Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of October 11th, 2024. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: October 11, 2024 –
Ad Infinitum: Abyss
Genre: Metal / Pop
Label: Napalm Records
The Blessed Madonna: Godspeed
Genre: Electro Pop
Label: Warner Music
Cascada: Studio 24
Genre: Electro Pop
Label: Stars By Edel
Cemetery Skyline: Nordic Gothic
Genre: Gothic Rock / Post Punk / Metal
Label: Century Media Records
Charli XCX: Brat and It’s Completely Different…
Genre: Pop
Label: Atlantic Recording Corporation
Chat Pile: Cool World
Genre: Noise Rock / Sludge
Label: The Flenser
Chrissy Costanza: VII
Genre: Alternative / Pop Punk
Label: Independent
The Crown: Crown of Thorns
Genre: Melodic Death Metal / Thrash
Label: Metal Blade Records
Dawes: Oh Brother
Genre: Americana
Label: Dead Ringers
Dua Saleh: I Should Call Them
Genre: Hip Hop / R&B / Soul
Label: Ghostly International
Eill: My Dream Box
Genre: J-Pop
Label: Pony Canyon Inc.
ELUCID: Revelator
Genre: Hip Hop
Label: Fat Possum Records
Envy: Eunoia
Genre: Post Hardcore / Emo
Label: Temporary Residence Ltd.
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of October 4th, 2024. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: October 04, 2024 –
1349: The Wolf & The King
Genre: Black Metal
Label: Season of Mist
Alison Moyet: Key
Genre: Electronic/Pop
Label: Cooking Vinyl
A Place to Bury Strangers: Synthesizer
Genre: Noise Rock / Shoegaze
Label: Dedstrange
Balance and Composure: With You in Spirit
Genre: Alternative/Post Hardcore
Label: Memory Music
Blood Incantation: Absolute Elsewhere
Genre: Progressive Death Metal
Label: Nuclear Blast
Coldplay: Moon Music
Genre: Pop Rock
Label: Atlantic Records
D.A.D: Speed of Darkness
Genre: Rock
Label: Napalm Records
Eric Clapton: Meanwhile
Genre: Classic Rock
Label: Independent
Geordie Greep: The New Sound
Genre: Alternative/Experimental
Label: Rough Trade Records
Godspeed You! Black Emperor: No Title as of…
Genre: Post Rock
Label: Constellation
Half Waif: See You at the Maypole
Genre: Indie Pop
Label: Anti Records
Leon Bridges: Leon
Genre: Soul/R&B
Label: Columbia Records
Lotte Gallagher: A Better Feeling
Genre: Alternative
Label: Liberation Records
Michael Love Michael: Bruiser
Genre: Experimental Pop
Label: Get Better Records
…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of August 23rd, 2024. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: August 23, 2024 –
Alleviate: DMNS
Genre: Metalcore/Deathcore
Label: Arising Empire
Cassyette: This World Fucking Sucks
Genre: Alternative
Label: Rough Trade
Fleshgod Apocalypse: Opera
Genre: Symphonic Death Metal
Label: Nuclear Blast
Fontaines D.C.: Romance
Genre: Post Punk
Label: XL Recordings
Gift: Illuminator
Genre: Indie / Psychedelic
Label: Omnian Music
Illuminati Hotties: Power
Genre: Lo-fi / Indie pop
Label: Hopeless Records
Kingcrow: Hopium
Genre: Progressive Metal
Label: Season of Mist
Kishi Bashi: Kantos
Genre: Indie Pop / Psychedelic
Label: Joyful Noise Records
Lainey Wilson: Whirlwind
Genre: Country
Label: Broken Bow
Lisa Loeb & The Hollow Trees: That’s What It’s All About
Genre: Folk / Alternative
Label: Independent
Meer: Wheels Within Wheels
Genre: Alt Prog
…
Happy American Independence Day. Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of July 5th, 2024. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: July 5, 2024 –
Aeons: The Ghosts of What We Knew
Genre: Progressive Metalcore
Label: Sliptrick Records
Akhlys: House of the Black Geminus
Genre: Black Metal / Ambient
Label: Debemur Morti Productions
Fink: Beauty in Your Wake
Genre: Alternative / Downtempo
Label: R’COUP’D
Horned Almighty: Contagion Zero
Genre: Black Metal
Label: Soulseller Records
Kasabian: Happenings
Genre: Indie / Psychedelic
Label: Columbia Records
Kiasmos: II
Genre: Electronic / Ambient
Label: Erased Tapes Records
Kokoko!: Butu
Genre: African / Electronic / Alternative
Label: Transgressive Records
Liminal Shroud: Visions of Collapse
Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal
Label: Willowtip Records
Nyktophobia: To the Stars
Genre: Blackened Death Metal
Label: Napalm Records
Orden Ogan: The Order of
…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of May 17th, 2024. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: May 17, 2024 –
Ani DiFranco: Unpresedented Sh!t
Genre: Indie Folk
Label: Righteous Babe
The Avett Brothers: The Avett Brothers
Genre: Americana / Folk
Label: American Recordings
Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard and Soft
Genre: Pop / Indie Pop
Label: Interscope
Botanist: Paleobotany
Genre: Experimental Black Metal
Label: Prophecy Productions
Cage the Elephant: Neon Pill
Genre: Alternative Rock
Label: Sony Music
Celestial Season: Mysterium III
Genre: Doom
Label: Independent
Elvellon: Ascending in Synergy
Genre: Power Metal
Label: Napalm Records
From Indian Lakes: Head Void
Genre: Indie Rock / Dream Pop
Label: Independent
Gatecreeper: Dark Superstition
Genre: Doom/Death Metal/Hardcore
Label: Relapse Records
Jamey Jasta: … And Jasta for All
Genre: Metalcore
Label: Perseverance Media
Jinjer: Live in Los Angeles
Genre: Metalcore / Progressive
…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of March 15th, 2024. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: March 15, 2024 –
Aborted: Vault of Horrors
Genre: Death Metal
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Andrea Von Kampen: Sister Moon
Genre: Indie Folk
Label: Independent
Atrophy: Asylum
Genre: Death Metal
Label: Massacre Records
The Black Crows: Happiness Bastards
Genre: Rock
Label: Silver Arrow Records
Dragonforce: Warp Speed Warriors
Genre: Power Metal
Label: Napalm Records
Four Tet: Three
Genre: IDM / House
Label: Rough Trade
Justin Timberlake: Everything I Thought I Was
Genre: Pop
Label: RCA Records
Kacey Musgraves: Deeper Well
Genre: Country / Folk
Label: Interscope
Lenny Kravitz: Blue Electric Light
Genre: Pop Rock
Label: Roxie Records
Lutharo: Chasing Euphoria
Genre: Metalcore / Melodic Death Metal
Label: Thrash / Metalcore
Marla Hansen: Salt
Genre: Trip Hop / Pop
Label: Just Isn’t Music Ldt.
Necrophobic: In the Twilight Grey
Genre: Melodic Death Metal
Label: Centruy Media Records
Pink Milk: Night on Earth
Genre: Gothic Shoegaze
Label: Black Hair Records
The Progressive Souls Collective: Sonic Rebirth
Genre: Progressive
Label: Metalville Records
Sam Lee: Songdreaming
Genre: Folk
Label: Norman Records UK
Scott Stapp: Higher Power
Genre: Rock
Label: Napalm Records
Till Lindemann: Zunge
Genre: Industrial Metal
Label: Universal Music Group
Whom Gods Destroy: Insanium
Genre: Progressive Metal
Label: InsdeOut
World Wide Whack: Tierra Whack
Genre: Rap / Pop / R&B
Label: Interscope Records
Follow us on…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of February 23rd, 2024. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: February 23rd, 2024 –
A Burial At Sea: Close to Home
Genre: Progressive Rock / Math Rock
Label: Pelagic Records
Ace Frehley: 10,000 Volts
Genre: Rock
Label: Ace Frehley Merchandise
Allie X: Girl With No Face
Genre: Synthpop
Label: Rough Trade
Amaranthe: The Catalyst
Genre: Metalcore / Pop / Electronic
Label: Nuclear Blast
Atoll: Inhuman Implants
Genre: Death Metal
Label: Rough Trade
Austrian Death Machine: Quad Brutal
Genre: Metalcore / Thrash
Label: Napalm Records
Borknagar: Fall
Genre: Progressive / Black Metal
Label: Century Media
Cathubodua: Interbellum
Genre: Symphonic Metal
Label: Massacre Records
Coltre: To Watch With Hands…
Genre: Heavy Metal
Label: Dying Victim Productions
Darkest Hour: Perpetual | Terminal
Genre: Metalcore / Melodic Death Metal
Label: MNRK Heavy
Erika de Casier: Still
Genre: Trip Hop / Pop
Label: 4AD
Hand of Kalliach: Corryvreckan
Genre: Melodic Death Metal
Label: Prosthetic Records
Jazmin Bean: Traumatic Livelihood
Genre: Pop Rock
Label: Interscope
Job For
…
50-31 | 30-11 | 10-1 | EP/Live/Compilation
10. Hail the Sun – Divine Inner Tension
[Official site] // [Spotify]
I’m going to say something that shouldn’t actually be controversial, but will inevitably cause a bunch of people to lose their shit: Divine Inner Tension is Hail the Sun’s best work.
[long awkward silence]
“Ye speaketh blasphemy, ye corpulent mammalian sea creature!”
Yes, I do. Shamelessly.
I’ve said this before, but it took a lot to bring me to listen to this album. I refused to listen to the singles. I refused to have anything to do with the rotten cadaver of the genre Hail the Sun had been pigeonholed into. “It all sounds the same anyway!” was the chant I told my friends about the singles that kept dropping. “They’ve peaked! They’re on the decline!” is what I kept saying to myself to justify my refusal to give Divine Inner Tension a chance.
It didn’t matter that I have a deep-seated respect and admiration for Donovan Melero as a musician and seemingly good dude. It didn’t matter that of all the “swancore” bands out there, Hail the Sun had actually put out the most consistent music. It didn’t matter that — while they hadn’t quite achieved the highs of Wake — Culture Scars, Mental Knife and New Age Filth were all very good records. All that would come of a new album in the age of aging guitar-wankery…
50-31 | 30-11 | 10-1 | EP/Live/Compilation
10. Magdalena Bay – mini mix Vol. 3
Short and sweet collection of almost-banging tunes that take their time to show how smooth these earworms are. The production is gorgeous, and Tenenbaum’s vocal delivery finely walks the playful-quirky line. Really excited about their future. –dedex
9. Joliette – Luz de Bengala
If you are still sleeping on Joliette, Luz de Bengala is a short and sweet cacophony to disturb your slumber: the Mexican post-hardcore mainstays are firing on all cylinders here, conjuring up an expected, spellbinding amalgam of downtrodden riffs, chiming, post-rocky builds, and zesty screams en español. Coming off a couple standalone singles in the years prior, this EP marks the band’s first multi-track project with bassist Gastón Prado on lead vocals, and that lineup change isn’t elemental so much as it is tonal: where once Joliette doubled down on grisly, violent imagery or infernal despair, their latest incarnation ultimately espouses hope without sacrificing their knack for tense, tightly-wound arrangements. Fans of Birds In Row, Ostraca, a theoretically skramz-ier At The Drive-In, or basically anything on the quartet’s latest home, Zegema Beach Records: don’t overlook these guys any longer. –ashcrash9
8. Dream Dolphin – Gaia: Selected Ambient & Downtempo Works (1996-2023)
In…
50-31 | 30-11 | 10-1 | EP/Live/Compilation
30. Sleep Token – Take Me Back to Eden
[Official site] // [Spotify]
One of the most fascinating factoids of Sleep Token’s extensive and intricate lore is that the band themselves were concocted in a lab to piss off music snobs and elitists. Everything from the soaring clean vocals that are polished to a blinding sheen to the admittedly kind of obnoxious RnB samplings do everything they possibly can to make the conventional fan of prog or metal roll their eyes out of their skull, and frankly, I get it. But that test for elitist purity — known as the No Trve Metalhead fallacy — is a race to the bottom. I was there in the last.fm trenches in 2010 when everyone called Wolves in the Throne Room “Shirts In the Dorm Room” due to their perceived accessibility. Take Me Back to Back to Eden has plenty to criticize and is far from the majesty of Opeth’s Ghost Reveries or the creativity of Between the Buried and Me’s Colors, but in time, it may reveal itself to be the nexus in the same way those works were for an entirely new generation of metal fans and acts. It’s one hell of a time, but only if you’ll uncross your arms and allow yourself to have fun. –Odal
29. TesseracT – War of Being
[Bandcamp] // [
50-31 | 30-11 | 10-1 | EP/Live/Compilation
50. Urne – A Feast On Sorrow
“Like Mastodon but not like Mastodon” is one of my favorite genres. –Egarran
Has some old-school Sepultura/Slayer/Coroner tones — with an upgraded sound, of course. Worth the listen. –Astaroth666
49. Chepang – Swatta
Let’s make one thing really clear: Swatta is absolutely not for the faint of heart; but if you’re the type of person that seeks thrills, do yourself a favor and listen to this record. It’s hard for me to describe this album without resorting to a bunch of oxymoronic platitudes like “chaotically precise” or “brilliantly raw,” but the fact of the matter is that I don’t think any band brought more unrestrained ferocity to the table than Chepang did in 2023. Swatta is not just a triumph for grind, it’s a triumph in heavy music — and it’s the kind of album that follows the mantra of shooting on sight and taking no prisoners. Don’t be lulled by the disarmingly-satisfying-to-say names, either: Swatta will systematically break every bone in your body before torching you to a cinder. Oh, and you’re going to enjoy every fucking second. –Manatea
48. Panopticon – The Rime of Memory
An entirely new level for Panopticon. This is the album…
Due to the continued slow release schedule as 2024 begins, here is a list of major new releases for the weeks of January 5th through the 19th, 2024. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: January 5th, 2024 –
Kinoteki: Faith and the Vessel
Genre: Atmospheric Drum & Bass
Label: Tabula Rasa
Animal Ghosts: Swell
Genre: Indie Rock / Dream Pop
Label: Independent
– List of Releases: January 12th, 2024 –
Alluvial: Death is But a Door
Genre: Deathcore
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Bill Ryder-Jones: Iechyd Da
Genre: Indie Rock
Label: Domino Recording Co
Drown in Sulphur: Dark Secrets of the Soul
Genre: Blackened Death Metal
Label: Scarlet Records
Hannah Ellis: That Girl
Genre: Country
Label: Curb Records, Inc
Kali Uchis: Orquideas
Genre: R&B / Pop / Soul
Label: Geffen
Kid Cudi: Insano
Genre: Hip Hop / Alternative
Label: Republic Records
Mourning Dawn: The Foam of Despair
Genre: Funeral Doom
Label: Aesthetic Death
Nailah Hunter: Lovegaze
Genre: New Age / Ambient
Label: Fat Possum
Neal Morse: The Resoration – Joseph Part Two
Genre: Progressive Rock
Label: Frontiers Music
Rough Justice: Faith in Vain
…
What a year for the site and for music. Within the genres I listen to, I wouldn’t say there was anything significant that happened.
In the world of metal… Floor had another baby. Mike Portnoy rejoined Dream Theater. What else? Musically speaking, it seems like the metal genre (and its sub-genres) are content to keep things status quo for now. I’m not sure what needs to happen for that to change, and I’m sure there are some ground breaking bands out there, but I didn’t hear them. We can chalk that up to age and apathy, I’m assuming.
Industrial is pretty much a dead genre with nothing truly significant being released — and Skinny Puppy did their final tour before calling it quits.
As for indie pop… I don’t really track that genre, I just stumble across albums I enjoy from time to time, so NSTR.
As for the website, we’ve gone ahead and stuck some more duct tape over another hole in an attempt to keep it functional. So, pay no attention to the corpse behind the curtain.
As always, these were my favorite albums of the year regardless of originality, impact on any genre, or any other superfluous qualifier. The only thing that mattered was how much I personally enjoyed it.
________________________________________________________________________________
50. Nospun – Opus
Genre: Progressive Metal // Review
Recommended Track: The Death…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of October 20th, 2023. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: October 20th, 2023 –
Afterbirth: In But Not Of
Genre: Progressive Death Metal
Label: Willowtip Records
The Amenta: Plague of Locus
Genre: Industrial / Blackened Death Metal
Label: Independent
Angelus Apatrida: Aftermath
Genre: Thrash
Label: Napalm Records
Asagraum: Veil of Death, Ruptured
Genre: Black Metal
Label: Edged Circle Productions
Blink-182: One More Time
Genre: Pop Punk / Alternative
Label: Columbia Records
Bombay Bicycle Club: My Big Day
Genre: Indie Pop / Indie Rock
Label: Mmm… Records
The Callous Daoboys: God Smiles Upon the Callous Daoboys
Genre: Mathcore / Metalcore
Label: Independent
Catch Your Breath: Shame On Me
Genre: Alternative / Metal
Label: Thriller Records
Cirith Ungol: Dark Parade
Genre: Heavy Metal / Power Metal
Label: Metal Blade Records
City Girls: Raw
Genre: Hip-Hop
Label: Capitol Records
Daria Zawialow: Dziewczyna Pop
Genre: Electronic / Pop
Label: Sony
Dreamwell: In My Saddest Dreams, I Am Beside You
Genre: Post Hardcore
Label: Prosthetic Records
Duff McKagan: Lighthouse
Genre: Rock
Label: The World
…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of September 22nd, 2023. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: September 22nd, 2023 –
3teeth: Endex
Genre: Industrial Metal / Alternative
Label: Century Media
Annisokay: Abyss Pt. 1
Genre: Metalcore
Label: Arising Empire
Bakar: Halo
Genre: Indie / Hip Hop / Electronic
Label: Black Butter Limited
Cannibal Corpse: Chaos Horrific
Genre: Death Metal
Label: Metal Blade Records
Chappell Roan: The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess
Genre: Pop
Label: Independent
Dayshell: Pegasus
Genre: Post Hardcore / Alternative
Label: Independent
Doja Cat: Scarlet
Genre: Hip Hop / Pop
Label: RCA Records
Dominique Fils-Aime: Our Roots Run Deep
Genre: Soul / R&B / Dream Pop
Label: Ensoul Records
Emily Kinney: Swimteam
Genre: Pop / Folk
Label: Julian Records
Follakzoid: V
Genre: Psychedelic / Ambient
Label: Sacred Bones Records
Grails: Anches en Maat
Genre: Psychedelic / Post Rock / Experimental
Label: Temporary Residence
Grrl Gang: Spunky!
Genre: Indie Rock / Indie Pop
Label: Green Island Records
K. Michelle: I’m the Problem
Genre: R&B / Pop
Label: Atlantic
…
