Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of February 11th of 2022. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: February 11th, 2022 –
Alt-J: The Dream
Genre: Indie Rock Label: Atlantic Records
Amorphis: Halo
Genre: Melodic Metal, Doom Label: Atomic Fire
Arð: Take Up My Bones
Genre: Doom Metal Label: Prophecy Productions
Author and Punisher: Krüller
Genre: Electronic, Doom Metal Label: Relapse Records
Beaumont: Cookies
Genre: Lo-fi Hip Hop, Jazz Label: Vinyl Digital
Big Thief: Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You
Genre: Alternative Rock Label: 4AD
Cult of Luna: The Long Road North
Genre: Post Metal Label: Metal Blade Records
Dan Andriano & The Bygones: Dear Darkness
Genre: Singer/Songwriter Label: Epitaph Records
Dead American: New Nostalgia
Genre: Rock Label: Velocity Records
The Delines: The Sea Drift
Genre: Country, Soul, Rock Label: Decor Records
Eddie Vedder: Earthling
Genre: Rock Label: Republic
Empath: Visitor
Genre: Croc Rock Label: Fat Possum Records
Fort Romeau: Beings of Light
Genre: Ambient, Electronica Label: Ghostly International
I caught up with Josh D. of Spieglass to discuss his intimidating discography, his intent as an artist, and the Sputnik community.
You are the sole member of Spieglass, a post-rock/metal project. What have you found to be the pros and cons of being a solo musician? Would you ever aspire to be in a band (or to add other musicians to your project) if the opportunity presented itself?
Of course the best thing about solo work is complete autonomy. The only thing I feel like I’m missing most days is a pro-level mixer/producer. I would love to work with other people, although maybe under a different project/name. That way Spieglass is something I can have as my own, sort of like how Toby Driver has his distinct projects and solo material. I don’t think I’ve actually played…
It was only through watching the bland music video to Red Hot Chili Peppers’ new single, “Black Summer”, that I remembered John Frusciante had rejoined the band (again). The results are pretty evident of this reformation as well, because let’s be honest here – the band haven’t written a great song with Frusciante behind the wheel since By the Way. I know, I know, I’m probably sounding a little harsh here, but know that I don’t facetiously parade my sentiment around with no meaning behind it. It might sound like a knee-jerk reaction, but the thing is, when I realised John had returned (again), all of those emotions from Josh Klinghoffer’s firing came flooding back. The thing is, I wouldn’t even say that I’m a fan of the band – I really enjoy some of their albums, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to put one of them on – however, I can affirm one thing with certainty: The Getaway was the best thing the band had done since By the Way, and that was with the help of Josh. Yeah, I’m With You sucks, but I put that down to Josh getting a feel for his surroundings before easing himself into the writing process.
So, it goes without saying that I was a little disappointed Josh had been ripped from the band at a pivotal point in his tenure, as we could have potentially seen an incline in untapped potential within the band post The Getaway,…
Hello and welcome back to KILL or KEEP. It has been a while since we partied – sorry! What you’re about to read put a solid four-month roadblock in our way, for reasons that will make sense shortly. It was what the squares and the stooges call a really stupid idea; we at KILL or KEEP HQ do not typically pay this kind of bogwash any mind, but this time around we were victims of our own bravery. Such has always been our fate. Dare you share it? We believe that the following conversation(s) have significant artistic and that you should read them. Please also enjoy them.
The story of our long story is a short one: on a snivellous November day, JesperL (TMZ: late night) and johnnyoftheWell (TMZ: earlyish morning)were laughing about an obscure Japanese indietronica megalodon uncovered on RYM. The album was none other than Heavenly Punk Adagio by Tavito Nanao, a man who begets no introduction because we still know shit all about him.
The genre tags read Indietronica, Singer/Songwriter, Art Pop, Dream Pop, Psychedelic Pop, IDM, Neo-Psychedelia.
The runtime is 153 minutes over 35 tracks.
It isn’t in the Sputnik database and likely never will be.
Hello, and welcome to the second installment in a series of articles observing all things related to the musical past. If you have a suggestion for something you want to see covered in this series, feel free to drop it here.
Video games were always a fun part of my childhood. I remember when I got my first console (the original Nintendo NES) for Christmas sometime in the early 90s, and it was easily one of my favorite presents that I ever received. My family was by no small exaggeration poor, so even as a six year old I knew to temper my expectations when it came to what Santa could fit inside of his bag. Needless to say, the fact that I actually got one blew my mind at the time. Some of my favorite games were Super Mario (1-3), Donkey Kong, and Crystalis (think pre-Zelda for a quick reference to the overall gameplay).
At that age I didn’t think about the music behind the games; it was sort of just there. Now, that classic 8-bit sound is the fastest portal that I can find back to my childhood. It’s a funny feeling listening to songs I have not heard in 25+ years and still knowing them like the back of my hand. Because of the hundreds of hours I spent playing these games, they’re ingrained in my mind, and the music is like a key that unlocks doors to memories I didn’t even know…
Hello and welcome back to our ongoing sexification of Staff past and present and hopefully present-and-future by way of deep-diving casual-reading power-lifting interview posi-sharking antics: Sputnik’s very own Meet the Spartans. Steel yourself as impossible questions are posed and the Staffers you wish you’d had the courage or attention span to acknowledge surpass your wildest expectations.
Today we speak to an old hand, a hand so seasoned and so shrewd that I was frankly at a loss as to where to start with him. How do you attempt to grill an entity for whom your imagination can conceive neither beginning nor end. It’s like interviewing God, but not – for he is no God, just a chill dude who, in his time, has written more reviews than you will ever read and deleted more than you will ever write. His presence still casts a long shadow over the site as we know it today, and so please give a hero’s welcome to: mynameischan!
Channing Freeman. Settle, baby. What’s up, how are you?
Pretty good, thanks for asking. Going through some health issues that are yet to be diagnosed, but we’re getting there.
Yikes, hope that worked out okay! How was your Christmas?
Very quiet and uneventful. We sold our condo and bought a house this year, so presents were light given the amount of money that we’ve been putting into the new property.
What’s the best-received present you’ve ever given?
You’re probably talking about Christmas, but I indulged in the cliche…
Are you a member of Sputnik? Are you also a musician? Drop a message here for a chance to get your name out there to the community!
BACKGROUND
Artist Bio: Black/doom metal from the UK formed in 2013 by Joseph Hawker whom handles all the instrumentation, songwriting, performances, artwork and production (unless otherwise stated!). No live shows. Anti-fascist and angry at the world.
I caught up with Joseph Hawker about his sudden ascent to relevance, the emotional impetus behind his music, and his future as an artist.
In December 2021, your album Trisagion received quite a bit of attention. Not only did it receive a glowing review from our own Kyle Ward, but it also placed #24 on the Staff’s 2021 Top 50 Albums of the Year. In addition to recognition on Sputnik, Trisagion received high praise from many other publications, graced the front page of Rate Your Music, and was even a featured download on iTunes’ metal page. How does it feel to suddenly receive this kind of recognition?
It was honestly very bewildering. ‘Trisagion’ was a record I held onto for a very long time and I felt it could have gone two ways –…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of February 4th of 2022. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: February 4th, 2022 –
A Place To Bury Strangers: See Through You
Genre: Noise Rock / Post Punk Label: Dedstrange
Abysmal Dawn: Nightmare Frontier [EP]
Genre: Black Metal / Death metal Label: Season of Mist
Abhoria: Abhoria
Genre: Black Metal / Death metal Label: Prosthetic
Animal Collective: Time Skiffs
Genre: Experimental Pop Label: Domino Recording Co.
Literally death-god (死神), a Shinigami is a supernatural figure from Japanese mythology. They don’t spark joy and you do not want to meet one. They are the Grim Reaper, but in accordance of the ancient doctrine of thing, but Japanese, somehow better.
…Eyes
In the anime Death Note, the Shinigami have magic eyes that display the exact convenient predetermined time of each individual human’s lovely death like a floaty alarm clock from the future. If they kill someone before they’re destined to die, they get to steal their remaining lifespan. Shinigami are very good at killing humans because they have long nails and magic powers and freaky makeup. They are death gods.
This infodump is important and necessary because it’s the only way anyone will ever be able to extract a fraction of substance from Grimes’ doss of a new single. It is not good and probably kinda bad. There is little to analyse, which suits me just fine. Grimes wastes everything she learnt between Art Angels and Miss Anthropocene as a producer on a cut/paste kick-clap beat that has no opportunity to support a single good hook. She wastes everything she clearly didn’t learn from the “Kill vs. Maim” video’s cyberpunk death dream of definitely cultural probably appropriation on, like, the same shit but with longer nails. And different coloured eyes. The way she delivers the words Shinigami eyes gives me flashbacks to aural readings of My…
While Shinedown’s post-Sound of Madness career has been anything but consistent, they’ve still managed to outlast most of their grunge/rock peers thanks to Brent Smith, who is easily one of the most talented vocalists in the mainstream sector of those genres. His ability to transition from raw, gritty barks to soaring melodic choruses is something special, and for the majority of Shinedown’s existence, it has allowed listeners to overlook some of the band’s other glaring deficiencies.
A lot of folks will be bothered by ‘Planet Zero’s apparently right-winged lyrical content, but the truth is that political affiliation alone doesn’t make a song bad or good. Revealing your political affiliation like a series of low-end YouTube comments, on the other hand, does: [I think we’ve reached the ceiling / They’re canceling your feelings], [Shut the door, say a prayer, kill the lights / Bite your tongue ’cause it might save your life], [Better pray that you’re not erased…On your knees or you’ll be replaced]. It doesn’t take long to realize that they’re criticizing cancel culture, and to be more accurate, beating you over the head with it. You can be for or against these lyrics — that’s your prerogative — but a less meme-worthy set of verses would have gone a long way in establishing ‘Planet Zero’s concept as possessing enough depth to actually convince someone on the other side of the aisle to pay attention. Instead, this just plays out like a poorly thought-out Facebook…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of January 28th of 2022. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: January 28th, 2022 –
Aaron Lewis: Frayed At Both Ends
Genre: Country Label: Big Machine Label Group
Aegrus: The Carnal Temples
Genre: Death Metal, Black Metal Label: Osmose Productions
Alice Glass: PREY//IV
Genre: Pop Label: Eating Glass Records
Amber Mark: Three Dimensions Deep
Genre: Soul/R & B Label: Interscope Records
Amoth: The Hour Of The Wolf
Genre: Heavy Metal Label: Rockshots Records
Anaïs Mitchell: Anaïs Mitchell
Genre: Singer Songwriter Label: BMG
Bad Suns: Apocalypse Whenever
Genre: Pop Rock Label: Epitaph
Beirut: Artifacts
Genre: Folk, Rock, Indie Label: Pompeii Records
Ben McElroy: How I Learnt To Disengage From The Pack
Genre: Folk Label: The Slow Music Movement Label
Celeste: Assassine(s)
Genre: Sludge, Black Metal Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Cloakroom: Dissolution Wave
Genre: Post Hardcore, Shoegaze Label: Relapse Records
Are you a member of Sputnik? Are you also a musician? Drop a message here for a chance to get your name out there to the community!
BACKGROUND
Artist Bio: Domestic Terminal is an indie rock band from Lake Forest, Illinois.
Genres: Indie-Rock, Emo, Alternative Rock
Band Lineup: Tim Hotchkiss: guitars, backing vocals / Jack Mancuso: lead vocals, additional guitars / Kyle Waggoner: bass, keys, backing vocals / Matt Ackman: drums
I caught up with Jack Mancuso and his fellow bandmates to discuss their debut album, their aspirations, and this little corner of the internet we call Sputnikmusic.
Tell us a little bit about the band — what’s the vibe like? Is it chill and laid back, or serious and meditative? Was there a lot of pressure to fashion a representative debut out of I Could See Midnight Sky, or was it treated as more of a sampler plate for ideas to see what worked out the best?
MATT: Out of all the bands I’ve been in, I’ve felt the least amount of pressure in this one. The meditative part of me comes out in the lyrics…
Hell has frozen over, Sputnikmusic has acknowledged singles as a legitimate artform, and Yeule has dropped a song we can dance to. From the comfort of our bedrooms. With or more likely without company. Under whatever concentration of serotonin. All. the. time.
Backed with a jungle beat courtesy of Danny L Harle, “Too Dead Inside” is as close as we’ve heard from Yeule to an upbeat pop song. The comatose dream pop they perfected on 2019’s Serotonin II is vaguely residual here, but it upends that album’s dissociated reverie into a more driving self-confrontation. Shock horror, it’s a dark one: too dead inside is less about getting lost in an apathetic wallow than scrutinising the root of that feeling as a coping mechanism for trauma.
Yeule’s vocals, typically indicative of some kind of digital ghost, take on a more urgent whisper-rap style throughout the verses, but they revert to a more familiar style as they hang every line in the chorus off the end of the one before. It’s like a waterpixelfall of uncertainty, and Yeule’s knack for keeping this kind of fragmentary delivery on personal footing is masterful. They also go above and beyond the call of duty by throwing in a surprise one-off prechorus before the second chorus that just so happens to contain the track’s most critical lyric (It’s not so hollow, I’m chasing […] my own shadow) and its best melody. Digression: count the number of pop-affiliates you’ve heard in the last five years who’ve done anything more with the space after their first chorus than copy/paste the same…
Where did this come from? Bad Omens – once a generic Bring Me the Horizon wannabe band – are set to drop their most ambitious album to date on February 24th; and they are poised to make, dare I say, the best core album in a very long time – if we’re judging The Death of Peace of Mind on its current string of singles. The eclectic spray of styles from this album’s line-up of promotional tracks is both eye-bulgingly impressive and exhilarating to behold. Not only is Noah taking his vocal capabilities to unprecedented levels, the band are taking their talents to new and exciting pastures. This is coming from someone who rolls his eyes at the flaccid state of metalcore, and generally avoids the style like the plague at this point. Nevertheless, I can’t help but feel a sense of overwhelming excitement for this album’s potential and the good it will bring the genre as a whole if they pull it off.
Ironically, this is probably not the best single to showcase on the Sputnik Singles series, as I would consider it to be their weakest track from the four singles released thus far, showcasing the most derivative qualities of the band. However, with all of that said, “Like a Villain” still manages to be a bloody good song in its own right. I would concede that “Like a Villain” rides dangerously close to a BMTH track from the Sempiternal era, but I still think there’s enough…
Hello and welcome back to our ongoing sexification of Staff past and present and hopefully present-and-future by way of deep-diving casual-reading power-lifting interview posi-sharking antics: Sputnik’s very own Meet the Spartans. Steel yourself as impossible questions are posed and the Staffers you wish you’d had the courage or attention span to acknowledge surpass your wildest expectations.
Today we speak with the man with the pan: a gnarled veteran of the features tab and a primary culprit behind the Staff tab’s oversaturation of metal reviews. Is his bite as big as his boil? Please bow your heads and clean your kitchens for: Gnocchi/Nocte!
Hi.
Hi there Mr. _Well
What’s the time?
Ah, 4.44pm. I am sunburnt. The Ashes are on and I’m drinking sparkling shiraz.
Who are you?
It’s hard to pin down exactly. Mostly I just feel like an everyday Aussie who’s life rotates in three’s: work, family and food. “Who I am” seems like a deep dive especially when I’m really no one special, really.
Who are your people?
I have a family, so I guess they have to put up with my shit right? That would make them my people – but mostly I’ve forgotten how to make conversation with people face to face. Sure, I can have a professional conversation, getting things done that pertain to things that need to be done but when it comes down to it, dialogue between people I would make “my people”…awkward silences come easier than most lines.