With the recent announcement of Linkin Park’s return, there has been heated debate on whether Mike Shinoda should have brought the band back after Chester Bennington’s untimely death in 2017. I fall on the side of fervently abhorring the decision, and as the weeks have trickled past since their proclamation of return, it’s got me thinking about a few things, most prominently: what makes a band? So folks, not a single person has asked for it, but this is something that has been passionately eating away at me since it was announced, so you’re getting pinned down like Alex from A Clockwork Orange and having my two-cents shovelled into your mouth, whether you agree with it or not.
What is a band?
Before I talk about The Linkin Park Conundrum, I want to take it back a bit and define what a band is. The most elemental description of a band is a group of like-minded individuals – typically friends starting out – who want to make music they enjoy listening to. It’s a collection of individuals who come together with the common interest of creating music; each member picks a role, be it singing or playing one or more instruments, and they set out to make music. Outside of this simple materialistic description, there are two other important factors I think define a band. This is the value an individual brings, and the band’s chemistry.
If birdwatching on a brisk morning could be broken down and translated into audio frequencies, it would sound like Alora Crucible. The haunting melodies whirl and dip and ascend in their own imperfect weather, fighting the wind for just a moment before it turns ally and allows for soaring once more.
Gentle mists creep over the landscape and the promise of snow looms over the heather as each songbird mourns in its own special way the falling sun beyond the frosty mountain peaks.
Alora Crucible’s Oak Lace Apparition represents 80 minutes of alluring hope, 80 minutes of teasing an adventure in the clouds and beyond, 80 minutes of inward birdwatching that satisfies the mind, body, and soul with each flap of its unerring wings.
Here’s a sampling of September 27th, 2024 new releases. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors; or, let the people know what else should be on the community’s radar this week.
– List of Releases: September 27th, 2024 –
Alan Sparhawk – White Roses, My God Genre: Alternative/Electronic Label: Sub Pop
The Amity Affliction – Let The Ocean Take Me (Redux) Genre: Metalcore/Post-Hardcore Label: Pure Noise
Best Bets – The Hollow Husk Of Feeling Genre: Jangle/Power-Pop Label: Meritorio
The Black Dahlia Murder – Servitude Genre: Melodic Death Metal Label: Metal Blade
Welcome back to Weekly Releases, in which we list a wide variety of upcoming releases from an even wider variety of genres. Will your most anticipated record make the grade, or will it be a crushing disappointment? Only one way to find out! As always, please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors. Cheers!
– List of Releases: September 20th, 2024 –
The Black Pacific – Here Comes Our Wave Genre: Punk Label: Dine Alone
Blossoms – Gary Genre: Indie Rock Label: ODD SK
Bright Eyes – Five Dice, All Threes Genre: Indie Folk / Indie Rock Label: Dead Oceans
The Calamatix – The Calamatix Genre: Reggae / Rock Label: Epitaph
Charlotte Wessels – The Obsession Genre: Symphonic Metal Label: Napalm
Crimson Veil – Hex Genre: Gothic Metal / Progressive Metal Label: Reigning Phoenix
Haujobb – The Machine in the Ghost Genre: Industrial / IDM Label: Dependent
Hippo Campus – Flood Genre: Indie Rock Label: Psychic Hotline
Honeyglaze – Real Deal Genre: Indie Rock / Alternative Rock Label: Fat Possum
Jamie xx – In Waves Genre: Electronic / Garage Label: Young
Welcome back to Neek’s 1st Listen, where I listen to an album for the very first time while my fingers fly across the keyboard, generating near-thoughtless spur-of-the-moment takes. It’s messy, stream-of-conscious, and only very lightly edited. You’ve been warned!
FOXING Foxing
Full disclosure: I love Foxing. Well, for brevity’s sake, I love Nearer My God, and most of their other stuff with the occaisional asterisk. Perhaps I shouldn’t have heard “Hell 99” first but it left just a bad taste in my mouth that ran through “Greyhound” and it never left. Still, I don’t expect this to be the first Foxing album I’m not into, I’m just worried that their scattershot freneticism might be more frustrating than captivating this time around.
Without further ado…
“Secret History”:
The scratchy record vocal sample playing under Conor’s voice suddenly makes me realize why Sowing cites “Vices” in his opening paragraph, but I wonder if it’ll have the same “surprise explosion.” And there we go. Ok and it’s already gone! So like, I’m not sure that counts as a surprise after “Hell 99.” Alternating between two very disparate sounds and genres and melodies on the same track is an interesting opening statement for sure, but I fail to see this having the same lasting impact as, say, “737” did for both me and its parent album. 6/10
David Bowie’s impact is cohesive and powerful when assessed within conventional metrics like “innovation” and “longevity”—some call swan song BLACKSTAR (2016), released 49 years after his first LP, the best work he ever did, generally without much objection from those who think his magnum opera issued forth decades rather than days before his tragic, shot-heard-round-the-world-style departure from this Earth. As for innovation, innumerably more people will testify to how consistently Bowie pushed against the generic boundaries of radio music throughout his long, long career, despite rooting his practice in familiar traditions of chords-and-melody drawn from British folk, Gershwin showtunes, 1950s rhythm-and-blues—lots of stuff people had already heard whose emotional contracts with global audiences had new life breathed into them by a guy whose relationship with tradition was purer for its lack of self-surveillance. Bowie forged his own path by not caring how he’d come off seemingly at all—his career takes on an unpleasant shape if you fetishize either tradition or subversion, and so he’s the kind of artist who teaches us to be better listeners, to latch less often onto shit that ultimately doesn’t matter. I don’t know if I believe Nietzsche when he says that we’re losing some essential element of experience in grouping together as “leaves” the individual green things that issue forth from…
Welcome back to another on-time edition of the Weekly Releases, where “mediocre sputpilled artists are repped” and more will probably be added in the comments hmm lfg ifg
– List of Releases: September 13th, 2024 –
Agrypnie – erg Genre: Melodic Black Metal / Atmospheric Black Metal Label: AOP
Allegra Krieger – Art of the Unseen Infinity Machine Genre: Indie Folk Label: Double Double Whammy
Babyface Ray – The Kid That Did Genre: Trap / Cloud Rap Label: Empire
Bill Leeb – Model Kollapse Genre: Electro / Industrial Label: Metropolis Records
BONES UK – Soft Genre: Electropop / Industrial Rock / Blues Rock Label: Sumerian
Below is a smattering of new releases for September 6th, 2024. Exclusions not intentional because seeing new comments is a dopamine hit. Feel free to request reviews from staff and/or contributors, inform the people about what’s unintentionally missing from the list, and let us know what you plan on jamming this release week.
– List of Releases: September 6th, 2024 –
40 Watt Sun – Little Weight Genre: Slowcore Label: Fisher’s Folly
A Swarm of the Sun – An Empire Genre: Post-Metal / Atmospheric Sludge Metal Label: Pelagic
The Airborne Toxic Event – Glory Genre: Indie Rock Label: Little Tokyo
Amy Allen – Amy Allen Genre: Indie Pop Label: Kenny + Betty
Ashe – Willson Genre: Alt-Pop / Americana Label: [independent]
Black Sites – The Promised Land? Genre: Progressive Metal / Heavy Metal Label: [independent]
Bleachers – A Stranger Desired Genre: Acoustic renditions of 2014’s Strange Desire Label: Dirty Hit
blink-182 – ONE MORE TIME… PART-2 Genre: Pop-Punk / Alternative Rock Label: Columbia
Boston Manor – Sundiver Genre: Alternative Rock / Post-Hardcore Label: SharpTone
Welcome back to another edition of the Weekly Releases feature, where everything is made up and the points don’t matter! That’s right — the points matter as much as pants to a toll booth operator or why your obscure Transylvanian dungeon synth band with 3 bandcamp followers didn’t make the list (because it will probably be in the comments). Feel free to request reviews from staff and/or contributors and let the people know what’s missing from this intentionally-not-thorough list.
– List of Releases: August 30th, 2024 –
Alora Crucible – Oak Lace Apparition Genre: Chamber Music / Neoclassical New Age Label: House of Mythology
Anciients – Beyond the Reach of the Sun Genre: Progressive Metal / Sludge Metal Label: Season of Mist
AWOLNATION – The Phantom Five Genre: Alternative Rock / Indietronica Label: Better Noise
Bent Knee – Twenty Pills Without Water Genre: Art Rock / Chamber Pop Label: Take This to Heart
CHELSEA WOLFE – Undone (EP) Genre: Darkwave / Witch House Label: Loma Vista
Deliver the Galaxy – Bury Your Gods Genre: Melodic Death Metal Label: Massacre
Destroy Lonely – LOVE LAST FOREVER Genre: Trap / Southern Hip-Hop Label: Opium /…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of August 23rd, 2024. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
This feature is part of a hopefully ongoing series aimed at exploring the discographies of interesting and/or important bands whose wider body of work is often overlooked on this site. There will be lots of words and a few pictures, but the main deal is that if a band features here, they are good and you should listen to them! And if you already jam them, hit up the comments and explain where and why this is wrong! Get going!
The news broke today that Tore Ylwizaker, member of Ulver since 1997, died three days ago on his 54th birthday. Though credited as a ‘keyboardist’, Ylwizaker was absolutely essential to everything the group made since he joined: without his contributions, it’s unthinkable that Ulver would have emerged from their early years as a metal band as a such a stunningly proficient juggling act between IDM and downtempo — and then onto drone, onto classical, onto full-tilt synthpop, and anything they could fold into the margins of their umpteen strong suits. Ulver’s name has practically become a by-word for versatility, but for me this was always underpinned by a rigorous sense of competence, which, in turn, I viewed as practically synonymous with Ylwizaker. His passing marks a great loss for forward-thinking music as a whole, and we are privileged to be able to hear his talent across so many guises.
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of August 16, 2024. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: August 16, 2024 –
Blind Pilot: In the Shadow of the Holy Mountain
Genre: Indie Folk/Rock Label: ATO Records
Charly Bliss: Forever
Genre: Indie Rock/Pop Rock/Pop Punk Label: Lucky Number
Dark Tranquillity: Endtime Signals
Genre: Melodic Death Metal Label: Century Media
dayaway: ghost beach(EP, Aug 14th release) Genre:Dream Pop Label: Turn To Wind
Falling In Reverse: Popular Monster
Genre: Post-Hardcore/Pop Rock/Pop Punk Label: Epitaph Records
Foster The People: Paradise State Of Mind
Genre: Indie Pop Label: Atlantic
Hamish Hawk: A Firmer Hand Genre:Sophisti-Pop/Post-Punk/Indie Rock Label: So Recordings/Fierce Panda
State Faults’ newest album Children of the Moon is so immediately classic that it’s hard to put into words. The evolution of this band from the lofi, unhinged sound of Desolate Peaks to where they are in 2024 is staggering. At their core they’re still that emotionally draining band, hitting you with songs fueled by distorted riffs and banshee shrieks such as (my personal favorite) Divination and Transfiguration, but now also being able to pull off a 10+ minute behemoth such as No Gospel. A track that takes you through every high and low, every desolate peak (pun?) to every epic mountain top with influences from prog rock to post-hardcore. Or a ballad such as Bodega Head that REALLY gets you in your feels with its soft acoustics and melodic vocals. State Faults have crafted a perfect album that will indeed go down as one of the best screamo albums of all time. But to pigeonhole Children of the Moon as just “screamo” would be a huge disservice. This album transcends any genre tag. So get off your ass and jam this beast. You will not regret it!
It’s been years since I’ve last done one of these, and it’s certainly the first since I’ve been a staffer, so welcome to the first official blog post for “Neek’s 1st Listen”!
As a reminder for those new to this long-dormant series, this closer to a stream-of-consciousness series of rants that flow from my very very tired brain edit-free onto the page the very first time I hear the album in question. So please forgive my ridiculous comparisons and questionable turns of phrase.
THE SMASHING PUMPKINS Aghori Mhori Mei
Full disclosure:
The Smashing Pumpkins are one of my favorite bands, and while I was an apologist for their post-breakup era a good long while, the most recent run of albums left me completely cold. I didn’t even bother checking ATUM: Act III, and this is someone who ranked all 200-something of their songs in 2018. But after skimming Johnny’s excellent review and peeping the opening track, Edin I decided it was about time to finally break out this blog feature (and all the formatting fun that comes with it).
Without further ado…
“Edin”:
Johnny’s line about Tool and Kyuss is spot on; these fuckin riffs are buttery but sharply wielded. Corgan’s vocals kinda shatter the fun—even on his better moments in these late albums his performance sounds AI-generated. You could predict his cadence by…
Guys, gals, and non-binary pals, please find an intentionally non-exhaustive list of new releases for August 9th along with some already-released records. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors; plus, feel free to add to the not-full-scale list by letting the people know in the comments what else should be on the community’s radar. Please comment. Please clap. Thank you.
– List of Releases: August 9th, 2024 –
Acrid Tomb / Tomb of Annihilation – Hermetic Invocations (Split) Genre: Death Metal / Black Metal Label: Iconoclasm Conquest
Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters – The Ones That Stay Genre: Alt-Country / Americana Label: Mule Kick
David Bowie’s impact is cohesive and powerful when assessed within conventional metrics like “innovation” and “longevity”—some call swan song BLACKSTAR (2016), released 49 years after his first LP, the best work he ever did, generally without much objection from those who think his magnum opera issued forth decades rather than days before his tragic, shot-heard-round-the-world-style departure from this Earth. As for innovation, innumerably more people will testify to how consistently Bowie pushed against the generic boundaries of radio music throughout his long, long career, despite rooting his practice in familiar traditions of chords-and-melody drawn from British folk, Gershwin showtunes, 1950s rhythm-and-blues—lots of stuff people had already heard whose emotional contracts with global audiences had new life breathed into them by a guy whose relationship with tradition was purer for its lack of self-surveillance. Bowie forged his own path by not caring how he’d come off seemingly at all—his career takes on an unpleasant shape if you fetishize either tradition or subversion, and so he’s the kind of artist who teaches us to be better listeners, to latch less often onto shit that ultimately doesn’t matter. I don’t know if I believe Nietzsche when he says that we’re losing some essential element of experience in grouping together as “leaves” the individual green things that issue forth from…
