New Music Report – March 26, 2021

Posted by admin on Apr 1, 2021 in Featured | 0 comments

Man, this week was a full week for new music. Also, pretty diverse too, which is always really fun. A few specific things of note this week: The Those Who Ride With Giants actually came out last week and I just found out about it but it’s way too good to not cover. Also, out of all the music that came out this week, the thing that stuck with me the most was probably the SeeYouSpaceCowboy/If I Die First collab single. It’s basically a perfect interpretation of 2005-era emocore for 2021. It’s incredible, so definitely don’t miss that one. As usual, I’ve been building a Spotify playlist with all the new music I feature every week, so if you’d like to listen along, check out the link below.

Genghis Tron – If you told me that I’d be getting new music from Genghis Tron in 2021, first off, I wouldn’t have believed you, but I also definitely wouldn’t have expected it to sound like this. But honestly, the progression of their sound makes absolutely perfect sense. Their frenetic cybergrind of more than a decade ago has evolved into an incredible and surprisingly peaceful electronica driven post rock sort of experience. Which, I know, when you put the two genres next to each other makes no sense at all, but it’s accomplished in a way that only Genghis Tron could pull off. No matter what they sound like, they’re still blazing a trail. But as time passes and tastes mature, I think it’s safe to say the majority of Genghis Tron’s original fanbase will have made their way towards this sort of sound on their own and are absolutely going to appreciate this incredibly creative, complex, and frankly beautiful piece of music from a band that I don’t think anybody thought they were going to hear from again.

Those Who Ride With Giants – Oh my god, this album is absolutely gorgeous. Every truly great post rock album is a unique experience; a journey that you can fully lose yourself in. The best ones, in my opinion, are the ones that take you from the very first note, telling a story like a good book but with no words. And in that story, like all good stories, there are key thematic pieces and storylines, ebbs and flows, chapters and movements, all fully enveloping you. These always feel very different than a traditional album with lyrics, which of course, can also tell a story; conveying these sorts of thoughts and emotions with only instrumentals is a difficult thing to do, but when done right, it speaks a universal language and can take you so far without saying a thing. And this is precisely what this album accomplishes. It’s a peaceful loneliness that’s calming and fantastic. This album is truly beautiful and left me completely speechless at the end. And it’s been on repeat since then. I couldn’t recommend this more.

The Drowned God – I feel like these guys have been released about 15 singles for this 10 track album, but I do have to say, each one of them was very interesting and very exciting, so I’ve been looking forward to this one for a long time. It’s kinda hard to pin these guys down to a single genre. In fact, I think it’s easier for me to find bands to compare them to. At immediate listen they reminded of a weird mix of Envy and The Body (who I reviewed a couple months ago). So, I guess it’s like a mix of noise, screamo, metalcore, with a bit of black metal sprinkled in, as is the trend these days. But despite these comparisons, they still remain remarkably unique. And I think that individuality made the album even more captivating. I honestly don’t think this is going to be one of those albums that goes on to create a new sound or spark a musical revolution. But the chaos is incredibly charming and it’s exactly what it needs to be.

Eternal Void – This is another strange one actually. Like, I guess they’re metalcore – progressive metalcore, to be more precise – but not in the way that you’d think. It follows the basic formula of super technical metalcore, but it’s not quite as polished. The vocals are grittier, everything sounds more chaotic, there’s more going on all at once and it feels less organized but also more organic because of it. That ultra-polished metalcore can honestly get a bit old sometimes. It feels a little formulaic and at the end of the day, kinda ends up losing some emotion in favor of tedious technical proficiency. Every once in a while, an album like this is exactly what I need to hear. It sounds like Eternal Void had something to say, and this album was the medium to do so, rather than needing a vehicle to deliver breakdowns and tweedly riffs. Which isn’t to say it isn’t technical or heavy, it is, but it feels like there is a purpose to it all.

Singles/Albums – SeeYouSpaceCowboy/If I Die First (Collab single, Emocore/Mathcore), The ’68 (LP, Noise Punk), Mars Volta (De-Loused demo single), Monuments (Djent), Gojira (Metal), Cannibal Corpse (Death Metal), August Burns Red (Metalcore), Ghost Iris (Metalcore), Beartooth (Post hardcore), Tilian (DGD solo project), As Everything Unfolds (Post hardcore), Lotus Eater (Numetalcore), Above, Below (Progressive metalcore), 1782 (LP, Doom metal), Immerse (Post hardcore), Death From Above 1979 (Indie Pop)

New Music Report – March 19, 2021

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

Oh my god, there’s so much good music that came out this week. I don’t even know where to begin, I’ve been looking forward to Erra for ages now, but all the singles have been nuts too; Johnny Booth, Northlane, Born of Osiris, Zao, Wristmeetrazor. It’s just all so good. I always try to include interesting singles, but this is one of those weeks where I highly, highly recommend taking some time to check those out as well as the full lengths. As I said last week, I’m now keeping a running Spotify playlist with all the music that I’ve mentioned here, so if you want to hear everything, check out the link below.

Erra – There have already been a number of very good albums released in 2021, but to be honest, this is the first album that I’ve been anticipating for months. And let me tell you, it was worth the wait. Good god, what an album. Every once in a while, a band comes along and raises the bar in metalcore. It’s usually for a different but very specific reason; sometimes it’s innovative like Loathe or Thornhill, sometimes it’s super technical like Invent, Animate, etc. And sometimes, it just takes everything and moves the goalposts of what people thought was possible from a genre. That is what Erra just did. They’ve always had the capability, Drift was incredible, Neon felt rushed but was good, but this album is just where everything clicked, you can tell they really pushed themselves creatively and musically for this one and the payoff is incredible. It’s technical, heavy, the songwriting is top notch, the contrasting vocals are perfect, the production is leagues ahead of Neon. It’s just got everything. As far as I’m concerned, this is now the golden standard for modern metalcore. Everyone else better bring it if they wanna top this.

LANDMVRKS – Tough break for these guys, honestly. Initially, their album release was up against Architects and then got pushed back to a date that put them up against Erra. It’s hard to win that one. And that’s kinda what I was expecting, really, a good album that was difficult to get through cause I kept wanting to get back to the new Erra, that wasn’t the case at all. Honestly, French metalcore has kinda been on a roll lately and LANDMVRKS have been at the front of that with very solid, innovative, and interesting music. And while it may not be a heavy hitter like Erra, this album features some incredible diversity that’s captivating from start to finish. There’s so much variety in this album, it’s very easy to get sucked into it. Everything from straight up hardcore, metalcore riffing, pop punk verses, post-hardcore vocal melodies to… French rap? It sounds weird but it just works. And I think that’s a really cool thing to be able to pull off. No matter what sound they were playing off of, the whole album had me vibing hard, it all sounded cohesive, and it just worked. I definitely enjoyed this.

Distant – This album is fucking disgusting. I’ve made it very clear lately that I’ve been on a deathcore kick and I feel like that’s been kinda painting myself into a corner with all the super techy blackened deathcore type stuff that’s been going around lately. And yeah, that’s all really cool, but man, this hits just right. Distant has been absolutely killing the sludgey, downtempo side of deathcore. There’s no chasing bpms here, it’s just slow, filthy, crushing deathcore. And being able to do that effectively is incredibly difficult. Deathcore as a whole, if not done well, has a tendency to drag and get very boring and repetitive very quickly. Now, when you take that formula and intentionally slow it down to make things plod along even more to develop a sense of weight and burden, it’s bound to drag just a little too much and create something heavy but borderline unlistenable. Somehow, Distant have mastered the formula and created something absolutely brutal and cumbersome without dragging or becoming boring. It’s really remarkable, this album gets so low and is so cumbersome but in the best possible way.

Singles/Albums – Northlane (A+ Numetalcore), Johnny Booth (Metalcore/Mathcore, this shit is INSANE), While She Sleeps (Metalcore), Zao (Metalcore), Born of Osiris (Metalcore/Djent), Wristmeetrazor (Metalcore), Genghis Tron (Cybergrind), Batushka (EP, Russian black metal), Depths of Hatred (LP, Death metal), Rise Against (Punk), Hail the Sun (Swancore), VCTMS (Numetalcore), Fleet Foxes (LP, Indie), Beartooth (Post-Hardcore/Poppy metalcore), Mono (Live album, Post rock)

New Music Report – March 12, 2021

Posted by admin on Mar 17, 2021 in Featured | 0 comments

Trying my best to get back on schedule with my new music posts this week, and I’ve got a few pretty obscure ones that I was actually pretty excited about, and a long list of very strange singles that are also worth combing through. And, as the result of several requests, I’ve started compiling a Spotify playlist of these posts. I’m still working out the specifics so I’m down for suggestions, but I think it’s going to be a big playlist that I just add to every week so by the end of the year it’ll be a compilation of everything. I’m working on going back and backfilling everything from January, so it’ll be up to date from here on out. But if there’s a way that you’d prefer, please let me know.

Pupil Slicer – First off, let’s get this out of the way, this band has an awesome name. I’m not gonna lie, that was about 50% of the reason I checked them out in the first place. The other half is because it said they were for fans of The Chariot and Dillinger Escape Plan. So, you know, I’m already sold. Conversely, however, there are moments where it does feel a little TOO like The Chariot and Dillinger, following very closely to the tried and true chaotic mathcore formula as opposed to leaving some breathing room for creativity and originality, which was something that made The Callous Daoboys stand out so strongly a few years ago. So, I’m not quite sure I can say this is on the same level as that album, but it’s still a wonderfully chaotic heavy barrage of sound. And if only for that, I’m a huge fan. But in actuality, it really is so much more than that. This album looks somewhere in the middle of mathcore, grind, and even a bit doom, which is really just a brilliant combination of frenetic, world ending magnitude. So, revolutionary or not, it’s still an incredible, busy, heavy, disaster of an album and I love it.

Rise to the Sky – From a crazy mess of an album, to the completely opposite end of the metal spectrum; a crushing, meandering, oppressive atmospheric doom album that reaches out into eternity. As slow as the album may be, the one man project has been hard at work over the past year, putting the rest of us musicians that said we’d make something brilliant during this pandemic to shame. After two EPs and now this full length in just a year’s time, Rise to the Sky might just be one of the hardest working people in music. And while each release may not be entirely unique from each other, they are all absolutely brilliant and sorrowful doom metal mixed with dark elements of death metal and teeming with a thick, dismal atmosphere that blankets the album from start to finish. It’s awesome. It’s deeply sad, and feels just so immense, you can barely tell where the soundscape starts and ends; you get lost in the immeasurable depth of this album. The entire experience is hauntingly beautiful. There’s a lot to digest here, and just an incredible amount of talent on an album that you can really immerse yourself in.

Singles/Albums – Erra (Metalcore), Phoebe Bridgers (Special version of Kyoto), Darko (Deathcore), Annalynn (Djent/Progressive metalcore), EyeHateGod (LP, Sludge metal), To the Grave (Deathcore), Sion (Metalcore, Howard Jones from Killswitch and Jared Dines from YouTube), Devil Sold His Soul (Metalcore/Post hardcore), NovelistsFR (Metalcore), Convictions (Metalcore), The Drowned God (Post metal), Eternal Void (Metalcore/Deathcore), Left to Suffer (Deathcore), Trapt (MAGAcore), Our Hollow Our Home (Metalcore), Trophy Scars (Bluesy post hardcore)

New Music Report – March 5, 2021

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

Apologies for the delay on the new music post this week, it’s been an exceptionally busy week at work. As a result, there are a few albums that I really enjoyed but haven’t been able to devote the time to writing a full review of. The Wolf King, Mork, and Gulch/Sunami albums were all very, very good and definitely worth checking out. But I feel like I covered two of the more notable albums this week, even if one was… disappointing. I’ll be back on schedule next week, so stay tuned.

Brand of Sacrifice – Haha oh my god, this album is insane. As I’ve said before, I’ve had a very interesting relationship with deathcore. I guess it just gets stale easily; it can become very formulaic and repetitive if artists aren’t really pushing yourself to write something unique. But lately I’ve been coming around and Brand of Sacrifice is an absolutely perfect example of how innovation and creativity can really bring out the best in a genre that took me forever to truly get. The first thing everyone ever says about any deathcore album is how heavy it is, so I’ll get that out of the way: this is incredibly heavy. I cannot overstress how heavy it is. But there’s so much more to it, it’s one of those albums with incredibly complex rhythmic structures, all moving at a million miles a minute, it feels like your brain is working in overdrive to process all the sensory input you get from a single song. It’s exhausting to listen to, but in a good way, it feels more like a rewarding challenge than a burden. It’s so much more than breakdowns and blast beats. It’s a truly unique experience in a genre that isn’t always known for being fresh and exciting, and that alone is worth checking out.

A Day to Remember – I try not to write bad reviews, but this entire album is just a god damn disaster. After being postponed from the original release date back in November 2019, and seeing countless other delays, the new album is finally here. Initial delays were blamed on album art issues, then further delays were blamed on the pandemic, but about a year and a half later, I have to say, the result is incredibly lackluster. It’s very clear what they’re trying to do, they’re trying to bridge the gap from their signature easycore sound to more radio friendly rock. They absolutely defined the genre with 2009’s Homesick and have been able to hold up admirably since then. Nothing has been able to quite reach the bar set by Homesick, but they were still putting out great albums. This isn’t. Honestly, it just sounds like fill in the blank radio rock. Literally any band could write these songs and they could get played on your local rock station, it doesn’t matter that it’s A Day to Remember, which is the disappointing part. They’ve gutted a very special band and turned it into something incredibly bland and forgettable.

Singles/Albums – Wolf King (LP, Blacked hardcore), Mork (LP, Black metal) Tigers Jaw (LP, Emo), Zao (Metalcore), Gulch/Sunami (EP, Hardcore), Mental Cruelty (Deathcore), Elitist (Metalcore/Djent), Being as an Ocean (Post hardcore), The Armed (Noise punk), Void of Vision (Numetalcore), Atreyu (Buttrockcore), Knoll (LP, Mathcore), Spill Canvas (LP, Indie rock), Escape the Fate (Post hardcore), Chevelle (LP, Radio rock from 2003), Wolvennest (LP, Weird experimental sludge/black metal), Bog Wizard/Dust Lord (Split, Doom/Stoner metal), Acid Mammoth (Stoner metal)

New Music Report – February 26, 2021

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

I ended up being a little later than I expected this week, things have been pretty busy, but here are the notable new releases from last week. A few of these are actually really big ones. I know the Architects album was very highly anticipated, and I’ve been looking forward to new music from Julien Baker for quite some time. Add to that a ton of really good new singles (specifically Veil of Maya), this has been a pretty great week for music.

Architects – Full disclosure, I was absolutely getting ready to hate this album. I respect this band too much to talk shit, but I was anticipating them going from the kings of metalcore that literally wrote the formula that modern metalcore bands have been following for a decade now to writing sell out dad rock. But honestly, that’s not at all what happened. And even if it was, if one of the most successful bands in metalcore wants to move forward with their career and make something more widely palatable, then more power to them. And yes, it does have a more LinkinPark-core alignment than All Our Gods, but it still very much feels like an Architects album. Which is to say, another absolutely wonderful piece of music with superb songwriting. I’ll miss some of the heavier riff, but everything they do, they do incredibly well, so this was still a joy to listen to. It’s not all gone either, there are still a ton of breakdowns and Architects riffage, it’s just sprinkled around rather than being a nonstop onslaught, which honestly creates a bit more diversity in the sound anyway.

Julien Baker – Now this is a very important album; this is the Phoebe Bridgers album of 2021. Which is really low hanging fruit, if I’m honest, since they work together all the time. But there’s a reason for that. The two of them have a remarkable knack for creating incredibly personal, touching, and frankly very sad songs. But while Phoebe went with a more grandiose production on her latest album, Julien took a bit of a different direction. She added more expansive instrumental selections and gave herself a bigger canvas to work with, but at the same time it felt even more isolating and introspective than before. Her voice alone can convey so much emotion, and when her powerful yet pained voice combines with her heartbreaking storytelling, the result is absolutely breathtaking and no matter what the soundscape provides you with, you feel like you’re left with just you and her voice. To the point where some of the added production feels intentionally jarring, adding more pain and discomfort to the hauntingly beautiful and deeply personal story told in this album.

Other Albums/Singles – Veil of Maya (Metalcore/djent), NinDjent0 (Djent cover of the Ocarina of Time OST), Long Distance Calling (EP, Post rock), Northlane (Remix EP, Numetalcore), Of Mice & Men (EP, Metalcore), Offspring (Dad punk), NoFx (LP, Also sorta dad punk), Brand of Sacrifice (Deathcore), Bodysnatcher (Deathcore), We Were Sharks (Pop punk), The Drowned God (Post-hardcore), LANDMVRKS (Metalcore), Eternal Void feat. Courtney LaPlante (Metalcore/Deathcore), Tillian (DGD singer solo project), Hollow Front (Metalcore), Pupil Slicer (Metalcore), AFI (Alt rock), Bright Eyes (indie)

New Music Post – February 19, 2021

Posted by admin on Feb 25, 2021 in Featured | 0 comments

This was a really cool week for new music for me. I’m a huge fan of all of these bands and honestly, they couldn’t possibly be any more different from one another. I always like to think I have a pretty diverse taste in music but really, most of these albums I write about are metalcore or some variation of that. This week, however, changes it up quite a bit, so I hope you can find something you enjoy here as much as I do.

The Hold Steady – I found The Hold Steady years ago via a recommendation from my late-best friend – who I got all my best music from – while I was in that deep americana-punk rabbit hole after I discovered The Gaslight Anthem. The pure, classic americana instrumentals and a fusion of that theme continuing into the lyrics while also being met with modern thematic issues told through incredibly vivid storylines, all crooned out through an incredibly unique a quirky vocal delivery by brilliant front man, Craig Finn. Sure, they can be mentioned in the same breath as their contemporaries in bands like Lucero, but there is no mistaking The Hold Steady for anyone else. And it’s this distinctive and eccentric style mixed with a deep honesty and ability to be sympathetic with the listener on an incredibly personal and identifiable level that makes this band one of the absolute best. And this new album feels even more personal, reminding me somewhat of Finn’s solo work, while maintaining the grandiose composition of a typical Hold Steady album.

Mogwai – Last week, I mentioned in my God is an Astronaut review that Mogwai is one of those household names in post rock that are pretty much guaranteed to put out a top tier album every single time they try. One of those bands that are really only judged against themselves and their back catalog cause anything else would just be unfair. And for a band like Mogwai, with over 25 years in the game making everything from genre-defining albums to movie soundtracks, that’s simply an amazing accomplishment. And with this new album, I’d say it stacks up incredibly well, sitting among their best. It doesn’t feel as revolutionary as Young Team or as emotional as Happy Songs for Happy People, for example, but this might just be their most cohesive and communicative album to date. It feels incredibly familiar while also reaching new levels of maturity without losing their edge. It’s incredibly special. This is one of those albums that you want to fully ingest; it deserves your full attention from start to finish, and I encourage everyone to take some time and really experience this album.

Harakiri for the Sky – Now from genre builders to one of the most underrated bands in their respective genre. Harakiri for the Sky are, in my very strong and not so humble opinion, the most criminally underrated post-black metal band out there. Their last album set an incredible foundation and really polished the band’s songwriting and helped them find their own sound, but in a few very important ways it, sort of fell short of true icons of the genre. It showed incredible promise though. Promise that became fully realized with their newest album, Maere. This feels like the pinnacle of what the band had always set out to do, a remarkable, creative, thoughtful piece of post-black metal that absolutely deserves to be mentioned in the same circles as band’s like Alcest (whose front man/songwriter Neige endorsed this project with a guest spot). This is an incredibly massive undertaking, clocking in at about an hour and a half long, driven by blast beats and signature black metal shrieks mixed with immense post-metal arrangements, all combined to create an absolutely immense, beautiful album.

Singles/Other Albums – Agent Mulder (EP, FFO The Chariot), Stick to Your Guns (EP, Acoustic), August Burns Red (Live album), Gojira (Metal), Genghis Tron (Cybergrind), Eyes Set to Kill (Metalcore/Post-hardcore), The ’68 (Noise punk), To the Grave (Deathcore), Ov Sulfur (Deathcore), Ghost Iris (Metalcore), MouthBreather (Mathcore), Hail the Sun (Post hardcore), Manchester Orchestra (Indie), The Crown (Thrash/Death metal), Senses Fail (Super special fuck Rush Limbaugh track)

New Music Report – February 12, 2021

Posted by admin on Feb 17, 2021 in Featured | 0 comments

Another great week in new music. Still only a few releases at a time, but man these are good ones. Both incredibly deep albums but they accomplish the complexity in very different ways, it’s a very interesting comparison and both are fantastic albums. Also, I started this year by adding a section for singles to help everyone follow those since they come out more frequently and I’ve been really happy with that so far. So, this week I expanded on it a bit and added a little section for a few albums that I think are worth noting but don’t quite warrant a full review. I may finally have a good system down for this haha. Any feedback is welcome, of course.

God is an Astronaut – There are some bands out there that you know are guaranteed to put out a good album. God is an Astronaut is one of those bands. They may not be the household names like Mogwai or Explosions in the Sky, but they’ve been chugging away for just as long, constantly at the top of the game in the post rock genre. With certified classics like All is Violent, All is Bright, these guys have laid their claim to legendary status long ago. And this new album is another incredibly consistent, if not exactly career defining release in a very impressive discography. This album is more or less what we would expect from GIAA with a fairly complex soundscape with endless rich textures. Honestly, it doesn’t command your attention like All is Violent…, which of course makes it a very difficult album to digest in a single sitting. All throughout, however, there are heavy, dramatic, almost Russian Circles-esq moments that immediately standout and set the mood for the album. This is either perfect background music, or music worth digesting wholly, through a good pair of headphones while doing nothing else.

Humanity’s Last Breath – Good god, what a fucking album. About this time last year, Lorna Shore put out a new album, and despite the fact that we still had about 90% of the year left, I made a pretty bold claim that it was the heaviest album of the year. Sure enough, 11 months later, I hadn’t managed to prove myself wrong. Well, here we are again, and we’re barely halfway through February and I can fairly confidently say that this is going to be one of the heaviest albums of 2021. I guess it’s sort of cheating though, it’s not exactly a risky prophecy. Any blackened deathcore album is going to hit like a freight train with an uncompromised magnitude. There’s honestly just so much going on with this album, that it’s hard to corner it into a single genre of heavy music. It’s not just simple mosh pit, beatdown music, though it isn’t necessarily lacking in that either, but it’s so much more. It’s a deeply complex and jarring album, hitting like a horror movie, leaning into doom metal, post metal, black metal and more with a consistently brutal foundation of ripping deathcore. This album is phenomenal.

Singles/Other Albums – For Your Health (Mathcore, full length), Teenage Wrist (Post-hardcore/grunge, full length), Ice Nine Kills (Elvis cover), Architects (kinda metalcore), Tigers Jaw (Emo), Of Mice & Men (Metalcore), August Burns Red (Metalcore, b-side), Our Hollow Our Home (Metalcore), Cabal (Deathcore), Trash Boat (Pop punk), Reflections (Deathcore), The Drowned God (Sludge/black metal), Eternal Void (Metalcore), Patent Sixty Seven (Mathcore)

New Music Report – February 5, 2021

Posted by admin on Feb 8, 2021 in Featured | 0 comments

Really getting into some good new releases in 2021 so far. One trend I’m noticing so far though, is a lot of surprise releases. I think I’ve seen more surprise releases so far in 2021 than the entire year last year, including two this week (Hayley Williams and Loathe). And I suppose that can be chocked up to artists making music outside of their normal album cycles due to the shutdown, but whatever the reason, it’s lead to some really cool, creative albums that we definitely wouldn’t have heard otherwise, so if that’s the one positive thing to come from all this, I’ll take it.

Loathe – If you’re unfamiliar with Loathe, they were the band that topped my Album of the Year 2020 list. They’re an absolutely sensational new band from the UK that makes, well, the best way to describe it is Deftones-core. And the fact that they put out my favorite album of 2020 only raises further questions, like how did they manage to come up with another album so quickly? Well, the answer may upset a few people. As a caveat, this album was released with little notice and little marketing, but naturally fans were going to get excited. This is not exactly a full album, in reality, it’s an ambient album filled with absolutely brilliant, beautiful soundscapes. That “Deftones-esq” aspect of their sound requires a very strong ambient foundation to create the mood of the music. And this album focuses entirely on the details that you may miss when listening to the band as a whole. Being a fan of ambient in the first place, I absolutely love it, and I encourage Loathe fans to check it out, if only to hear some of the most important yet overlooked parts that makes this band so special in the first place.

Cult of Luna – Cult of Luna is another all-time favorite band of mine; I’m actually wearing my Cult of Luna hoodie as I write this. Speaking of album of the year lists, Cult of Luna was very near the top of my AoTY 2019 list with the remarkable A Dawn to Fear. It marked an even larger, more polished, and heavier direction for Cult of Luna, and I think it can certainly be argued that it was their best album yet. This new EP is intended to be sort of a transitionary piece, from the sound of A Dawn to Fear as a segue into their continued progression of their sound on the next full length. And just the concept of that alone is incredibly captivating. It not only wraps up the current phase of the band but leads the way for speculation on what we may be able to expect next, all while being a wonderful standalone piece of music regardless of broader impacts. Truthfully, it feels more like a B-side to A Dawn to Fear rather than a clear path forward, or even a bridge, but I’d hardly say that’s a complaint. It’s another excellent installment in Cult of Luna’s discography that has me excited for the future of the band.

Flowers for Vases/Hayley Williams – Now to get this out of the way, I love Hayley Williams so much. I’m not really a huge Paramore fan, if I’m honest, but Williams is an excellent musician with a very interesting and unique yet incredible accessible style of songwriting, and it’s always fun to follow her progression and new projects. She put out a solo album last year under the moniker Petals for Armor, and this seems to be a complimentary/juxtaposed release to that. Petals for Armor had a more abstract and experimental yet dance-y vibe, while this album is MUCH more sedate and melancholy, and so naturally, I love this album so much. This is probably my favorite release of her entire back catalog. It’s a fairly simple, lightweight album, but the execution and careful songwriting is stellar. Her voice is somehow both gentle and incredibly powerful over the carefully composed and sparse, yet beautiful melodies. Overall, it’s a gorgeous record with a new perspective on a wonderful musician, and I’m a huge fan.

Singles – Every Time I Die (the GOAT), Erra (AOTY-tier Metalcore, trending kinda numetalcore), The Armed (Noise Punk?), Signs of the Swarm (Deathcore), Cannibal Corpse (Death Metal), Sentinels (Metalcore), Death From Above 1979 (Indie), Julien Baker (Indie/Singer Songwriter), Tetrarch (Numetalcore), Thousand Below (Post Hardcore), EyeHateGod (Sludge Metal), Void of Vision (Metalcore), Earth Groans (Metalcore/Deftones cover), VCTMS (Numetalcore)

New Music Report – January 29, 2021

Posted by admin on Feb 4, 2021 in Featured | 0 comments

Eclectic mix of new music this week. I’d say there’s something for everybody here but that isn’t necessarily true. All of these albums are fantastic but, aside from perhaps Lucero, cater to very niche audiences. If you’re looking for something that’s a bit of a challenge to listen to but with incredibly rewarding results, then this week is for you.

Lucero – Back in 2008/09 there was a very strong, very niche hype around a specific type of americana-tinged folk punk, influenced mostly by The Gaslight Anthem’s ’59 Sound, of course. And I fell VERY deep down that rabbit hole. And Memphis-based country punk band, Lucero, is one of the best things I have to show for it. This band will always have a special place in my heart, especially their earlier albums, the ones that sound like they were recorded in a buddy’s garage with a single microphone. They had a soulful, authentic, simplistic charm that just created this grand ideal of a time and place that probably never existed outside of their albums. Their past few albums evolved beyond that, leaning hard into the soul aspect of their style, adding horn sections, gospel choirs, and other elaborate arrangements, it lost a little of what I fell in love with, but it was undeniably good. The newest album, changes up the formula again, adding some synths and evolving past a gritty, down home punk band, into something that more closely resembles classic rock. But the charm, the honesty, the grand, yet smooth execution that are all part of Lucero’s charm are back, stronger than ever.

The Body – Man, I don’t even know what to tell you this album even is. At its core, people say The Body is a doom metal band, or at least derives from one. But that doesn’t even begin to tell the story, they take the bass-driven droning sound of doom and absolutely mutilate it into some avant garde, post-everything shitshow that’s absolutely brilliant. It sounds like a 40-minute long car crash. An onslaught of throbbing, compressed bass that strains your ear drums laying the foundation for incessant clanging, crashing, and metal deforming and twisting beyond any conceptual recognition of where this sound might have come from. All this interspersed with distorted, indecipherable, desperate shrieks. And the result, I mean, Jesus, what a record. It’s entirely unique in its execution. It sounded exactly like how I described it. It doesn’t sound like an album, it sounds like an accident, and I couldn’t stop listening to it. It’s not something I’m going to listen to all the time, it’s too abstract and frankly exhausting to listen to very frequently. But the experience itself was incredibly exciting.

Portrayal of Guilt – This album was a really cool surprise, in the past year and half, Portrayal of Guilt have put out three EPs, so I wasn’t really expecting them to have a full length ready so soon, but I guess with the quarantine going on, there isn’t much else for a band to do than make new music. These guys have been absolutely on fire, built up with tons of underground hype ever since the release of their debut full length just 2 years ago, earning themselves comparisons to absolutely legendary bands like Converge along the way. They’ve been dubbed one of the leaders of the screamo revival movement by everyone from NPR to The Washington Post, curiously enough. And I guess screamo is somewhat accurate but that REALLY doesn’t tell the whole story. Their sound is pure chaos, with a foundation of very clear screamo influences from bands like Pg.99 mixed with everything from noise punk to straight up hardcore. Add to that some howling vocals reminiscent of black metal. The result is an incredibly unique testament to the diversity and brutality of heavy music and a truly inspiring listen.

Singles – The ’68 (post-The Chariot Josh Scogin), Long Distance Calling (German post-metal), Devil Sold His Soul (post metal/screamo), Chelsea Wolfe & Emma Ruth Rundle (Everything I’ve ever been waiting for), Left to Suffer (metalcore/deathcore),

New Music Report – January 22, 2021

Posted by admin on Jan 28, 2021 in Featured | 0 comments

I’m actually kinda of shocked with how much great new music is coming out already. Usually, January is a bit of a wasteland, but we’ve got some really cool stuff going on already. I think a lot of it is maybe anticipation; bands hoping to work back to some sort of normalcy at some point this year. Fingers crossed on that, but I’m very much enjoying the new music in the meantime.

Ellende EP – I know atmospheric black metal is a touchy subject for a lot of people. It absolutely blew up a handful of years ago thanks to bands like Deafheaven and Alcest, and since then it has spawned and absolutely endless pretenders and half-baked solo projects masquerading around as atmospheric black metal by musicians that can’t write melodies and don’t have proper recording equipment. But every once in a while, a band comes along that complete makes up for all the disappointment out there and raises the bar even higher for the genre as a whole. Ellende have been raising that bar for years, and this new EP is an even greater step forward. They deliver a remarkably complex, deep, and haunting mixture of the brutal and the ethereal, with crushing blast beats and echoey, pained black metal vocals juxtaposed against beautiful clean, post-rock inspired sections while absolutely never losing momentum. This is an incredibly strong, emotional, and gorgeous album that shows exactly what all the hype in the genre is about and what this sound is really capable of.

April Rain – This week is packed full of fairly obscure hits and honestly, I’m pretty happy about that. Post rock in particular is filled with so many hidden gems all over the world. I think one of the coolest things about post rock is that there is no language barrier. Most of it is instrumental, so the language is in the music; the music itself tells a story, conveys emotion, and is able to fluently converse with the listener no matter what language they speak, and I think that’s a fairly unique phenomenon with post rock. April Rain is a perfect example, this is a band from St. Petersburg, Russia, a band that I otherwise likely would have had zero connection with, but now, I can feel everything they felt as they wrote this music, and the result is a really beautiful experience. There’s so much depth and feeling to this fairly laid back yet incredibly gorgeous album. It’s not terribly complex, it isn’t rewriting the book on post rock and it isn’t an entirely unique spin on the genre, but it is a very, very enjoyable listen and an exemplary take on what good post rock sounds like.

Tr1rt3en – I generally don’t take requests for these posts. I write about music that interests me, and that I personally want to write about. That said, there are a few people out there I’ll break that rule for. This was one of those recommendations. Which is always fun cause I really am starting with a blank slate. And man, I’m not sure what my preconceived notions were going to this album, but this was a hell of an experience. Th1rt3en is a project by semi-obscure but long-running rapper, Pharaohe Monch, along with a live band. Pharoahe Monch has had a career spanning three decades, with a sparse but very high quality discography, and this new album is a sharp left-turn yet still relevant elaboration on his musically intelligent and thematically complex back catalog. And what a left turn it is, it’s actually quite ambitious writing a thoughtful rap-rock album and not have it sound like a limp bizkit-esq abomination. But I feel like the point is to create polarizing opinions on this one, but It’s incredibly thought provoking and deep. I was very pleasantly surprised by this album and is just further proof that sometimes it’s nice to step out of your comfort zone and listen to something new.

Everyone Dies in Utah EP – Yeah, ok so, I was kinda looking forward to this one. Everyone Dies in Utah is a semi-classic name in the metalcore scene, and there’s always a bit of a nostalgic wave that I get when one of those 2010 era metalcore bands comes back to the surface to do something again. Lower Definition has new music coming out, I’m super excited about that, Attack Attack! put out new music which is pretty neat, Like Moths to Flames had a great comeback. But man… This isn’t great haha. Maybe the rose tinted glasses didn’t hold up as well as I’d hoped, of many this just isn’t that great. See, it’s got all the pieces of something that could be a good album but it feels… Unfinished. Like, it’s got some cool structuring, great melodies, some of the vocals are pretty good but when you put it all together it still feels like about 60% of it is missing. This sounds like demos or pre-production takes to get ideas down for an album, rather than the finished piece. Oh well, it was worth a listen I suppose. Hopefully the new Lower Definition is way better.

Singles – August Burns Red (THE metalcore), Architects (Used to be ABR-tier metalcore, now dad metal but still good), Panopticon (atmospheric black metal), Bad Religion (punk)