Sh*t That Comes Out Today: November 19, 2013
We approach the final countdown to our MetalSucks best-of-year lists. As you sit there holding your pee in anticipation, spin some new tracks and fall in love with some new shit! These late-year releases might not squeeze onto many top-15s (maybe next year!), but that doesn’t mean that we don’t give no fucks. In fact, we give a ton of fucks!
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Face All Fears
The Breaking Point (Autumn + Color)
On a playlist with: Throwdown, Despised Icon, Soilwork
Listen “All For Nothing” (here) “Rat Race” (here) “Underhanded” (here)
Feel-good metal comes best in the form of melo-thrash, and I’m always down. It doesn’t make you go, “oh rainbows, the world is a beautiful place!” It’s more like “ugh yeah it’s a dreary Monday and I’m ready to fuck this day in the ass.” The Breaking Point sounds straightedge, but it’s irrelevant whether it actually is. And aside from the fact that some of the album’s bits are rather generic — tropy breakdowns, for example — it hits hard. And fast. Not much to hate here, which is never a bad thing.
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Bones
Sons Of Sleaze (Planet Metal)
On a playlist with: Lair Of The Minotaur, Witchtrap
Listen “Maggots” (here) “13” (here)
I’m shocked about how little I like Bones’ Sons Of Sleaze, but how much I enjoy listening to it: It’s filthy in the wrong ways, recorded on a moldy potato, and heavily schizophrenic. But — huge but — it’s fucking nutty. The solo on “Maggots” goes from a Slayer homage to an orgy of industrial pick scrapes. “13” starts hard and heavy, if generic, but then devolves into what we’ll call unga-bunga slamming. I suppose sleaze is the perfect word to describe it. 100% win.
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Ghost
If You Have Ghost EP covers (Loma Vista)
On a playlist with: Ghost, Ghost, Ghost
Listen If You Have Ghost EP full stream (here)
I love cover songs, but cover albums bore me. They’re too fragmented and thrown together. But here’s a massive exception: What really sells me on Ghost’s mini-set is the vocals — gentle, clean, and indie, but firmly metal. Big points for cohesion, too, and the sheer smoothness of it all. It’s like therapy, especially the title cover track: Roky Erickson’s “If You Have Ghosts.” It hits hard on the inside feels, choking you up a little bit! I love soft hearts and the If You Have Ghost EP pokes at them hard.
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Sandrider
Godhead (Good To Die)
On a playlist with: Kvelertak, Sweet Cobra, Black Sleep Of Kali
Listen “Gorgon” (here) “Scalpel” (here)
Godhead in one go: Southern party rock with Seattle sensibilities and grungy/dirt undertones! Spin “Scalpel” (above) and get a serious load of some progressive yet simplistic rocky waves. When rock (and roll) starts to bridge into metal, so many elements have to come into play as balances. For example, you have to weigh vocal style (too much scream, not enough?), arrangements (breakdowns or no?), and mood (we gonna use percussive guitar bits and chorus yells?). Godhead is the right balance of it all! That’s why it satisfies so many parts of your brain — mainly, the one connected to your intellect, and the one connected to your genitals. One and the same? Sure feels like it.
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Sun And Sail Club
Mannequins (Satin)
On a playlist with: Vista Chino, Naam, Earthless
Listen Mannequins full stream (here)
Here come the robots, motherfucker! But not like cheesy sci-fi Daft Punk. More like “rock that’s spacey as hell.” And so what you get is a serious dose of mood — like you’re being propelled through space in the famous climax to 2001: A Space Odyssey. But unlike most psychedelic space jams, this doesn’t remove you from yourself or the music. It’s not an out-of-body experience. It’s grounded in serious bar-rock riffage and fill-heavy drum lines. It’s more of an out-of-music experience. One of those deals where a genre you thought couldn’t expand without destroying itself actually expands. By the way, if the vocoder annoys you, then I hope humorless space robots come from the future to nab your pets.
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Insomnium
Ephemeral EP (Century Media)
On a playlist with: Darkest Hour, Dark Tranquility, Before The Dawn
Listen “Ephemeral” (here)
Insomnium, to me, sounds like the lost European brother of Darkest Hour. That’s an excellent fucking thing. The Ephemeral EP is one of those albums which rocks so smooth, with heavy crash drumming and lots of high-end melody. It’s the consistent time signature which makes it feel so heartfelt, though. The way that the choruses have up-and-down octave riffs in front of consistent drumming. And the whole of “Ephemeral” builds up to a great climax over a relatively short four minutes. If this is any indication of what’s to come in 2014, then we might have a solid contender for that year’s top-15 lists!
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OTHER SHIT THAT COMES OUT TODAY
’77 Maximum Rock ‘n Roll (Listenable) listen
Agony Face CLX Stormy Quibblings (My Kingdom) listen
A Perfect Circle Three Sixty (Universal) listen
Apolcalyptia Wagner Reloaded: Live In Leipzig (BMG) listen
Carne Ville Morgue (Solar Flare) listen
Chastain Surrender To No One (Leviathan) listen
Coven 13 Destiny Of The Gods (Shadow Kingdom) listen
Day Of Execution Pointless Cause EP (Mulligore) listen
Everyone Dies In Utah Neutral Ground (Tragic Hero) listen listen
Exhale When Worlds Collide (Pulverised) listen listen
Five Finger Death Punch The Wrong Side Of Heaven And The Righteous Side Of Hell: Volume 2 (Prospect Park) listen
» Funeral Circle Funeral Circle (Shadow Kingdom) listen listen
Goresoerd Asülum (Inverse) listen
Hanging Garden I Was A Soldier EP (Lifeforce) listen
» Harsh Toke Light Up And Live (Tee Pee) listen listen
Iron Mask Fifth Son Of Winterdoom (AFM) listen
» Lord Fist Wordless Wisdom of Lord Fist EP (Ektro) listen
Possession (BE) His Best Deceit EP (Iron Bonehead) listen
Psalm Zero Force My Hand (Last Things) listen
Rush Clockwork Angels Tour CD/BR (Roadrunner/Zoe) listen
Saxon Unplugged And Strung Up (UDR) listen
¤ Sons Of Huns Banishment Ritual (Easy Rider) listen
Tad Morose Revenant (Deepsotz) listen listen
Tothem Beyond The Sea (Maple Metal) listen listen
Tombstoned Tombstoned (Svart) listen
Varga Enter The Metal (Vargantuan) listen
Wombbath Internal Caustic Torments reissue (Pulverised) listen
