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 Lists
01.10.20 paps runs through his favs real quick (12.07.19 just gonna put this here to remember
07.17.19 On Hip-Hop07.08.19 June 2019 resumé
07.03.19 Actual User Appreciation Thread06.30.19 JULY19 Songs of the Day
06.26.19 Unknown Post-Punk #406.13.19 Papa's Wifey's List of Favs
06.08.19 May 2019 resumé06.07.19 Sputnik R.I.P. list
06.03.19 mid-year metal rundown05.29.19 another one of those bm threads
05.27.19 Unknown Post-Punk #3 ♦05.23.19 looking for an album/band
05.22.19 stuff my cat seems to like05.08.19 recent black metal demos and lo-fi nons
05.05.19 April 2019 resumé05.03.19 Sput's 2019 Random-Album-Review 2019 Ga
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February 2018 resumé

Here is the stuff RELEASED in February 2018 I didn't get to review. Score guide: 10/9 - 5; 8 - 4.5; 7 - 4; 6 - 3.5/3; 5 - 2.5; 4 - 2; 3 - 1.5; 2/1 - 1
1Everything Everything
A Deeper Sea

Two original b-side songs, one of which is a real banger. One moderately harmless remix. One fairly decent live version. It's a decent bonus EP for anyone interested. 6/10

Breadwinner, Don't Let It Bring You Down (Live at BBC Maida Vale)
2All The Luck In The World
A Blind Arcade

Uuuughh. I really, really, really want to get on that SowingSeason hype train, but I just can't. I really like the solitary chilling atmosphere of a subtle, down-to-earth fairy tale among some mountains and forests (that's how I feel about it), but the samey song-writing and execution with the breathy vocals just kept me away from really loving it. Not a bad album and definitely one I'd encourage you to go and listen to, but nothing for myself... 6/10

Landmarks, About the Ghosts
3Suburban Dinosaur
An Island Beneath the Waves

I'm not sure what to think of this exactly. It just sounds kind of off and detuned. Any atmospheric merit is just drowned in the odd muddled production and the samey, unintriguing song-writing. Just more or less lacking anything outstanding all throughout. 5/10
4Weird Magic
ULU

Man, this album is just one big jolly good feeling, isn't it? It just never gives way to anything that isn't fun and uplifting. Yay for the dreamy sweetness. 7/10

Niwaki, Runez, CO>OL, Skunkape
5Hurry
Every Little Thought

It isn't really as unbearable as many other power pop albums, but its sterilised softness and tacky song-writing (essentially, what makes power pop power pop) were simply boring and unexciting. 5/10
6The Skull Defekts
The Skull Defekts

I had high hopes for this. I expected an unsettling, harrowing nightmare of an album. And in a way I did receive that, but this album also surprisingly evokes very little emotion in me. I just cannot find enough to say about it. I liked it for the most part. Much like with the band's past material, I doubt I will have the strength or will to come back to it, not that any of their albums expect you to, but this time I also have nothing much to go off of after the first experience. 6/10

The Dance, A Message From the Skull Defekts
7Wake
Misery Rites

One of the more versatile and musically mature powerviolence/grindcore efforts in recent memory, to be honest. There is no particular reason for me to omit writing a review for this. It's just that even after three very enjoyable listens I still don't think I have enough to say. It's just damn good and nothing else. 7/10

Misery Rites, Embers, Paradigm Lost, Bitter Winter
8Esoctrilihum
Pandaemorthium

Death Metal so blackened that it doesn't reflect any light whatsoever. And I just cannot get into it. It is dystopian, but it also presents barely anything of musical variety all throughout. No matter how much I want to like it, I just can't all that much. 6/10

Abyssus Caliginum, Nocturle Ars Fh'a
9Table Scraps
Autonomy

I like the song-writing, the lyricism and the old-school indie punk-ish tendencies, but good lord, what in the world happened on the production table? This album has the most disjointed and music-ruining sound I've heard in a long time. My goodness, this is so earache inducing. 5/10 (Edit after listening to their previous album: apparently this strange ugly sound is like their thing, cause these albums are exactly the same. Shame, could have been really fun throwback vibe records.)

Always Right, My Obsession
10Dedekind Cut
Tahoe

GotG

Last year, when I announced the survey for 2018 Genre on the Grid, two particular genres seem to have risen up as favourites among people, Ska and Ambient. Now, Genre on the Grid options are always genres I either hate or am indifferent towards. Ska I hate. Ambient I was indifferent towards. And two months in, my mind is already turning around, which is astronomically better result than two years preceding this (2016's Prog Metal, where I didn't find anything I'd like; 2017's Downtempo, where literally nothing was released, so I couldn't find anything of interest). Anyway, I still do suffer from the same problem with Ambient that I have always. That is, I have barely anything to say. What am I supposed to say? This is calming and pretty. 7/10

MMXIX, De-Civilization
11Fossil Aerosol Mining Project
August 53d

GotG

As unfortunate as it is, this is exactly one of the things that drove me away from ambient music in the first place. That sense of purposelessness and dreadful fatiguing anti-music. August 53rd is not like that, but it does near that quite closely. It is just so directionless and empty. Not a fan, sorry. 5/10
12MGMT
Little Dark Age

MGMT's signature quirkiness and sweet tunes are still there, but the sound became kind of jerky and off-colour, or maybe too much colour. It just becomes too hard to get through, what with all the odd electronic additions just popping up out of melody or rhythm. 6/10

Little Dark Age, One Thing Left to Try, When You're Small
13Rolo Tomassi
Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It

In spite of all the hype (or perhaps because of it), I enjoyed this only partially. It is definitely not boring or bland, but it also strikes only ever so often. Especially when it comes to the longer tracks, which just drag on unnecessarily. 6/10

Rituals, Alma Mater, Whispers Among Us
14Red Lama
Motions

Oh how close this album gets to being truly great. So, so, so close. It just slips away. The thing is that they operate with building, progressing tunes and not with traditional melodies, most of the time. And those build ups just don't end up that satisfying sometimes. 7/10

Perfect Strangers, Awakening, Come What May, Fular, Elements II
15Deathwhite
For a Black Tomorrow

This is at the same time intriguing and relatively fun AND silly and pretentious. I just fail to connect, in spite of how much I try. At least it'd help, had the vocals had a bigger range. 6/10

The Grace of the Dark, Death and the Master, Prison of Thought
16Usurpress
Interregnum

For as exciting and ass-kicking as this album is, it felt too short for its own good. This is one of those instances, where a sludge/doom record might have not been soul-deadeningly boring if draged out for 2 hours as they usually are. 7/10

A Place in the Pantheon, Interregnum, Late in the 11th Hour, The Iron Gates Will Melt
17Loma
Loma

Nothing. Fucking. Happens. Here. At. All. 4/10
18Keiji Haino and Sumac
American Dollar Bill

Two things I dislike fused together here: drone boredom and bloated, overlong, exhausting doom. 5/10

partially What Have I Done?
19Ling Tosite Sigure
#5

I've been meaning to listen to this band for a long time now. And now that I've heard this album I know what I've been missing. It might be a little too chaotic at times, but growing power is definitely there. 7/10

Ultra Overcorrection, Tornado Minority
20Harakiri for the Sky
Arson

You know, I really liked this one. Or at least, I liked it as much as it could be liked. The band doesn't really know when to stop and the songs often don't justify their lengths. You feel like you've heard the whole album after one track and that is no good, because the rest will be oh so difficult to go through. Still, good black metal is always welcome. 7/10

Fire Walk With Me, Tomb Omnia, Manifesto
21Cabal (DK)
Mark Of Rot

Clean production, shit execution in everything else. 5/10
22Crescent (EGY)
The Order of Amenti

Just your usual decent death metal. Nothing else. 6/10
23Ride
Tomorrow’s Shore

Much like anything else Ride touch, this is boring. 5/10
24Totally Mild
Her

Oh man, this was so goddamn smooth and soothing. The melodies are top-notch. The intrumentation is slightly generic, but does its job. The vocals may not have a range, but are fitting nonetheless. I just cannot see any reason not to give it a full 8/10.

Sky, Pearl, Lucky Stars, Today Tonight, Take Today, Down Together
25Black Milk
Fever

I really don't get the negative reaction to this. Sure, this isn't a revolutionary tape or anything particularly grandiose, but BLack Milk still brings a lot of personality to this and the music is a little loose, but also oddly calming. Solid record. What's up with y'all? 7/10

unVEil, But I Can Be, True Lies, DiVE, Will Remain
26Eis
Stillstand und Heimkehr

A little awkward vocally and a little dragging musically, but still a great dark lo-fi black metal. 6/10

t/t
27Bjorn Riis
Coming Home

On one hand, there is hardly anything on this album. Seriously, it is mostly some ambient-ish sounds and occasional tune here or there, but nothing to go off of. On the other hand, it just strikes as calming and pleasant. Weird feeling this is. 6/10

Drowning, Lullabies in a Car Crash
28The Osiris Club
The Wine-Dark Sea

If Avatar were serious. It has its merit, but the execution sometimes just doesn't hit the right note and ends up being drab. And the vocals here are some of the worst of the year. 5/10
29Endless Heights
Vicious Pleasure

SowingSeason's hype is understandible, but it just isn't for me. I like some of the harsher moments, but all-in-all too many muddy cuts and non-descript song-writing. But growth is not off the table. 6/10

You Coward, Come a Little Closer, Goldleaf, Run
30The Dead Mantra
Saudade Forever

I should have given this a review, but I didn't have the time. So let's just call it a full 8/10 and that's it. 8/10

The Garden, Saudade Forever, Je Ne Dormiari Jamais, The Ropes, Window
31The Low Anthem
The Salt Doll Went To Measure The Depth Of The Sea

I can't with this band. I have been more and more sceptical of their abilites record after record, but my completionist tendencies had the better of me and I kept on checking their new stuff. But they never surprised me beside just "okay, there's a nice moment". This is not the washed-out, muddled oddity their last one was, but it is just a handful of unfinished, vocally weak, often boring tunes. 5/10

Give My Body Back, Final Transmission from the Diving Umbrella
32Your End
Ghost Architecture

There is hardly anything to say to this. It's for the fans of any heavy-ass blackened death metal. 7/10

An Unbegotten Memory of Lust and Agony, Upon the Icy Hill, The Mist
33Mamuthones
Fear on the Corner

Mmmmmmmmmm... that weirdness and instrumental dysrhythmia. Mmmmmmm... that off-kilter anti-sing-writing. That's the deal, folks. Psychedelic, because it doesn't make sense. Yum. 7/10

Cars, Show Me, Simone Choule
34A.A.L. (Against All Logic)
2012-2017

Quite a pleasant surprise. This isn't your usual excruciating boredom Nicholas Jaar usually does. This is a (if I understood correctly) collection of sample-based chillout coolness. 7/10

I Never Dream, Some Kind of Game, Cityfade
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