Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of March 3rd, 2023. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: March 3rd, 2023 –
Carma: Ossadas
Genre: Black Metal / Doom Label: Monumental Rex
Earth Groans: Tongue Tied
Genre: Metalcore Label: Solid State Records
Enslaved: Heimdal
Genre: Progressive / Black Metal / Folk Label: Nuclear Blast
Entheos: Time Will Take Us All
Genre: Technical Death Metal Label: Metal Blade Records
Full of Hell + Primative Man: Suffocating Hallucination
Genre: Hardcore / Sludge Label: Closed Casket Activities
Haken: Fauna
Genre: Progressive Metal Label: Inside Out
Kate NV: WOW
Genre: Electronic / Pop Label: RVNG
Morgan Wallen: One Thing at a Time
Genre: Country Label: Republic
Ocean of Grief: Pale Existence
Genre: Doom / Death Metal Label: Personal Records
Phantom Fire: Eminente Lucifer Libertad
Genre: Black Metal Label: Edged Circle Productions
Ron Gallo: Foreground Music
Genre: Alternative Label: Kill Rock Stars
Here we are having already closed the books on January, a month more tied to dearth than plenitude: dearth of sunlight, dearth of warmth, and somehow, usually, a dearth of halfway decent music, as the big consumption season of the holidays spends itself into a kind of productive dormancy. The year so far seems to be belying that notion, as an uncommon number of quality releases are being dug up from the frozen ground and passed around as sustenance through the hard months. The most conspicuous fruit of this early-year gleaning is also, paradoxically, among the most minimalist, and, to be frank, the most musically unremarkable, while still remaining one of its creator’s great artistic statements.
12 is easy to pigeonhole as a mere collection of etudes for piano and synthesizer, a soothing, lukewarm, ambient bath recalling the melancholic tranquility of Satie and Eno, always lovely, but sometimes minimalist to the point of being threadbare in execution. It takes a bit of a deeper reading of the thing for it to open up to the listener, a bit of reflection on what exactly this austere approach is revealing. Ryuichi Sakamoto’s 12 was recorded in the winter of last year, and its threadbare qualities often reflect that; the austerity of its titles, its art, and its music are, in a way, those of the bare clinging on and enduring that life can seem to be during this season. But of…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of February 24th, 2023. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: February 24, 2023 –
Adam Lambert: High Drama
Genre: Pop Label: BMG
Air Raid: Fatal Encounter
Genre: Heavy Metal Label: High Roller
Algiers: Shook
Genre: Post Punk / Experimental Label: Matador
Begonia: Powder Blue
Genre: Indie Pop Label: Birthday Cake
Big | Brave: Nature Morte
Genre: Sludge Label: Thrill Jockey
Bodyfarm: Ultimate Abomination
Genre: Death Metal Label: Edged Circle Productions
The Church: The Hypnogogue
Genre: New Wave / Psychedelia / Alt Rock Label: Communicating Vessels
Hello and welcome to the futureof Sputnik’s recently rebooted, charm offending, hernia cleansing, fool hunting, wokeshopping mania avenue for the brave and brainless. Staff Wars is back! This is where we stick members of the Staff team against the wall and interview them within an inch of their lives. Steel yourself as impossible questions are posed and the Staffers you’d never had the courage to approach before surpass your wildest expectations.
Today we catch up with a Staffer who should have long since been on here! Both uninterested in all things rock and metal, and in near-invariable alignment with the powers of logic and common sense, it bears no overstatement to call granitenotebook one of Sputnik’s most valuable, talented and frequently overlooked writers. No more of that! No time to waste! In we delve:
granitenotebook, hello! How are you?
i’m doing good! just finished some homework so now I’m on to more important tasks like watching The X-Files
What day of the week are you responding from, and what bearing does this have on your overall state of being?
it’s saturday afternoon, so i’m relaxing and trying my best not to worry about all of the things i know i would benefit from just getting done already.
I’ve always thought your username was a great image! Could you explain the inspiration behind it?
thanks! ultimately I’ll have to keep that a secret, but it’s definitely not a random series of words that i put together becauseiI thought they sounded cool when i needed a new social media username, i…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of February 17, 2023. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: February 17, 2023 –
The Abby: Word of Sin
Genre: Doom Rock Label: Season Of Mist
All My Shadows: Eerie Monsters
Genre: Power Metal Label: Nuclear Blast
Anna B Savage: In | Flux
Genre: Psychedelic Folk Label: City Slang
Avatar: Dance Devil Dance
Genre: Melodic Death Metal / Heavy Metal Label: Thirty Tigers
Hello and welcome to the futureof Sputnik’s recently rebooted, charm offending, hernia cleansing, fool hunting, wokeshopping mania avenue for the brave and brainless. Staff Wars is back! This is where we stick members of the Staff team against the wall and interview them within an inch of their lives. Steel yourself as impossible questions are posed and the Staffers you’d never had the courage to approach before surpass your wildest expectations.
For this interview, we turn to Olympus new blood and bring you an exclusive tell-all from none other than MarsKid. Who is MarsKid? Where did he come from (MARS, idiot!)? What does he bring? How much does he owe you and how much is he owed? What happens if you make it to the final line of any of his reviews? What the sour octopus is post-metalcore? YIKES let’s grill the boy!
Hi Mars! Of all our new crop of staffers, I think you’re the one whose taste and coverage can most easily be summed up as a concrete Niche (although it’s probably inevitable that I’d draw that conclusion after all the intensive profiling I threw at your ratings and reactions for last year’s Build-an-Album competition) – so go on! Sum it up. Preferences and proclivities here please, both practised and conceptual:
So there’s this thing called post-metalcore, not sure if you’ve heard of it but it’s kinda a big deal, y’know. Basically, it asks the all-important question of “What if metalcore could FEEL” although not in the Counterparts “lol I’m gonna die” manner of…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of February 10, 2023. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
–List of Releases: February 10, 2023–
The Academic: Sitting Pretty
Genre: Indie-Rock Label: Universal Music Operations
Amber Arcades: Barefoot on Diamond Road
Genre: Indie-Pop Label: Fire Records
Andy Shauf: Norm
Genre: Alt-Rock/Indie-Folk Label: Anti
Black Belt Eagle Scout: The Land, The Water, The Sky
Genre: Indie-Folk Label: Saddle Creek
The Brian Jonestown Massacre: The Future is Your Past
Genre: Psychedelic/Shoegaze/Indie-Rock Label: ‘a’ recordings
Cadaver Shrine: Benighted Desecration
Genre: Death/Doom Metal Label: Chaos Records
Carnosus: Visions of Infinihility
Genre: Tech Death Label: Independent
Delain: Dark Waters
Genre: Metal/Gothic Label: Napalm
Distant: Heritage
Genre: Metalcore/Death Metal/Deathcore Label: Century Media
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of February 3rd, 2023. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: February 3, 2023 –
All Out War: Celestial Rot
Genre: Black Metal / Hardcore / Thrash Label: Translation Loss
Blackwülf: Thieves and Liars
Genre: Stoner Doom Label: Ripple Music
Coffin Nail: The Hanged Man
Genre: Black Metal / Grindcore Label: Self released
Dewolff: Love, Death and In Between
Genre: Southern Rock / Blues / Psychedelic Label: Mascot Label
Elif: Endlich Tut Es Wieder Weh
Genre: Pop Label: Jive
Fugit: Morphogenetic Fractal Hologram
Genre: Post Black Metal / Blackgaze Label: Self released
FVNERALS: Let the Earth Be Silent
Genre: Doom / Dark Ambient / Post Rock Label: Prophecy Productions
The Go! Team: Get Up Sequences part Two
Genre: Funk Label: Memphies Industries
Godiva: Hubris
Genre: Death Metal Label: Self released
John Frusciante: .I:
Genre: Electronic / Ambient/ Drone Label: Acid Test
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of January 27, 2023. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: January 27, 2023 –
… And Oceans: As in Gardens, So In Tombs
Genre: Black Metal Label: Season of Mist
The Arcs: Electrophonic Chronic
Genre: Indie Rock / Psychedelic Label: Easy Eye Sound
Ashen Horde: Antimony
Genre: Progressive Black/Death Metal Label: Transcending Obscurity
Ava Max: Diamonds & Dancefloors
Genre: Electro Pop Label: Atlantic
Bizarrekult: Den Tapte Krigen
Genre: Post Black Metal Label: Season of Mist
Complete Mountain Almanac: Complete Mountain Almanac
Genre: Folk / Indie Rock Label: Bella Union
Elle King: Come Get Your Wife
Genre: Country / Pop Label: RCA
Emarosa: Sting
Genre: Indie Pop / Electronic Label: Out of Line
Fucked Up: One Day
Genre: Alternative / Folk Label: Merge Records
Hammock: Love in the Void
Genre: Ambient / Post Rock Label: Hammock Music
Kimbra: A Reckoning
Genre: Indie Pop / Soul Label: Kimbra
King Tuff: Smalltown Stardust
Genre: Jam Rock / Psychedelic Label: Sub Pop
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of January 20, 2023. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: January 20, 2023 –
Atrocity: OKKULT III
Genre: Death Metal Label: Massacre
The Bad Ends: The Power and the Glory
Genre: Rock Label: New West Records
Biig Piig: Bubblegum
Genre: Hip-Hop / R&B Label: Sony Music
The C.I.A.: Surgery Channel
Genre: Indie / Electronic Label: In The Red
Dave Rowntree: Radio Songs
Genre: Indie / Electronic Label: Cooking Vinyl
Designer Disguise: Radio Songs
Genre: Nu Metal / Metalcore Label: InVogue Records
Dryad: The Abyssal Plain
Genre: Death Metal / Black Metal Label: Prosthetic
Guided By Voices: La La Land
Genre: Indie Rock / Lo-Fi Label: GBV Inc
Imperium Dekadenz: Into Sorrow Evermore
Genre: Black Metal / Shoegaze Label: Napalm
John Cale: Mercy
Genre: Experimental Pop / Rock Label: Domino
July Talk: Remember Never Before
Genre: Alternative / Indie Rock Label: Six Shooter Records
Kali Malone: Does Spring Hide Its Joy
Genre: Drone / Classical Label: Secretly Distribution
Katatonia: Sky Void of Stars
Genre: Progressive Metal / Dark
Time has passed. How much – too much! The gang at KILL and KEEP are getting back together, and where better to turn our attention than on Taylor Swift’s never-forgotten recently-reclaimed coming-of-age epic post-teen mess of an album Red.
This was the time! Most of us were dumb teenagers when Red was red-hot off the press and had complicated relationships with everything and anything including this album. How awesome! Now that post-Red history has continued and happened, we have the privilege of parsing it for Taylors past, present and future – for there was a whole lotta Taylor in that melting pot! She was fresh from stabbing the entire republic of Nashville in the front and exporting her domination of teenage bedroomspace to teenage dancefloordom: no more tiptoeing towards pop stardom, this was where Taylor Swift began to stomp (but on whomst’ve?).
Also, Sputnik was down for whatever reason while we were doing this lol. Let’s go!
Rules
The team is DavidYowi, johnnyoftheWell, Sinternet and Steak
Every song must either be KILLed or KEEPed.
The version of the album used is the original because we were invested in the time capsule, and because it is shorter and one of our number was midway through a 24-hour exam window, and Taylor Swift is rich enough as it is.
“It’s not unheard of, but certainly rare when a band 25 years old and eight albums deep into their career create a record that could be in contention as their best, but if there was any group who could it, it would be He Is Legend. And guess what? That’s exactly what they’ve done with Endless Hallway. Tonally, it suggests one of their most divisive efforts since Suck Out the Poison — it’s dark, heavy, sludgy, and one of their most narrative driven releases — but it has all of the finesse of their post-reunion material. Speaking of heavy, Endless Hallway may be their most brutal outing to date, oscillating between near djent riffcapades and slower, churning swamp metal throwdowns — there is no shortage of headbanging moments strewn throughout the record. However, this uptick in viciousness does little to deter Schuylar Croom from crafting some of the most memorable hooks of his career. As always, the frontman has a very distinct sense of melody, writing passages that make use of odd harmonies but are still impossibly catchy. Endless Hallway is somehow He is Legend at their peak, and I can’t see any fan of the band being disappointed with this one.” —Brandon Scott / TheSpirit
It’s hard to write about this album without letting Brandon’s words really describe it. The day Brandon left was a tough one –one that is sure…
Outside of “Blue Monday” being Orgy’s universally acknowledged claim to fame, the band very rarely come up in music discourse. There’s obviously good reason for that; the band fell into the NU-metal whirlpool at the height of the genre’s popularity and were quicky chewed out with the slew of other bands clambering to make a decent name for themselves. Unlike most bands in that scene though, I always lamented the unharnessed potential Orgy wielded in the early noughties. Candyass and Vapour Transmission were really solid albums, and, while far from perfect, demonstrated a competent blend of NU-metal and industrial in a way that gave them an edge over their peers – their own inimitable identity. Unfortunately, the band were never able to make that potential truly flourish, as their third album, Punk Statik Paranoia, sealed their own demise (at least until their return in 2015). It was a record that stripped the band of their fundamental qualities in favour of derivative trend chasing, which ultimately finished the band off in the process.
Since their return in 2015, the band have followed suit in a way that feels as though they never really left or learned from their previous shortcomings – that glaring wound of unfettered, untouched potential staring back at me as they bleed generic dance beats and vapid pop melodies into my ears. This new single, “Empty”, stays the course in this vein, vomiting autotune and scintillatingly optimistic electronics with the only consistent thing…
If The Loser proved Gospel wanted to go proggier, MVDM proves they really are a prog band that just couldn’t do without infusing some mid-’90s screamo into their Yes worship. Having gone through the perilous (but succeeded) step of coming back, nothing holds the band back from showing what nerds they are — look at that goofy-ass title — a good reminder that prog was never cool. So crafting a sprawling tune whose shtick is to build tension through retrofuturistic synth and keyboards was ultimately Gospel’s ipseity — it just took them 15 years to figure out how to properly forge that version of themselves. Maybe that’s why they never showed signs of existence during that period: Gospel could only be MVDM. –Erwann S. / dedex
They say not to judge a book by its cover, but from the instant I saw the album cover for Bleed the Dream, I knew exactly what I was in for. The depiction of blood on a music box is a perfect metaphor for this EP. Aggressive music expresses an abrasively gorgeous duality; there is beauty in the breakdown. Bleed the Dream is a brutally raw and urgent collection of songs recalling early-2000s metalcore that is
The overall takeaway from multiple 2020 releases was this overbearing sense of isolation. Across the globe, seclusion was imposed to alleviate a growing pandemic, and its sudden necessity caused a mass dissolution of social connections and relationships. Perhaps, as a response, 2021’s cycle had a bevy of familiar faces delivering solid, safe records, offering comfort that had previously been dismantled. Toss that all out the window — it is 2022, two years removed from when life shut down and power systems demonstrated their profound weaknesses when addressing it. Ashenspire’s purpose on Hostile Architecture is to survey the damage; their scathing social critique takes aim at calculated oppression, malignant government bodies, and the widening divide between the haves and have-nots, firing with such precision that it’s impossible to not envision burgeoning crowds stocked to the brim with pitchforks and torches aplenty. It came out of left field, but the Scots’ sophomore release was certainly something that the new decade’s omnipresent uncertainty was craving.
Given the subject matter at hand, Hostile Architecture is appropriately claustrophobic, erecting shadowy soundscapes that echo about crumbling cities, ringing in the alleyways and reverberating in shelters as frustration bubbles to a boiling point. The band’s grab-bag of influences and contributing elements that they use to portray this hauntingly real dystopia possesses incredible depth. Dissodeath and black metal forge a mesmerizing foundation, while touches of post-punk…
