Sh*t That Comes Out Today: June 25, 2021
Apparently it’s a “multiple album covers with owls on them” kind of week.
The Absence
Coffinized (M-Theory)
My interest in The Absence was absent during their nascent period. Somewhere along the line they got real fucking good, though! I’m glad to be proven wrong. Their fifth album, Coffinized, features seriously wicked riffs that should earn them some arch enemies. They have enough confidence to keep them from going down in flames as they arrive at the gates of melodeath excellence.
Amenra
De Doorn (Relapse)
Not a mass but still massive, the Relapse debut from these long-running Belgian brutalists changes their naming scheme while maintaining their ability to go all Godzilla on your good mood. This isn’t something you’ll want to listen to all the time, but Amenra uncover new levels of despair while drilling through to the bleeding heart of their sound. Their thorny post-metal cuts deep.
Darkthrone
Eternal Hails (Peaceville)
I’ll confess that I haven’t heard this (promos don’t go out until release date, which is after I’m writing this), but it’s Darkthrone. First impression from the single: is this a demo? I mean, I know that Fenriz loves old 80s obscurities that were recorded directly to cassette, but Old Star packed a punch. The riffs are there, as always. Just ’cause it’s got a cave on the cover doesn’t mean it needs to sound like it was recorded in said cave.
De Arma
Strayed in Shadows (Trollmusic)
Good luck googling this band without getting lots of results about the Knives Out star/Affleck ex of similar name. If you can get past the gossip columns, you’ll discover a proof of concept that melancholic metal is only a floodland away from post-punk (something that they’d started to play with on their previous album a full decade ago). Some quality doom and gloom here, enough to present something a little different from the other Katatonialikes out there.
Light The Torch
You Will Be The Death Of Me (NB)
Howard Jones has one of the finest voices in all of metalcore, maybe even all of metal, and Adam D. knew how to use it in Killswitch Engage to craft some of the most devastating emotional haymakers the genre has ever seen. It’s always good to hear his passionate delivery, but the problem that leaves Light the Torch in the darkness is a simple one: where are the hooks?
Stöner
Stoners Rule (Heavy Psych Sounds)
“Hey, I wonder what this new band called Stöner featuring Brant Bjork and Nick Oliveri sounds like,” is something nobody will be saying ever. More in Bjork’s wheelhouse than Oliveri’s (except for punk jam “Evel Will Never Die”), these are some laid-back post-Kyuss hammock jams. Sounds like these stoner rock pioneers are getting real mellow in their mature years, and I’m pretty okay with that. Kyuss is dead, Kyuss Lives! is dead, this’ll do just fine.
OTHER SHIT THAT COMES OUT TODAY
Beartooth – Below (Red Bull) Listen
Buckcherry – Hellbound (Round Hill/Earache) Listen
Cathexis – Untethered Abyss (Willowtip) Listen
Cerebral Rot – Excretion Of Mortality (20 Buck Spin) Listen
Devin Townsend – Devolution Series #2 – Galactic Quarantine (InsideOut) Listen
Dream Theater – Lost Not Forgotten Archives: Images And Words – Live In Japan 2017 (Century Media) Listen
Enslaved – Below The Lights (Cinematic Tour 2020) (NB) Listen
Enslaved – Chronicles Of The Northbound (Cinematic Tour 2020) (NB) Listen
Enslaved – The Rise Of Ymir (Cinematic Tour 2020) (NB) Listen
Enslaved – Utgard – The Journey Within (Cinematic Tour 2020) (NB) Listen
Fractal Universe – The Impassable Horizon (Metal Blade) Listen
Hellish Form – Remains (Translation Loss) Listen
Hiraes – Solitary (Napalm) Listen
Iceburn – Asclepius (Southern Lord) Listen
Kollapse – Sult (Fysisk) Listen
Lacuna Coil – Live From The Apocalypse (Century Media) Listen
Lucifer’s Hammer – The Trip (High Roller) Listen
Motorhead – No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith 40th Anniversary Edition (Sanctuary) Listen
Pestilence – Exitivm (Agonia) Listen
Suidakra – Wolfbite (MDD) Listen
Thy Catafalque – Vadak (SoM) Listen
Urne – Serpent & Spirit (Candlelight) Listen
Withered – Verloren (SoM) Listen
