SH*T THAT COMES OUT TODAY: AUGUST 14, 2012
It’s funny that every week there’s a different trend in new metal releases: fresh batches of black metal, then stoner metal — hell, last week was a hair metal symposium. And this week’s thread is gloomy, depressing Shit That Comes Out Today and that’s A-OKAY with me, cause I’m one gloomy mofo. Somber tears and boundless melancholy after the jump!
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The Chant
A Healing Place (Lifeforce)
On a playlist with: Anathema’s A Natural Disaster, Katatonia’s Last Fair Deal Gone Down, Riverside
Listen “The Dark Corner” (here)
A Healing Place is the kind of album that was perfectly designed for the very un-metal activity of curling up in bed alone and in tears over the sad state of affairs that is your life. This style of atmospheric/downtrodden alt-rock has gained a nice following recently via acclaimed releases from death/doom bands who ditched the gutturals to focus on their feelings. This Helsinki septet doesn’t stray far from the sounds of Anathema or Katatonia, but their third album is suitably cathartic and soothing, full of somber walls of sound and subdued vocals.
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Black Light Burns
The Moment You Realize You’re Going To Fall (Rocket Science/THC)
On a playlist with: Something Reznor-y, QOTSA, Ours
Listen The Moment You Realize You’re Going To Fall full stream (here)
After a hiatus from his current solo project to record MetalSucks Best Album of 2011, Wes Borland is back with Black Light Burns’ sophomore album. I was one of more than a few people who was a little blindsided by the unexpected quality of BLB debut Cruel Melody; it was long, filler-packed, and pretentious, but its badass tunes are in my rotation to this day. On TMYRYGTF, Borland continues down a familiar and no less grandiose path, splitting its time between quirky rockers and eerie industrial epics that wear Reznorisms clear on their sleeves. Check it out if you dug Cruel Melody or anything vaguely NIN-sounding.
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The Faceless
Autotheism (Sumerian)
On a playlist with: Between the Buried and Me, The Ocean, In Mourning
Listen Autotheism preview (here)
Californian deathcore-turned-tech-death dudes The Faceless have jumped ship again: Enter The Faceless version Prog.0. (For genres as universally uncool as progressive rock and metal, there are an awful lot of bands gravitating to them.) Here The Faceless sounds more like a spawn of Akerfeldt and Townsend than of tourmates Revocation or Veil of Maya. Lead guitarist and songwriter Michael Keene has become such a dominant force with his clean singing that he almost eclipses the growling of new “lead vocalist” Geoffrey Ficco. I imagine this sounds distasteful to the veteran Faceless fan, but if you don’t lyk Ottotheism you arn’t a tr00 fan! I’ve listned 2 them for all they’re albums and there all grate! Their all about progreshion and you pepple have to relize taht! But seriously, this album is the balls.
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Scott Kelly & The Road Home
The Forgiven Ghost In Me (Neurot)
On a playlist with: Mark Lanegan, Tom Waits, Neurosis’ The Eye of Every Storm
Listen “The Forgiven Ghost in Me” (here)
For however good Neurosis is at bringing the apocalyptic noise, their most resonant moments are desolate stretches of clean guitar with Scott Kelly’s enigmatic baritone slithering on top. Kelly’s new solo outing makes this the sole focus of a good-fitting singer-songwriter approach, but uplifting this is not.
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Ephel Duath
On Death And Cosmos EP (Agonia)
On a playlist with: Yakuza, Maudlin The Well, Intronaut
Listen “Black Prism” (here)
I remember being stunned by Italian jazz metallers Ephel Duath on their debut Painter’s Pallet; they had a really unique and well-defined sound, like metal’s The Mars Volta. But then their original members departed, leaving guitarist/founder Davide Tiso to assemble an all-star lineup — ace of bass Steve DiGiorgio, Teutonic drum master Marco Minnemann, and former Crisis vocalist Karyn Crisis — for this EP that sounds nothing like the band or any of its massive talents. I don’t mean to be the wet blanket here, but On Death is blah sludge metal with a few subtle jazzercisms. At least Crisis wins the award for the most masculine female vocals I’ve ever heard; seriously I would have sworn that those roars belonged to some dude with curly hair and a pot belly.
Locrian
The Clearing & The Final Epoch (Relapse)
On a playlist with: My Bloody Valentine, Jesu, Have A Nice Life
Listen The Clearing/The Final Epoch full stream (here)
Want to throw WILD party? Then blast this baby and get ready to rage! Your guests will probably question why they came to your party, then what they’re doing meandering through their pointless, hollow lives, and then why they shouldn’t jump off the bridge near your drab apartment. Cheers!
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MORE SHIT THAT COMES OUT TODAY
The Forsaken Beyond Redemption (Massacre) listen
Halo Of Flys Bloodier Shade Of Red (Phantom)
Seth Les Blessures de l’Ame reissue (Season Of Mist) listen
Various Platinum Hair Metal Hits (Cleopatra) Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
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