Sh*t That Comes Out Today: March 19, 2013
AHHHH too much cool shit to write about this week, and I am not remotely sober enough do it … Check out the many highlights below, but be sure to check out the other shit as well! And listen to the new In Vain album if you haven’t already!!
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Hope For The Dying
Alethia (Facedown)
On a playlist with: Becoming The Archetype, 7 Horns 7 Eyes, Oh Sleeper
Listen “Iniquitous” (here) “In Isolation” (here)
When it comes to a band’s sound or beliefs, I’m pretty open minded — as long as the music is good, and they aren’t bigots or worse. My lack of religious outlook on things has never kept me from enjoying Oh Sleeper, Norma Jean, and other pretty cool bands that don’t deserve a quick write-off for their spirituality-based topics. And judging from the new album from God-fearing progressive metalists Hope For The Dying, I count them among that excepted group: I can’t imagine any fans of the abovementioned bands not enjoying Alethia. The sizable work features sparkling musicianship all around and songs of obvious quality despite their lengthiness and “shred” (a term favored by HFTD themselves). Vocalist/keyboardist Josh Ditto also brings something slightly unexpected to the table with his gritty belted clean vocals in select places that contrast nicely with the glossy prog elements swirling around him.
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KEN Mode
Entrench (Season Of Mist)
On a playlist with: Unsane, Goes Cube, Converge
Listen Entrench full stream (here)
I’ve always found KEN Mode interesting, but have never been able to get into them on a consistent basis. Their stand-out tracks, like those by similarly chaotic bands, were their unusual departures into weirder territory (“The Irate Jumpbuck” for example). These epic doom excursions always provided a welcome change from KEN Mode’s relentless, cacophonous noise rock, and the latter rarely lived up to the grandeur of their more ambitious tracks. It was either one thing or the other, but now Entrench feels like the trio found a way to blur the lines a little more artfully and spin the depressing-as-fuck gloom of their seven-minute tracks into shorter noisy bursts that rock just as hard.
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October Falls
The Plague Of A Coming Age (Debemur Morti)
On a playlist with: Ikuinen Kaamos, Agalloch, Swallow the Sun
Listen The Plague Of A Coming Age full stream (here)
You can be pretty sure that just about any band with October in their name play Scandinavian melo-death or blackened folk something-er-other. The new record by one-man Scandinavian melo-blackened-folk act October Falls, aka M. Lehto, is familiar if not very enjoyable, and boasts all the soul-sinking leads, morose acoustic guitar , and piercing vocals you might expect from the Finnish death/doom scene carried out with conviction and memorability. Check out the standout title track featuring the sexy pipes of Amorphis’s Tomi Joutsen.
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Intronaut
Habitual Levitations (Instilling Words With Tones) (Century Media)
On a playlist with: Isis, Yakuza, Tool
Listen Habitual Levitations full stream (here)
Read Kip Wingerschmidt MetalSucks review (here)
The writing has been on the wall for sludge metal sweethearts Intronaut. On 2010’s well-received but polarizing Valley Of Smoke, vocalist Sacha Dunable introduced clean vocals into his once one-dimensional range and must’ve peeved listeners who prefer Intronaut minus Aaron Turner-esque vocal melodies. If their sudden and pervasive change failed to be a clear indicator of their future, recent shows certainly are: Dunable and guitarist Dave Timnick now add cleans to pre-Valley songs like “The Literal Black Cloud.” Maybe Intronaut didn’t want to be another sludge n’ roar post-metal band, and that’s good for the new and particularly bad-ass Habitual Levitations. Often harmonized clean singing accounts for about 98% of its vocals — and they’re far more confident and memorable than on Valley of Smoke, yet feel totally at home within the group’s unmistakable sludge fusion.
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Nero Di Marte
Nero Di Marte (Prosthetic)
On a playlist with: Ulcerate, Gojira, The Ocean
Listen Nero Di Marte full stream (here)
The way things often work around here is if MetalSucks co-Editor In Chief Vince Neilstein likes a record, I’ll probably like it too (with the exception of the first Coldplay album …). The Italian band formerly known as Murder Therapy continues that trend. They’re really good — and Vinnie did a pretty good job describing them too, so I’ll be lazy and agree with his points of reference (above). I can hear little of each element creeping around NdM’s debut: Ulcerate’s atmospheric dissonance, Gojira’s diverse vocals, and The Ocean’s epic songwriting and chaotic rhythms — but Nero Di Marte still feel like their own band. If I’m going to be somewhat of an individualist here, I’d say they sound a little like Hyno5e, if they had they shit together. Good stuff 4 sure.
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Thehappymask
Ruines (Domestic Genocide)
On a playlist with: Have A Nice Life, Alcest, The Angelic Process
Listen Ruines full stream (here)
If your Tuesday needs something a little relaxing but pretty menacing, then unwind with the most evil-sounding band in Kazan, Russia! Thehappymask is a one-man project that creates instrumental blackened/post/shoegaze/pretentious-core music that is soothing and epic enough to chill to, but still mean enough to kill the mood of any date (ha! like u could get 1!).
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Vanna
The Few And The Far Between (Artery)
On a playlist with: Every Time I Die, Norma Jean, Counterparts
Listen “The Few And Far Between” (here) “Year of the Rat” (here)
[Editor’s Note: We first ran this Vanna capsule on March 12 duh doy derrr! But alas, this shit comes out today! MetalSucks regrets the error.]
Today’s STCOT is kinda about bands that have gotten heavier with age. Likewise, the title track of Vanna’s new record is one the crunchier tracks by the punky hardcore dudes from Massachusetts. Definitely digging the lack of the hooky chorus on this one, and “Year of the Rat” too is infinitely less lame than Vanna’s clean-sing-along past. Is it me or are metalcore bands starting to get less awful at the good cop bad cop thing again?
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OTHER SHIT THAT COMES OUT TODAY
AC4 Burn The World (Deathwish Inc.) listen
Anthrax Anthem EP (Megaforce) listen listen listen listen
Batillus Concrete Sustain (Seventh Rule) listen
» Black Crucifixion Coronation Of King Darkness (Spinefarm) listen
» Call Of The Void Dragged Down A Dead End Path (Relapse) listen listen
Cannibal Corpse Dead Human Collection: 25 Years Of Death Metal box set (Metal Blade) listen
Clutch Earth Rocker (Weathermaker) listen read
Davey Suicide Davey Suicide (Standby) listen
Epicrenel The Crystal Throne (Inverse) listen
The Eye Supremacy reissue (Debemur Morti) listen
Globe And Beast Grandfather’s Axe (Melotov) listen
Goatcraft All For Naught (Forbidden) listen
Hundredth Revolt EP (Mediaskare) listen listen
Imperium Dekadenz Meadows Of Nostalgia (Season Of Mist) listen
Inter Arma Sky Burial (Relapse) listen
In Utero Cannibalism Sick (Sleaszy Rider) listen
Iron Reagan Worse Than Dead (A389) listen
Jungle Rot Terror Regime (Victory) listen read
Lecherous Nocturne Behold Almighty Doctrine (Unique Leader) listen listen
The Lidocaine On the Road To Miero (Inverse)
Lordi To Beast Or Not To Beast (The End) listen
The Modern Day Slavery Requiem For Us All (Pavement) listen
» My Bitter End Nostalgic Sentiments EP (We Are Triumphant) listen
» Nails Abandon All Life (Southern Lord) listen listen
The New Black III: Cut Loose (AFM) listen listen
Ov Hollowness The World Ends (Code666) listen
Panikk Unbearable Conditions (Metal Tank) listen listen
Radiance Undying Diabolyca (My Kingdom) listen
Reign Supreme Sky Burial EP (Mediaskare) listenc
Resonance Room Untouchable Failure (My Kingdom) listen
» Satanic Threat In To Hell reissue (Hells Headbangers) listen
¤ Seven Sisters Of Sleep Opium Morals (A389) listen
Six Feet Under Unborn (Metal Blade) listen listen listen
The Solemn Curse Gateway To Eternity (Mordgrimm) listen
Tear Out The Heart Violence (Victory) listen listen listen
Throw The Fight The Vault EP (Bullet Tooth) listen
Tombstone Highway Ruralizer (Agonia) listen listen
A Transylvanian Funeral Gorgos Goetia (Forbidden) listen
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