Well, it’s been an adventurous third quarter around here. Question marks in reviews have been fixed! You can see entire release dates! All album art and images uploaded between November 2017-the Great Power Surge of 2019 have disappeared into the ether, never to return!
As a Loaf of Meat once power balladed: two out of three ain’t bad.
We’re getting geared up for not just the 2019 year-end list (to be published in late December, as is tradition), but the Top 100 Albums of 2010-2019 feature (to be published in… TBD? Probably the tail-end of Q1 2020!).
In the meantime, we have a nice slab o’ tracks from July-September for your listening pleasure, with thanks to Atari, BlushfulHippocrene, DrGonzo1937, insomniac15, Rowan5215, SowingSeason, Voivod, and Willie.
What albums would top your list for this quarter? For all of 2019? For all of 2000-2019? Let us know what we inevitably forgot!
3TEETH – “Pumped Up Kicks” Metawar Listen if you like: Youth Code, Nine Inch Nails, KMFDM
For me, Metawar is easily the most disappointing album of 2019 so far — I can’t emphasise that enough — but the quality speaks for itself when one of the LP’s strongest numbers is a cover of Foster the People’s “Pumped up Kicks”. This is a bloody excellent reinterpretation of Foster the People’s dark and bouncy indie-rock hit, one that shrewdly integrates 3TEETH’s industrial DNA into the piece whilst remaining faithful to the source material. I can’t…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of September 27, 2019. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: September 27, 2019 –
65DAYSOFSTATIC: Replicr
Genre: Post-Rock/Electronic/Math Rock
Label: Superball Music
Acid Reign: The Age Of Entitlement
Genre: Thrash Metal
Label: Dissonance Productions
Out of Brand New’s lauded canon, it’s easy to forget about the red-headed stepson that is Daisy. Everything about the album is just a tad off. It begins and ends with a very out-of-place hymn; the album cover features a demonic looking fox in the middle of a beautiful forest; the band shifts rather abruptly from the broodingly existential emo-rock of The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me to frantically screamed mantras that clash against fiery, grunge-inspired guitars like dueling swords. Even for a band that developed a penchant for reinventing itself with each release, Daisy was…out there. At the time, fans who were spoiled by greatness hailed the album as disappointingly good; a take that has not necessarily aged well. Over the next decade, Daisy‘s legacy would grow considerably as fans began to recognize its unique atmosphere and appreciate the fact that it was going to be – until the unexpected release of Science Fiction in 2017 – Brand New’s final recording.
Ten years later, the whole album still feels crucial. “Vices” is the ideal opener, with the opera-like curve ball of an opening verse serving as a perfect snapshot of Daisy‘s wiry unpredictability, while “Sink” and “Gasoline” prove how grainy and visceral Lacey’s shouts/screams could become in a hopeless emotional vacuum. “You Stole” and “Noro” are still spine-tingling creepers, painting illusions of deception, mystical forests, and hellfire. …
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of September 20, 2019. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: September 20, 2019 –
The Agonist: Orphans
Genre: Metalcore/Melodic Death Metal
Label: Rodeostar Records
As I Lay Dying: Shaped By Fire
Genre: Metalcore/Thrash
Label: Nuclear Blast
blink-182: Nine
Genre: Pop/Punk
Label: Columbia
Brittany Howard: Jamie
Genre: Alternative Rock
Label: ATO
Chastity Belt: Chastity Belt
Genre: Indie-Pop/Rock
Label: Hardly Art
Cult Of Luna: A Dawn To Fear
Genre: Sludge/Post-Metal
Label: Metal Blade
Daedelus: The Bittereinders
Genre: Hip-Hop/Experimental/Electronic
Label: Brainfeeder
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of September 13, 2019. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: September 13, 2019 –
Alex Cameron: Miami Memory
Genre: Indie-Pop/Pop Rock
Label: Secretly Canadian
Alice Cooper: Breadcrumbs
Genre: Hard Rock/Metal
Label: earMUSIC
Being as an Ocean: PROXY: An A.N.I.M.O. Story
Genre: Hardcore/Post-Rock
Label: Being As An Ocean
Belle & Sebastian: Days Of The Bagnold Summer
Genre: Indie-Pop/Folk
Label: Matador
Big Scenic Nowhere: Dying On The Mountain
Genre: Psychedelic/Stoner Rock
Label: Blues Funeral
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of September 6, 2019. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: September 6, 2019 –
Adam Green: Engine of Paradise
Genre: Folk/Indie-Pop
Label: 30th Century
Alessia Cara: This Summer
Genre: Pop/R&B
Label: Def Jam
Barns Courtney: 404
Genre: Indie-Folk/Alternative Rock
Label: Virgin EMI
Bat For Lashes: Lost Girls
Genre: Indie-Pop/Folk
Label: Bat For Lashes
Black Star Riders: Another State of Grace
Genre: Rock
Label: Nuclear Blast
Bonniesongs: Energetic Mind
Genre: Indie-Rock/Alternative
Label: Small Pond
Chrissie Hynde: Valve Bone Woe
Genre: Jazz
Label: BMG
Cognizance: Malignant Dominion
Genre: Death Metal
Label: Prosthetic
Death Cab For Cutie: The Blue {EP}
Genre: Indie-Rock/Emo
Label: Atlantic
Disillusion: The Liberation
Genre: Melodic Death Metal/Progressive
Label: Prophecy
Site update: There was a large power outage in our server cluster. Although only 0.5% of servers were affected, our main web server + associated backup volumes were destroyed.
Thankfully, all text content was saved in another server, so all reviews, ratings, comments, etc. are fully preserved. We did, however, lose images uploaded to the site over the last 1.5 years. Scraping scripts are hard at work trying to recover most of the album art. However, some album art will be non-recoverable and will need to be re-uploaded by users.
Please accept my apologies for the downtime and for the lost images. In the event of a large hardware failure like this, there is unfortunately nothing that could have prevented data loss other than locally archiving copies of uploaded images. That will be done in the future to prevent any future outages.
Thanks for your patience, and please let us know in the forums if any new bugs beyond missing images have popped up.
Kyle Bates is the primary creative force behind the Portland-based experimental lo-fi project Drowse. I say “primary” because Drowse has taken the form of a collaborative space, with Bates as the singularity in the centre. This year, he released Light Mirror, an album highly influenced by his time spent in residency in Iceland. I decided to reach out to Kyle, since he seems pretty cool for a guy named Kyle; and, when it comes to bedroom recording, his intuitions are almost unmatched.
Tristan: You mentioned, at one point, how your newest album Light Mirror “marks the first time [you’ve] been able to translate [your] intention directly into sound” (and not having to struggle with technical hurdles). I have a couple questions: 1. if you had to describe this intention in writing, what would that look like on paper?, and 2. If I assume that the limited resources you had at your disposal during your Iceland residency forced you to be more resourceful, then it’s interesting that you were able to pull this off and not concede to artistic compromises. How do you think it all worked out?
Kyle: When I wrote that I was addressing sonic intention, in terms of lyrical meaning and songwriting Cold Air conveys my intention as well. While recording I am often pushing towards two seemingly polarized extremes: a warm, lo-fi style perfected by bands like Duster, and this clear, detailed way of sculpting sound found in the work of musicians…
All it took was one line to get Marskid (Mitch) all riled up. A cursory, sweeping statement about the lack of innovation in Mitch’s most-loved genre (that’s my assumption anyway) was enough of a reason to shake his fist angrily at me in a Contributor’s group discussion (off-site). Basically, it got us thinking about what actually defines a genre as “dead”, and more importantly how much life (specifically) metalcore has left in it. Rather than dismissing the thought we took our beloved Marskid down the proverbial rabbit-hole and have hesperus (Dean) expand on the points Marskid brings up.
[Nocte] Let’s start with the main question here. Is metalcore dead? To what degree and what are the challenges that bands face when writing new albums?
[Marskid]
I’m quite comfortable in asserting that metalcore is alive and thriving. Obviously, there still lingers an elements of the mainstream sound and djent-centric groups, but their presence has diminished over time due to a lack of innovation on their end, thus leading to their stagnation. In their place are a slew of collectives, both young and old, that are either 1) bringing new ideas to the table, bringing a fresh perspective on the genre over two decades since its formation, or 2) tightening the category’s original sound, perhaps adding a personal touch to it–basically fine-tuning the heart of the musical type but not necessarily pushing it per se. This has elevated the baseline quality of your typical metalcore release as more and more bands shy…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of August 30, 2019. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
If we’re being realistic, I could probably fill about 10 spots on this decade 100 with Dear Hunter songs that I simply adore. That’s how prevalent they’ve been in the rock scene since 2010, with The Color Spectrum marking my introduction to the band in a grand 9 EP, 36 song fashion. Out of all those EPs, I was always partial to Yellow for its overarching pop aesthetic and summer-like warmth. And within that 4 song shell, “Misplaced Devotion” carved a special place out in my mind.
When I think back to 2011, I can’t not start to hum those massive, Coldplay-like woah-oh-oh’s. The whole track has an urgency that isn’t mirrored anywhere else on Yellow, which otherwise possesses a very laid back, tropical sway. The lyrics depict a forbidden relationship and unbridled confidence – two things I could relate to in my early twenties when this track seemed to strike right when I needed it to. Instrumentally, this is a piece that relies on persistent, energetic percussion; otherwise, it’s very much a vocal-centric effort that lives and dies by the strength of the melody. But just as with many DH songs, the melody is the best part and deserves to be highlighted.
More than anything, “Misplaced Devotion” is just one of those earworms that even after a decade I can’t seem to shake. Whenever I parse these 36 songs into a more manageable playlist for practical reasons, this song is the first…
State Faults is a band that hardly needs any introduction on this site. Coming off of a 6-year hiatus, they’ve received universal acclaim for their newest album, Clairvoyant. Lead singer and guitarist Johnny Calvert-Andrew was kind enough to correspond with me about their comeback. Enjoy, y’all.
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of August 23, 2019. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: August 23, 2019 –
Alexander Tucker: Guild of the Asbestos Weaver
Genre: Folk/Psychedelic
Label: Thrill Jockey
“Open” is an anxiety attack in a song. The lush piano notes rise and fall gently, subtly building to a gorgeous but understated chorus: “potentially lovely, perpetually human, suspended and open.” It’s a song about vulnerability; being suspended in time and exposed to all of the wonderful – and terrible – things in life. After a flourishing refrain halfway through, the song starts trending dark rather quickly. Spektor starts gasping as if she’s struggling for air, evoking this deeply unsettling feeling that could only be likened to claustrophobia or drowning. She has the vocal power to rein in her gasps and start singing again seconds later, and – no pun intended – it’s breathtaking. The lyrical content also takes a turn from poetic (“In the night, the snow starts falling / And everybody stares, through their windows at the streetlights / Too beautiful to see”) to descriptions of feeling isolated and trapped: “I am in a room I’ve built myself / Four straight walls / One floor, one ceiling.” The song ends on a note of uncertainty, with verses like “Day after day I wake up feeling, feeling…” and “Open up your eyes, and then…”. The entire track builds up to this release that never occurs, it just leaves you suspended with an uneasy/panicked sensation — it’s not necessarily something I want to feel, but this song brings it out in me like no others can.
Spektor is renowned for her endearing quirks, and while…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of August 16, 2019. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: August 16, 2019 –
Abram Shook: The Neon Machine
Genre: Electronic/Indie-Rock
Label: Western Vinyl
Black Mekon: Destroy Nostalgia
Genre: Blues/Noise Rock
Label: PNKSLM
![The Age of Entitlement [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81psRVu4AbL._SS500_.jpg)
![War In My Mind [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81AECPl3UcL._SS500_.jpg)
![The Talkies [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/A1fAk+jbVtL._SS500_.jpg)
![Jaime [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/7192rr6DiAL._SS500_.jpg)
![Miami Memory [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/916SiXxOLEL._SS500_.jpg)
![PROXY: An A.N.I.M.O. Story [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81pO9TSysHL._SS500_.jpg)
![Oh Uncertainty! A Universe Despairs [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71e+OG7vj5L._SS500_.jpg)
![Charli [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/915ashLHq1L._SS500_.jpg)
![Pollinator [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81-TM1k9jCL._SS500_.jpg)
![404 [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81IEuTd3rsL._SS500_.jpg)
![GINGER [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/815mzHS2A-L._SS500_.jpg)
![Television [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/A11LM1-evbL._SS500_.jpg)
![Renegades [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/A14PTutymdL._SS500_.jpg)
![Nobody's Happy. [Explicit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81rovUWvUsL._SS500_.jpg)
