Sh*t That Comes out Today: May 7, 2021
May the seventh be with you.
Acid’s Trip
Strings Of Soul (Heavy Psych Sounds)
Swedes with a soft spot for the 70s put on their finest vintage store outfits and let loose with their takes on their favorite platters from their record collections. Sure, you’ve heard it before – one of the tracks is even called “The Kiss Riff” – but these outfits never go out of style. That ever-allusive sense of fun elevates this above mere pastiche. It’s not all throwback throwaways, either. They infuse these high-voltage rock ‘n’ roll ragers with their homeland’s homegrown energetic take on the genre a la Hellacopters or Gluecifer. In other words: get your eight-track ready.
Artillery
X (Metal Blade)
Is there a subgenre for thrash metal with actual, like, singing? Because it’s rare enough that there should be one. Michael Bastholm Dahl falls somewhere between Death Angel’s Rob Cavestany and Lizzy Borden’s Lizzy Borden, by no means a bad thing. His powerful pipes complement sole remaining original member Michael Stützer’s vital guitar licks. This Danish band feels much fresher than their 40-year-old legacy would imply, their mortar barrage still powerful enough to blow you away.
Awenden/Feminazgul
Split (Tridroid)
Popular mythologizing to the contrary, it turns out you DON’T need to be a virulent piece of shit with abhorrent views to make killer black metal??? WEIRD. Anti-fascist pro-queer bands from Cascadia and Appalachia bring the noise from opposite coasts over the course of twenty minute blocks of beautiful beastliness. Good news for the “metal shouldn’t be political” crowd, though — none of that is in the lyrics themselves, although “Sam Slater Lighting Candles” is an excoriating takedown of the fatal tradeoff humanity made when embracing the industrial revolution. Two great tastes that would taste great together if they didn’t tear out your tongue in the process!
Moon Coven
Slumber Wood (Ripple)
When you hear the name “Moon Coven” you expect some occult rock for sure, but while these supernaturally-inclined Swedes definitely like performing rituals in the woods (the album includes a song literally called “Ceremony”), their embrace of the darkness feels much closer to Black Sabbath or Acid King than Blood Ceremony and the like. It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing, though. This definitely does. Moon Coven worship the right gods of rock.
Vokonis
Odyssey (The Sign)
The members of Vokonis have facial hair but not the epic beards one would expect from a band that sounds like this. Not that you should judge a band by their looks, but come on – these guys definitely should have been swapping grooming tips with Mastodon or Kylesa circuit 2007. So yeah, it’s progressive and sludgy and groovy and all the other ways you would generally describe those swamp dwellers. It still rules, disappointing beards or no.
OTHER SHIT THAT COMES OUT TODAY
Cvlt Ov The Svn – We Are The Dragon (Napalm) Listen
False Memories – The Last Night Of Fall (Frontiers) Listen
Ghost Iris – Comatose (Long Branch) Listen
Inferno – Paradeigma (Phosphenes Of Aphotic Eternity) (Debemur Morti) Listen
Jordfast – Hadanefter (Nordvis) Listen
Jordsjo – Pastoralia (Karisma) Listen
Kardashev – The Baring of Shadows (Metal Blade) Listen
Kataan – Kataan EP (Prosthetic) Listen
Kayak – Out Of This World (InsideOut) Listen
Mephitic Grave – Into The Atrium Of Inhuman Morbidity (Carbonized) Listen
Nordjevel – Fenriir EP (Indie) Listen
Reality Grey – Beneath This Crown (Blood Blast) Listen
Seth – La Morsure du Christ (SoM/LADLO) Listen
Sonic Haven – Vagabond (Frontiers) Listen
Sumo Cyco – Initiation (Napalm) Listen
