Sh*t That Comes Out Today: October 30, 2012

Ahhh, gooood muerneeng!! Blah! Velcome to this week’s varrry spooooky Shit That Comes Out Today! Quake fearfully at heavy and hard new releases from Halloween-appropriate bands like Along Came A Spider, Transylvanian Funeral, Yurei, Monsterworks, and Incubus. Smirk ironically at Frankenstorm-appropriate ones like Stagnant Waters (awesome!), Maelstrom (nice!), and Raindance (too soon?). AH! AH! AH!

Early Graves
Red Horse (No Sleep)
On a playlist with: Gaza, Today Is The Day, Nachtmystium
Listen Red Horse full stream (here)

On their first album since the 2010 death of frontman Makh Daniels, Early Graves sounds like a haunted band— and for their style of music, that isn’t a bad thing. Anger, terror, and fear pulsate throughout this chilling work. The Funeral Pyre’s John Strachan is an inspired choice for vocals duty, as his filthy black-metal rasp effectively contrasts with EG’s sludgy hardcore. And Red Horse surprises with their most unabashedly tuneful melodies and even clean, bluesy guitar sections to break up the muck. A commendable return.

Family
Portrait (Pelagic)
On a playlist with: Intronaut, Burst, Mastodon
Listen Exclusive MetalSucks Portrait full stream (here)

If you haven’t heard the debut album by Family — which counts among its ranks MetalSucks’ own Kip Wingerschmidt (aka Steven Gordon) — you’re missing out. Throwback rock-metal may be a hip thing now, but most bands you’ve heard aren’t doing anything special with it; meanwhile, Gordon and Joshua Lozano lay down the Zeppelin-isms and Thin Lizzy leads against alt-metal-touched riffs of the Tool/Deftones ilk, angular proggy grooves, and a vein-bulging screamer. Hey KW! Your band sucks … and that’s meant in the very best way!

Neurosis
Honor Found In Decay (Neurot)
On a playlist with: … Neurosis?
Listen Honor Found In Decay full stream (here)
Read Sammy O’Hagar MetalSucks review (here)

Hey Neurosis fans, guess what? If you like Neurosis, you’re gonna love this Neurosis album! It is not a radical revision of these acclaimed post-metal masters’ sound, but Honor Found In Decay does show them settling into a sweet spot between Given to the Rising‘s apocalyptic noise sludge and the epic post-metal of The Eye of Every Storm — and that’s a great place to be. A fan of the folky and melodic dabblings of Eye (and on the many Neurosis side projects) will find their return on Honor Found In Decay to be very welcome indeed.. For the most part this is Neurosis keeping pace, and that’s hardly bad, but when they do venture off the beaten path (see the wicked bagpipe solo at “At The Well”‘s four-minute mark), it becomes clearer than ever that this band, almost 30 years into its career, is still on top.

Kamelot
Silverthorn (SPV)
On a playlist with: Symphony X, Icarus Witch, Blind Guardian
Listen “Sacrimony” here

No Kahn? No problahm! On their tenth album, Kamelot managed the remarkable feat of replacing their beloved former lead singer Roy Kahn with an ace who sounds like him to an uncanny degree. Tommy Karevik delivers a seamless debut performance, one that neatly traces the signature of classic Kamelot vocals in a brighter color. It’s his higher upper register that freshens Silverthorn — especially compared to its polarizing predecessor, Poetry for the Poisoned . Silverthorn isn’t a classic on the scale of Black Halo or Epica but it is a great return to form with huge choruses, groovy riffs, epic cheesiness, and enough synthpad strings to make any prog nerd drool. Fun fact: Silverthorn‘s occasional harsh vocals are provided by Alissa White-Gluz of The Agonist!

Stagnant Waters
Stagnant Waters (Adversum)
On a playlist with: Anaal Nathrakh, Deathspell Omega, Ephel Duath
Listen “Algae” (here)

Boy, this one is weird. After several listens, I still can’t make heads or tails of it. Regardless of your feelings about avant garde and black metal subgenres, you certainly won’t look on Stagnant Waters with indifference. Imagine 30-second snippets of Combichrist, Anaal Nathrakh, John Zorn, Cephalic Carnage, Vintersorg, and Mr. Bungle on a four-minute shuffle … and that hardly begins to describe this mindfuck. I still can’t figure out if it all works, but it’s worth checking out and beats the shit out of the generic, recorded-on-a-cassette-player black metal we sift through every week.

Yurei
Night Vision (Adversum)
On a playlist with: Mr. Bungle’s California, Opeth’s Heritage, Tub Ring
Listen “Dali By Night” (here)

Have you ever wondered what might result from a collaboration between two of progressive music’s big Mikes (Patton and Akerfeldt)? Me too, and the new album by Norwegian headscratchers Yurei comes pretty close. Night Vision seems to have great eerie clean guitar intros that would creep you out … if they weren’t followed by disco-rock beats and bebop sing-alongs. Kind of spooky, a little goofy, lots of weird, Night Vision is great addition to your Halloween party playlist.

OTHER SHIT THAT COMES OUT TODAY

Along Came A Spider If We Were Normal Men (Standby) listen

Eagle Claw Timing Of The Void (ECH) listen

Killing Joke MMXII (Spinefarm) listen

Quiet Riot Condition Critical deluxe (Rock Candy) listen