There are several repeats from last week like Skeletonwitch and Thundercat. But I was digging them both so much that I had to go for repeat sessions. I could've written on Skeletonwitch last week but I needed a few more listens before I could form a solid opinion on them. I have a feeling that will be the case with Sectioned's new material too.
But anyway, here's a list of what I've listened if you don't feel clicking the image above:
Xibalba - Tierra y Libertad
Man Must Die - Peace Was Never an Option
Sons of Kemet - My Queen Is Harriet Tubman
Zeal & Ardor - Stranger Fruit
The Black Dahlia Murder - Nightbringers
Open Mike Eagle - Brick Body Kids Still Daydream
HO99O9 - United States of Horror
Bolt Thrower - Those Once Loyal
Beaten to Death - Dødsfest!
Mouthbreather - Dollmeat
The Comet Is Coming - Channel The Spirits
Thundercat - Drunk
David Bowie - Blackstar
Charles Bradley - Changes
Ludicra - Fex Urbis Lex Orbis
Sectioned - Annihilated
Kero Kero Bonito - TOTEP
Ne Obliviscaris - Urn
David Bowie - Hunky Dory
Soilent Green - Sewn Mouth Secrets
Wormrot - Voices
Death Grips - Jenny Death
Skeletonwitch - Devouring Radiant Light
Cobalt - Slow Forever
Danny Brown - Atrocity Exhibition
Like last week, this week's list is pretty eclectic ranging from metal, jazz, punk, but not as much hip-hop/rap. With the exception of Danny Brown, Open Mike Eagle, and Death Grips. But I'll try to make amends next week. I already have excellent experimental hip-hop releases lined up.
Choice Cuts:
Name: Mouthbreather
Album Title: Dollmeat
Genre(s): Power Violence, Grindcore, Mathcore
Year of Release: 2018
This feels like Nails for people who wanted to maintain the mathcore sensibilities of Dillinger Escape Plan. The hardcore here feels like chaos in a bottle. It's contained, with punchy short songs that suddenly morphs into what I love to call nonsense breakdown atonality, but without TDEP's cheekiness in play. Think of mid-era Converge but with a thicker bottom end sound of their later day sludge inspired sound.
This super short EP is only making me asking for more. *smashes laptop like Thor smashes coffee mugs*
Charles Bradley may sound like he was popular during the heyday of soul but his big break only came at a later age. Unfortunately, his fame wasn't long as he passed away recently. I accidentally discovered when I was listening to genre-bending covers and I came across his cover of Black Sabbath's Changes. While Sabbath's slow ballad in itself has good merits, it feels empty next to their other heavy metal tracks. It just didn't fit.
Bradley's cover, on the other hand, was a perfect fit. Him singing it at such a late age only made the song even more powerful. He owned it just like how Johnny Cash owned Nine Inch Nail's Hurt.
When Charles Bradley belted out "I try to give love all over the world, But I'm tired of being used!" you know he is genuine. There's so much torment underneath that beautiful, almost James Brown like hot honey. His voice glides onto organs that shake like vocal cords from a crying man. All of this under an amazing horn section that makes you question should you cry or dance.
If only Mr. Bradley got to bask under this glory a bit longer.
This feels like Nails for people who wanted to maintain the mathcore sensibilities of Dillinger Escape Plan. The hardcore here feels like chaos in a bottle. It's contained, with punchy short songs that suddenly morphs into what I love to call nonsense breakdown atonality, but without TDEP's cheekiness in play. Think of mid-era Converge but with a thicker bottom end sound of their later day sludge inspired sound.
This super short EP is only making me asking for more. *smashes laptop like Thor smashes coffee mugs*
Name: Charles Bradley
Album Title: Changes
Genre(s): Soul, Funk, R&B
Year of Release: 2016
Charles Bradley may sound like he was popular during the heyday of soul but his big break only came at a later age. Unfortunately, his fame wasn't long as he passed away recently. I accidentally discovered when I was listening to genre-bending covers and I came across his cover of Black Sabbath's Changes. While Sabbath's slow ballad in itself has good merits, it feels empty next to their other heavy metal tracks. It just didn't fit.
Bradley's cover, on the other hand, was a perfect fit. Him singing it at such a late age only made the song even more powerful. He owned it just like how Johnny Cash owned Nine Inch Nail's Hurt.
When Charles Bradley belted out "I try to give love all over the world, But I'm tired of being used!" you know he is genuine. There's so much torment underneath that beautiful, almost James Brown like hot honey. His voice glides onto organs that shake like vocal cords from a crying man. All of this under an amazing horn section that makes you question should you cry or dance.
If only Mr. Bradley got to bask under this glory a bit longer.
Name: Wormrot
Album Title: Voices
Genre(s): Grindcore, Crust Punk
Year of Release: 2016
This may be a grindcore record but the melodies here can easily be easily lifted from a post-punk record. While atmospheric black metal for the decade as combined that harsh sound with the melodic sensibilities of shoegaze, post-rock or even folk I think Wormrot is one of the few bands that were able to maintain a super abrasive sound while having harmonies or chord progressions that are emotional. It sort of reminds me of the alternating thrash metal and shoegaze-inspired tremolos of Deafheaven's New Bermuda. The thrash metal and blackgaze were compartmentalized but in this record, the grindcore abrasiveness is melded into the bittersweet harmonies. This is the audio equivalent of evoking a nostalgic past while going through the harshest tribulation in your life just to keep things together.
Make no mistake, grindcore is still the glue here. So everything is still punchy. Maybe this is blackgaze for ADHD sufferers.
If only Gridlink was still active, I'll lump Wormrot and Beaten to Death together into what I call melodic grindcore. No shoegaze is to be found here but I feel like this album might sow the seeds to a "grindgaze" sound. If it's as good as this, then we might have a blackgaze successor.
This may be a grindcore record but the melodies here can easily be easily lifted from a post-punk record. While atmospheric black metal for the decade as combined that harsh sound with the melodic sensibilities of shoegaze, post-rock or even folk I think Wormrot is one of the few bands that were able to maintain a super abrasive sound while having harmonies or chord progressions that are emotional. It sort of reminds me of the alternating thrash metal and shoegaze-inspired tremolos of Deafheaven's New Bermuda. The thrash metal and blackgaze were compartmentalized but in this record, the grindcore abrasiveness is melded into the bittersweet harmonies. This is the audio equivalent of evoking a nostalgic past while going through the harshest tribulation in your life just to keep things together.
Make no mistake, grindcore is still the glue here. So everything is still punchy. Maybe this is blackgaze for ADHD sufferers.
If only Gridlink was still active, I'll lump Wormrot and Beaten to Death together into what I call melodic grindcore. No shoegaze is to be found here but I feel like this album might sow the seeds to a "grindgaze" sound. If it's as good as this, then we might have a blackgaze successor.
Name: The Comet is Coming
Album Title: Channel The Spirits
Genre(s): Jazz, Funk, Electronica, Psychedelic, Fusion
Year of Release: 2017
Whenever I write about jazz, I normally run the risk of not having the proper vocabulary to describe it. I'm not knowledgeable enough about the genre for me to use specific jargons. So I resort to describing images and landscapes that thanks to popular culture have been associated with specific soundsapes.
Fortunately this band, The Comet is Coming just begs music bloggers like me to create that intertextual wordplay and play a game of word-image association.
While this album is lead by amazing saxophone melodies, the backbone of this album is made out of excellent psychedelic electronic play. The reverb gives it so much space, giving the auditory illusion that this isn't jazz from Coltrane, but jazz from another plane, something to be played in the bar of a fictional planet. An interplanetary afro-centric cyberpunk display if you will.
The distorted bassline you would normally associate to synthwave or retrowave would pop up once in a while reminding you of those science fiction movies from the 80s. It buzzes like the engine of getaway cars. Yet an afro backbeat glues everything together that forces you to not imagine knight rider. Instead, the buzz forces you to imagine spaceships or other mechanical devices not yet invented. The psychedelic interplay from the keyboards invoke images of spaceship controls with bright, colorful Christmas like lights on tactile buttons. The saxophone guides you to think of the grimy streets of colonized and terraform planets. Humans may have left Earth, but they brought crime to the new frontiers.
The Comet is Coming begs you to imagine music through retro-future fiction. Part neo-noir, part afro punk, part blaxploitation, and part cyberpunk. Now if only I'm only talented enough to write an interplanetary Shaft fan fiction to accompany this.
Whenever I write about jazz, I normally run the risk of not having the proper vocabulary to describe it. I'm not knowledgeable enough about the genre for me to use specific jargons. So I resort to describing images and landscapes that thanks to popular culture have been associated with specific soundsapes.
Fortunately this band, The Comet is Coming just begs music bloggers like me to create that intertextual wordplay and play a game of word-image association.
While this album is lead by amazing saxophone melodies, the backbone of this album is made out of excellent psychedelic electronic play. The reverb gives it so much space, giving the auditory illusion that this isn't jazz from Coltrane, but jazz from another plane, something to be played in the bar of a fictional planet. An interplanetary afro-centric cyberpunk display if you will.
The distorted bassline you would normally associate to synthwave or retrowave would pop up once in a while reminding you of those science fiction movies from the 80s. It buzzes like the engine of getaway cars. Yet an afro backbeat glues everything together that forces you to not imagine knight rider. Instead, the buzz forces you to imagine spaceships or other mechanical devices not yet invented. The psychedelic interplay from the keyboards invoke images of spaceship controls with bright, colorful Christmas like lights on tactile buttons. The saxophone guides you to think of the grimy streets of colonized and terraform planets. Humans may have left Earth, but they brought crime to the new frontiers.
The Comet is Coming begs you to imagine music through retro-future fiction. Part neo-noir, part afro punk, part blaxploitation, and part cyberpunk. Now if only I'm only talented enough to write an interplanetary Shaft fan fiction to accompany this.
Name: Skeletonwitch
Album Title: Devouring Radiant Light
Genre(s): Blackened Thrash Metal, Black Metal, Thrash Metal
Year of Release: 2018
Well, Skeletonwitch is a serious band now. Look, they no longer have the sharp-comic book like, evil yet bright adorned with bright colors that could easily end up in Dark Horse comics styled covers anymore! Their logo for the first time is not in the forefront. Instead, we're treated with a ghastly image that invokes a feeling of dirge, depression, and fear.
But by no way means they're bad now. This instead is a welcome change seeing how there's a lineup shift and they may want to stray away from different iterations of the band.
At their core, they're still a blackened thrash metal band. They still have melodic death metal influenced song structure. However, the melodic black metal side and almost alternative rock like melodies stand out more this time. They're not afraid to show their thrash metal chops. But don't expect riffs you could pummel barbarians with. You're treated with almost doom metal influenced riffs. Some could easily fit in a Pallbearer record.
Imagine the sadder and gloomier parts of old Skeletonwitch. Amp up the black metal sound. Sprinkle on some amazing rock and roll leads. Now drench them in the sadness of a doom record. You have the formula of the new Skeletonwitch.
Just don't think of the old thrash metal focused Skeletonwitch that aimed to have mindless fun. They're gloomy now kids!
Well, Skeletonwitch is a serious band now. Look, they no longer have the sharp-comic book like, evil yet bright adorned with bright colors that could easily end up in Dark Horse comics styled covers anymore! Their logo for the first time is not in the forefront. Instead, we're treated with a ghastly image that invokes a feeling of dirge, depression, and fear.
But by no way means they're bad now. This instead is a welcome change seeing how there's a lineup shift and they may want to stray away from different iterations of the band.
At their core, they're still a blackened thrash metal band. They still have melodic death metal influenced song structure. However, the melodic black metal side and almost alternative rock like melodies stand out more this time. They're not afraid to show their thrash metal chops. But don't expect riffs you could pummel barbarians with. You're treated with almost doom metal influenced riffs. Some could easily fit in a Pallbearer record.
Imagine the sadder and gloomier parts of old Skeletonwitch. Amp up the black metal sound. Sprinkle on some amazing rock and roll leads. Now drench them in the sadness of a doom record. You have the formula of the new Skeletonwitch.
Just don't think of the old thrash metal focused Skeletonwitch that aimed to have mindless fun. They're gloomy now kids!
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