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By Nocte
Wednesday May 19, 2021
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Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of May 21st, 2021. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: May 21, 2021 –
Acausal Intrusion: Nulitas
Genre: Avant Garde Death Metal
Label: I, Voidhanger
An Autumn For Crippled Children: As The Morning Dawns We Close Our Eyes
Genre: Post Metal, Shoegaze, Black Metal
Label: Prosthetic Records
Amorphis: Live At Helsinki Ice Hall
Genre: Progressive Metal
Label: Nuclear Blast
Borgne: Temps Morts
Genre: Avant Garde Black Metal
Label: Les Acteurs de l’Ombre Productions
Blake Shelton: Body Language
Genre: Country
Label: Warner Music
CHAI: Wink
Genre: Punk Pop
Label: Sub Pop
Colleen: The Tunnel And The Clearing
Genre: Electronic
Label: Thrill Jockey Records
Counting Crows: Butter Miracle Suite One
Genre: Rock
Label: BMG
Dayglow: Harmony House
Genre: Indie Rock
Label: Very Nice Records
Esoctrilihum: Dy’th Requiem For The Serpent Telepath
Genre: Black Metal/Cthulhu
Label: I, Voidhanger
Fly Pan Am: Frontera
Genre: Noise
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of May 14th, 2021. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: May 14, 2021 –
Bala: Maleza
Genre: Stoner / Punk
Label: Century Media
The Black Keys: Delta Kream
Genre: Indie rock
Label: Warner
Cadaveric Incubator: Nightmare Necropolis
Genre: Death Metal / Grindcore
Label: Hells Headbangers
Cake Pop: Cake Pop 2
Genre: See above
Label: Mad Decent
Caliban: Zeitgeister [EP]
Genre: Metalcore
Label: Century Media
Canvas Solaris: Chromosphere
Genre: Instrumental / Progressive metal
Label: Tribunal Records
The Chills: Scatterbrain
Genre: Indie rock / Dream pop
Label: Fire Records
Current Joys: Voyager
Genre: Singer Songwriter / New wave
Label: Secretly Canadian
Damien Jurado: The Monster Who Hated Pennsylvania
Genre: Singer Songwriter / Americana
Label: Maraqopa Records
Djevel: Tanker Som Rir Natten
Genre: Black metal
Label: Aftermath
Dødsferd: Skotos [EP]
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
Label: Transcending Obscurity
KILL or KEEP Vol.3
Carly Rae Jepsen – Emotion
Welcome back once again to KILL or KEEP, where we take a classic album that everyone knows but not everyone loves, and run it through a set of users with conflicting takes. They will jam the album for public entertainment and post their hot takes for all to see.
Except this time it is different.
It is time for change. It is time for an album that, perhaps, everyone does love. The last two installments in the series were directed at bloated capital–penis-shaped–M Masterpieces by men with huge egos and poor evaluations of the limitations of their talents.
This must be the opposite.
We will examine a female songwriter whose attention is entirely occupied with relatable subject matter, whose songwriting models is excessive in its leanness, whose sound has been diluted to the perfect vanilla average by wave upon wave of unseen collaborators. We turn now to true greatness. It is time for Carly Rey Jepsen.
Carly Rae Jepsen
Some would say that it is always time for Carly Rae Jepsen; we respectfully counter that now is the time for specifically KILLing and KEEPing her lauded sugaropus Emotion, by which we mean both Side A and Side B. That’s 20 tracks: primo K/K territory (but no bonus tracks because we don’t have that time)!
We have read…
Manchester Orchestra – The Million Masks of God
The Million Masks of God came at the perfect time. Overall, the record’s musicianship is as tight as ever, Andy Hull is at his most ambitious, and the overall songwriting is possibly the best it’s ever been in a Manchester Orchestra album. However, it’s the album’s themes – the feeling of grief and guilt, emotional and spiritual crises, the moment where you lose a loved one – that make this album so great. Just about everyone can relate to this album in some way. I’m not saying that hypothetically of course; just about all of us here has had to deal with some horrible experience over the course of a year, including me. 2020 was a fucking horrendous year, it was depressing, traumatic, and incredibly scary. Yet at the same time, The Million Masks of God isn’t an album that reflects on those horrible experiences, it doesn’t toy with or exploit your emotions in that way. If anything, it’s more of an acceptance to what happened – that in spite of all the shit that we’ve gone through, it’ll all be okay. It’s hopeful, optimistic, and at times, happy, and right now, I think all of us could use a bit of that in our lives. We’ve been stuck at home, grieved and cried for far too long. It’s unsure when all of it will end, but it will at some point, and…
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By Nocte
Tuesday May 4, 2021
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Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of May 7th, 2021. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: May 7, 2021 –
Artillery – X
Genre: Thrash
Label: Metal Blade
Candlemass – Green Valley [Live]
Genre: Doom
Label: Peaceville
Ereb Altor – Eldens Boning
Genre: Viking Metal
Label: Hammerheart
Feed Them Death – Negative
Genre: Death/Grind
Label: Brucia Records
Ghost Iris – Comatose
Genre: Metalcore
Label: Long Branch
Grey Aura – Zwart Vierkant
Genre: Post/Black Metal
Label: Onism Productions
Inferno – Paradeigma (Phosphenes Of Aphotic Eternity)
Genre: Black Metal
Label: Debemur Morti Productions
Iceage: Seek Shelter
Genre: Punk Rock
Label: Crunchy Tunes
Jack Ingram, Miranda Lambert & Jon Randall – The Marfa Tapes
Genre: Country
Label:
Kataan – Kataan
Genre: Black/Death Metal
Label: Prosthetic
Methadone Skies – Retrofuture Caveman
Genre: Doom/Post Rock
Label: Haywire Records
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones – When God Was Great
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of April 30th, 2021. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: April 30, 2021 –
Amy Shark: Cry Forever
Genre: Indie folk
Label: Wonderlick Entertainment
Ashley Monroe: Rosegold
Genre: Pop
Label: Mountainrose Sparrow
Axewitch: Out Of The Ashes Into the Fire
Genre: Heavy Metal
Label: Pure Steel Records
Beachy Head: Beachy Head
Genre: Shoegaze
Label: Graveface Records
Birdy: Young Heart
Genre: Singer Songwriter
Label: Atlantic Records
Bowerbirds: Becalmyounglovers
Genre: Indie Folk
Label: Psychic Hotline
Dawn Richard: Second Line: An Electro Revival
Genre: EDM / Dance
Label: Merge Records
Del Amitri: Fatal Mistakes
Genre: Alternative rock
Label: Cooking Vinyl
Devoured: The Curse of Sabda Palon
Genre: Death metal / Black metal
Label: Sadist Records
Domkraft: Seeds
Genre: Doom / Sludge / Kraut rock
Label: Magnetic Eye
Dropkick Murphies: Turn Up That Dial
Genre: Punk
Label: Self Released
Evile: Hell Unleashed
Genre: Thrash metal
Label: Napalm Records
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By Sowing
Thursday April 22, 2021
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I guess modern problems require modern solutions.
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, so many bands have struggled to make ends meet. Without the ability to perform live, they’ve turned to platforms like Patreon to build a subscription-based fandom. Another more frequent occurrence is recording and streaming live shows. Even then, without the energy of the crowd, it’s nearly impossible to replicate the level of excitement that folks go into such an experience seeking. It’s not an easy time to be an artist – but in spite of the challenges, most of them are persevering. It’s a testament to the passion and dedication they pour into their work. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
One band still finding a way is Manchester Orchestra. As one of indie-rock’s more well-known acts, they’ve released five LPs to date including the wildly popular Mean Everything to Nothing and the sleek/grandiose Simple Math – but perhaps none were better than A Black Mile to the Surface, their 2017 emotional magnum opus. Manchester Orchestra Presents: A Black Mile To The Surface (The Concert Film) serves three different purposes. The first is to provide longtime fans with a glimmer of hope during dark times through a live adaptation of Black Mile in its entirety. Secondly, it is to usher out the Black Mile era in a special, memorable way befitting of the four years that fans spent both enjoying it and healing with it. Finally, it teases the release of…
KILL or KEEP Vol.2
Nine Inch Nails – The Fragile
Welcome back to this series, where we take a classic album that everyone knows but not everyone loves, and run it through a set of users with conflicting takes. They will jam the album for public entertainment and post their hot takes for all to see.
The rules are simple: for each track, our valiant competitors must give one of two verdicts: KILL or KEEP. To give things a trademark Sputnikmusic positive spin, each user must KEEP at least two tracks. To keep things alive, they must KILL at least one.
Our competitors today are: MiloRuggles, Pheromone, DivergentThinking, johnnyoftheWell and Nocte.
That’s a lot of bois for one album, but if you’re worried that things were getting cramped, we chose thise one for legroom: our target is Nine Inch Nails’ very famous double-album statement landmark The Fragile. It came out in 1999, which is a long time ago (this year is 2021). Since then, mastermind Trent Reznor has been ripped off by a load of godawful bands and turned his primary career instincts towards OSTs for people with leather sofas. Fascinating stuff! Just what will this megascoop uncover? Let’s delve!
Starting Impressions
Each user, please briefly explain your feelings on the album going in, and what you hope to achieve here? Do you want…
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By Nocte
Tuesday April 20, 2021
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Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of April 23rd, 2021. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: April 23, 2021 –
Alan Vega: Mutator [Posthumous release]
Genre: Rock
Label: Sacred Bones
Alfa Mist: Bring Backs
Genre: Jazz/Hip Hop
Label: ANTI-
Altarage: Succumb
Genre: Extreme Metal
Label: Season Of Mist
Aphonic Threnody: The All Consuming Void
Genre: Funeral Doom Metal/Death
Label: Transcending Obscurity
Art d’Ecco: In Standard Definition
Genre: Rock
Label: Paper Bag Records
Blackbriar: The Cause Of Shipwreck
Genre: Metal/Gothic
Label: Independent
Bodom After Midnight: Paint The Sky With Blood
Genre: Melodic Death Metal
Label: Napalm Records
Body Void: Bury Me Beneath This Rotting Earth
Genre: Doom/Drone/Punk
Label: Prosthetic Records
Big Brave: Vital
Genre: Experimental
Label: Southern Lord
Cold Cell: The Greater Evil
Genre: Black Metal
Label: Les Acteurs de l’Ombre Productions
Crypts Of Despair: All Light Swallowed
Genre: Death Metal
Label:…
Kompys2000 is a mystery, a connoisseur, a shrewd cookie, and an always-welcome voice of reason.
Welcome to their Digbox!
As is custom for this series, list is, in fact, digs. No real theme or throughline, I don’t have the mental capacity to get cute about it right now. Tried to cover a good variety of sounds and styles so hopefully there’s something here for everyone. Also tried to keep things at least nominally “obscure”, if for no other reason than because I spend quite enough time already writing about music everyone has heard a million times. Here we go!
[“Digbox” – reimagined by SandwichBubble, 2021]
#1: Car Seat Headrest- Hey, Space Cadet (Beast Monster Thing in Space)
At this point, it seems your Dream Ons and November Rains and Champagne Supernovas are destined to become relics of a time when the music industry was willing to pour a lot more money and/or cocaine into guitar music… but that doesn’t mean there’s no one still trying. “Hey, Space Cadet” is a stadium-rock anthem for an era where bands have to record albums in their bedrooms and most of the fans will only ever hear those albums in their bedrooms. It’s a climactic, adrenaline-fueled victory lap squeezed into the confines of a shabby studio apartment, and it is glorious. As it turns out, a songwriter as erudite and discursive as Will Toledo can be…
KILL or KEEP Vol.1
Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
Welcome to this series, where we take a classic album that everyone knows but not everyone loves, and run it through a set of users with conflicting takes. They will jam the album for public entertainment and post their hot takes for all to say.
The rules are simple: for each track, our valiant competitors must give one of two verdicts: KILL or KEEP. To give things a trademark Sputnikmusic positive spin, each user must KEEP at least two tracks. To keep things alive, they must KILL at least one.
Our competitors today are: Pheromone, DivergentThinking and johnnyoftheWell. The album is none other than Smashing Pumpkins megaopus ‘90s-affirming double-album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. How well does this album hold up? Is it a timeless classic or an overworked sack of hot air? Let’s find out!
Starting Impressions
Each user, please briefly explain your feelings on the album going in, and what you hope to achieve here? Do you want to KILL/KEEP as much as possible? Or is this just about trimming some fat?
Pheromone: Hello fan, I anticipate a more negative vibe than my rating. It’s been years since I’ve craved any Smashing Pumpkins not named “Mayonaise”. I expect to still super love some of the songs but I’d be surprised if out…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of April 16th, 2021. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: April 16, 2021 –
The Armed: ULTRAPOP
Genre: Punk / Post hardcore
Label: Sargent House
Autogramm: No Rules
Genre: New Wave
Label: Nevado Music
Bewitcher: Cursed Be Thy Kingdom
Genre: Black metal / Heavy metal
Label: Iron Grip Records
Bongzilla: Weedsconsin
Genre: Doom / Sludge
Label: Heavy Psych Sounds Records
Born Ruffians: PULP
Genre: Pop punk
Label: Yep Roc Records
Cannibal Corpse: Violence Unimagined
Genre: Death metal
Label: Metal Blade
Endseeker: Mount Carcass
Genre: Death metal
Label: Metal Blade
Eomac: Cracks
Genre: Electronic / Bass / Techno
Label: Planet Mu
Escape The Fate: Chemical Warfare
Genre: Metalcore
Label: Better Noise Music
Greta Van Fleet: The Battle At Garden’s Gate
Genre: Hard rock
Label: Lava / Republic Records
Hail the Sun: New Age Filth
Genre: Post…
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By Nocte
Monday April 5, 2021
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Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of April 9th, 2021. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: April 9, 2021 –
Arabrot: Norwegian Gothic
Genre: Alt rock / Grunge / New Wave
Label: Pelagic Records
Balmorhea: The Wind
Genre: Post rock / Modern Classical
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Brockhampton: Roadrunner: New Light New Machine
Genre: Hip Hop
Label: Question Everything / RCA Records
CFCF: Memoryland
Genre: Electronic
Label: Plancha
Cheap Trick: In Another World
Genre: Hard rock
Label: BMG
Devil Sold His Soul: Loss
Genre: Metalcore
Label: Nuclear Blast
Endgame: Surrender
Genre: Electronic
Label: Precious Metals
Flyte: This Is Really Going To Hurt
Genre: Indie Rock
Label: Island Records
Horndal: Lake Drinker
Genre: Death Metal
Label: Prosthetic Records
Kauan: Ice Fleet
Genre: Doom / Progressive Rock
Label: Artoffact Records
London Grammar: Californian Soil
Post-mortem: We Are Chaos
Marilyn Manson’s career has been an eventful one, there’s no denying that, but what I find particularly interesting is how he manages to find reinvention at the most crucial moments – to the point where it’s as if he knows his relevance is on the guillotine. It’s no secret that he’s had a lot of ups and downs in his three decades of making music. The man fluctuates between two personas: a profound prophet, and a lowbrow, brainless jester – admittedly donning the latter more than the former – and I’m convinced he’s completely self-aware of these two personalities. The bit that makes him so fascinating and by association enduring, is that just when you’re about to write him off for good, slipping on the banana peel for the umpteenth time, landing firmly on his face and writhing around on the floor with a pathetic desperation, he somehow manages to bounce back stronger than before. At this point I just account this rare pattern of events to be Manson’s Thing. Seldom do you see an artist rebound like this guy does.
By the turn of the ‘10s, I had at this point long accepted that Marilyn Manson was over the hill – he wrote a timeless and classic trilogy of albums and proceeded those works with a decade of solid-to-average follow-ups for the LOLs. To be honest, this story is an age-old one for a vast majority of bands, but then…
Arab Strap – As Days Get Dark
Rarely in Sput’s illustrious history has the Album of the Month been this closely contested. While some recent favourites such as Krallice’s supposedly “listenable” Demonic Wealth were blown aside with the weight of a brief fart, albums such as Dvne’s Etemen Ænka stood strong, beat only by the sheer magnitude of quality on this album of the decade contender. Okay…
“Meanwhile, at a bar, a Drunkard muses“ is a Strap song penned on 2003’s A Monday at the Hug & Pint – it’s a cracking song, on one of their best albums, but it’s also a powerfully symbolic title representative of that confessional blend of post-rock and slowcore that is so uniquely theirs. Over the course of their career, frontman Aidan Moffat has mastered the art of such musings, forming a collection of legitimate poetry like a laureate of Sunday’s spent hungover reminiscing of the night before in brief flashes. Tales of lost-love, shags, infidelity, booze, boredom and the mundane beauty of a head in the gutter – at times these are hilarious, at times they’re jarringly honest in recollection. Eighteen years separate As Days Grow Dark from that one, sixteen since the last Arab Strap release. Make no mistake, their return was never a given. It was evident that the duo had grown unsure in their output. Making a step braver than many artists unfortunately take, the duo placed their art on hold, taking…
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