Sh*t That Comes Out Today: August 27, 2013
Ever listen to an album and say to yourself, “well goddamn what a fucking earful?” Well, this can be good or bad. Below you’re gonna find some sexy links which will either be a) an earful of pleasure or b) an earful of wiggling baby worms. Love/fuck that shit!
·
Avenged Sevenfold
Hail To The King (Warner Bros.)
On a playlist with: Bullet For My Valentine, Atreyu, Pinkly Smooth
Listen Hail To The King full stream (here)
Style-focused hip-rockers A7X were never really, uh, on my A-list. Okay, when City Of Evil landed in 2005, my high-school self was all up and like “omg great shit” for a good two weeks. I was dazzled by their harmonic noodlings and in-and-out rock/metal mix. I was in love with the fact that they had Hunter S. Thompson references. So cool! Okay, played out actually, but that was then and this is now. And now they’re kind of, dare I say it, lame? I mean, Hail To The King isn’t horrible. It’s just not my kind of good.
·
DevilDriver
Winter Kills (Napalm)
On a playlist with: Chimaria, The Haunted, Lamb Of God
Listen “Ruthless” (here)
Read Dave Mustein MetalSucks review (here)
Groove. Grooooove. For me, groove is when riffs slip off each other like BBQ sauce on white shoes. Groove is when drumming is purposeful and light on fills. Groove is when the vocals hop up and down like drunk hipsters in a bouncy castle. Fucking love groove. And DevilDriver has been doing it perfectly for how long? They kind of come in under the radar a lot, which disappoints me. I wish I heard about these guys all the time, and didn’t have to be reminded about them when their newest drops right at my feet. By the way, the outro to “Ruthless” is sensational!
·
Speedtrap
Powerdose (Svart)
On a playlist with: Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati
Listen Powerdose full stream (here)
So when I hear “speedtrap,” what comes to mind is that sinking feeling you get when the red and blue flashers show up in your rear-view. Then you have to explain to the cop, “no mister sir, there was no way I was pushing 115 mph in that school zone like you state.” Then you tell him that you were listening to Powerdose and it finally makes sense! Like a shot of adrenaline and Pixy Stix right in the ass, Powerdose is a high. Plain ol’ fast, good, wicked, razor-sharp power thrash. But what sets it apart from its gluttonous genre is: These guys can fucking riff. Case in point is the third track, “Ready To Strike.” Perfect name. Perfect riff. Perfect vocals. Metal as all fuck.
·
Northless
World Keeps Sinking (Halo of Flies)
On a playlist with: Morne, Alaskan, Love Sex Machine
Listen “Communion” and “Kuru” (here)
There’s sludge. And then there’s sluuuuuudge. I think this is more of the former. It doesn’t drag its knuckles or make you feel like you’re stumbling over your own feet or running through thick sand. It’s progressive. Really gentle actually, especially in the way that high-string chord rings jut out from nowhere, and the way that tempo-changes with omg actual riffs come out! But that’s just the tinsel, because deep down, World Keeps Sinking is heavy and heavy-hearted. Gooey and wicked to the core. Really good, full stuff. Top-shelf.
·
Saprogenic
Expanding Toward Collapsed Lungs (Willowtip)
On a playlist with: Beneath The Massacre, Cannibal Corpse, Brodequin
Listen Expanding Toward Collapsed Lungs full stream (here)
I love how good tech-death is like a fine IPA — wicked powerful on your senses and ability to walk straight, but delicate enough to give you the finest sensations in your tongue and throat. And I feel like I can fucking taste Expanding Toward Collapsed Lungs. It’s about 30% grindcore slam, 70% tech-death insanity, and 20% growling. That’s right. It’s 120%. One of my biggest criteria for judging an album is whether I feel like it’s full. Not just “not tinny” or “not cheap”, but that the soundwaves going into my ears are real and purposeful and continuous and beefed-out. Well, here ya go.
·
Pursuing The End
Symmetry Of Scorn (Bakerteam)
On a playlist with: Ashentide, Evil’s Desire, Whispering Woods
Listen “Cage Of Hypocrisy” (here)
So the video for Pursuing The End’s “Cage Of Hypocrisy” is fuckin’ weird. It’s also cringe-worthy in its sheer level of cheesiness. It’s fucking Velveeta vending machine. And the music? Well, super generic. That’s all I’ll say about it. I want to point it toward y’all and give a prompt: what say you about this? Do you think snakes and black T-shirts and white backgrounds and camera shakes are a bit played out? I mean, a good metal video has to look kind of like a metal video (unless you’re Uneven Structure and you make the single greatest music video of all time, shields up). But then again you want some distinctiveness, no? Or is it totally distinctive to be not distinctive at all? LESBIAN KISS.
·
OTHER SHIT THAT COMES OUT TODAY
Blackfield IV (Kscope) listen listen
Bone Dance Snakecharmers EP reissue (Melotov) listen
» Diesto For Water Or Blood (Eolian Empire) listen
End Of Green The Painstream (Napalm) listen
Exitus Statutum Est Hominibus Mori resissue (Svart) listen
Infanticide Misconception Of Hope (Willowtip) listen
Kill The Precedent Dialogues With The Dead (Minus Head) listen
Maps For Travelers Change Your Name (No Sleep) listen listen
Michael Monroe Horns And Halos (Spinefarm) listen
Ministry Enjoy The Quiet – Live At Wacken 2012 DVD/CD (13th Planet) watch
Nekrogoblikon Power (Goblin) listen read
Puscifer All Re-Mixed Up (Puscifer Entertainment) listen
» Self Defense Family The Corrections Officer In Me (Family Drugs) listen
Tarja Colours In The Dark (Armoury) listen
Until Rain Anthem To Creation (Escape) listen
·
