God Body Disconnect –
Dredge Portals
If you ignore the intrusive and unnecessary spoken-word
bits, this is a brilliant, calming dark ambient journey into the somber
trenches of reflection and regret.
Imperial Triumphant –
Inceste
I prefer black metal that makes me think of desolate forests
instead of desolate clowns. The avant-garde aspect is a little too Pagliacci for me.
Nervosa – Agony
Riff rippers extraordinaire! Three bad ass women from Sao
Paolo playing classic thrash that pulls together Slayer, Obituary, and Aura
Noir into a tight, explosive package.
Vektor – Terminal Redux
Instead of Barf and Lonestar in a Winnebago, it’s Steven,
me, and some frosty road sodas rippin’ donuts on the universe in his turquoise Mustang.
Gorguts – Pleiades’ Dust
The album’s musical complexity and subject matter (the
Islamic Golden Age) are fascinating, but this album is most engaging when it
relentlessly blasts and roars.
Mourn – Ha, Ha, He.
Jangling, noodly, off-timed guitar music that nudges up ever
so slightly against the immense weirdness of early 90s noise rock. Far more
pleasant than dissonant.
Eight Bells – Landless
Imagine if Helm’s Alee played smoky, Sabbath-tinged black
metal that united atmosphere and aggression to the detriment of neither. Find
comfort in feeling constantly adrift.
Endless Melancholy – Her Name in a Language of Stars
Layers of dronescape build and build and build into
staggering heights until you are unsure whether you are crushed below or
floating above it all.
Funeral Moth – Transience
Plodding. Plod. Ding. Plaw. Deeng. Now, pour some molasses
and tar on the word “plodding” and you’ve got yourself this fine piece of
Japanese doom.
Fear of Men – Fall Forever
Absolutely intoxicating synth-heavy dreamgaze with a
delightful dash of 80s Britpop ennui. Jessica Weiss’ vocals sound like running
hand-in-hand through a field full of daffodils.
Mogwai – Atomic
Though not as good as Zidane
or Les Revenants, Atomic represents Mogwai’s sonic
exploration of the dark underbelly of technological advancement. Gripping,
haunting, and magical.
Vow – Kind Eyes
This is the kind of album significant others bond over when
they have only slightly overlapping tastes. Then they’ll avoid it after the
inevitable breakup.
Rendez-Vous – Distance
Italian dark wave with some serious teeth. At times you
wanna dance, and at other times you wanna hassle shopkeepers in your studded
leather jacket.
Big Business – Command Your Weather
If you consider uniqueness, song-writing, melody, riffage…
doesn’t Big Business’ peak have to rank really high against their
contemporaries? (This album’s just Jarred and Coady!)
Puro Instinct – Autodrama
Two sisters from LA playing glitzy glam synth pop with dreamy
guitar. Warning: you will pick up your pet and make it dance with you.
Alio Die – Seamlessly Bliss
This album is like if leaves were bells and sunlight shook
them when it passed through the trees into your bedroom in the early morning.
Boris – Pink + Forbidden Songs
How do you have “Talisman” just sittin’ in your back pocket
for ten goddamn years and then spring it on us outta nowhere? The audacity.
Dark Funeral – Where Shadows Forever Reign
By-the-numbers black metal but the only number is 1 and the
only corresponding colour is black. Or maybe like an even darker shade of
black.
Schoolboy Q – Blank Face
While Blank Face
has a slew of great tracks – “Dope Dealer” and “Ride Out” especially -, it
needs to be about 20 to 25% shorter.
Stray Ghost – An Avalanche of Swollen Tongues
Originally from 2009, Anthony Saggers remastered it and
considers it a new album. The titular track is exactly what this sounds like. Massive, beautiful dronewash.
Vukari – Divination
Sometimes searching and sometimes searing black metal with
the Weekend Nachos vocalist on drums. It all grows more daunting and more
chilling with each listen.
Apocryphos – Stone Speak
Field recordings of ghost towns and cemeteries creak and
crack over constant waves of drone modulation. At times you can feel it in your
eyes.
Cities Last Broadcast
– The Humming Tapes
“Glossolalia” is absolutely fucking terrifying. It is an
almost unbearable triumph of sonic storytelling and aural texturing. The rest
of the album is cool, too!
Uninhabitable – Uninhabitable
Usually when you hear “punk” and “crust,” you don’t think of
ten-minute long songs, but these gnarly rippers from Asheville pull it off with
aplomb.
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| Get Crusty! |
Various Artists – Piano Cloud Series, Vol. 1
A collection of neoclassical piano pieces that would be
perfectly suited for studying or reading if they weren’t all so goddamn
wistful. So much wistfulness!
