SH*T THAT COMES OUT TODAY: APRIL 24, 2012
It may seem early to mention it, but Summer is just around the corner. As the weather gets warmer, I envision days spent near a large body of water, tallboy in hand, and inches away from absurdly large speakers rocking tasty jams. You feel me! And this week’s Shit That Comes Out Today adds plenty to your high-temperature/low-clothing playlist: swamp sludge from 16, an epic new Paradise Lost record, a surprisingly refreshing new Struck By Lightning LP, and Woods of Ypres’s posthumous final release, among others. Check ’em out after the jump!
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Cancer Bats
Dead Set On Living (Metal Blade)
On a playlist with: Coliseum, Every Time I Die, Kvelertak
Listen “Bricks & Mortar” (here)
It’s easy to get bored with a band that sticks to one thing, so it’s tough to get bored with Cancer Bats. Dead Set On Living fuses hardcore, rock and roll, and metallic elements to create a high-energy batch of tunes with a ton of swagger and edge. Best of all, Dead Set‘s songs have aggression and stellar, fast-paced riffs that stick in your head and keep it nodding.
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Crazy Lixx
Riot Avenue (Frontiers)
On a playlist with: Pretty Boy Floyd, The Wildhearts, Vains of Jenna
Listen “In The Night” (here)
Over the last decade in Sweden, a new sleaze scene has been built on a love of punk rock and rock and roll — and of the cheesy glam trappings that many would like to just forget about. But no matter how much we may despise the White Lions or Twisted Sisters, we can guiltlessly admit that Sweden’s new acts can take the sound to the next level: Crazy Lixx’s Riot Avenue is some pretty awesome stuff. Singer Danny Rexon and crew keep it simple, and they don’t give a fuck, and that’s rock and roll anyway, right?
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Paradise Lost
Tragic Idol (Century Media)
On a playlist with: My Dying Bride, Brand New Sin, Count Raven
Listen Tragic Idol full stream (here)
Paradise Lost’s 23-year career has had its ups and downs. After some excellent stuff, their work the late ‘90s and early ’00s was awful. But since 2002, the English quintet has been on a road to recovery — and that continues with the only slightly doomy, mostly epic Tragic Idol. Amid high-volume/low-end riffs, Greg Mackintosh’s dynamic, propulsive lead guitar work is what really works here. Another excellent Paradise Lost record.
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16
Deep Cuts From Dark Clouds (Relapse)
On a playlist with: Eyehategod, Orange Goblin, Alabama Thunderpussy
Listen Deep Cuts From Dark Clouds full stream (here)
Read MetalSucks review (here)
The second album since 16’s seven-year hiatus, Deep Cuts From Dark Clouds delivers much of the same as 2009’s Bridges To Burn, with a heavier guitar/bass attack and much rougher vocals. It’s still 16-style swamp rock for sure, just delivered with a little more power.
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Struck By Lightning
True Predation (Translation Loss)
On a playlist with: Black Breath, Behemoth, Ancient
Listen True Predation full stream (here)
On Struck By Lightning’s second record, True Predation, all the metal power of 2009’s Serpents gets cranked up and sped up to deliver an even more refined blast of punk energy. The volume is higher, the speed faster, and the metal blacker: Where Serpents matched punk rock to post-rock with some heaviness, True Predation lands squarely in blackened d-beat. Biiiiig improvement.
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Woods Of Ypres
Woods 5: Grey Skies & Electric Lights (Earache)
On a playlist with: Type O Negative, Yaotl Mictlan, Agalloch
Listen “Kiss My Ashes (Goodbye)” (here)
The somberness of this posthumous Woods Of Ypres album is even more poignant in the wake of frontman David Gold’s death in December. This fifth and final set displays his atmospheric/doomy side, and relies heavily on clean singing. The track “Kiss My Ashes (Goodbye)” sounds so much like a eulogy that it’s almost uncomfortable to listen to. Although Gold’s passing brings an end to a great musician’s life and to his singular band, Woods V: Grey Skies & Electric Light serves as a great swan song for both.
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MORE SHIT THAT COMES OUT TODAY
7 Horns 7 Eyes Throes Of Absolution (stream here, Century Media)
Anathema Weather Systems (right, The End)
Ancient VVisdom A Godlike Inferno (Prosthetic)
Author & Punisher Ursus Americanus (stream here, Seventh Rule)
Balance And Composure Acoustic 7″ (No Sleep)
Bereft Leichenhaus (The End)
Claim The Throne Triumph And Beyond (Prime Cuts)
Code Orange Kids/Full Of Hell split (TopShelf)
Cripple Bastards Senza Impronte EP (Relapse)
Crystal Viper Crimen Excepta (AFM)
Deathhammer Onward To The Pits (left, Hells Headbangers)
Deep Purple Total Abandon: Australia ’99 (Eagle Rock)
Disfiguring The Godess Sleeper EP (stream here, Decomp)
Fair Warning Best And More (stream here, Steamhammer US)
Float Face Down Exitium Verum (Rite Of Passage)
Haste The Day Best Of The Best (Solid State)
Hideous Divinity Obeisance Rising (Unique Leader)
Horisont Second Assault (Metal Blade)
Kissin’ Dynamite Money, Sex & Power (stream here, AFM)
Loyal To The Grave Against The Odds (Eulogy)
Mares Of Thrace The Pilgrimage (stream here, Sonic Unyon)
Necronomicon Invictus (Soulfood/AFM)
Pigeon Toe First Perception (Lifeforce)
Prong Carved Into Stone (right, SPV/Steamhammer)
Running Wild Shadowmaker (stream here, Steamhammer US)
Sinister Legacy Of Ashes (Goomba)
Solitude Aeturnus In Times Of Solitude reissue (Goomba)
Teramaze Anhedonia (Nightmare)
Terror No Regrets, No Shame: The Bridge Nine Days (Bridge Nine)
Torche Harmonicraft (stream here, left, Volcom)
Unleashed Odalheim (Nuclear Blast)
Verdun Cosmic Escape Of Admiral Masuka Verdun EP (Head)
Vesperian Sorrow – Stormwinds Of Ages (The Path Less Traveled)
War Of Ages Return To Life (Facedown)
Weregoat Unholy Exaltation Of Fullmoon Perversity (SOPQ)
Words Like Daggers Literature (Indianola)
-VV
To hear more awesome metal, tune in to Heresy with STCOT’s Vic Vaughn (aka Duff). Heresy airs every Tuesday at 9PM CT on Lincoln’s 90.3 KRNU. Stream online here.