2017 was a solid year for epic doom metal, with some of the best releases of the last few years arriving in the form of Below’s Upon a Pale Horse, Doomocracy’s Visions & Creatures of Imagination, and Arduini/Balich’s Dawn of Ages. However, if I had to choose just one album that I will be listening to 10 years from now, it would be The Crowning of the Fire King. After disbanding in 1992, Sorcerer acquired a cult status, which their 2015 LP In the Shadow of the Inverted Cross further augmented. Drawing influences from acts such as Candlemass, Solitude Aeturnus, and Martin-era Sabbath, the The Crowning of the Fire King is a continuation of the band’s debut with a slightly more modern production. Those who enjoy traditional ’80s metal will love the Swedish outfit’s sophomore effort, as the combination of epic songwriting and convincing atmosphere is enhanced by an array of amazing guitar leads, solos, and one of the best vocalists in metal today. All in all, Sorcerer might have only two albums under their belt, but in my book, they are one of the best epic doom metal acts of all time. –manosg
**Click the Arrow on the top left of the player for songs from 40 – 31**
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40. In the Nursery – 1961
Post Rock/Classical/Ambient // ITN Corporation
In The Nursery have been around since the early 80s and have gone through a number of style changes without ever losing sight of their original formula. That formula is basically percussion-laden classically-influenced music. 1961 is significant because it marks yet another stylistic adjustment, and it might just be their biggest yet. This time In The Nursery have added rock elements to their classical sound, and it basically makes the album sound like a very symphonic post rock album with occasional vocals. In the Nursery have never really released a bad album, and this one isn’t bad either. Every change they’ve ever made has been great and the rock influence on 1961 is no different. The song on the video doesn’t really do the album justice, but it was literally the only video I could find for the album.
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39. Cyanotic – Tech Noir
Industrial // Glitch Mode Recordings
I’m a big fan of Cyanotic’s brand of industrial metal. A lot of industrial bands that feature guitar riffs tend to get real lazy with the programming and electronics, but Cyanotic never have. I guess that’s why they can pull off an album like Tech Noir.Tech Noir drops almost all…
I want to briefly talk about U2. They have a new album out this week, Songs of Experience, which Rowan described as ‘an Apple-funded gimmick to appeal to the poetry-loving college crowd.’ It’s ostensibly a companion to 2013’s Songs of Innocence, and it’s bad. Not offensively bad (not that U2 ever have been offensive, moreso bland and boring, spiritless and soulless, pedestrian and ponderous), but bad enough to warrant derision and mockery. What is it exactly that Bono stands for when he sings ‘I can help you, but it’s your fight,’ when we all know that he hides money in tax havens and has powerful friends compromise editorial integrity for him? I don’t know. For the record, “Get Out of Your Own Way,” the song that line comes from, isn’t completely awful, and could well have been successful had it not been compressed so heavily and recorded by a band with more clout and pertinence than U2. But the entire album is so completely diluted with the sentiment of nothingness that you can’t help but feel as if everything is painfully familiar; lyrically and thematically, its anti-Trump vitriol is obvious and well plundered; musically, it’s repetitive, blase, samey, and unoriginal. This was the band that wrote Achtung Baby, criticized the technocratic revolution, and then preceded to redefine the frightening implications of digital distribution. Nowadays, I would rather listen to The Killers. So, to simplify, it’s what we would otherwise expect from a new U2 album. But, perhaps most bizarrely, Songs for…
Repeat this with me until it sinks in: there’s a new Glassjaw album. It’s written, it’s recorded, it will quite possibly release on schedule, and we’re (probably) not all collectively dreaming. Two songs have now been released, and contrary to instinct and logic, they also actually do exist. I know, right?
Why am I doing this bit? Basically, it’s been a long time since we heard from Glassjaw: the band’s unique brew of satanic label nemeses, persistent health issues, and ironclad dedication to not talk to their fans if at all possible has left us holding hands across forums. A new Glassjaw full-length has been the Detox of the post-hardcore world for 15 years, and unlike that hip-hop myth told of only in whispers, Material Control is both real and also probably actually good. But if you’re planning on going into the new one blind, I’d take a second to reconsider; Glassjaw’s evolution over the years has been a fascinating one, and even at their most scattershot, their discography feels surprisingly like a complete package.
The early years and Silence – The story starts in the early 90s with the dissolution of straight-edge Jewish post-hardcore icons Sons of Abraham, of which Justin Beck and Todd Weinstock were both members. Glassjaw’s earliest incarnation, featured in demos only worth tracking down for the truly completist fan, sounds like a scrappy punk band made of your high school friends with a local legend/possible serial killer wailing over the top. It’s rough, but we…
Thousands upon thousands of albums, EPs, mixtapes, compilations, and songs are released weekly. You might not be aware of the existence of 99% of those releases, but they’re there. So when each song released to the public is simply a drop in a pool that dwarfs even the Pacific Ocean, it can be hard to navigate the current music scene: it’s always moving and impossible to keep up with its speed. That’s where Share Some Singles comes into the picture. This series was formed to highlight songs released in 2017 that might not have been discovered by other listeners otherwise. I, alongside other Sputnikmusic users, have pulled together dozens of singles released in the recent past that we felt needed to be heard by the world. Or at least the Sputnik reader base.
Artists are listed in alphabetical order with corresponding YouTube, Soundcloud, and/or Bandcamp links (click on the song title to open a new tab). A Spotify playlist is also embedded below if the singles are available through that service. Enjoy! –wtferrothorn
What do you know about beauty? Alex Cameron and Angel Olsen have a deep knowledge of it, that’s for sure. This is as tender and gorgeous as one could ever want a duet to be. In the short 4 minutes of runtime,…
Slowdive, in my opinion, are perhaps one of the premier shoegazers of the initial wave of the genre. Recording one of the landmarks with 1993’s Souvlaki and following it up with the radically different Pygmalion, Slowdive have cemented themselves as one of the giants of the effects-obsessed artform. Sometimes drifting in between heavenly dream pop bliss with cuts such as “Machine Gun” and the Eno-produced duo “Sing” and “Here She Comes”, to the abstract ambiance that permeated all of 1995’s Pygmalion, Slowdive can easily be not only the definitive entry-point to any curious onlooker, but the ultimate crossover from more conventional rock music to the incredibly diverse/divisive shoegazing genre.
In consideration to the amount of time I’ve spent listening to Slowdive – a whopping thirteen months (according to my last.fm: about 407 plays as of this writing; since Oct. 31st of 2016), I’ve still found myself somewhat overwhelmed with the near-abrupt shifts in their repertoire from album to album, although their catalogue is rather minuscule and far more accessible than some of their other contemporaries. Plus, they have the benefit of not promising an album to their fanbase, then pulling off the most drawn out disappearing act on them over a course of two decades, so Slowdive already have their priorities straightened out quite nicely.
This guide, in keeping with the recently established tradition I’ve forced upon myself (and will most likely alter in future iterations), will give a streamlined overview of the band’s works, along with a sampler that will hopefully guide…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of November 10, 2017. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors. As our staff post reviews of these albums, links will appear below the art work so that you can read about the release, see how we scored it, and more.
— Album of the Week —
Toothgrinder: Phantom Amour
Genre: Modern Prog // Label: Spinefarm
Background:
This is going to shock longtime fans. Toothgrinder started out as one of those modern prog bands specializing in chaos, noise, and aggression with occasional moments of clean singing and melody. On Phantom Amour the chaos and noise has been replaced by lush atmosphere, and most the aggression has been replaced by the clean singing and melody. The most similar sonic shift that comes to mind is the change between Gabriel and Transhuman — in fact, this and Transhuman have a lot in common. Throughout its runtime, Phantom Amour delivers a moody, melodic blend of modern prog, alternative rock, and even a little psychedelia. Check out Phantom Amour‘s title track below.
Since its launch in January 2005, Sputnikmusic has been a site where metal heads and indie-rockers alike have flocked to discuss, review, and share their love for music. Over the course of twelve years, some records have attained a certain sense of lore; this widespread recognition as what we often refer to as “sputnik albums.” These are albums that thousands of users have listened to and rated over the course of a decade, with the general consensus being that, even compared to annual best-of lists, have stood the test of time and earned elite recognition.
The Sputnik Hall of Fame works like this: beginning in 2017, we will evaluate the class of albums that is celebrating exactly ten years of existence. So this article is about the class of 2007. A site-wide vote was held over the course of several weeks to determine which releases would be forever enshrined into the annals of Sputnikmusic history. There are two classes of inductees: first tier and second tier. First tier hall-of-famers were within the top 3 receiving votes, while second tier hall-of-famers were within the top 6 of vote acquisitions. Our staffers worked together to celebrate and reflect upon each album via free-form discussions and debate.
Without further ado, we present to you the first ever class of inductees. Read below for the top tier.
Since its launch in January 2005, Sputnikmusic has been a site where metal heads and indie-rockers alike have flocked to discuss, review, and share their love for music. Over the course of twelve years, some records have attained a certain sense of lore; this widespread recognition as what we often refer to as “sputnik albums.” These are albums that thousands of users have listened to and rated over the course of a decade, with the general consensus being that, even compared to annual best-of lists, have stood the test of time and earned elite recognition.
The Sputnik Hall of Fame works like this: beginning in 2017, we will evaluate the class of albums that is celebrating exactly ten years of existence. So this article is about the class of 2007. A site-wide vote was held over the course of several weeks to determine which releases would be forever enshrined into the annals of Sputnikmusic history. There are two classes of inductees: first tier and second tier. First tier hall-of-famers were within the top 3 receiving votes, while second tier hall-of-famers were within the top 6 of vote acquisitions. Our staffers worked together to celebrate and reflect upon each album via free-form discussions and debate.
Without further ado, we present to you the first ever class of inductees. Read below for the second tier winners.
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of November 3, 2017. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors. As our staff post reviews of these albums, links will appear below the art work so that you can read about the release, see how we scored it, and more.
Converge: The Dusk In Us
Genre: Metalcore/Hardcore/Punk // Label: Epitaph
Background:
It’s been five years since we’ve had new Converge, and the kings of hardcore are back to follow up their acclaimed eighth LP All We Love We Leave Behind. A band like this requires no introduction; they’ve long dominated their particular scene and The Dusk In Us will only continue to grow their legacy. For a hint of things to come later this week when the album officially drops, stream the lyric video for ‘Under Duress’ below:
“Under Duress”:
– Full List of Releases: November 3, 2017 –
Adimiron: Et Liber Eris
Genre: Death/Progressive Metal // Label: Indie Recordings
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Annihilator: For The Demented
Genre: Thrash/Progressive Metal // Label: Neverland Music
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Anti-Flag: American Fall
Genre: Punk/Hardcore // Label: Spinefarm
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AUTOBAHN: The Moral Crossing
Genre: Alternative Rock/Post-Punk // Label: felte
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Beast In Black: Berserker
Genre: Power Metal // Label: Nuclear…
Hello lovers of album art, and welcome to a quick post dedicated to distorting them. Using a model (deepdream) by our favorite overlords, google, and code from a really great tutorial, I have generated some (what I guess I will call) “surrealed” images. Enjoy.
Generally I work in R for the stuff I do here, but in this case used another, even more popular computing language, python. Python is a much more general purpose computing language than R (it currently powers reddit as well as a whole host of other websites and projects). Like R, it is free, and unlike R, google wrote their “deepdream” code in python and made their model to interact with python.
(Install Instructions: To install python, I recommend downloading Anaconda with this tutorial as a guide. It downloads python, as well as many popular packages, and gives you an easy way to install packages. Unfortunately, it is a fairly large download (>300 mb’s). After install you will need to install multiple packages. You can install most, and probably all of them if you open a “command prompt” and type this in the command line
Many of those will be part of the Anaconda, but just in case, run the line. Once Anaconda is installed, you can run the IDE packaged with it, spyder, and run the code from my script, found here.)
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of October 27, 2017. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors. As our staff post reviews of these albums, links will appear below the art work so that you can read about the release, see how we scored it, and more.
Ne Obliviscaris: Urn
Genre: Progressive/Black Metal/Death Metal // Label: Season of Mist
Background:
I’m not going to lie, I’m probably not the person to actually be writing on this. I liked the first two tracks from their debut and barely even bothered with their sophomore release because I kind of felt that it was a step backwards and didn’t really build on any of the debut’s potential. But Urn… this finally builds on the debut’s potential. Yes, the vocals are still kind of nasally and off-key, but when it comes to the music and songwriting, they’re finally getting it. The songs are more memorable and their blend of black, death, and prog is finally gelling into a cohesive unit. Also, the songs themselves don’t seem to meander all over the place like they used to on previous albums. Definitely something fans should check out, but Urn is even something people that blew off their previous two releases might actually enjoy.
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of October 20, 2017. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors. As our staff post reviews of these albums, links will appear below the art work so that you can read about the release, see how we scored it, and more.
– Full List of Releases: October 20, 2017 –
Amenra: Mass VI
Genre: Post/Sludge Metal // Label: Neurot Recordings
Soundtracks have always played a big role in my enjoyment of music. Often I find myself paying more attention to the various melodies in the background of whatever film is playing, imagining how the soundtrack’s producers decided to match certain moods with specific frames. I don’t know, it’s just fascinating to me. I watch a lot of indie-romances and stuff that the average guy actively avoids, but one thing that frustrates me is that even in the so-called indie flicks, they always seem to draw from the same pool of hip artists. I guess I was just tired of hearing the same types of scenes matched up with the same types of musicians, every time. It’s like they’re getting lazy; either that or they all just want to emulate successful indie soundtracks of the past without actually attempting to go through the requisite discovery of unknown artists that makes an indie soundtrack worth exploring. I wanted something that would make me feel like Garden State did when I first heard it, before I knew of The Shins, Remy Zero, or Nick Drake — but that was a long time ago, and my musical depth and breadth has more than tripled. I needed outside help to dig a little deeper.
So when I did my brief little rec competition (thanks to everyone who offered a song!), I was trying to fashion a “sputnik indie-flick romantic comedy” type of soundtrack that would (1) turn myself…
Book Of Opeth presents a brief synopsis of the band’s earliest history all the way to present day. While interesting and beautifully crafted, Book Of Opeth rarely gets too in-depth, and leaves some lingering questions in the process.
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Has Opeth really been around for over twenty-five years? It really doesn’t feel like it has been that long. I still remember being a little kid and hearing “Demon of the Fall” on the radio for the first time, and immediately skate boarding down to Lou’s Records to buy the CD. It obviously wasn’t the first time I had ever heard death metal and clean singing on the same song (Fear Factory had been doing it for awhile by 1998), but it was executed so much better and the musicianship was leaps-and-bounds more advanced. Also, acoustic guitars were such a novel idea (at the time) for music so intense. With the radio playing “Demon Of the Fall” fairly regularly, there was a lot of hype around my hometown of San Diego, California — but apparently we were the exception. One of the things I learned while reading this book was the band was totally broke during this era and scrounging money together to pay for canned meat and cigarettes. While kind of a cool little fact, it is unfortunately about as juicy as Book of Opeth gets. That doesn’t mean it’s not…
![For The Demented [Explicit]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61TwArmhrVL._SS500.jpg)
![American Fall [Explicit]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61NeAGjAbSL._SS500.jpg)
![Berserker [Explicit]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61KHbMTnKSL._SS500.jpg)
