melodic death metal

→ December 1, 2024
→ By keith
→ 2 Comments

Music update, November 2024.

November was a big month for new music, including three albums that should show up on a lot of best-of-2024 lists and several singles I didn’t anticipate from artists I love. As always, if you can’t see the widget below you can access the Spotify playlist here.

Michael Kiwanuka – Small Changes. Kiwanuka’s self-titled 2019 album was my #2 album of that year and won the Mercury Prize the following September; his follow-up, Small Changes, came out in November and represents a big stylistic shift away from the previous record’s rock/soul hybrid with a lot of guitar towards a much slower, folk-influenced, bass-heavy sound. I prefer the previous album, but Kiwanuka is such a great songwriter that I still enjoyed Small Changes even though I almost always go for more uptempo stuff.

Jorja Smith – Don’t Let Me Go/Loving You. Smith wrote these two songs over a decade ago, but just recorded and released them, with guest vocals from Maverick Sabre on the second track.

Kendrick Lamar – reincarnated. Kendrick’s new album GNX omitted his biggest hit of the year, “Not Like Us,” instead delivering a motley collection of songs that vary widely in style, tone, and tempo; it’s a mixed bag, led by this track (which Pitchfork’s review called “unlistenable”) with a fascinating call-and-response bit towards the end, “Gloria” (with SZA), and “squabble up.”

Tunde Adebimpe – Magnetic. Adebimpe is the lead singer of TV on the Radio, and will release his first solo LP at some point in 2025; this single has a lot of the energy of TVotR’s best tracks like “Wolf Like Me” and “Mercy.”

Doves – Renegade. I didn’t expect to hear anything further from Doves after a middling response to their comeback album The Universal Want and lead singer/bassist Jimi Goodwin’s mental health struggles, which led the band to cancel the end of their 2021 tour and will have him sit out their upcoming UK tour this winter. Goodwin is on this single and their upcoming album, Constellations for the Lonely, due out on Valentine’s Day.

Sam Fender – People Watching. This title track from Fender’s third album, due out on February 21^st, sounds like a great new song from the Killers, and I mean that as a compliment. I’m flummoxed at the lack of attention or popularity Fender has here in the U.S.

The Lathums – Stellar Cast. The Lathums have always earned comparisons to the Arctic Monkeys, but this might be the most overt reference to their main influence yet; singer Alex Moore sounds more like Alex Turner than ever before, and the whole enterprise could have come off Favourite Worst Nightmare. Their third album, Matter Does Not Define, comes out on March 7^th.

The Rills – I Don’t Wanna Be. Another band heavily influenced by the Arctic Monkeys, the Rills tend a little more towards the punk-pop side – and I can pretty easily see them getting lumped in with the ‘landfill indie’ subgenre of the late aughts and early teens. The Rills’ debut album Don’t Be a Stranger came out on November 1^st; I found it a little flat overall, with this by far the best track.

Elbow – Adriana Again. I’m becoming an Elbow fan, very late in the game, as I really enjoyed their album Audio Vertigo from earlier this year, and this new single – ahead of an EP to come out in early 2025 – is a pulsing, driving banger with a tremendous hook in the chorus.

WOOZE – Good Old Fashioned Fun. WOOZE’s self-titled debut album comes out on February 14^th, although it follows a slew of singles and EPs; their sound is over-the-top dance-pop with plenty of guitars underpinning it, and they’ve got a great ear for a good hook.

Courting – Pause at You. Courting’s second album New Last Name came out in January and will be on my ranking of the top albums of the year, but they’re back already with another single ahead of the release of their third album, Lust for Life, Or: How To Thread The Needle And Come Out The Other Side To Tell The Story, due out on March 14^th. I love their just off-center take on indie pop, sometimes called “hyperpop,” and I find their best songs really infectiously happy.

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard – Phantom Island. King Gizzard only put out one album this year, August’s Flight b741, which is a light year for them. This track was recorded in the same sessions but didn’t make the cut; I can’t even tell you if it should have made the album because they put out so much music that I find I often don’t remember their albums or individual songs beyond maybe recalling the style they went after on a particular record.

Nice Biscuit – Desolation. This Australian psych-rock band released their sophomore album, SOS, on October 4^th, with “The Rain” the best track by far and this one probably my second favorite.

Inhaler – Your House. The new album from this Irish pop/rock band, OpenWide, comes out on February 7^th; I feel obligated to mention that lead singer/guitarist Elijah Hewson is Bono’s son, if only because otherwise someone would say, “hey, that guy sounds a ton like Bono.” He does, though.

Allie X – Weird World. I didn’t love Girl With No Face, the latest album from this Canadian electro-pop artist, when it came out in February, and I still don’t really – a lot of it is too deliberately weird and offputting – but on revisiting it with the release last month of the deluxe edition, I do like this opening track, which is probably the most straightforward dance/new wave track on the album.

Lucius – Take a Picture. I don’t include many covers on these lists, but I’m putting two on this month because they are so interesting. This cover of the crossover hit by Filter from 1999 is amazing, because the harmonies in the vocals take the song somewhere completely different than Richard Patrick’s flat singing.

White Denim – Connection. White Denim are fairly experimental to begin with, so their cover of Elastica’s “Connection,” which was itself so derivative of Wire’s “Three Girl Rhumba” that Wire sued and won, is anything but faithful.

Manic Street Preachers – Hiding in Plain Sight. The Manics’ 15^th album, Critical Thinking, comes out on January 31^st, with this the second single off the record. I’ve been listening to their biggest hit, “If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next,” quite a it in the last four weeks.

Griff – Last Night’s Mascara. This one-off single has existed in demo and live forms before, but Griff chose to record a proper studio version after getting a strong response from fans as she opened for Sabrina Carpenter on part of the latter’s U.S. tour in October. (I would argue Carpenter should be opening for Griff, but alas.)

The Weather Station – Window. This track comes off the Weather Station’s upcoming seventh album, Humanhood, and gives me a strong School of Seven Bells vibe, especially from their final record, SVIIB.

The Wombats – Blood on the Hospital Floor. This is a bit more like the core Wombats sound than the prior single, “Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want to Come,” with more energy and wittier lyrics. Their seventh album, Oh! The Ocean, is due out February 21^st. I feel like they’ve settled into a predictable groove of producing solid indie-pop tracks without really ever approaching the highs of Glitterbug.

Phantogram – Jealousy. I had no idea Phantogram had a new album coming out until Memory of a Day dropped on October 18^th; it’s very much their classic sound, although by the end of the record I’d kind of lost track of individual songs. This opener is the standout, I think, although there may be some primacy bias at work here too.

Mogwai – Lion Rumpus. This isthe third single from the Scottish band’s eleventh album, The Bad Fire, due out January 24^th.I’ve never really gotten Mogwai, although I concede it’s probably the kind of music that rewards repeat listening. This particular track is almost metal in its use of distortion and walls of sound.

Opeth – §6. The Last Will and Testament is Opeth’s first album in five years and their first to feature death-metal vocals since 2008, although I’d argue they’re used judiciously here, and singer Mikael Åkerfeldt has said in many interviews that he brought the growls back because they fit the lyrics. It’s a concept album about the reading of a will and the drama that ensues, and as a result highlighting individual tracks is difficult – they do blend one into another, for sure. If pressed, I’d say “§3” and “§1” are my favorites, but the whole thing is mesmerizing, and has some surprising cameos by Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson and Europe’s Joey Tempest.

Tribulation – Poison Pages. This Swedish band went from boring death metal to more traditional heavy or gothic metal with death growls to something that’s barely even metal on their new album, Sub Rosa In Æternum, which features very little of those death-metal vocals and sounds a lot more like Sisters of Mercy than any of their forebears in Swedish metal. (I’m not the only person to notice that.)

Tungsten – Falling Apart. Tungsten is a Swedish band founded by the former drummer of HammerFall along with two of his sons; this song is heavier than HammerFall’s typical throwback metal style, although the soaring vocals are there (with some screaming too). But if they’re from Sweden, shouldn’t they be called Wolfram?

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2024 in music, alternative, hip hop, indie, melodic death metal, metal, Music, progressive metal

→ September 5, 2024
→ By keith

Music update, August 2024.

August brought a bunch of contenders for my year-end albums list, with LPs from Jack White, Fontaines D.C., Zeal & Ardor, Tank and the Bangas, and others, plus a surprise return from Opeth, a welcome single from Olympic stars Gojira, a farewell track from one of the most influential American punk bands, and a return from a band I was afraid had called it quits. As always, you can access the playlist here if you can’t see the widget below.

Gojira feat. Marina Viotti and Victor Le Masne – Mea Culpa (Ah! Ça ira!). You know this song already, as it was the highlight of the stunning Opening Ceremonies to the Paris Olympics; now we get a studio version that packs the same punch, albeit without the visual impact of Gojira playing on the balconies of an old castle along the Seine.

Jack White – Old Scratch Blues. White’s new album No Name is his best solo LP to date, a return to his roots in classic rock and blues sounds from the 1940s through the 1970s, highlighted by this track, “Bless Yourself,” and “It’s Rough on Rats (If You’re Asking).”

Fontaines D.C. – Here’s the Thing. Fontaines’ new album, Romance, is one of the big surprises of the year; the Dublin-based rockers have largely abandoned their punk sound in favor of a more ambitious array of influences that have them dancing around the edges of pop-rock without fully giving in to the sound. You can hear the punk roots in the background of songs like this one, but they’re in their post-punk/new wave phase now, and it’s fascinating. I still think “Favourite” is my … uh, favorite track on the record, but this and “Starburster” are also highlights.

Goat – Ouroboros. These Swedish psychedelic/fusion rockers return with their third album in three years, titled Goat, on October 11^th; this is the radio edit of the album’s lengthy closing track, with a guitar riff that Nile Rodgers would approve.

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard – Hog Calling Contest. The Aussie band’s 26^th (!) album, Flight b741, came out in August, with an unusually long gap of ten months between records, and it’s more in the vein of their bluesy jam-band stuff than some of their heavier (and, to my ears, better) works.

Nice Biscuit – Fade Away. Not quite as good as “The Rain,” but we still get another strong guitar riff from this Australian indie-rock band, which marries some psychedelia with the pulsing beats of post-punk. Their new album SOS comes out on October 4^th.

The Killers – Bright Lights. This one-off (for now) single dropped just a few weeks before the Killers started their residency in Vegas to celebrate the 20^th anniversary of Hot Fuss, with all four original members playing the entire album start to finish as part of the shows. The track bridges the gap between their earliest synth-pop leanings and the more country-tinged sound of 2021’s Pressure Machine.

Chime School – The End. The Boy Who Ran the Paisley Hotel, the second album from Andy Pastalaniec (also of Seablite), continues with the project’s 1980s jangle-pop sound, which in itself derives from 1960s pop bands like the Byrds.

Sunflower Bean – Teach Me to Be Bad. Another heavier song from Sunflower Bean, and I’m into it. “Moment in the Sun” was a huge hit, and deservedly so, but the last thing I wanted from the band was an album full of attempts to re-create it.

X – Ruby Church. X announced that Smoke & Fiction will be their farewell album, accompanied by a final tour, four years after their comeback LP Alphabetland marked their return from 27 years away from the studio. I’ve never been a huge fan of X’s music, and am certainly not a fan of Exene Cervenka’s conspiracy theory-mongering, but I acknowledge the band’s huge influence on American music from the 1980s and 1990s.

Manic Street Preachers – Decline & Fall. The Welsh trio has said this track was inspired by several artists, including the War on Drugs, and that couldn’t be any clearer. I’m also stunned that James Dean Bradfield still sounds this good at age 55. The BBC has a story on some recently unearthed photographs of the band taken shortly before lyricist/guitarist Richey Edwards disappeared.

Hayden Thorpe – They. The former lead singer of Wild Beasts will drop his third solo album, Ness, on September 27^th; it’s just a different sound than that of his former band, and I’m still kind of getting used to his individual style, which has some of the art rock leanings of Wild Beasts but in a quieter mode. He released two singles in August, this one and “He.”

Katie Gavin – Casual Drug Use. The second single from the MUNA singer’s upcoming debut solo album, What a Relief, due out on October 25^th, is another smooth indie-pop track that borrows as much from alternative country singers like Kacey Musgraves and Brandi Carlile as it does from MUNA’s college-rock influences.

Bananagun – Free Energy. I dug this Australian experimental psych-rock band’s 2020 debut album The True Story of Bananagun – seriously, why is Oz so rife with psychedelic rock music? – but we haven’t had a peep out of the band since. They’re back with this frenetic track, which feels like it’s almost all drum-and-bass with a little vocals sprinkled on top, ahead of their sophomore album, Why is the Colour of the Sky?, due out November 8^th.

Spirit of the Beehive – I’ve Been Evil. I hear a lot of Pinback and even Polvo in this track from Spirit’s newest album, You’ll Have to Lose Something, which, like most of their albums, is interesting but all over the place.

Jamie xx feat. The Avalanches – All You Children. Jamie xx’s second solo album, In Waves, finally comes out on September 20^th, nine years after his debut In Colour, which had two of my favorite tracks of the decade in “See Saw” and “Loud Places.” I haven’t heard anything quite to that level from the five singles already released from the new album, with this one perhaps the best for its more accessible EDM sound.

Tangent feat. Rakim – Get Right, Keep Tight. Rakim put out a short comeback album in July that didn’t feature anywhere enough of him; his verse here as a guest on an otherwise unremarkable track from Tangent might be the best thing Rakim has done this year.

Maxïmo Park – Quiz Show Clue. There are too many bands, part 837: I’d never heard of Maxïmo Park before this spring, only to discover they’ve been around for 20 years and are about to release their eighth album, Stream of Life, on September 27^th. They’re a post-punk revival band often lumped into the “landfill indie” pile, which, to be entirely honest, kind of fits; I actually first heard of them when I went down that rabbit hole (after the Libertines’ new album came out) and found VICE’s list of the 50 greatest landfill indie songs of all time, which has two Maxïmo Park tracks on it.

Ten Fé – Space Invader. I’m thrilled that Ten Fé is back, as they hadn’t released any music since 2019’s Future Perfect, Present Tense, although this song reminds me a little too much of Keane and doesn’t quite have the hook of some of Ten Fé’s best singles to date.

Sports Team – I’m in Love (Subaru). I loved Sports Team’s 2022 album Gulp!, so I’m not sure how I feel about them suddenly deciding they’re going to channel the band ABC.

Geordie Greep – Holy, Holy. So this is a rare case where I’m including a song I don’t particularly like. Greep was the lead singer/guitarist for black midi, which announced its breakup in August (or maybe an indefinite hiatus), with Greep then releasing this single a few days later. It’s kind of a mess, although I wouldn’t expect anything other than that from a black midi member, but the problem here is more in the lyrics, which might have worked for an older singer but just come off as snotty and ridiculous here. His solo album A New Sound comes out on October 4^th.

Satan – Turn the Tide. I can’t believe these guys are still together, with both founding guitarists (Steve Ramsey and Russ Tippins) still in the band 45 years on, along with Blitzkrieg vocalist Brian Ross, who sang on their first full-length LP, 1983’s Court in the Act, before leaving the band until their 2011 re-formation.

Zeal & Ardor – Kilònova. Zeal & Ardor, a Swiss/American band that fuses black metal with African-American spiritual music, just released their fourth LP, Greif, in August; from the three singles I’ve heard, they seem to be drifting more towards a mainstream metal sound, with fewer of the more ridiculous trappings of extreme metal like death growls (there’s a little on “Clawing Out”) or blast beats.

Devin Townsend – Power Nerd. Townsend is a virtuoso metal guitarist whose first band, Strapping Young Lad, earned him a following but was way too harsh for my tastes. His post-SYL output, which has basically all been solo material but sometimes under monikers like the Devin Townsend Project, is a mixed bag, but this speed-metal track has a fantastic hook in the chorus.

Opeth – §1. Opeth hasn’t used death growls on any album since 2008’s Watershed, but they did on this track, the opener of their album The Last Will and Testament, a concept album due out on October 11^th.

Tribulation – Tainted Skies. Tribulation’s music wouldn’t be out of place on a mid-80s episode of Headbanger’s Ball, but they mix in some death growls and wear silly corpse paint. The music is almost comically melodic for the genre – this is metal, but it ain’t heavy other than the vocals, and it hits an almost nostalgic note for me because I listened to so much (admittedly mediocre) metal in the 1980s.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2024 in music, alternative, indie, melodic death metal, metal, Music, punk, rap

→ July 3, 2024
→ By keith

Music update, June 2024.

June brought three of the best albums of the year so far and a slew of comeback singles from bands I thought weren’t recording any more, so I’d call it a good month even beyond the part where it included my birthday and my daughter graduating from high school. Anyway, if you can’t see the playlist below, you can access it here.

Rakim feat. Kurupt and Masta Killa – Be Ill. The world has been waiting for new music from Rakim for 15 years, and for good new music from him for at least 25 years. We’re getting a new album, modestly titled G.O.D.s NETWORK: REB7RTH, on July 26^th, and this song has Rakim sounding as good as he has since the 1990s.

GIFT – Later. More shoegazey than straight shoegaze, with a heavier dose of ‘80s synths, cleaner guitars, and way more prominent vocals. GIFT’s second album, Illuminator, their first as a full band (rather than a solo project for vocalist/guitarist TJ Freda), comes out on August 23^rd, but the three singles they’ve released so far are all bangers – this one, “Going in Circles,” and my favorite, “Wish Me Away.” There’s definitely some Slowdive/Ride influence here, but Freda is doing more than just mimicking his idols, especially when it comes to building towards a big chorus or other hook.

Hundred Waters – Towers. I had long given up on hearing more music from Hundred Waters, whose sophomore album The Moon Rang Like a Bell was also one of my top albums of the 2010s, but whose last release was 2017’s Communicating. The trio, led by singer Nicole Miglis, released a four-song EP called Towers on June 14^th, and Miglis still sounds incredible, while the band continues to experiment with the electronic sounds that back her up. I’m hoping there’s a full album to come but I’ll take what I can get.

The Mysterines – Hawkmoon. The Mysterines’ sophomore album Afraid of Tomorrows came out on June 21^st, the same day as Pond’s and Alcest’s newest albums, and it’s a huge step forward from Lia Metcalfe’s quartet across the board, but especially in the quality of its hooks. My friends at Paste interviewed Metcalfe and drummer Paul Crilly about the new record.

Pond – So Lo. Stung!, the latest album from these Australian experimental psych-rockers, is all over the place, for better and a bit worse, but I take that as the price of admission given their willingness to jump between genres. This has strong mid-80s Prince vibes, as well as the 1970s funk songs that inspired his Revolution era sound.

The Howl & the Hum – Same Mistake Twice. Imagine a mashup of gang of youths and the Front Bottoms and you get this song from the Yorkshire quartet whose name unfortunately sounds like a discount version of The Head & the Heart.

Sløtface – Ladies of the Fight. This is what I want from Sløtface’s Haley Shea, who is now the only official member, and has a knack for punk-pop hooks and witty, sardonic lyrics. This track is full of movie references, including Fight Club and A League of Their Own, fitting since the upcoming album is titled Film Buff (September 27^th).

Color Green – God in a $. This is just good old-fashioned blues-based rock and roll, maybe with a dash of jam-band sensibility thrown in. I’d love to see them live, although their summer tour doesn’t go anywhere west of Boise.

Good Looks – Broken Body. This Austin jangle-pop band released their second album, Lived Here for a While, in June, featuring this track and the lead single “If It’s Gone,” which showcase their sense of melody and wistful lyrics.

Chime School – Give Your Heart Away. More sunny jangle-pop goodness from San Francisco Giants fan and Seablite drummer Andy Pastalaniec, whose second album, The Boy Who Ran The Paisley Hotel, drops on August 23^rd.

Los Campesinos! – Feast of Tongues. We do love Welsh bands around here, but I have to admit that Los Campesinos! have often missed the mark for me – they’ve often struck me as trying too hard to be snarky or different, or just generally too cool for school. This track, from their upcoming album All Hell (out July 19^th), is something I at least haven’t heard from them before, reminiscent lyrically of Okkervil River and musically of Mercury Rev.

Mercury Rev – Patterns. Oh hey, what a coincidence. I thought Mercury Rev had hung it up after 2015’s The Light in You (which I barely remember), and I can’t say I’ve been into anything they’ve done since 2001’s epic All Is Dream. This song feels like a throwback to that record, with spoken, philosophical (or just) lyrics over a psychedelic space-pop backdrop. Their new album Born Horses drops on September 6^th.

The Jesus Lizard – Hide & Seek. These 1990s noise-rock icons haven’t released an album in 26 years, but Rack drops on September 13^th. They’ve promised a departure from their old sound; this track sounds more like the clean punk sound of the Descendents than Goat or Liar.

Amyl and the Sniffers – Facts. Seth Meyers’ favorite band put out two singles at the end of May, this one and “U Should Not Be Doing That,” and they haven’t changed their fast-driving throwback punk sound a bit.

Fontaines D.C. – Favourite. Fontaines D.C. go Britpop on the closing track from their forthcoming album Romance, due out in August. I saw this Irish post-punk band open for Arctic Monkeys last September and they were unbelievable live, so much so that I would have said I wasn’t a fan before seeing them but definitely became one after.

Hayden Thorpe – They. Thorpe was the lead singer of Wild Beasts, whose final album Boy King ranked 5^th on my list of the best albums of the 2010s, but his solo output since their breakup has lacked some of the urgency and verve of Wild Beasts’ best material. I’m cautiously optimistic about his next album, Ness, out September 27^th, given the more ambitious music on this track.

One True Pairing – Mid-Life Crisis. So Hayden Thorpe’s return sent me down a Wild Beasts rabbit hole that led me to One True Pairing, the nom de chanson of their bassist Tom Fleming, who put out a self-titled album under that moniker in 2019 and has put out three singles in the last eight months. He also doesn’t sound quite like Wild Beasts did, but there’s a sweeping, lush texture to this song that kept me coming back to listen to it again. (It’s not a cover of the Faith No More track. Sorry.)

Griff – Anything. Griff’s full-length debut Vertigo comes out on July 12^th and includes a bunch of the singles she’s already released, including this banger, the title track, “Astronaut,” and “Pillow in My Arms.” She’s playing Philly in September … on a Monday when I’ll be in Chicago for Stadium.

Soccer Mommy – Lost. A lovely acoustic ballad from Sophia Allison, her second single (along with last year’s “Lose You,” with Bully) since her 2022 album Sometimes, Forever.

Hinds – En Forma. Hinds began as a duo, became a quartet, went dark after a one-off single in 2021, lost two members, and now are about to release their first album with their original lineup of Carlotta Cosials and Ana García Perrote, Viva Hinds, on September 6^th. They’ve released three singles so far, and it sounds like they’ve cleaned up their sound and production enough that they no longer sound like they recorded the record in a subway bathroom or are just learning to play their instruments.

METTE – MUSCLE. I had no idea who METTE was when I heard this song, and while I don’t generally go for this kind of commercially-oriented electro-pop, this damn thing would not let go of my ears for days. Then I found out METTE is actress Mette Towley, who was in Hustlers and The Old Guard and briefly in Barbie, and she’s opening some of Taylor Swift’s shows in the UK, so, uh, good job me finding out about the famous person.

Nubya Garcia – The Seer. Garcia is an English jazz saxophonist who released albums in 2017 and 2020 but nothing since; this track, which caught my ear for the obvious John Coltrane influence on her playing, is her first in four years and the lead single from her forthcoming album Odyssey, due out September 20^th.

NIJI – A13 Fuji. Nigerian-British jazz pianist Niji Adeleye released his first proper LP Somewhere in the Middle in January and is already back with another track that blends western jazz styles with Afrobeat sounds. The main horn riff here is quite an earworm.

Ezra Collective feat. Yazmin Lacey. Ezra Collective won last year’s Mercury Prize for their 2022 album Where I’m Meant to Be, and have now released a pair of singles from their follow-up record Dance, No One’s Watching, due out September 27^th. I think they’ve embraced a more pop-oriented sound, going more for strong melodies in either their music or in the guest vocals. I didn’t quite get the acclaim for the last record, at least compared to other candidates for the Mercury Prize, but I’ve liked both this and “Ajala” quite a bit more.

Jamie xx – Treat Each Other Right. Jamie xx put out two singles in June, this and “Life” featuring Robyn, leading up to the release of his second solo album In Waves on September 20^th. So far, I haven’t heard anything as strong as “Loud Places” or “SeeSaw,” both featuring his bandmate Romy from the xx; it’s been more tracks like this, big house beats but without the same hooks or cross-genre experimentation.

Alcest – Komorebi. Alcest’s new album Les Chants de l’Aurore is the best metal album of the year so far by a mile, and one of the best albums of the year, period. It’s at least the best thing they’ve done since 2016’s Kodama, and I think represents the perfect balance of progressive metal, shoegaze, and extreme/death metal, three genres with which guitarist/singer Neige has experimented for his entire career, varying his use of all three. This album is a journey and I have already taken it many times.

Crypt Sermon – Thunder (Perfect Mind). Crypt Sermon does a souped-up take on doom metal, with a little more groove to it than typical adherents of that genre, with a very polished but still heavy, crunchy take on the style on their new album The Stygian Rose, which came out in June.

Flotsam & Jetsam – Primal. Props to Flotsam & Jetsam, who just keep churning out thrash tracks like it’s 1986. I’ll always be a sucker for this style of metal even though its moment was short and it’s hopelessly outdated now.

Dark Tranquility – Not Nothing. Dark Tranquility are one of the leaders of the Gothenburg style of metal, often called melodic death metal, here mixing clean and growled vocals with a heavy, proggy guitar riff through the chorus.

Tribulation – Saturn Coming Down. Tribulation gets labelled as “black metal” or “death metal” because their vocals are growled and they wear silly corpse paint, but their music isn’t actually that extreme – it’s straight metal and often wouldn’t be out of place on a compilation of ‘80s metal. On this new track they switch to clean vocals with a very goth sound in the chorus and it really elevates the whole endeavor; I know the death growls are part of their schtick but they’re leaving money on the table because the music is way more accessible than the labels indicate.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2024 in music, alternative, doom metal, hip hop, indie, jazz, melodic death metal, metal, Music, rap, thrash

→ August 18, 2023
→ By keith

Music update, July 2023.

So this playlist has been done for two weeks, but I took PTO right after the deadline to go to Gen Con, rest and recharge, and do some family stuff, and I barely wrote a word while I was off other than my huge Gen Con wrapup. I’m pushing this one out because my August playlist is already at 19 songs and we have two Fridays left. Therefore, enjoy this list of songs released between 18 and roughly 50 days ago. As always, you can click here if you can’t see the Spotify widget below.

The Dinner Party – Sinner. This indie-rock quintet from London seems like they should be based in L.A. in the early 1980s, or maybe Brooklyn in the early aughts, like a blend of Sparks and Lucius.

Charly Bliss – You Don’t Even Know Me Anymore. CB’s first new track in three years, with their sophomore album Young Enough already four years old, is welcome news. I haven’t seen word yet of a new LP from this grunge-pop quartet.

Miles Kane – Wonder. Kane is half of the Last Shadow Puppets (with Alex Turner) and was the lead singer of the Rascals, but he’s recorded under his own name since the latter group broke up in 2009. There’s some Stone Roses to the guitar work here on this new single, released ahead of his latest album One Man Band, out August 4^th.

Brad – Hey Now What’s the Problem. A funkier track from Brad’s final album, In the Moment that You’re Born, which features the last vocals from Shawn Smith. Smith died in April of 2019, and you know his work – he was also the lead singer for the band Pigeonhead, whose “Battle Flag” earned one of the great all-time remixes from the Lo-Fidelity All Stars.

Sampha – Spirit 2.0. Mercury Prize winner Sampha has one of the most distinctive voices in music right now – in a good way – and often elevates otherwise uninteresting material, but here he’s got a quick, frenetic track with vocals seem off-balance in a way that keeps your ear tuned in.

Metric – Just the Once. Not their best, far from their worst. I’m okay with Metric dialing it back just to write a fun dance-pop song every now and then.

Courting – Flex. Wikipedia calls them “art punk,” maybe because they have proper British accents. This is definitely poppier than that, but smarter than pop-punk. They feel like a band on the come, maybe one full album away from the big leagues. Also, I think that’s a “Mr. Brightside” reference.

The Front Bottoms – Emotional. Maybe the best call-and-response of the year, although the peculiar nasal thing they do near the chorus is offputting.

Yard Act – The Trench Coat Museum. Yard Act’s debut LP The Overload was my #3 album of 2022, although since it came out early in the year it’s been more like seventeen months since we last had new music from this extremely English art-punk band.

Royal Blood – Pull Me Through. Don’t let the piano intro fool you, there’s some crunchy bass-through-an-octave pedal work coming not too long after.

Tame Impala – Journey to the Real World. I mean, there are catchier songs on the Barbie soundtrack, but the mere fact that they picked Tame Impala to join a roster of explicitly pop acts is itself a reason to recommend the album. (Also, that stupid “Pink” song is still in my head.)

Bob Vylan – Dream Big. Grime rap combined with punk? I definitely hear a lot of Bad Brains in here, although I’m not very familiar with grime as a genre.

beabadoobee – the way things go. It’s a little twee, but it’s pretty catchy, and beabadoobee’s voice does lend itself well to this sort of light chamber-pop. I just don’t want to encourage too much of this.

Baby Queen – We Can Be Anything. Baby Queen is a 25-year-old singer from South Africa whose debut album, Quarter Life Crisis (get it? ugh), comes out on October 6^th. It’s sort of avant-pop, with some clear Grimes influence in here.

BLOXX – Weight in Gold. So events have overtaken my playlist as BLOXX’s EP Modern Day is out, and its title track is on my in-progress August list. It’s upbeat, punk-tinged indie rock, kind of if Neon Trees were less overtly poppy with better lyrics, especially with a little more new wave influence on the EP’s five tracks.

Jungle – Back on 74. Volcano, the fifth LP from this British neo-soul duo, came out last Friday, and so far everything I’ve heard is … just fine. I haven’t caught a breakout single like “Busy Earnin,” “Happy Man,” or “The Truth,” just some very 70s sounds without the big hooks I’m used to from these guys.

Slowdive – Skin in the Game. The second single released ahead of next month’s Everything Is Alive, Slowdive’s second album since they returned from a 19-year hiatus in 2014. I also feel obligated to mention that I was in Commissary, a barbershop and café in Indianapolis, and the barista was playing Souvlaki in its entirety.

Romy – The Sea. Mid Air, the first solo album from the xx’s Romy Madley Croft, is due out September 8^th, and I think it’s more pop-adjacent than her main band’s music or that of bandmate Jamie xx, whose debut album featured some guest vocals from Romy on “Loud Places.”

Lathe of Heaven – Ekpyrosis. You’d think this was some sort of extreme metal track from its name, which refers to the Greek Stoics’ belief that the universe would be destroyed and reborn every 36,000 years, but this is a NYC post-punk band that sounds like Killing Joke or early Ceremony, named after an Ursula K. Le Guin novel.

Horrendous – Preterition Hymn. I almost feel like I have to apologize when I include tracks with death growls, but man that big, swirling guitar riff that opens this song is something else. Horrendous’s first album in five years, Ontological Mysterium, is out today, August 18^th, and the songs released ahead of it show a return to the musical ambition of their first two albums, even with some flourishes like the acoustic passage at the close of this song.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2023 in music, alternative, indie, melodic death metal, Music, rap

→ February 7, 2023
→ By keith

Music update, January 2023.

Sorry this is a bit late, but I’ve been writing a few thousand words a day for my regular job. January turned out to be a fertile month for new single and even album releases, more so than usual (I think), so I’ve got a little catching up to do. If you can’t see the widget below, you can access this month’s Spotify playlist here.

Young Fathers – Rice. Heavy Heavy just dropped on Friday, so I haven’t had a chance to dive into it yet, but the reviews are ebullient, and I’ve loved two of the three lead singles. I don’t even know how you can categorize their music, other than that it’s mad and often brilliant.

Belle and Sebastian – I Don’t Know What You See in Me. A Scottish bent to the playlist, at least at the start. Belle & Sebastian returned with their second album inside of a year with Late Developers, which is poppier than last year’s A Bit of Previous and more consistently upbeat. I also loved “So in the Moment” and nearly put that on the playlist instead.

Måneskin feat. Tom Morello – Gossip. I know Måneskin aren’t very admired by critics, but this track, with Morello on guitar, is an absolute banger and was stuck in my head for more than a week after I first heard it.

The Clockworks – Blood on the Mind. This Irish quartet signed with Alan McGee’s Creation Records, the label that signed Oasis back in the early 1990s, in 2019, releasing a bunch of singles and one EP since then but still no proper album. They’re often described in the British press as punk or post-punk but this tack isn’t as hard-edged as those genres, with the high energy of punk but a better groove in the bass and drums.

The Lottery Winners – Worry. These guys can’t miss, at least when it comes to crafting big pop hooks. Their second album, Anxiety Replacement Therapy, is due out on April 28^th.

The Rills – Falling Apart. ThisLincolnshire band just missed my top 100 from last year with “Landslide,” but I’m going to guess this one will end up on my top 100 for 2023, as it has an even better hook and is the kind of English indie-rock that, for whatever reason, just speaks to me.

The Empty Page – Dry Ice. This post-punk duo from Manchester released their first album, Unfolding, back in 2016, but their follow-up has been delayed several times since then and is due out sometime this year. “Dry Ice” is the first single from it, released in November, with the next single due out March 3rd.

Etta Marcus – Smile for the Camera. Marcus is a 21-year-old singer/songwriter from London who gets compared to Lana del Rey and who I think would appeal to fans of Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus, except I’m not a fan of any of those three singers but I love this song from Marcus.

Arlo Parks – Weightless. Auto-include whenever Parks puts out a new single. There’s a slight shift here with an electronic element in the backing music here, the first single ahead of her sophomore album, My Soft Machine, due out May 26^th.

Bree Runway w/Stormzy – Pick Your Poison. This came from Runway’s five-track December EP WOAH WHAT A BLUR!, mostly written by Stormzy, and it’s a very sweet and soulful ballad about heartbreak, a big departure from her usual sound.

Obey Robots – Porcupine. This song showed up on my Spotify Release Radar because it’s tagged as a collaboration with Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, but it’s actually a new project from Ned’s guitarist Gareth “Rat” Pring along with singer Laura Kidd. There’s a definite Ned’s vibe to the guitar work here, though.

White Reaper – Pink Slip. Another January album release, Asking for a Ride is the fourth full-length from these Kentucky garage-punk-pop stalwarts, although it’s just 29:21 long so isn’t that almost an EP? Anyway, I don’t think they’ve ever released a single I didn’t like.

Screaming Females – Brass Bell. Apparently I should know this group already, as Wikipedia tells me Spin named their singer/guitarist Melissa Paternoster the 77^th greatest guitarist of all time back in 2012, which… seems aggressive? Anyway, not knowing them is on me, and this song has a great guitar hook and an earworm in the chorus.

shame – Six-Pack. shame’s third album, Food for Worms, comes out on February 24^th, with this track and last year’s “Fingers of Steel,” this one in a more experimental vein with a frenetic energy that carries it through some of the discord in the guitars.

The New Pornographers – Really Really Light. This song is … fine. Not peak NP, not Twin Cinema or even Brill Bruisers, but it’s a perfectly cromulent New Pornographers song.

Black Honey – Up Against It. A Fistful of Peaches, Black Honey’s third album, is due out on March 17^th, with this the fourth single ahead of its release (“Charlie Bronson,” “Out of My Mind,” “Heavy”), further indicating their shift to a darker sound than they started out with on the All My Pride EP and their self-titled debut album.

Rival Sons – Nobody Wants to Die. Have you seen that Chevy Silverado commercial with what sounds like a blatant Led Zeppelin ripoff for its music? I assumed it was Greta van Fleet, but it was actually a track from Rival Sons from about a decade ago. This is their newest track, and it’s in that same blues-rock vein but nowhere near as derivative.

Tribulation – Axis Mundi. Melodic death metal that’s actually just traditional heavy metal with death-metal vocals – this track, and really a lot of Tribulation’s music, derives far more from early British heavy metal and doom bands like Sabbath and Maiden than from death-metal forebears like Death or At the Gates.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2023 in music, indie, melodic death metal, Music

→ February 7, 2022
→ By keith

Music update, January 2022.

Prospect season pushed this back about a week, but my monthly playlists are back, and this one is longer than usual because I have some tracks from late December as well. You can see the playlist here if you can’t see the widget below.

As for my use of Spotify, I’m leaning towards switching to another service, but in the middle of prospect-writing season, I didn’t have time to figure out the logistics of moving all of my playlists and information over – let alone deciding which service to use. I don’t think their responses so far have been adequate at all; putting a disclaimer before a podcast where the guest spends 2-3 hours spewing misinformation does nothing to stop the misinformation from spreading. That’s even before I get into more recent revelations of a Joe Rogan using the n-word dozens of times. I’ll get through the prospect reports and reevaluate where I put my money and where I ask you to listen to my playlists.

Gang of Youths – in the wake of your leave. I can’t wait for this Australian group’s third album, Angel in Realtime, which drops on February 25^th. The title track was a top ten song of last year for me, and this one isn’t too far behind. There’s a lot of peak (1980s, not “Beautiful Day”) U2 in their music.

Khruangbin feat. Leon Bridges – B-Side. The collaboration that brought us last year’s EP Texas Sun returns with another EP this month called Texas Moon. This song is fantastic, but the second single from the EP, “Chocolate Hills,” was surprisingly boring.

Large Plants – The Death of Pliny. Large Plants is the new side project from Jack Sharp of Wolf People (not to be confused with Wolf Parade, Wolfmother, Wolfgang Press, or Wolf). This track is very late ’60s blues-psychedelia with some lovely guitarwork as a highlight.

Waxahatchee – Tomorrow. Katie Crutchfield did the soundtrack for the Apple TV+ adaptation of the graphic novel series El Deafo. This song feels very much like someone asked her to write the most upbeat song she could, and it’s great.

Camp Cope – Running with the Hurricane. I heard this song before knowing anything about the band, and was surprised to hear something so Americana-sounding from an Australian band. If you like Waxahatchee, I think this song might be up your alley.

Sprints – Little Fix. This Irish punk-garage quartet have churned out a series of hooky singles that don’t skimp on the noise elements, always with something a bit clever in the lyrics as well.

Frank Turner – A Wave Across a Bay. Turner’s tribute to Frightened Rabbit singer Scott Hutchison, who killed himself in 2018, has a beautiful build in the chorus and Turner’s knack for turning clever phrases even in grief.

Spoon – Wild. Spoon’s first album in five years, Lucifer on the Sofa, drops this Friday, and the two singles I’ve heard so far show Britt Daniel in peak form, with a harder edge to the music behind him, something I can certainly support. The piano riff behind the chorus sounds incredibly familiar to me though.

White Lies – Am I Really Going to Die. It’s not as morbid as it sounds – it’s quite upbeat, in fact, and after hearing the two singles they’ve released, I’m wondering if As I Try Not to Fall Apart (due out February 18^th) is going to be this British new wave band’s best album yet.

Shungudzo – It’s a good day (to fight the system). A tip from my grad school classmate Jim led me to I’m not a mother, but I have children, the 2021 debut album from Zimbabwean-American (and former Real World cast member) Shungudzo. The album itself combines multiple genres, from folk to hip-hop, with biting social commentary, and would have made my top albums of the year list if I’d heard it in time.

FKA Twigs feat. Jorja Smith and Unknown T – jealousy. So FKA Twigs released a mixtape in January called [CAPRISONGS] featuring a cornucopia of high-octane guests, but if you’ve followed my music lists at all, you had to know I’d choose the song with Jorja Smith to highlight. The drumbeat behind this track is intense, with sudden stops and starts that keep you off balance for the duration of the song.

Lucius – Next to Normal. I’ve liked quite a few Lucius songs over the decade since their first proper album came out in 2013, but I did not expect this track, which sounds like it could have come from Prince’s back catalog. Their third (or fourth, depending on whether you count their self-released record from 2009) album, Second Nature, comes out on April 8^th.

The Mysterines – Dangerous. I’ve been looking forward to this British hard rock quartet’s debut album for about two years now, although this track isn’t the best representation of the high-octane grunge I’ve come to love from them. That LP, titled Reeling, is out March 11^th.

Kid Kapichi feat. Bob Vylan – New England. Two artists who appeared on my top 100 songs of 2021 teamed up on this new single, taking aim at voter apathy in the UK with music that would have fit right in on Kid Kapichi’s This Time Next Year.

Crows – Slowly Separate. Crows’ Silver Tongues was one of my favorite albums of 2019, and this is the first new music from the British punk-rock band since then. They’re signed to IDLES’ Balley Records label, but I find their music more accessible and interesting than their bosses’ throwback punk style, more akin to Kid Kapichi or Fontaines D.C.

Yard Act – Pour Another. The Overload, the debut album from this British post-punk band, did not disappoint, from the title track to “Payday” to “The Incident” to this bouncy, dissonant tune. I keep coming back to the Gang of Four comparisons because they fit so well. Maybe these guys should cover “Natural’s Not In It?”

The Smile – You Will Never Work in Television Again. The Smile are Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, and Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner. There’s supposed to be an album coming, but for now we have two singles that sound a fair bit like Radiohead’s first album, and I’m here for anything where Radiohead members return to their rock roots.

Peter Doherty & Frédéric Lo – You Can’t Keep It From Me Forever. Yep, that’s Pete Doherty of the Libertines, working with the French musician Lo, with an album from the two of them due out on March 18^th. Doherty also hinted at new Libertines material perhaps coming within the year, which would be even more exciting, but this track has a lot of that same vibe, almost like an older twist on the Libertines’ sound.

Hatchie – Quicksand. Hatchie’s dream-pop sound always reminds me of the Cranberries’ first two albums before that band went sideways; don’t be fooled by the slow start here, as the chorus has the big hook Hatchie delivers on all her better tracks.

Griff & Sigrid – Head on Fire. Griff doesn’t miss – that’s three incredible pop tracks from her in a year, this one featuring the popular Norwegian singer Sigrid.

Tempers – Nightwalking. Gothic electronica from a NYC duo who’ll release their third album, New Meaning, in April.

Steve Vai – Zeus in Chains. Vai’s Passion and Warfare came out the summer after I graduated from high school, and I couldn’t get enough of it. That particular style of instrumental guitar music hit a creative and popular zenith at that time, ending some time in 1992-93 with the rise of grunge (I’d call Joe Satriani’s “Summer Song” the last big hit of this movement), and Vai’s next album, Sex & Religion, didn’t have the same kind of melodic highs, and I fell off the train. Then this song popped up on my Release Radar, and it’s pretty good – maybe not quite at the level of “I Would Love To” or “The Animal,” but with a solid hook and some peak Vai shredding.

Zeal & Ardor – Church Burns. This project of Swiss-American musician Manuel Gagneux will put out a new, self-titled album this month, and if this song is any indication, his efforts to integrate gospel sounds with extreme metal – he says “black” metal but I assume that’s a play on words – are reaching their fruition.

King Buffalo – Shadows. This track is ten minutes long, just to warn you, but if you like psychedelic metal with a good bit of stoner to it, King Buffalo’s Acheron should be right up your alley.

Anxious – Let Me. This Connecticut hardcore punk band veers into extreme metal territory, with less of the melodic sensibility of last year’s “In April.”

Destruction – Diabolical. These icons of ’80s thrash – Wikipedia calls them part of the “Big Four” of German thrash, which, sure – actually sound pretty good for a bunch of guys pushing 60, and I give them credit for sticking to their sound. Thrash’s moment came and went as its adherents either went more commercial (looking at you, Metallica) or more extreme, but I’ll forever think of it as the perfect blend of speed and technical playing, without the excesses of most death metal bands.

Deserted Fear – Reborn Paradise. German melodic death metal that borders on thrash, just with growled lyrics. The machine gun-like guitar riff behind the verse stood out for me even with the ridiculous vocals.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2022 in music, alternative, indie, melodic death metal, metal, Music, post-punk

→ October 31, 2021
→ By keith

Music update, October 2021.

Whew, that might be the most loaded month I’ve seen since I started doing monthly new music playlists in January of 2015 – a function, I’m sure, of the easier access to all kinds of music, and perhaps my expanding tastes, but there was just a lot of great fucking music released in October. I omitted plenty of tracks from artists I like, including new material from CHVRCHES, Yard Act, Metronomy, Snail Mail, Frank Turner, Jack White, Shamir, Tom Morello, Soft Cell (!), Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, and more. I also ended up cutting Janelle Monaé’s new version of “Say Her Name,” since it’s 17 minutes long and a new version of an old track from 2013. As always, if you can’t see the widget below, you can access the playlist here.

White Lies – As I Try Not to Fall Apart. Few bands have channeled ’80s new wave as successfully as White Lies, who don’t so much mimic the sound as the entire vibe of those synth-heavy (and heavily made-up) bands from that era that was so formative for my own music tastes. This is easily one of my two or three favorite songs of theirs, right up there with “There Goes Our Love Again.”

Cœur de Pirate – Tu peux crever là-bas. Cœur de Pirate’s latest álbum, Impossible à aimer, is her best full-length LP so far, with some incredible melodies beneath her typically dark, incisive lyrics. This track is the strongest on the album, and for those of you who don’t speak French, it means “you can die over there.”

The Mysterines – Hung Up. This Liverpool group, led by singer/guitarist Lia Metcalfe, will finally get to release their debut album Reeling on March 11^th, but in the meantime, here’s another driving, snarling track in the vein of their earlier tracks like “Gasoline” and “I Win Every Time.”

Gang of Youths – the man himself. This Australian indie-rock quintet are running headlong into comparisons with peak U2 with tracks like this one, an atmospheric rocker with introspective lyrics about the death of lead singer Dave Le’aupepe’s father.

The Wombats – Ready for the High. I’m always going to want the Wombats to recreate their incredible no-skips 2015 album Glitterbug, even though I’m sure they want to continue to evolve past that. This is a pretty good twist on that sound, with Matthew Murphy’s typically absurd lyrics and a little more crunch to the guitars. Their sixth album, Fix Yourself, Not the World, is due out on January 7^th.

alt-J – U&ME. Speaking of wanting a band to be something else, the version of alt-J from their debut album is long gone, and they’re just another decent indie band now, with a clear commercial leaning they didn’t have a decade ago. But this song is pretty catchy.

Hatchie – Crush. Yep, this is a cover of one-hit wonder Jennifer Paige’s 1998 song, which reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, but Hatchie makes it less overtly poppy and more dream-pop.

Courtney Barnett – Write a List of Things to Look Forward To. Definitely one of Barnett’s better guitar riffs, with a tempo that better complements her laconic vocal delivery than some of her slower material. She also released “Smile Real Nice” from the soundtrack to the upcoming Apple+ series Harriet the Spy.

The Districts – I Want to Feel It All. The opening to this track keeps tricking me into thinking it’s Nine Inch Nails’ “Down In It,” which should give you some idea of the change in style here for these indie-rock stalwarts.

The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die – Trouble. Terrible band name, although I suppose it fits their retro-emo sound. This was my favorite track off their latest album Illusory Walls, which reminded me of Pure Reason Revolution’s blend of metal elements into emo tracks.

Speedy Ortiz – Cutco. Sadie Dupuis, who records as a solo artist under the name sad13, re-recorded this early track, from when Speedy Ortiz was primarily a solo project for her, as part of the upcoming double LP The Death of Speedy Ortiz & Cop Kicker…Forever, a joint reissue of their first album and their first EP, both released in 2011.

Sprints – Modern Job. Another strong post-punk track from the Irish group who brought us “The Cheek” last year.

Michael Kiwanuka – Beautiful Life. The first new music since his last album KIWANUKA won the Mercury Prize is this soul/trip-hop track from the upcoming documentary Convergence: Courage in a Crisis.

Sunflower Bean – Baby Don’t Cry. This is Sunflower Bean’s second one-off single in the last two-plus years, since the King of the Dudes EP, with no word on a new album coming, although they do plan a UK tour in the spring.

Hinds – De la Monarquía a la Criptocracia. Maybe this is the step forward I’ve been waiting for Hinds to take, with lyrics that aren’t so much yelled-sung as just sung. Maybe it’s because they’re singing in their native Spanish, although that wouldn’t explain the stronger guitar work, but regardless of the reason, this is an evolutionary step the band needed.

DARGS featuring James Chelliah & Moses Boyd- Hold On, Part 2. DARGS is David Darghi, a producer who’s released just two short tracks so far (and the first was not, in fact, “Hold On, Part 1”). I found this because he worked with drummer Moses Boyd, who had my #1 song of 2020, “Shades of You.” It’s a relaxed, sensual track with vocals from “existential indie” rapper Chelliah and an unnamed female vocalist, which I think is a bit weird.

The Lottery Winners – Much Better. I have no idea how these guys keep churning out one great pop melody after another, but they have another one with the earworm chorus to this new track.

Anxious – In April. If I say punk-pop, you’re probably not thinking of that as a compliment, but this Connecticut five-piece’s sound here is less overproduced or cloying than many bands that earned that moniker.

The Horrors – Against the Blade. The Horrors haven’t released an album since 2017’s V, but they announced their second EP of 2021, also called Against the Blade, featuring this heavy, industrial track.

The Boo Radleys – I’ve Had Enough I’m Out. What a surprise to find out these Britpop stars were still around, although I’ve found a lot of acts from that era can’t recapture the sound that carried them on up the charts in the late 1990s. A lot of the Boo Radleys’ recent tracks are too slow and very light on the pop part, but this one comes the closest. I’ll still choose “Wake Up Boo” and “It’s Lulu” over this, though.

Band of Horses – Crutch. Band of Horses’ sixth album, Things Are Great, their first LP since 2016, will be released on January 21^st. This lead single is strong, very jangle-pop, and is their first new material featuring guitarist Ian MacDougall and bassist Matt Gentling.

The War on Drugs – Change. Yes, it’s too long – six minutes and four seconds – but this is two straight tracks from The War on Drugs that feature a cohesive hook rather than more of a general vibe, which is how I’d describe a lot of their earlier material.

Lemaitre feat. Anna of the North – What About U. This is definitely Lemaitre’s best track since 2019’s “Rocket Girl,” featuring Betty Who, here going for a more ethereal, softer sound that works with Anna Lotterud’s voice.

Defcon Lawless feat. Band of Skulls – Slicktalk. I know nothing about Defcon Lawless, but have liked a lot of Band of Skulls’ music in the past, especially 2014’s Himalayan, and the psycheledic-rock backdrop they contribute here behind Defcon Lawless’ rhymes makes this something very different from most modern rap tracks.

Parquet Courts – Walking at a Downtown Pace. I have never liked anything by Parquet Courts before this new album, Sympathy for Life, but there are at least three bangers on this record. It seems like they settled down and worked on songcraft without totally compromising their garage-rock sound.

Potty Mouth – Contessa Barefoot. I don’t get the song’s title, but I’m glad Potty Mouth is back with their power-pop sound, although this doesn’t have quite the killer hook of “Cherry Picking.” UPDATE: A reader pointed out that Potty Mouth announced their breakup this week. This song will be on their final EP, 1% Happier, due out November 19.

Geese – Rain Dance. This Brooklyn quintet’s debut album, Projector, just dropped this month, barely a year after the members graduated from high school. Guitarist Foster Hudson cites Television’s debut album as a major influence, which is very evident across the album, but if you want a contemporary comparison, imagine black midi with less of the noise-rock trappings. Other standout tracks include “Low Era” and “Disco.”

Spoon – The Hardest Cut. I’d say this is the hardest Spoon song I’ve heard, but I’m good with that.

Mastodon – Teardrinker. Hushed and Grim just dropped on Friday and I haven’t gotten to listen to it all the way through yet, but I’ve loved this, “Pushing the Tides,” and “Savage Lands” so far.

Zeal & Ardor – Götterdämmerung. The death growls are back, but so are the great metal riffs, including a pedal-point riff here that really drives this song forward. This gospel/death metal band’s next album is due at some point next year.

Kowloon Walled City – Lampblack. Featuring Ian Miller of Puig Destroyer and the Productive Outs podcast on bass, KWC just released Piecework, their first new album since 2015, on October 8^th.

Kælen Mikla feat. Alcest – Hvítir Sandar. I’m interested in this Icelandic goth/avant-garde trio’s music thanks to the guest appearance here by shoegaze-metallers Alcest, whose last two albums were among my favorite metal LPs of the past decade.

Toundra – El Odio, Parte I. An eight-minute instrumental from this Spanish progressive metal band, which only does instrumental music, and a preview of their upcoming album Hex.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2021 in music, alternative, indie, melodic death metal, metal, Music, progressive metal

→ October 1, 2021
→ By keith

Music update, September 2021.

Whew. That turned out to be an epic month for new music, with my top album of 2021 so far dropping on the first Friday, a bunch of returns from old favorites, even some tracks from artists I didn’t love who surprised me with great new material. That means this playlist is one of my longest ever – 29 songs and 104 minutes. Enjoy. You can access the playlist here if you can’t see the widget below.

Little Simz feat. Obongjayar – Point and Kill. I’ve said a few times now that Sometimes I Might Be Introvert is my favorite album of 2021, and this track, featuring the Nigerian singer Obongjayar, is a major reason, one of the many standouts on the record along with the title track, “I Love You, I Hate You,” “Woman,” and more.

Sleigh Bells – True Seekers. My favorite track from this duo since “Rill Rill” over a decade ago. Their music can be so deliberately abrasive that it often turns me away even when there’s a good vocal hook, but this song is a sort of anti-pop anthem that I can’t get out of my head.

Hatchie – This Enchanted. I loved the melodies in Hatchie’s first album and earlier singles, all in the sort of dream-pop sound that reminded me of early Cranberries or Lush, but her voice is a little bit soft and I think she fares better when the production puts her voice down into the music rather than out front. This new single does just that and it’s among her best so far.

Snail Mail – Valentine. Lindsey Jordan, who records as Snail Mail, is now all of 22 years old, and her second album, also called Valentine,

Parcels – Somethinggreater. I was not familiar with Parcels at all before hearing this track, but I’m all in on this funky, R&B-inflected pop gem. It’s the third single they’ve released ahead of the double album they’re putting out on November 5^th.

Frank Turner – Haven’t Been Doing So Well. Love when Turner gets into his punk roots more, which he really does here as on “1933” or “Recovery.”

The War on Drugs Feat. Lucius – I Don’t Live Here Anymore. At least Adam Granduciel is just leaning into the Bob Dylan thing, singing “a creature void of form” on this song before name-checking Dylan directly. The singers from Lucius bring a lot to the chorus here, too.

Cœur de Pirate – On s’aimera toujours. Béatrice seems to be locked into singing in French these days, which is fine, as I think her voice is beautiful, as is the language, although I feel like the U.S. audience is going to miss out on some great indie-pop because of it. If you’re wondering, the title means “We will always love each other.”

Jerro & Panama – Lost for Words. Producer Jerro’s debut album comes out today, and this single features Australian producer Panama, who appeared on several of my playlists in the mid-teens with “Always” and “Hope for Something.”

Obongjayar & Sarz – Sweetness. And here’s a track from Obongjayar’s latest EP of the same name, also featuring the Nigerian musician/producer Sarz, an Afrobeats-centric record with a heavy dose of ’80s R&B.

Bartees Strange – Weights. Strange is an avowed fan of the National, but I like him anyway, and here it sounds like he merged the National with the Hold Steady while adding his own vocal flourishes. It’s more than the sum of its parts.

Pond – Human Touch. These Aussie psych-rockers just released their ninth album, simply called 9, today, with this as the second track and third single released ahead of the record, along with the also strong “America’s Cup.” Their brand of psychedelic rock emphasizes groove over the hazy production more typical of the genre.

The Lottery Winners feat. KT Tunstall – Dance With the Devil. I’ve been on the Lottery Winners for a few months now, but just discovered that the bio on their Youtube channel calls them “a mob of four twits from a rubbish working class town called Leigh, near Manchester.” Anyway, Something to Leave the House For, their second album, drops on October 29^th.

Sam Fender – Get You Down. I wasn’t familiar with Fender’s work, although with a name like that, you’d better play one. He’s pretty popular in the UK, with his first album hitting #1 and his second due out on October 8^th, with a sort of emo-tinged indie-rock that I think could play pretty well here too.

Zeal & Ardor – Bow. The gospel/black metal fusion isn’t quite so present here – there’s some distorted guitars at the back of the mix, but this minimalist track from Manuel Gagneux puts his vocals front and center, where they belong.

Yard Act – The Overload. I feel like this particular brand of post-punk music only works if you have a working-class English accent, so that the deadpan talk-sung lyrics sound charming rather than offputting. Whatever the reason, it works for me.

Stereophonics – Hanging on Your Hinges. The Guardian‘s final tracks of the week column called this song “the biggest pile of sh**,” but this song, while not exactly vintage Stereophonics, rocks. That’s a great riff that carries the whole track.

Eels – Good Night on Earth. I didn’t realize Mark Oliver Everett – sometimes known simply as E – was still churning out albums every two years or so, but so it is. This track wouldn’t be out of place on Electro-Shock Blues, which is high praise. Also, I need to say this pretty much every time I talk about Eels: E’s father, Hugh Everett III, came up with the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. What’s the cooler legacy: that, or “Novocaine for the Soul?”

Talk Show – Underworld. I feel like at some point this new wave revivalist band will run into trouble thanks to the one-album act of the same name that included three members of Stone Temple Pilots (without Scott Weiland). “Underworld,” the first release off their EP Touch the Ground, due out in early 2022, straddles the genres of new wave and post-punk, like someone remixed a Gang of Four track.

Mini Trees – Carrying On. Lexi Vega, who records as Mini Trees, just released her debut album, Always in Motion, two weeks ago, featuring this lush dream-pop track and earning some extremely positive reviews already.

Ovlov – Land of Steve-O. Ovlov doesn’t release much music – their 2018 album Tru is their only LP since 2013’s am – but their sound is still intact, very ’90s Dinosaur Jr./Sebadoh lo-fi fuzz-rock.

Parquet Courts – Black Widow Spider. I have never been a fan of Parquet Courts, or Parkay Quartz as they once called themselves, but this song is fantastic. It’s off Sympathy for Life, their seventh album, which comes out today.

Aeon Station – Queens. Aeon Station is Kevin Whelan, bassist and co-founder of the dormant band The Wrens, along with two other members of the Wrens. Their first album, Observatory, comes out in December, and includes five tracks Whelan wrote for the never-completed fourth Wrens album. Charles Bissell, the guitarist and co-founder of the Wrens, is not involved, and has said that band is now “dead” and he’ll release his own solo work. It sounds like a big mess. Anyway, I wasn’t familiar with The Wrens at all before this track, but it’s good.

Mastodon – Pushing the Tides. These metal stalwarts’ eighth album, Hushed and Grim, comes out on the 29^th. This track, the first single released off the album, veers back more towards the heavier technical metal of their early career, and while I loved their last record’s more accessible sound, I’m good with just about any direction Mastodon wants to take – as long as they don’t release their version of the Black album.

Thrice – Summer Set Fire to the Rain. Featuring Puig Destroyer drummer Riley Breckenridge, Thrice will release their eleventh album, Horizons/East, next Friday.

Monolord – The Weary. This is the first track I’ve heard from this Swedish doom metal band, with some stoner metal influences here as well, so this is more than just the eight thousandth version of Cathedral or another Sabbath ripoff.

Black Map – Chasms. I thought Black Map, which comprises members of several other bands (Dredg, Far, The Trophy Fire), was a one-off project, but they’re back, with the same style of classic metal with hints of prog.

Iron Maiden – Days of Future Past. Obligatory, although I maintain that the vocal melodies are beyond Bruce Dickinson’s capabilities at this point and end up detracting from the song.

Carcass – The Scythe’s Remorseless Swing. They’re back, with their first album in eight years and only their second in the last quarter-century. Torn Arteries includes this track, which has an incredible 70-second instrumental opening, as well as 2019’s “Under the Scalpel Blade.” I don’t think their sound has changed or evolved much if at all since Surgical Steel, which was the best extreme metal album of the last decade and maybe the best metal album of the decade, period, but I’m okay with this. Carcass more or less perfected melodic death metal, and while I could do without some of the blast beats and will never really enjoy the death growls, the guitar and bass work here is just incredible.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2021 in music, afrobeats, alternative, indie, melodic death metal, metal, Music

→ September 2, 2021
→ By keith

Music update, August 2021.

August finished with quite a bang for new music, so this playlist more than doubled in length in the last week, but I’ll take this as a great sign for how we’ll finish a year that has seemed a little flat for new music. Perhaps the imminent fall/winter tours are driving all this new music coming out. Anyway, if you can’t see the widget below, you can access the Spotify playlist here.

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss – Can’t Let Go. Fourteen years after their hugely acclaimed collaboration Raising Sand, which won six Grammy Awards, Plant and Krauss have reunited for a follow-up, Raise the Roof, due out on November 19^th. This track, written by Randy Weeks and previously recorded by Lucinda Williams, is a hell of a lead single. It’s just about perfect.

Jungle – Truth. Jungle’s third album, Loving in Stereo, has a few bangers, including this, “All of the Time,” and “Keep Moving,” and some slower tracks that don’t do it for me. Jungle’s best work makes you want to dance. I want more of this.

CHVRCHES – Final Girl. CHVRCHES’ fourth album, Screen Violence, is a real return to form for the trio after the disappointing Love is Dead, with stronger lyrics and better hooks, as well as real guitars. This, “How Not to Drown,” and “Good Girls” are the highlights for me.

The Wombats – If You Ever Leave, I’m Coming With You. Now that’s more like it – this feels almost Glitterbug-esque, from the big hooks to the delightfully absurd lyrics. Their fifth album, Fix Yourself, Not the World, drops on January 7^th.

Geese – Low Era. Geese announced their debut album, Projector, will drop on October 29^th, including this track and their first single “Disco.” The Brooklyn quintet’s second track is slower, more dissonant, but still kind of intoxicating. I get black midi and alt-J vibes from them, which could cut both ways, but for now I’m excited for the album.

Kid Kapichi – American Scream. Kid Kapichi’s This Time Next Year is one of my favorite albums of 2021, and the deluxe version, which comes out on October 29^th, will include four unreleased tracks, including this one.

Purity Ring – soshy. It’s written as one word but Megan James sings it as “so shy,” which I would say is a bit toocute. But it’s a good song, more uptempo than a lot of their stuff, while still a strong musical showcase for James’ vocals.

Creeper – Midnight. Creeper’s EP American Noir is supposed to serve as an epilogue to their incredible 2020 album Sex, Death, and the Infinite Void, with 8 new tracks running 19 minutes, including this very “Because the Night”-like duet, and the intro song “Midnight Militia”, a 75-second throwback to the punk sound they showed on their debut album, Eternity, in Your Arms.

Quicksand – Colossus. I was a little underwhelmed by Quicksand’s latest album, Distant Populations, after their surprisingly strong comeback album, 2017’s Interiors. It’s their first album without guitarist Tom Capone, who was arrested for shoplifting while on their last tour and appears to have some mental health issues. This is the best track on the record, though, with the most vintage Quicksand sound to it.

Turnstile – DON’T PLAY. Turnstile is definitely the it band on the rock side of things right now; I compared their song “BLACKOUT” to early Helmet, and Helmet certainly had that kind of buzz before Meantime hit. Anyway, Turnstile’s album GLOW ON is out now, and it’s great, a mixture of hardcore punk and plenty of post-punk tracks, more of the latter, really, which makes all the talk of them as a hardcore band seem a little behind the times. They’re good, and I think this album is going to be all over year-end lists, but they’re a lot more than just a hardcore punk band now.

Deafheaven – In Blur. So Deafheaven has gone from blackgaze to shoegaze, dropping almost all the trappings of death/black metal that characterized their previous four albums; the only screamed vocals on Infinite Granite come at the very end of a few songs, and I don’t think I heard any blast beats. Sunbather was on every critic’s top ten list for its year, or so it seemed, and I would bet you a huge amount of money most of them never got through the entire album and/or have never listened to it since, because almost nobody can stand that much screaming. If they could, extreme metal would be a shit-ton more popular than it is. Anyway, my guess is Deafheaven realized that they’d make a lot more money by toning down the black metal nonsense and crafting something that would appeal to a wider audience – which they could do without compromising the remainder of their musical aesthetic. Infinite Granite is a good shoegaze album, and that should boost their popularity. It is, however, not exactly groundbreaking stuff; if you put this album in 1993, it would fit in nicely with Ride and Slowdive, more accessible than My Bloody Valentine’s two albums of the era but with a similar vibe. The crime will be if this record gets worse reviews than Sunbather despite being music most people could actually enjoy.

Thrice – Robot Soft Exorcism. It’s funny; I always like Thrice’s lead single off a record a bit more than their second single, regardless of how much I end up liking the eventual album. I like “Robot Soft Exorcism,” especially the energy in the chorus, although “Scavengers” was better. Anyway, Horizons/East will be out on the 17^th, and I look forward to seeing them here in Philly in October.

Chrome – Terminate. Not gonna lie: I had no idea Helios Creed was still going. Scaropy is the 23^rd album released under the Chrome name, although I think it’s also fair to say Chrome hasn’t been real Chrome since the last Edge/Creed record, 1982’s 3^rd From the Sun. Anyway, I don’t think Scaropy is very good, but this is the best track on it.

Unknown Mortal Orchesta – That Life. I included this track primarily for that weird, briefly dissonant guitar riff. Without that, the track would be utterly generic, but that riff is great.

Ariel Posen & Cory Wong – Spare Tire. Instrumental jazz-funk from two great guitarists … and it’s under 3 minutes, so it doesn’t overstay its welcome (if anything, they could have gone another minute and it would have been fine considering how strong the groove is).

Griff – One Night. Griff’s mixtape came out in June and reached #4 on the UK album charts, and now she’s back with another gem of a new single. The 20-year-old singer/songwriter seems headed for pop stardom, at least over in Europe, although I’m hoping the U.S. will catch on.

Maisie Peters – Elvis Song. Speaking of heading for stardom, Peters’ debut album, You Signed Up for This, came out a week ago on Ed Sheeran’s record label, and is likely to debut in the top 3 on the UK albums chart on Friday. The album is very good, with Peters’ great knack for telling stories about teenage romances gone wrong, but it’s also slickly produced pop that made me miss Peters’ more singer-songwritery stuff from when she was first starting out.

Courtney Barnett – Before You Gotta Go. I love Barnett the lyricist, and I have resigned myself to Barnett the singer. Whether I like her songs comes down to whether there’s a decent melody beneath them, regardless of tempo, although there’s a clear correlation between the two. This song is a little faster than her norm, and it has a little groove to it, so that the thing she does best – I’d call her a top 5 wordsmith in music right now – gets a chance to shine.

Alien Boy – The Way I Feel. This Portland quartet might have just stepped out of the mid-90s, with jangle-alt-indie-pop sounds and a hint of shoegaze in the production. The band’s name comes from a 1980 Wipers song, which was about James Chasse, who was later murdered by police in 2006 after he was arrested and beaten, breaking 26 bones, while he was probably having a psychotic episode.

Gorillaz feat. AJ Tracey – Jimmy Jimmy. I might be alone in this, but I’ve found most of Gorillaz’ output since their first two albums to be pretty boring. Even this song sounds like Damon Albarn mailed in the music – is that just a sample from “Clint Eastwood” on a loop in the background – but Tracey’s vocals make it something better than the typical Gorillaz track.

Jorja Smith x GuiltyBeatz – All of This. Smith did tell us in May that she would Be Right Back, and here she is again, now with an amapiano collaboration with Ghanaian-Italian producer GuiltyBeatz.

Tom Morello & Phantogram – Driving to Texas. This sounds like a great Phantogram song, but it’s going to appear on Morello’s upcoming album, and I don’t know that I hear him here. Maybe that’s a sign of how expansive the new record will be?

Dream Theater – Alien. It’s 9 minutes, just to warn you, but if you like Dream Theater’s proggy style, then you’re probably okay with that. There are some great guitar lines here, although James LaBrie’s voice is sounding a bit worn.

Exodus – The Beatings Will Continue (Until Morale Improves). I can’t believe these guys are 1) still at it and 2) still making almost exactly the same music as they did 35 years ago. Also, I have to make my Exodus joke: It will never not bother me that “Toxic Waltz” is in 4/4 time.

Omnium Gatherum – Paragon. This Finnish melodic death metal band tends towards a more progressive sound than, say, the Gothenburg school that influenced them, and Omnium often mixes some clean vocals in with the death growls, as they do here in the choruses (are those actual harmonies?). It’s the guitar work that reels me in, though, enough for me to ignore some of the ridiculous vocals.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2021 in music, alternative, indie, melodic death metal, metal, Music, progressive metal, rap, thrash

→ May 3, 2021
→ By keith

Music update, April 2021.

April didn’t bring quite as much new music as March did, or as May will with its five Fridays, but the first three songs on this list are among my favorites of the year, and I’m guessing they’ll all still be very high when my annual top 100 rolls around. As always, you can access the playlist here if you can’t see the widget below.

Wolf Alice – Smile. I loved Wolf Alice’s first album, My Love is Cool, but was more lukewarm on their sophomore LP, Visions of a Life, which won the 2018 Mercury Prize. This song, though … this is the good stuff. Wolf Alice is at their best when they churn out huge, often heavy guitar riffs, and contrast them with quieter moments that make use of singer/guitarist Ellie Roswell’s impressive range of vocal styles. Now I can’t wait for their third album, Blue Weekend, due out June 11^th.

AJ Tracey – Little More Love. The British rapper/singer’s new album Flu Game didn’t live up to this single, but this is a banger.

Manchester Orchestra – Telepath. ManOrch’s latest album, The Million Masks of God, just came out on Friday, and it’s both excellent and a real surprise, showing entirely sides of lead singer/guitarist Andy Hull as a lyricist and a songwriter. This song could have easily come from Lord Huron or Josh Ritter, except for how distinctive Hull’s voice is.

CHVRCHES – He Said She Said. Speaking of lyrics, this feels like a possible return to form for Lauren Mayberry after the disappointing, mailed-in feel of the trio’s last album Love is Dead.

Freddie Gibbs – Big Boss Rabbit. Gibbs is the best male rapper working right now, bar none, and he’s absurdly prolific.

Moses Boyd and SW2 – Bridge the Gap b/w Dirty South. I couldn’t decide which of these two tracks to include – they’re both superb, and yet very different from each other – so I put them both on the list, because I’m the boss here. Boyd’s drum work is revelatory, and he might be even more prolific than Gibbs. I doubt I’ll ever fully grasp jazz the way an aficionado would, but Boyd has made me a bigger fan of the genre than I ever was. (Also, no one seems to know who SW2 are. I wonder if they’re connected to SAULT at all.)

HAERTS – Why Only You. This track comes from the duo’s third album, Dream Nation, which was due out March 12^th but doesn’t seem to have actually come out on that date, or any date since. We have four singles so far, and they’re all good, so I’m still eager to hear the full LP.

Paul McCartney feat. Khruangbin – Pretty Boys. I think this the third most-talented Beatle’s first appearance on my playlists, but that’s due to the tremendous work here by Khruangbin.

Royal Blood – Boilermaker. The singles I’ve heard so far from Typhoons, which just came out on Friday, made me think of Queens of the Stone Age’s sonic shift on their last record, Villains, thanks for the production work of Mark Ronson. Turns out that QotSA’s Josh Homme helped produce Typhoons, so I’m not crazy – and just like with Villains, the addition of dance elements and more funk influence in the rhythms really works.

Jorja Smith – Gone. Smith has been all over the place since her Mercury Prize-nominated debut album Lost & Found back in 2018, but she’s finally releasing another EP, Be Right Back, on May 14^th, featuring this song and “Addicted,” but neither of the two songs she released in 2020 (“Come Over” and “By Any Means”).

Sarah Chernoff – Remains of the Way. Chernoff just released Transitions, a five-song EP, last April, highlighted by this song, which makes the best use of her voice while bringing a little more uptempo vibe to the backing music.

Jade Bird – Black Star. This lovely acoustic cover of the Radiohead track, from her RCA Studio A Session, remagines the song as a bittersweet ballad.

Little Simz – Introvert. This track starts out almost like a sketch you’d find on old-school hip-hop records, but then transitions into a typically great Little Simz joint, the lead single from the London rapper/actress’ fourth album, Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, due out September 3^rd.

Teenage Fanclub – In Our Dreams. If you’d played this song for me and told me it was by Teenage Fanclub, I would have assumed it was from somewhere in the mid-1990s – it’s that sort of slightly muted power-pop, and while one of the group’s vocalists, Gerard Love, departed the band in 2018, this still pretty much sounds like Teenage Fanclub to me.

Sports Team – Happy (God’s Own Country). This is Sports Team’s first new track since their Mercury Prize-nominated album Deep Down Happy, and the likely lads, several of whom went to the University of Cambridge, manage to sound reminiscent of Gang of Four, the Libertines, and Art Brut all at once.

Elvenking – The Moon and Magic. An Italian power/folk-metal band, or so Wikipedia tells me, although I would have guessed Elvenking were Norse in origin given their sound and subject matter. I think a lot of bands in this weird niche appeal to me because the guitar work often sounds a lot like the bands I enjoyed while first learning guitar in the late ’80s, before groove & death metal competed with grunge and pulled this sort of music apart at the seams.

Bala – X. I wasn’t familiar with this Galician duo, both women, but I’m into the guitar work here, as well as the rapid tempo shifts, drawing from thrash and punk while incorporating the kind of guitar/drum sound popularized by Royal Blood, the White Stripes, and Drenge.

At the Gates – Spectre of Extinction. These melodic death metal legends have been as good or better in their return (2014 to now) as they were in their heyday (through 1995’s Slaughter of the Soul). It’s not for everyone, not with those throat-shredding vocals, but the guitar work is fantastic.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2021 in music, alternative, hip-hop, melodic death metal, metal, Music, rap

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