Sh*t That Comes Out Today: September 11, 2020
Here’s new metal for your Friday! Some good stuff this week, plus new Marilyn Manson if you really want to make your 2020 even worse.
Dead Quiet
Truth and Ruin (Artoffact)
While the video below may show off Dead Quiet’s goofy side, they’re dead serious about their music and not at all quiet about it. Three fifths of the band work in the mental health/drug rehab field in Vancouver, so they get to see the worst parts of humanity on a daily basis. This ain’t sludge or funeral doom, though — while Truth and Ruin is heavy as a really heavy thing, it’s got its roots in stoner rock/metal. Big, triumphant riffs, a crushing bottom end, and keyboard swells accompany these less-than-triumphant tales. I’ve air guitared to weirder.
Kairon; Irse!
Polysomn (Svart)
This amalgamation of shoegaze, prog/psych, and krautrock may not be metal but it sure makes for one heck of a journey. As you can probably tell from the weird name and the trippy video below, Kairon; Irse! avoid the roads most travelled. In doing so, they find an utterly beguiling niche of their own. A little bit of My Bloody Valentine, a little bit of Can, and some Amon Düül II to spice it all up and you have something undeniably new and undeniably captivating.
Mastodon
Medium Rarities (Reprise)
If there’s any band besides Babymetal that everyone on the MetalSucks staff can agree on, it’s probably Mastodon. This rarities comp throws together some soundtrack cuts, some covers, some live tracks, and some instrumental versions of album tracks. Plus one new song! It all rules. They even make a Feist tune listenable. Do you need it? It’s technically unnecessary, but it’s more Mastodon, so yes, you need it.
Night
High Tides – Distant Skies (The Sign)
Call me old-fashioned, but my way into metal was through the big anthemic riffs of bands like Judas Priest and Thin Lizzy. That’s why I highlight a lot of throwback bands like Night — they capture the sound I want from the genre. These Swedes do it especially well, bringing in Blue Oyster Cult’s sinister rhythms and UFO’s epic guitar mastery. Heck, “Crimson Past” sounds like the BOC-Dire Straits collaboration that never was but should’ve been. In short: get on your feet or on your knees.
Skeletal Remains
The Entombment Of Chaos (Century Media)
If you’re hungry for some meat-and-potatoes death metal, Skeletal Remains offer a slab of beef so rare it’s still screaming in pain from having been hewn from the side of a living cow. It’s a gruesome march through humanity’s basest instincts. This Los Angeles kill crew may revel in the guts of a genre long eviscerated, but they do a respectable job of puppeting the carcass to make it seem alive again.
Uniform
Shame (Sacred Bones)
As a longtime industrial fan, I gotta say I’m loving this new movement of dirty hardcore-influenced industrial acts — it gives a genre that had become somewhat mechanical new life. Uniform are at the vanguard of that sound. They absolutely excel at peeling back their skin to reveal the bleeding exoskeleton underneath. With a live drummer replacing their trusty drum machine, their razors have never been sharper. No shame in loving this.
OTHER SHIT THAT COMES OUT THIS WEEK
Aborted Fetus – Pyramids Of Damnation (Comatose) Listen
Aether Realm – Tarot Reissue (Napalm) Listen
The Death Wheelers – Divine Filth (RidingEasy) Listen
Eskimo Callboy – MMXX EP (Century Media) Listen
Ihsahn – Pharos EP (Candlelight) Listen
Marilyn Manson – We Are Chaos (Loma Vista) Listen
Messiah – Fracmont (High Roller) Listen
Mondo Generator – Cocaine Rodeo Reissue (Heavy Psych Sounds) Listen
Neal Morse – Sola Gratia (InsideOut) Listen
Theotoxin – Fragment : Erhabenheit (AOP) Listen
Tomorrow’s Rain – Hollow (AOP) Listen
