Shit That Comes Out Today: March 29th, 2019
Happy Friday! There’s SO MUCH awesome music out today that I’m gonna have a really hard time narrowing this list down to a reasonable number of features. If I were slightly more sober and awake, I’d dedicate a paragraph to every single album on the list… but, fortunately for everyone, I’ve had just enough Montucky for everything unrelated to pizza to go out the window, so I’ll keep it short. Make sure to take a gander through the Other Shit That Comes Out Today section when you get to the end!
Devin Townsend
Empath (HevyDevy / InsideOut)
Listen “Spirits Will Collide”
Where do I even begin? Empath takes us from Bikini Bottom to medieval Europe to an 80s arcade game, with plenty more pit stop destinations along the way. And that’s just the first song.
While Devin’s famous for his eccentricities and no-fucks-given approach to music, his latest release feels more grounded than some of his other recent efforts. Empath is still as zany as ever, but without the over-the-top mania of, say, Deconstruction. But it ain’t all fun and games. Music of this stature doesn’t just come out of thin air — after investing in studio musicians, instruments, and production, artists can be left with a pretty big bill to cover. For the album at hand, that bill came out to about 170k. According to the the man himself, “if Empath loses a ton of money, I won’t be able to continue”. I don’t think we really have much to worry about, though, since every Devy fan is scrambling to spend half their paycheck on merch after reading that.
Triumvir Foul
VT-XXIV || Urine of Abomination (20 Buck Spin / Vrasubatlat)
FFO Pissgrave, Teitanblood
Listen “Urine of Abomination I”
Any album with the word “Urine” in the title is sure to be a hit. The latest piss-soaked entity from Triumvir Foul offers 16 minutes of feral, pungent depravity pulled from the sewers (and check out that cover!) The most honest and straightforward analysis of Urine of Abomination is brought to you by my friend who is being kind enough to let me mooch his WiFi: “It sounds like it was recorded on a very windy day.” He’s not wrong. But if you have a discerning ear, you’ll be able to pick out the complex layers amidst the swamp. (SHREK PUN NOT INTENDED)
Sutekh Hexen
Sutekh Hexen (Sentient Ruin)
FFO Sunn O))), Gnaw Their Tongues
Listen “Descent”
“Entering the void” is soooo 2009. *rips bong* These days, it’s all about becoming one with the void, man. Oakland’s blackened noise outfit Sutekh Hexen have mastered the art of embodying the unknown, creating an abstract, cryptic ambiance that rips you from your own universe into theirs. Their new self titled is their first full-length in over 10 years, and it’s obvious that a decade’s worth of work has been put into the album. Ritualistic drone warps into industrial terror and power electronics, winding together artfully into a masterwork beyond measure.
Moon Tooth
Crux (Modern Static Records)
FFO
Listen “Trust”
Back in 2016, Moon Tooth took the world by storm with their spastic debut, Chromaparagon. They’ve been relatively quiet since then (well, besides touring), but the boys are back in town today with Crux, their latest feat of whimsical audiomancy. The new album is heavily prog but never too “out there”, taking unexpected turns that’ll keep you on your toes without leading you down a black hole. Tight, concise, and intentional.
Whitechapel
The Valley (Metal Blade)
Full Album Stream
Little known history fact: way back in cowboy times, Phil Bozeman was actually a pioneer who trekked through the foothills of the west in the hopes of finding gold and striking it rich. In 1864, he established a town in the fertile Gallatin Valley, “standing right in the gate of the mountains,” and named it after himself, as any good settler would do.* Today, Bozeman, MT is rumored to be home to some of the most metal motherfuckers around, and we’re hella excited about the new album our founder just dropped.
While Bozeman experiments with clean vocals for the first time on The Valley, Whitechapel have made it pretty clear that they’re not giving up on the brutality anytime soon. There’s just enough gutterals and punishing riffage to keep old fans happy, though the band’s new, “more mature” direction gives us more time to breathe between breakdowns. I’m sure the new sound is due in no small part to the bleak subject matter depicted on the album: “It’s all about me as a child, and some of it is me looking back on that time from the perspective of now,” says Bozeman. “Also, it’s my interpretation of my mom’s struggles and her different personalities. She had a journal that contained very disturbing and sometimes evil writings, and some of her quotes and a lot of that journal is in the lyrics.” It’s heavy stuff, both musically and lyrically, and is easily one if Whitechapel’s best releases since their self-titled in 2012.
*Actually, John Bozeman did all that stuff.
OTHER SHIT THAT COMES OUT TODAY
Wizzerd – Wizzerd (self-released) listen
A Wake In Providence – The Blvck Sun || The Blood Moon (Outerloop) listen
Arrival of Autumn – Harbinger (Nuclear Blast) listen
Bloodline – Better View (Stay Sick) listen
Brutus – Nest (Sargent House) listen
East Of The Wall – NP-Complete (Translation Loss) listen
Totaled – Lament (Profound Lore) listen
I Prevail – Trauma (Fearless) listen
Applaud the Impaler – Ov Apocalypse Incarnate (Unique Leader) listen
Kolten Wong City – Expressed Written Consent (self-released) listen
L.A. Guns – The Devil You Know (Frontiers) listen
Lee McKinney – Infinite Mind (Sumerian) listen
Low Dose – Low Dose (Brutal Panda) listen
Magic Circle – Departed Souls (20 Buck Spin) listen
Okilly Dokilly – Howdilly Twodilly (self-released) listen
Skullsmasher – Rocket Hammer Brain Surgery (Selfmadegod) listen
VLTIMAS – Something Wicked Marches In (Season Of Mist) listen
Yngwie Malmsteen – Blue Lightning (Mascot) listen
Ultar – Pantheon (Temple of Tortuous) listen
Nocturnal Hollow – A Whisper of a Horrendous Soul (Redefining Darkness) listen
Moros – Weapon (Hidden Deity) listen
Lustre – Another Time, Another Place (Morrowless) listen
Rage of Light – Imploder (Napalm) listen
Falaise – A Place I Don’t Belong To (ATMF) listen
Ellende – Lebensnehmer (Art of Propaganda) listen
Akrotheism – Law of Seven Deaths (Osmose) listen
