal never really stood out aside from some earlier works when it was still fresh. Since then, it’s just been a very good and very consistent history of really fun metal made by a bunch of really fun aging, stoned metalheads. And Arrows is no different, as it turns out. I will concede that it’s a bit of an evolution on their previous sound, as they mature and mellow out into even fuzzier and groovier riffs. But this isn’t going to challenge anyone’s perception of Red Fang, or stoner metal in general. It’s just a really fun, chunky, sludgey, riffy stoner album And sometimes, you really can’t ask for much more than that.

Singles/Albums – The Air I Breathe (Metalcore), Memphis May Fire (Metalcore, it’s actually decent this time),The Breathing Process (Blackened Deathcore), Darkthrone (Black Metal/Doom), Mayhem (Black Metal), Sleeping with Sirens (Post Hardcore), Descendants (Punk), King Woman (Doom Metal), Light the Torch (Metalcore), Death Goals (LP, Mathcore), Rise Against (LP, Punk), Atreyu (LP, Alt Rock), Capstan (Pop Punk/Alt Rock)

New Music Report – May 28, 2021

Posted by admin on Jun 5, 2021 in Featured | 0 comments

Unfortunately, I have to make things quick for this week’s new music post. Truthfully, I wanted to find time to cover Our Hollow, Our Home’s new album as well, but I just haven’t had the time and I haven’t really listened to anything other than the new Mental Cruelty album since it came out. So, I didn’t want to give an unfair shake to an album that I didn’t really get a chance to digest. That said, I didn’t really want to wait any longer to put this out because I didn’t want the Mental Cruelty album to get lost in the shuffle. If you like heavy music in any capacity, do yourself a favor and check this out.

Mental Cruelty – About a year and a half ago, I came across an album that would completely change my perception of what heavy music is capable of. Lorna Shore’s Immortal brought heavy to a new level, combining the brutality of deathcore with the relentless onslaught of black metal and holy shit, was it cool. I had never really heard anything quite like it before and since it was such a niche genre, never really heard anything like it since. Until this new Mental Cruelty album. The singles had me intrigued from the start, but I didn’t quite understand the magnitude of this album until I heard the whole thing. And now that I’ve had it on repeat for a solid week and a half, I can say with complete confidence that it blows Immortal out of the water. The complexity, the diversity of the vocals, the absolutely devastating breakdowns to the shredding guitar solos, this album is a heavy hitter from start to finish yet manages to never feel stale as so many particularly heavy albums can. This band truly is something special, and this is yet another mind-blowing staple of the blackened deathcore sound, and perhaps the best example of it yet.

Singles/Albums – Our Hollow Our Home (LP, Metalcore), Spiritbox (Metalcore), AFI (Alt-Rock), Chelsea Wolfe (Dark Folk), Bodysnatcher (Deathcore), Red Fang (Stoner Metal), Year of No Light (Post-Rock), At the Gates (Metal), Perturbator (LP, Darksynth), Of Mice & Men (EP, Metalcore), Zeal & Ardor (Avant Garde Metal), Bossk (Post-Metal), Distant (Deathcore), Turnstile (Hardcore), Reflections (Djent), The Bronx (Hardcore), Scale the Summit (Prog Metal)

New Music Report – May 21, 2021

Posted by admin on May 26, 2021 in Featured | 0 comments

This last week was HEAVY. Both of the two releases that I talk about are absolutely massive, which isn’t to just gloss over the new single from Slaughter to Prevail, of course. They’re on very, very different ends of the spectrum of heaviness – one from the legends of metalcore grown up, and another from a fresh, young, incredibly chaotic band – but both are absolutely worth a listen and it really shows just how fun and diverse this corner of the music scene can really get. These two albums are already firmly slotted into heavy rotation and I don’t see either of them getting pushed out anytime soon.

The Devil Wears Prada EP – Back in 2010, the original Zombie EP turned the metalcore world upside down. This is back when scenecore was still a huge thing and The Devil Wears Prada were at the height of their fame. Many years have passed since then, but it still remains one of the all-time greats in metalcore. But these days, many are quick to discount TDWP, either because they only know them as the myspacecore band, or because they think their new stuff isn’t heavy enough. But over the years I’ve been one of their biggest advocates, I firmly believe these guys are writing the best music of their career. But it always felt like a hard sell because I understood that the new sound wasn’t for everybody. This is different. This is incredible. This takes the spirit and the brutality of the original Zombie EP and combines it with the matured songwriting ability of the band and the result is quite possibly the best thing they’ve ever written. This right here is peak Prada, this is the culmination of everything great they’ve done, and gives us a look into an incredibly bright future. Til then though, this will stay on repeat.

Kaonashi – Man, this band is cool as fuck. Ok, where to start. First off, they call themselves “emo mathcore” which should give you a basic idea of what to expect. Think mid-00’s, The Dillinger Escape Plans meets The Fall of Troy with occasional hints of La Dispute, type thing. Pure manic, frenetic chaos. It’s fucking brilliant. I sort of count these guys in the newer wave of post-hardcore and metalcore bands like Callous Daoboys, SeeYouSpaceCowboy, etc that are doing their best to revitalize the scene and give us something new by drawing on the past and man, are they killing it. But it’s honestly so much more than just nostalgia, I know it’s easy to think that, but these kids really are paving the way forward and it’s so exciting to listen to. To make things even more complex, this album is part of a larger series of concept albums a la Coheed, and just drowning in emotion and energy. This band just keeps getting cooler. If you’re into incredibly chaotic music with insane, grating vocals, and you like any of the other bands that I mentioned here, please check these guys out.

Singles/Albums – VCTMS (Slipknot Cover), Slaughter to Prevail (Russian Deathcore), We Were Sharks (LP, Pop Punk), Angels & Airwaves (Space Rock), An Autumn for Crippled Children (LP, Post-Rock), VOLA (LP, Djent), Eskimo Callboy (LP, Myspacecore), Northlane (Acoustic EP), Ingested (Deathcore), Alleviate (Metalcore), Beartooth (Metalcore), In Dying Arms (Metalcore), Lights & Motion/Christoffer Franzen (Post Rock)

New Music Report – May 14, 2021

Posted by admin on May 19, 2021 in Featured | 0 comments

*Note – This post is for music from 5/14, I’m posting this right after the post from 5/7 in a separate post but on the same day in an attempt to get back on schedule after my move. Sorry for jumbling things up a bit.*

I had to take a bit of time to get myself caught back up with these new music releases, but this past week has been a very good week to do that. Not entirely overwhelming, I must say, but a few very, very solid releases that are more than enough to get me excited to check out some new music again. I hope you enjoy these, as well, especially the first EP I talk about, I know I gush about them a little bit, but I genuinely believe these guys are completely changing the game, at least in their particular corner of the scene.

If I Die First/SeeYouSpaceCowboy EP – Now, this is something I’ve been looking forward to for quite some time. These two bands are just everything music needs right now. They’re doing something brand new by recalling the past – the past I grew up on, in an incredibly exciting new way. And let me tell you, seeing a sound that you love and grew up with hit its peak, fall out of fashion, then become so retro that it’s cool and people are doing it again makes you feel REALLY fucking old, but man, am I glad it’s happening. This is the perfect rejuvenation of the old screamo, emocore, scenecore bands from the mid-00s like Drop Dead, Gorgeous and From First to Last. In fact, Travis Richter and Derek Bloom from FFTL both play in If I Die First, along with Lil Lotus and members of Ghostmane, whom I do not know, but I’m told the kids like them. Both of these bands are absolutely carrying this sound into fresh new horizons, and I couldn’t be more excited to be able to watch the new generation take the sound that meant so much to me and create something so fresh with it. This isn’t just good, this is the future.

Panopticon – Panopticon has always been n anomaly in the “solo project ambient black metal” scene. Partially cause he’s actually good, and partially due to the sheer talent and resiliency of Austin Lunn’s project. His work has always been particularly interesting since it teams black metal and bluegrass, of all things, resulting in a bleak, dark southern-tinged style of black metal. It sounds so weird, but I love it. If you want a taste of this in its truest form, check out Autumn Eternal. This new album is a bit of a progression of this sound, maintaining his signature melancholy and deep south themes, but with a slightly deeper and more diverse style of composition, spreading past the banjos and blast beats (I swear, it’s SO much cooler than it sounds) and adding some very solid post rock vibes to make this an even more complex musical journey. Lunn, as an artist in any form, is just a brilliant man, and while this might not be the absolute staple of the Panopticon sound, it’s a perfect showcase of his real talent.

Singles/Albums – The Devil Wears Prada (Metalcore), Our Hollow Our Home (Metalcore), Fear Factory (Nu-Metal), Sleep Waker (Metalcore), The Dead Rabbitts (Metalcore/Post Hardcore), The Ember the Ash (LP, Metalcore), Cane Hill (Nu-Metalcore), Chunk! No, Captain Chunk (Easycore), Carnifex (Deathcore), Cherry (Members of Thornhill & Void of Vision/Alt Rock), Alustrium (Tech Death), God is an Astronaut (Live Album, Post Rock), Erdve (Atmospheric Sludge), Galleons (LP, Post Hardcore), Bulb (Misha from Periphery, Djent)

New Music Report – May 7, 2021

Posted by admin on May 19, 2021 in Featured | 0 comments

*Note – This post is for music from 5/7, I was moving this past week and I haven’t had a chance to get this finished. I have the post for 5/14 finished and it will be going up tomorrow in an attempt to get back on schedule*

Once again, we’ve got a lot of cool new releases this week, unfortunately, I’m running late because I’m moving this week so things have been crazy, but the soundtrack to my packing has been wonderful. This was actually a really big week for heavy music in general. The past few weeks have been fairly diverse, this week is not haha, it’s pretty much nonstop heavy music. Including a bunch of post-metal singles, which is a very rare occurrence. Also, I feel like I have to mention this band every time they come up cause I’ve adopted them as my favorite unknown band and I need to spread the word, but Caskets (UK band, formerly Captives) just released a new single, so check that one out too.

Darko – This record is an absolute monster. I’ve basically had this album on repeat, and I almost can’t tell you why, to be honest. I know this sounds like just another deathcore band – I’ll be the first to admit they aren’t really breaking any boundaries here mixing deathcore and SciFi themes and samples. But what they’re doing is taking the creative impulses of two experienced and talented musicians from the metal scene – Tom Barber (Chelsea Grin, Lorna Shore) and Josh Miller (Emmure, Glass Cloud) – and letting them run free in a way they aren’t necessarily able to with their main projects. And that’s a really cool thing to experience, both as a musician and as a listener. And for being a relatively “new” band, this album sounds incredibly well developed. I initially sort of wrote this project off assuming it would be another half-baked side project, but in reality, this is a fun listen that just happens to go pretty hard.

Ghost Iris – It’s also one of those albums that feels wholly diverse. It has heavy moments, melodic moments, clean vocals, deathcore breakdowns, ambient textures, etc. It’s incredibly thorough and well composed. But mostly, man, is it heavy. Just everything you’d want in a deathcore album and so much more. Over their past couple of releases, Ghost Iris have really grown into something special, moving past “just regular ol’ djent” into a band with some substance behind the technicality. I’m such a sucker for this sound. It pulls really heavily on that Erra, Periphery, (old) Architects, etc. style of progressive metalcore that mixes heaviness with some really captivating melodies and more accessible moments that give a reprieve from endless breakdowns and guitar twiddling. And these guys have really managed to strike up the perfect balance between the two and managed to come up with a very special album.

Convictions – Wow, I was not ready for this EP. This album makes you feel things. Now, I know music does that, but I’m not ashamed to admit that a lot of genres of metal, especially stuff like metalcore and djent can get fairly formulaic, and it sort of takes a lot of the emotion out of it. This is not one of those albums. This an intense, burning, painful album, and it’s just an incredible experience. Now, musically, it’s fantastic. It’s everything metalcore should hope to be. It’s diverse, it’s heavy, melodic, it’s got everything, this is a very genuinely talented band, and I’m really looking forward to seeing where they take this style. But I feel like it’s also well worth going deeper than this. This album is not meant to make you feel good. In fact, it does the exact opposite with ruthless efficiency, dealing with suicide, addiction, PTSD, cancer, you name. This album is rough, you really have to be in the right headspace for this, but man, is the struggle worth it.

Singles/Albums – Bossk (Post-Metal), Amenra (Post-Metal), Year of No Light (Post-Metal), Osiah (LP, Deathcore), Ov Sulfur (Deathcore), Caskets (formerly Captives, Post-Hardcore), VOLA (Chill Djent?), Our Eternity (members of Fit for A King/Currents), Light the Torch (Metalcore), Health/Nine Inch Nails (Industrial), If I Were You (Post-Hardcore), Andrew WK (Party Music), August Burns Red (Leveler remaster with Misha from Periphery), Ice Nine Kills (Metalcore), Modest Mouse (Indie), Marissa Nadler (Dark Folk)

New Music Report – April 30, 2021

Posted by admin on May 7, 2021 in Featured | 0 comments

Another week with a lot of really cool new music and honestly, all of these albums were incredibly exciting, and I was looking forward to each of them for quite a while. Weeks like this, with lots of good albums coming out all at once, are always a bit hard cause I never know how to divide my time between them, especially when they’re as diverse as these, it’s sometimes hard to make myself shift gears to go from, say French heavy metal to indie from Georgia, to an instrumental album from an elementary school teacher from Idaho/sludge metal legend (Steve Von Till is an absolutely fascinating man, by the way). But these were all so well done, they all found their place in fairly heavy rotation. Hopefully you’ll find something here you enjoy too.

Gojira – Well, I don’t really need any introduction for this band, do I? Gojira are one of the absolute heavyweights of modern metal, and for the past two plus decades, they have been cranking out masterpiece after masterpiece, raising the bar for incredibly clean, incredibly heavy metal year after year. However, this new album, Fortitude, is actually an interesting twist on the stellar metal we’ve come to expect from Gojira. This album is part of a fundraiser they’re doing to bring attention to climate change and how it’s effecting not only the environment, but indigenous cultures worldwide. So, not only is this an absolute ripper of an album, but it’s actually for a very good cause, as well. And another bonus that we get from this, is that Gojira incorporated some incredibly creative and unique instrumentation borrowed from the cultures that they worked closely with on this spectacular album. I mean, obviously this barely scratches the surface, but in short, it’s the sort of quality you would absolutely expect from Gojira with an added complexity and it’s all for a good cause, so what’s not to love.

Manchester Orchestra – It seems weird to say but Manchester Orchestra have spent the past decade writing the rule book for the indie genre. Forgive me as I age myself, but I recall working for a promo company back in college pushing the initial release of Mean Everything to Nothing, and that is really when it felt like the band clicked on a large scale. From there, it’s been a very diverse but steadily upward trajectory to indie music royalty. They’ve managed to evolve into a diverse, creative, incredible band over the years, and as such, this newest album seems like the most self-assured release yet. They always try to experiment a bit and change up their sound from album to album, but this one still feels so comfortable, like they know exactly what they’re doing and what they want to say. It’s incredibly deep thematically and emotionally, yet also still quite straightforward in a way that is clearly built on the foundation of some well-earned confidence. I’m not quite sure it has the magic that Mean Everything to Nothing had, but that’s all subjective context anyway, this album is just good no matter how you hash it.

Steve Von Till – For those unfamiliar with the name, Steve Von Till is the mastermind behind the legendary post-metal/sludge band (and one of my all-time favorite bands), Neurosis, and over the years has been dabbling with a number of fairly diverse yet unmistakable solo projects. This is along those lines, but not quite what you’d typically expect. Von Till’s voice has been such a signature piece of not only Neurosis, but his solo projects like Harvestman, but it’s completely missing from this project. This is more of an ambient/instrumental album, somewhat akin to what he’s done with Tribes of Neurot, but a bit more accessible. And it’s just teeming with those signature synths and the melodic style that is absolutely unmistakably his. And frankly, it’s amazing. Personal note, I’ve been re-reading through some Tolkien, and I’ve had this album basically on repeat as I have been working my way through The Hobbit, and I can’t imagine a better soundtrack. That sort of tells you all you need to know about this album, and I couldn’t recommend it more for that exact reason.

Singles/Albums – Spiritbox (Metalcore), Attack Attack (Not-Crabcore), SeeYouSpaceCowboy (Screamo), Red Fang (Stoner Metal), Vildhjarta (Progressive Metal), Tetrarch (LP, Numetalcore), Mental Cruelty (Black Metal), Like Moths to Flames (Metalcore), Distant (Deathcore), At the Gates (Metal)

New Music Report – April 23, 2021

Posted by admin on Apr 30, 2021 in Featured | 0 comments

I’m a bit late again cause I actually thought I had more to go off of with new music for last week week, but I guess releases are still getting pushed back, so we’re pretty light on actual releases, but this one is still really good and the singles this week have been INCREDIBLE and honestly, I feel like that’s more than made up for the otherwise light week. And, if nothing else, the new releases for this current week (next week’s post) are well worth the wait.

Left to Suffer EP – With such a light week for complete releases, it’s easy to be a bit disappointed with just a single EP, but holy fuck do these guys stuff a lot of content into just 21 minutes. Don’t let its length fool you, this is absolutely not an album to sleep on. Left to Suffer are one of those bands like Bodysnatcher or Crystal Lake that sort of skirt the line between metalcore and deathcore, with crazy technical riffs and intricate syncopated rhythms you expect from metalcore bands, with the absolutely heft and brutality of deathcore. And with that fusion of genres, it opens up a huge spectrum of sounds to work with and Left to Suffer have really taken advantage of them all, turning around with some incredibly creative and diverse songs. Not to mention all the unreal features on this album (including Ryo Kinoshita from the aforementioned Crystal Lake). It’s crazy really, I know it’s a short album, but it really feels like they packed an LP’s worth of material in here. Like I said, don’t sleep on this one.

The Mars Volta – First off, before anyone gets too excited, this isn’t a new release. I’m going to keep this kinda of short cause this only technically counts as new music. This is basically a compilation album of all the early demos and such from De-Loused in the Comatorium. Now, De-Loused happens to be one of my all-time favorite albums, so getting a peak into some of the bones that turned into such a brilliant piece of music is honestly pretty special. Now, I will say it’s given me a newfound appreciation for all the production work and development that went into the final product, but you get this sort of raw feeling with these demos that are sort of a spiritual bridge between At the Drive-In and The Mars Volta. This is one of those things that I’m going to listen to once or twice, just for the experience, but it will never hold a candle to the actual De-Loused. Nor is it supposed to, frankly, and that’s just fine.

Singles/Albums – The Devil Wears Prada (Metalcore), Imminence (Post-Hardcore), Our Last Night (Post-Hardcore/Metalcore), Wristmeetrazor (Screamo/Metalcore), Chemical Brothers (Electronic), Kaonashi (Metalcore), Sleep (Stoner metal), An Autumn for Crippled Children (Post-rock), Attack Attack (Just the worst, jfc), August Burns Red (Leveler re-recording with Ryan Kirby), Lustmord (Dark ambient)

New Music Report – April 16, 2021

Posted by admin on Apr 21, 2021 in Featured | 0 comments

This week was a very cool one for new music. Another week of very diverse releases, and while I must admit, there weren’t any releases here that I was anticipating would make my own person Album of the Year list, I walked away very impressed. I also recognize that any of these three albums that I covered this week could very well wind up at the top of someone else’s. These are all very significant bands making very good music. Not to mention the very promising new singles from Gojira and If I Die First. This was a big week for music, and I’d highly recommend checking out any of these, especially The Armed, if you’re looking for something really unique.

Hail the Sun – I totally understand all the hype around this band, and conversely, I totally understand how all these swancore bands can start to blend together after a while. They all have their unique qualities, but over the years, it seems like they all blend together more and more, sharing members, touring together, etc. and after all that, their sounds kind of meld together into one. And for all practical purposes, that’s kinda what happened here. I still love this band, don’t get me wrong, they’re a perfect blend of Circa Survive and Dance Gavin Dance, and on paper I feel like I should be more overwhelmed with this album. However, I still feel like Wake was their highwater mark. It was the most unique and fresh, and at the time, it was fairly revolutionary. But now, this is nothing new. If you like swancore, you’re going to love this album, but I hesitate to say it’s a gamechanger. Very good? Yes. But not truly remarkable.

The Armed – So first thing’s first, The Armed aren’t necessarily a band, they’re more a “collective” so to speak. Their members are constantly shifting, and the origins and main creative input of the band remain a mystery as a result. The only real consistent feature here is that Kurt Ballou of Converge and God City Studios, has produced all of their albums. And that’s a heavy endorsement alone. At the end of the day, over 19 musicians contributed to this album (including Ballou), and man, does it sound like it. This album is, by design, pure chaos. It’s an insane mix of hardcore, noise, and art pop. It’s fantastic. It’s a challenging listen, but man, is it good. It’s all crushing bass, droning synthesizers, relentless drums, and dissonant melodies, it’s a fucking trip start to finish. It hardly makes any sense, but in the sort of way that it’s a very artistic application of utter nonsense, and I love it for that.

Cannibal Corpse – Now, I feel at this juncture I should admit a gather grievous atrocity; I don’t really follow Cannibal Corpse that closely. I know they’re an essential death metal band, and I’ve dipped my toes into their discography on several occasions across their three-decade career, and I’ve always liked what I heard. They have always been that band that was consistently there. As long as death metal existed, so would Cannibal Corpse. And I suppose that made it easy to not only take them for granted. So, this is the first time I’ve really sat down and listened to the band with a more critical ear, and man, was I impressed. This album also marked a rare turning point for the band after the absolutely insane arrest of their guitarist in 2018. And I suppose I expected a bigger turn, but it’s hard to shake one of the most reliable bands in heavy music. Cannibal Corpse are the essence of death metal. You know what you’re getting with this, and it’s as good as ever.

Singles/Albums – Gojira (Metal), Clowncore (EP, Absolute chaos), Spectral Wound (LP, Black metal), Endseeker (LP, Death metal), If I Die First (Screamo), While She Sleeps (LP, Metalcore), Silverstein (Post-hardcore), Bodysnatcher (Deathcore), Fear Factory (Nu-metal), Foxblood (Post-hardcore), The Offspring (LP, Dad punk), Trash Boat (Pop punk), Burial Waves (members of Pianos Become the Teeth, Post-hardcore/Post-rock), Wolves at the Gate (Metalcore/Post-hardcore)

New Music Report – April 9, 2021

Posted by admin on Apr 15, 2021 in Featured | 0 comments

This week’s music could not possibly be more diverse. And actually, that’s partly a warning for anyone that follows my spotify playlist, going from Balmorhea to Mouthbreather and We Were Sharks to Onchocerciasis Esophagogastroduodenoscopy is… Jarring. But I’m leaving it for effect. That said, I’m super impressed with everything I’ve heard this week. Zao and Balmorhea are both contenders for my top 10 Album of the Year list for very different reasons, and we’ve got a bunch of singles this week to give us a lot to be excited about, like that new AFI album which sounds like it’s gonna be very chill and very, very good. So yeah, enjoy the ride this week, there’s a lot of weird stuff in there.

Zao – This name may be a huge throwback to some of you. Zao were one of the underrated pioneers that laid the groundwork for what would be the second wave of metalcore alongside more household names like Poison the Well or Hopesfall. And while most bands from those days have faded away, Zao came back with one of the most impressive second winds that I’ve ever seen. I want to say that this album will feel familiar, in a way it does, it sounds like that incredibly nostalgic early-00s metalcore but manages to not feel dated and in fact feel fairly innovative by turning the tempo down and infusing some sludginess into the fuzzy, distorted vocals and absolutely relentless drums. And the result is explosive; this is an incredibly heavy and incredibly well written album. Zao truly is a band that aged beautifully, at no point does this take on a genre-gone-by sound immature, in fact it might be my favorite thing they’ve done in their 32-year run. And I simply cannot stress how impressive that statement is. This album is an absolute 10/10. One of my absolute favorite albums so far this year.

Balmorhea – Initially, when I sat down to listen to this album, I started comparing it to the Those Who Ride with Giants album from a few weeks ago. They’re both peaceful, beautiful, melancholy post rock, so it sorta made sense. And in that light, I felt like it didn’t really stack up, it wasn’t quite as grand or cinematic, it didn’t feel quite as full. But the more I revisited this album, the more I realized that was exactly what it was supposed to be. Where TWRWG ebbs and flows with great crescendos, Balmorhea gently unfolds. It doesn’t so much build a soundscape for the listener to experience, but it creates a space. It fills some of that space with quiet but stunning melodies and leaves the remainder for the listener to lose themselves in. it’s a very calm and restful experience; exquisitely beautiful in its execution, while being incredibly mindful of how the audience plays a part in their music and enjoys the same space as every single note does. In that sense, the music becomes whatever you want it to be, and every moment of that is wonderful.

Singles/Albums – Mouthbreather (Hardcore/Mathcore), Light the Torch (Metalcore), Silent Planet/Fit for a King (Crossover, Metalcore), AFI (Alt rock), Devil Sold His Soul (LP, Post-hardcore/Screamo), Red Fang (Stoner Metal), Crossfaith (Metalcore), We Were Sharks (Pop punk), Onchocerciasis Esophagogastroduodenoscopy (LP, Slam/Death metal), Termina (LP, Progressive metalcore), Osiah (Deathcore), Our Hollow, Our Home (Metalcore), Throne (LP, Blackened death metal), Carnifex (Deathcore), Left to Suffer (Deathcore)

New Music Report – April 2, 2021

Posted by admin on Apr 10, 2021 in Featured | 0 comments

I’m a bit late on last week’s new music post, I’ve been out of town, but I’ve got a bit of downtime so I’m getting caught up this morning. I didn’t want to let it go too long though cause week’s music is very interesting and both of them pretty much flew under the radar, which is sort of surprising. These two releases are very different than the stuff you’ll usually find here, so if you’re looking for metalcore or anything like that, check the singles section. That said, these are two very, very interesting, very artistic releases that I’d say are worth the experience alone.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor – The name alone here should give you an idea of what to expect with this release. Godspeed have been legends in the post rock community for more than two decades now, with masterpieces like F# A# Infinity which was quite literally the soundtrack to the end of the world, as it was used to score the film 28 Days Later. And their doom and gloom, post-apocalyptic music has always been incredibly vivid and cinematic, making every listen an all-encompassing experience. After the return from their hiatus, however, it felt like there was a certain spark missing from their music, it was still very good, but it was missing a bit of the somewhat intangible magic that made F# A# Infinity feel like you were sitting through an entire movie. But their newest album, G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END! Is the closest thing I’ve heard to them being able to recapture that sound, especially the second half of the album which culminates in one of the most moving tracks the band has ever written.

BRUIT < – Wow, what an experience this album is. And actually, it’s incredibly appropriate that I’m reviewing it at the same time as Godspeed. BRUIT a French post-rock/electronic band that captures a lot of the same sort of vivid, cinematic magic you get with GY!BE, but in a more contemporary and somehow even more daring sort of way. Not to say they’re better, but for a debut album this is an incredibly jarring and impressive piece of music. It’s truly amazing, honestly. It runs everywhere from full on ambient to utilizing trap and drum and bass beats very tastefully over strong, thought-provoking post rock leads, neo-classical melodies, and magnificent soundscapes, transporting the listener from wherever they are, right into this beautiful, dark, masterpiece of an album. There is honestly so, so much to be said about this album but I fear none of it will do it justice, this is an album that really needs to be experienced and indeed lived to be able to understand the true magic that’s been captured here. (Note: I’m not sure this is available on Spotify, so it won’t be on my playlist until that gets sorted. It is on Bandcamp though)

Singles/Albums – Architects (Orchestral B-side/Dadcore), Zao (Metalcore), The Armed (Noise punk), Chris Turner (Oceans Ate Alaska drummer, Solo work), Aviana (Metalcore), Tetrarch (Progressive nu-metal?), Amon Tobin (Trip hop), Manchester Orchestra (Indie), Perturbator (Synthwave)