Today is the most glorious day of the year.

Dear Lord...

It’s Opening Day! Well, sort of, anyway. Does it really count if there’s only one game going, and one of the teams is the Cubs?

It’s also the Master’s next week.

Either way, just like the lion and the lamb adage about March, the year’s first quarter came and went, and the staffers are pleased to present the first rendition of their quarterly mixtape. Featuring selections from CHON, Cirrus, Niko Is, and Tanlines, you can stream the mixtape (save for a handful of songs, which have their own embeds) here.

For future mixtapes, what would you like to see? Should this be a mix of staffer favorites, or should the mixtapes serve as a platform to unearth favorites that would otherwise go unnoticed?

Your feedback is appreciated. Enjoy! –Jom

CHON – “Can’t Wait” (03:08)
Grow
Listen if you like: Plini, Mestis, Polyphia
Bandcamp

CHON’s long-awaited full-length debut really pushed all the right buttons in all the right ways. The album (Grow) is chock full of memorable hooks, intricate leads, rapid key changes, driving drum beats, groove galore, and – a first for the band – some great vocal melodies.

“Can’t Wait” stands out to me as one of many favorites from Grow because it manages to stuff all of these elements into one incredibly memorable track. Relaxed, fluid verse section? Check. Exploding sugary lead lines? Check. Silky smooth and subtle groove? Check. On “Can’t Wait”, CHON graft the blueprint of a memorable blues ballad onto the face of 21st century technical prog to create a subtly technical masterpiece you can put on repeat to the pleasure of your least prog-friendly company. –Thompson D. Gerhart

Trial (SWE) – “Through Bewilderment” (8:45)
Vessel
Listen if you like: In Solitude, Portrait (SWE), Omen
Facebook | Bandcamp

Needless to say or write it, but for some time now, Sweden has been greatly lauded for its massive production of good vintage rock worship outfits, among other categories of equally important musical societies. The above said, there hasn’t been much acclaim for a particular handful of Swedish old school heavy metal acts paying their essential dues to Mercyful Fate and King Diamond’s personal band. Rather, most of them lie deep into the underground, and undeservedly so. The latest critical addition to this atypical company of bands is Trial, and on their new album Vessel, “Through Bewilderment” stands as a highly representative cut with respect to the adventurous and thoughtful old school Euro/US heavy metal contained therein. –Voivod

Chapel of Disease – “Lord of All Death” (8:26)
The Mysterious Ways of Repetitive Art
Listen if you like: Diskord, Obliteration, Necrowretch
Official site | Facebook

It seems like every day you find a new death metal band that drinks from the pool of OSDM. This isn’t a new fad; in fact, some might say it never went away. However, a recent trend has seen bands pay homage to a once perfected sound, whilst adding in a much needed kick. Chapel of Disease are one such band, with their latest release featuring some of the finest death metal you’re likely to hear all year. The album’s centerpiece, “Lord of All Death”, is a heavy, bulky piece of metal beauty. A dense and chugging beast, the song hearkens back to the early/mid ’90s; that is, until it barrels head-first into utter restrained madness.

Chapel of Disease don’t throw out the rule book, but they do make a convincing case for why we don’t need to. “Lord of All Death” is a sobering reminder that there is still some steam left in this train. –Elijah Andrew

Mechina – “Earth-Born Axiom” (8:32)
Acheron
Listen if you like: lush metal, space movies, open notes
Facebook | Lyrics

For the last three years now, Mechina have delighted fans by releasing a new album as soon as the year changes, but it is now, in 2015, that the band have knocked it out of our stratosphere and beyond for good. 2013’s Empyrean was ambitious; Joe Tiberi, the brains behind Mechina, was looking to expand on the extreme-industrial-symphonic-space metal formula he developed on Assembly of Tyrants and Conqueror, but that album was undone by subpar production that ultimately hampered the effect on the band’s body of work. Last year’s Xenon sounded a lot better, but somewhere along the way Tiberi forgot to space things out, resulting in an album that, although fun and fast and eventful, was too compressed with layers running into different layers – instead of peacefully coexisting – and failed to consistently bring out the best in Mechina’s sound.

The band’s discography was head and shoulders above most symphonic/industrial metal out there regardless, but there was always something holding them back. Acheron, for the first time in Mechina’s history, has no such problem: this is the soundtrack to every war-related space movie ever made, without as much as a hint of a software bug in sight. Both from an execution and a concept standpoint, Acheron is an absolute triumph. For the first time, everything about a new Mechina album clicks: the production sounds as large as life, Tiberi has absolutely nailed the guitar tone, the elongated track lengths provide crucial breathing room amidst the chaos, and the odyssey feel that was somewhat lost on last year’s Xenon is back in full strength. This is Mechina at their very best, playing symphonic metal like no one else does, with grit and flair that’s virtually unrivaled (cue “Earth-Born Axiom”). Board this vessel marked on an interstellar journey now – you’ll want to see the worlds it promises to take you to. –Magnus Altküla

Tanlines – “Slipping Away” (3:29)
Single (Highlights release date: May 19th)
Listen if you like: ’80s, Phoenix, Cut Copy, songs that you can’t forget because they’re lodged in your spine
Facebook

Tanlines’ sophomore album is titled Highlights. This is a bit self-serving, but I like to think the album was named for me. With a first single like “Slipping Away”, how could it not be? It’s a track that hits all those sweet, sweet klapcore touchstones that inevitably will lead me to granting them an immediate 4/5 rating that I will only later regret after I’ve played those tracks to death by the end of the summer. A duo that got lost in the 2012 shuffle of hype bands peddling electro-pop easy highs, the hyperactive guitar and confident strut of “Slipping Away” makes clear that nothing has been lost in the intervening years. –Rudy K.

Cirrus — “Drone Protocol” (4:58)
Drone Protocol / I Know You (Single)
Listen if you like: Amit, Hybris, new-school Metalheadz
Terabyte Records’ Soundcloud

“Drone Protocol” is an excellent representation of drum and bass’ recent proclivity towards twisting and wriggling farther and farther down into impenetrable darkness. As menacing as they come, the half-time roller throttles its mid- and upper-range frequencies in a merciless chokehold, leaving ample room for towering bass to take center stage. The echo-laden, pitched-down snares and tight, punchy kicks bounce desperately around the piece’s cavernous shell, seemingly trying to escape the clutches of its monolithic structure. It’s precisely because they’re forced back into place that the piece works so well — its incredible control and encapsulation present one of the largest DnB tunes in a year already laden with so many phenomenal pieces. –Will Robinson

Niko Is – “Cherry Beamer Dreaming” (3:10)
Brutus
Listen if you like: Chester Watson, Mick Jenkins, James Watts
Official site | Soundcloud

Niko is too slept on. His 2014 mixtape Good Blood was an enthralling, fun showcase of Niko’s undeniable charisma and unique style, built around an ethos of perpetually being and sounding fly. Signing to Talib Kweli’s Javotti Media imprint, Niko spent the rest of the year putting the final touches on his debut LP Brutus, which dropped in February. “Cherry Beamer Dreaming”, the album’s intro, opens in trademark Thanks Joey (Niko’s in house producer and the man behind every beat on both Brutus and Good Blood) fashion, splicing a smorgasbord of sounds from Niko’s native Brazil to form a lush and buoyant instrumental. On top, Niko flexes in tip top lyrical form, breathing a haze of witty one-liners (‘so full of myself like Russian dolls’) and zippy references (‘I’m in the spot like Cruella’) in a gruff slur, dripping in cool. It’s the perfect introduction to a now well-polished Niko Is for fans and newcomers alike. –Aziz

Lupe Fiasco – “Prisoner 1&2” (8:36)
Tetsuo & Youth
Listen if you like: Kendrick Lamar, Dels, Kanye West
Facebook | Lyrics

Even though these quarterly mixtapes provide us an excellent platform to showcase some lesser known gems and very personal favorites that might have gone unnoticed by the community here, credit should be given where credit is due, regardless of popularity. Lupe Fiasco’s new album has received plenty of attention here, and for good reason. His return to the standard he set for himself with Food & Liquor has been one of the most significant music-related happenings for me, and while the whole of Tetsuo & Youth delivers, “Prisoner 1 & 2” especially exhibits his regained fire and sharpness. It’s an 8-and-a-half minute track loaded with such ardor that it feels like it only runs for half of that length. Syncing perfectly with two godly beats provided by MoeZ’art, which swerve up and down in intensity at just the right intervals, Lupe delivers one of, if not his most vehement performances on record ever. The more stomping the track gets, the more it engulfs, the more it becomes one’s own personal rebellion hymn. That snarl in between the two parts of “Prisoner” is indicative of the crackling fire the track can awaken in the listener. Flashing lights, revelations, honest words, new stance.

Kendrick Lamar’s star inarguably shines brightest at the moment, but Lupe’s latest contribution to upholding the standards of popular hip hop music should not be marginalized. Tetsuo & Youth is a winner of an album, and “Prisoner 1 & 2” is one opus of a song. –Magnus Altküla

Butch Walker – “The Dark” (2:35)
Afraid of Ghosts
Listen if you like: Ryan Adams, Jeff Buckley, Elvis Costello
Official site

I like to think that Butch Walker could still open for Avril Lavigne behind his new, excellent album, Afraid of Ghosts – that Lavigne’s audience has grown older, wiser (more adult! ☹) – but I fear that Afraid of Ghosts might still be a bit much. A dark, occasionally crushing record, Afraid of Ghosts is confessional singer-songwriting at its best, using the death of Walker’s father as the crux around which the famed producer and songwriter can make sense of how his life has unfurled. The titanic “Father’s Day” has (rightly) gotten all the attention, but I prefer the song that immediately follows it. “The Dark” closes the record up in a tidy two-and-a-half minutes, just Walker and an acoustic guitar, lamenting the broken-down state of his favorite bike. The beauty of the song is in what it doesn’t say: “Ain’t running from nothing / nothing on my mind / into the black / with my father at my side”. It’s at once hopeful and despairingly sad – the simplest description of coming to terms with a loss that I can think of. –Rudy K.

Madeon — “Pay No Mind” (ft. Passion Pit) (4:09)
Adventure
Listen if you like: Porter Robinson, Calvin Harris, Daft Punk
Adventure Machine! | Facebook

I’m probably in love with “Pay No Mind” in no small part because I found the song on the first T-shirt-weather day of the year, but I’ll continue to maintain its excellence even as the temperature has dipped back into mid-Atlantic March normalcy. The song is so good, really, because it’s a perfect encapsulation of all the best trends radio-friendly electronic music has to offer in 2015. It takes an admirable stab at reviving the big ol’ pop choruses which producers like Zedd and David Guetta have beaten to death, fusing cascading sunbeams of cheery synthesizer twinkles with disco-lite guitars and a catchy vocoder solo. It’s the kind of immediately satisfying electronic pop which begs for someone like Michael Angelakos to tie everything together with their sugary falsetto, and the Passion Pit frontman comes through with one of the most eminently recognizable choruses of the year. Hopefully, we’ll keep singing it for months to come. –Will Robinson

Jakub Zytecki – “Yellow” (8:20) [YouTube embed goes directly to song; full album stream available]
Wishful Lotus Proof
Listen if you like: Disperse, Cloudkicker, Piotrek Gruszka
Bandcamp

Thinly veiled with pop sensibility and armed with the sort of outstanding guitar melodies you’d expect from one of the most talented young guitarists in progressive metal, “Yellow” offers a river of hooks both stringed and sung that carry you past the skeleton of your typically structured song and onto exotic detours tinged with Eastern flavor. To boot, “Yellow” holds some of the rising star’s most tasteful soloing to date, creating a superior contextual confluence that turns an eight minute track length into a breeze. –Thompson D. Gerhart

Chris Brown & Tyga – “D.G.I.F.U. (feat. Pusha T)” (3:44)
Fan of a Fan: The Album
Listen if you like: Trey Songz, Kid Ink, Ace Hood
iTunes

It’s April 1st, but this is some real shit. It’s easy to pre-emptively write off Fan of a Fan as sure-to-be tedious drivel, but “D.G.I.F.U.” is the diamond in the rough; Breezy and the black Ian Watkins solicited arguably the best MC in rap and snapped. The beat is so unmistakably hip-hop, thumping relentlessly while both Tyga and Chris Brown hold their own with acrobatic flows and a tough hook, and King Push gets on his Flonominal tip for the song’s anchor, bringing home a certifiable heater. –Aziz

Victoria Kim — “Kiko Kicks” (ft. Divoli S’vere) (4:23)
Kiko Kicks (EP)
Listen if you like: Mumdance, Special Request, 2NE1, voguing
Facebook | Soundcloud

Victoria Kim is the kind of project which seems only feasible in our current hyper-connected Internet age. The Sydney-via-Seoul duo rips and withers snippets of K-pop (“Kiko Kicks” apparently began as a reworking of a Korean boy band song), creating some unholy fusion of jungle’s torpor and avant-grime tendencies with the scraps. “Kiko Kicks”, then, is consummately global: Korean-Australians chewing up Korean pop culture and spitting out a London-esque choon which hammers away behind NYC ballroom diva Divoli S’vere’s sensual vocals. The song draws its grit-gray militancy from a sandpaper-rough set of elements — thudding bass-register spikes, schizophrenic breakbeat samples (complete with an even more frenzied iteration of James Brown than usual), and stumbling, skittering snares combine to bludgeon even the most hardy raver into submission. Expect this tune to be killing sweltering basement dance-floors very soon. –Will Robinson

Barren Earth – “Frozen Processions” (4:52)
On Lonely Towers
Listen if you like: Opeth, Amorphis, Enslaved
Facebook | Official site

One of Barren Earth’s most distinguished features is how they manage to sound so warm and open-world in the context of the melodic death metal genre they adhere to. Reminding quite a bit of Opeth with their ’70s prog leanings and all, but boasting a sound that was their own from the get-go, the Finnish sextet continues to refine their own formula on album number three. While there are more adventurous and multifaceted tracks to be found on the full record, “Frozen Processions” is a solid sample due to its energetic presence. It’s a bit different from the rest of On Lonely Towers in terms of tempo, which is generally slower, but the rich atmosphere and warm textures that are the governing force throughout the disc’s sixty-five minutes are well represented. From album to album, Barren Earth continues to grow ever so slowly in front of our very eyes, like an old tree developing new sprouts on its weathered branches, continuously reaching larger proportions in the process. The players in the band are all veterans to the scene, who have managed to continue upping their chemistry, and their know-how permeates through this carefully constructed metal epic. –Magnus Altküla

Ghost Bath – “Golden Number” (9:09)
Moonlover
Listen if you like: Deafheaven, Woods of Desolation, Panopticon
Bandcamp | Facebook

I’m a bit annoyed that I couldn’t embed this in the Spotify playlist (and “Golden Number”, easily the best on this record, is larger than the file size limit for WordPress), but Ghost Bath don’t really have a guy in charge of PR. After all, the band were originally said to be a one-man project from China… only to be revealed at a later date that it’s four dudes from Minot, North Dakota (and we don’t even know if it’s truly a quartet, either). There’s plenty of melancholy and despair on Moonlover, but the songwriting structure, production, and tone is surprisingly outstanding, and there’s pockets of melody that are truly memorable. It might not be a direct parallel to Sunbather, but it’s in the ballpark. All told, Moonlover is a solid piece of writing from the best Chinese band from North Dakota. –Jom