Sh*t That Comes Out Today: September 3, 2013
August is upon us like a sweaty fat roll, and the only escape is through new metal releases! Below you’re going to find a hella ton of them — all shapes and sizes — and more than 600 hours worth of listening! Okay, not sure if it’s that much, but it’s damn sure enough to hold you off for another seven days.
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Annihilator
Feast (UDR)
On a playlist with: Exodus, Overkill, Testament
Listen Feast samples (here)
Mating metalcore with thrash is like mating a broken washing machine with a scimitar. You get those delicious chuga-chugs alongside ripping/screaming goodness! Now, Annihilator is a household name, or it should as hell would be if I had a household, goddammit. (Oh, and my household would be in Canada as well, cause the quantity and quality of metal coming out up there in the frosty north these days is spectacular.) So you already know you’re not going to be a) short-changed, b) bored to death, or c) disappointed. In fact, you’ll be delighted. Don’t believe me? Spool up the video above and skip to 4:54. Hng. I want more of that.
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Gorguts
Colored Sands (Season Of Mist)
On a playlist with: Negativa, Immolation, Ulcerate
Listen Colored Sands full stream (here)
Given the amount of attention Colored Sands is getting, you’d expect me to bubble-wrap this one up for ya. But it’s not that good. Granted, this style of TDM with its slow, doomy feel and erratic heartbeat never tickles me like fast-paced bands like Beneath the Massacre. What I’m saying is that Colored Sands is repetitive and dragging tons of sonic baggage. You always get the feeling that each movement (from riff to riff, song to song) is a struggle to make it past what was just played out. But Sands is dynamic, eclectic, and wildly good fun, but not an all-time great.
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Infected Society/F Stands for Fuck You/Miserable Failure
Miserable Fucking Society (Kaotoxin)
On a playlist with: Integrity, Take Offence, Alpha And Omega
Listen Miserable Fucking Society full stream (here)
Splits are the best! Especially when it’s a split between three I-hate-everything semi-metallic hardcore bands who seem pissed off about even the fact that they have a new album out. This shit is filthy. It’s fuzzy, raunchy, and bleak. But much of this shit sounds similar. But this genre gets a pass, to an extent, given that it’s about the energy and delivery not originality. Infected Society is my favorite contributor on this album, and “Definitely Dead” is among the best shit for this week.
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GOG
Ironworks (Season Of Mist)
On a playlist with: Blocked porn channels
Listen Ironworks full stream (here)
I have a beef with postmodernism. There is no truth, there is no “good.” Minimalism becomes the status quo for a status which ceases to exist. Fuck, there isn’t even music anymore! And then I’m out of a job. And so, Ironworks is as far away from music as a turtle fart. But. And this is a huge but! In the right state of mind — under the right influences — this shit will timewarp you into heaven’s asshole. Ironworks is a spaceship of doom and atmosphere and industry, a delicious treat which makes everything else seem so old-fashioned. If you’re skeptical, skip to the fourth track. There you’ll find alien-contact fuzz laying behind calm, soothing piano work, and then your skin should get cold and goosebumpy. If not, just stick with regular music, which is what I’m switching to right after this.
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The Safety Fire
Mouth Of Swords (Inside Out)
On a playlist with: Ever Forthright, Monuments, The Contortionist
Listen Mouth Of Swords full stream (here)
The Safety Fire has always won on three accounts. First, by having wicked vocalist who can scream understandably and clean sing dynamically without sounding tinny. Second, by writing songs around actual melodies. (And how!) And third, by being progressive. Not just proggy, but actually progressive, so that The Safety Fire makes similar bands sound inadequate and old-fashioned. The first few minutes of Mouth Of Swords makes it apparent that the album is a gentler response to last year’s Grind The Ocean. It fights cleaner, harder, and sharper — mixing groove and power behind a new bar in vocal performance. In this new hit/miss post-djent-core-whatever deal, Mouth Of Swords is fucking standout.
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My Ticket Home
Strangers Only (Rise)
On a playlist with: Ten After Two, Adestria, Fit For A King
Listen “Spit Not Chewed” (here)
What is this hard thing between my legs? It’s the fence I’m on about My Ticket Home’s sound, and these back-and-forth riffs like gluetraps for shitty pick-noise interludes. I’d take the vocals on Strangers Only and send them off to a band which desperately needs it. Uh, like every band which sounds like Leaders (below in OTHER SHIT THAT COMES OUT TODAY, emphasis on shit). I swear I hear some Slipknot in there, which is worse than it sounds because MTH owns that sound and made good on it. Ultimately, Strangers Only lives in that weird place between “do I hate” or “do I not hate.” Maybe this is a problem with being critical; or, maybe this is a problem with formulaic bands trying to go out on a limb but instead breaking the branch.
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OTHER SHIT THAT COMES OUT TODAY
¤ Arabrot Arabrot (Fysisk Format) listen
Black Magician The Pursuivant EP (Svart) listen (at 0:25)
Bl’ast Blood! (Southern Lord) listen listen
Carpe Noctem In Terra Profugus (Code 666) listen
Cathexis Shades Of Apocalypse (Mulligore) listen
Church Of Void Dead Rising (Svart) listen
Crossfaith Apocalyze (The End) listen
Deliverance Hear What I Say! (Roxx) listen
Dysmorphic A Notion Of Causality (Unique Leader) listen
Eibon La Furies The Immoral Compass (Code 666) listen
» Emblazoned The Living Magisterium EP (Deepsend) listen
Evocation Excised And Anatomised covers EP (Century Media) listen
Girl On Fire Not Broken (Century Media) listen
Heretic Cult Redeemer Heretic Cult Redeemer (Iron Bonehead) listen listen
Ildjarn Forest Poetry reissue (Underground Activists/Season Of Mist) listen
Ildjarn Ildjarn reissue (Underground Activists/Season Of Mist) listen
Ildjarn Strength And Anger reissue (Underground Activists/Season Of Mist) listen
Kingshifter 26 Tons (Pavement) listen listen
Kreator Dying Alive live (Nuclear Blast) watch-ish
Kriadiaz Kriadiaz (Pavement) listen
Leaders Indomitable (Facedown) listen listen
» Loss Of Self 12 Minutes EP (The Flenser) listen
The Mezmerist The Innocent, The Forsaken, The Guilty reissue (Shadow Kingdom) listen
Modern Life Is War Fever Hunting (Deathwish Inc.)
Monsterworks Earth (Eat Lead and Die) listen
» Nephren-Ka The Fall Of Omnius (Kaotoxin) listen
» Nhor Within The Darkness Between The Starlight (Prophecy) listen
Nine Inch Nails Hesitation Marks (Null/Columbia) listen
Nomad Son The Darkening (Metal On Metal) listen
» Nomad Son First Light reissue (Metal On Metal) listen
Revamp Wild Card (Nuclear Blast) listen
Reveler Iridescence (Infamous Empire) listen listen
Shreddy Krueger The Grieving (InVogue) listen listen listen listen
Stonegriff Prologus Magicus (Metal On Metal) listen
Suicidal Tendencies Collection (Valberg) listen
Thränenkind The Elk (Lifeforce) listen
Turisas Turisas2013 (Century Media) listen listen listen
Vattnet Viskar Sky Swallower (Century Media) listen listen
Vista Chino Peace (Napalm) listen read
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