3.5 great |
...and Oceans As in Gardens, So in Tombs |
A Static Lullaby Rattlesnake! |
A.G. Cook 7G |
Adrianne Lenker Bright Future |
Aesop Rock Integrated Tech Solutions |
Alexisonfire Crisis |
Anthony Green Would You Still Be With Strings |
Anxious Little Green House |
Artifex Pereo Ailments & Antidotes |
Artificial Language Now We Sleep |
Artificial Language Distant Glow |
As I Lay Dying Shaped by Fire |
Balmora With Thorns of Glass and Petals of Grief |
Blanket Modern Escapism |
Blessthefall Witness |
Blind Girls The Weight of Everything |
Boundaries Death Is Little More |
Bring Me The Horizon POST HUMAN: NeX GEn |
I haven't cared about this band since 2010, and I thought amo and That's The Spirit were incredibly boring, so I was not expecting this album to be so much damn fun. The mish mash of genres here just works so well for me, combining hyper pop with metalcore and grungy alt metal. It's like BMTH had a baby with underscores and Deftones. This album is 55 minutes long, but the variety keeps it so engaging. It almost feels more like listening to a playlist as opposed to a cohesive album, which I think was an intentional move to capture the attention of todays society of instant gratification induced brain death. I admit, there's some stinkers on this album. In particular I don't looove the way this band does it's Deftones rip off as it feels more like an unoriginal imitation than a fresh spin. Loathe does that type of stuff so much better. Some of the straight up pop songs were a bit lackluster as well, but when the band hits that sweet spot mixing chaotic blasts of electronic pop with metalcore, it just lights up all the right neurons in my brain. I can see why so many people despise this shit, but I think not being a BMTH fan prior, and thus having zero expectations of what they should or should not sound like really made it easy for me to get into this. |
Bucket Full Of Teeth I, II, III |
Cave In Heavy Pendulum |
Circa Survive On Letting Go |
Clark 05-10 |
Cloakroom Time Well |
Code Orange The Above |
I honestly think this is a pretty good follow up to Underneath. They are really leaning into the weirder side of their influences. This is not a concise "___ genre" album, it's more of a scrapbook of interesting ideas from different genres glued together. If you really loved Underneath I think you'll enjoy most of these songs.
also: tiic adavc |
Codeine Frigid Stars |
Conway the Machine God Don't Make Mistakes |
Counterparts Tragedy Will Find Us |
Crystal Lake Helix |
Currents The Way It Ends |
Disfear Everyday Slaughter |
Dreamdecay N V N V N V |
Drop Dead, Gorgeous In Vogue |
Drop Dead, Gorgeous Hot N' Heavy |
Dweller On The Threshold Dweller On The Threshold |
Earl Sweatshirt and The Alchemist Voir Dire |
Emery The Weak's End |
Emery ...In Shallow Seas We Sail |
END (USA-NJ) Splinters From An Ever-Changing Face |
Faye Webster I Know I'm Funny haha |
Foreign Hands Bleed the Dream |
From Autumn to Ashes Too Bad You're Beautiful |
Full of Hell and Nothing When No Birds Sang |
Fuming Mouth Last Day of Sun |
Funeral for a Friend Casually Dressed & Deep in Conversation |
Gatecreeper Dark Superstition |
Gatecreeper, Gatecreeper, Gatecreeper. The black sheep of the modern death metal scene. This band has been criticized for their formulaic take on hardcore infused death metal, but Dark Superstition is a welcome surprise which shakes up the band's meta in the best way possible. This album not only features their absolute crunchiest, chunkiest production to date, but it's also their most melodic. Dark Superstition still packs some blistering heaters, but it also quite often veers into pure melodeath territory with harmonized guitar leads and tonally conscious grooves. I wish they went even further with this sound though, because as much as 50% of this album rules, the other 50% just makes me want to listen the The Black Dahlia Murder to get an even more concentrated dose of melodic guitar work. |
Ghost Atlas All Is in Sync... |
Glassing From the Other Side of the Mirror |
I listened to this band because the similar artist section cited Hopesfall and Portrayal of
Guilt, which was a description that immediately sold me. Two of my favourite bands which both
occupy pretty different ranges of the energy spectrum, with Hopesfall being brighter and more
atmospheric, and Portrayal of Guilt being downright dystopian and crushing. The crazy thing
is, Glassing actually delivers on both of these promises. A sludgy, blackened low end with
dismal, sometimes spooky clean/sometimes shrieking vocals topped by atmospheric, "glassy" yet
crunchy lead guitars. Unfortunately, I didn't love the album as much as I love those two bands
separately. Some of the songs are a bit too plodding and focus intensive for me, and I was a
little disappointed by it's lack of flow in the track list. Some of the songs shift seamlessly
into each other, while many others have like 5-6 seconds of silence in between them, which
doesn't sound like a big deal, but it throws some speed bumps into the listening experience
which remind you that you're about to go through another long tunnel of misery. |
Gospel The Loser |
Hail the Sun Wake |
Hop Along Bark Your Head Off, Dog |
Humanity's Last Breath Ashen |
Idaho Hearts of Palm |
In Fear and Faith Your World On Fire |
In Search of Solace The Endless Ache |
Incendiary Thousand Mile Stare |
Incinerous Contorted Epiphany (demo) |
rating bias because I have writing credits on one of these songs |
Innumerable Forms Punishment in Flesh |
Inter Arma New Heaven |
Invent Animate Greyview |
Invent Animate Heavener |
Iron Age Constant Struggle |
Iwrestledabearonce Hail Mary |
Jimmy Eat World Clarity |
Julie Doiron I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day |
Kingdom of Giants Ground Culture |
Kolya Kolya |
Kumo 99 HeadPlate |
Lead Hands Lead Hands |
Like Moths to Flames Dark Divine |
Lincoln Watermark 7" |
Loma Prieta Last |
Mil-Spec World House |
Mil-Spec Marathon |
Mind Eraser Cave |
Mindforce New Lords |
Mitski The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We |
MJ Lenderman Boat Songs |
Modest Mouse The Lonesome Crowded West |
Momma Household Name |
Mura Masa Mura Masa |
No Pressure No Pressure |
Norma Jean Deathrattle Sing for Me |
Northlane Alien |
Oberst Toil |
Threw this one on not expecting anything and was caught off guard by how good it is! Very tasty post hardcore that balances melody and dissonance quite nicely. I think fans of bands like Birds In Row or Loma Prieta should give this one a go. |
Oceana The Tide |
I was (and still am) a huge fan of Oceana's sophomore album Birth.Eater, but I always disregarded The Tide due to it's different lineup. I viewed it as essentially being from a different band, and in my mind I imagined it sounding like a completely different band too. I don't know what I was thinking. The Tide is maybe a bit heavier, and doesn't have nearly as much clean singing, but other than that, it's not that different. Sure, Brennan Taulbee brought something really magical to the band when he replaced Keith Jones on vocals, but I think at it's core, Oceana was always Jack Burns. It's Jack's heavy, moody, and atmospheric guitar playing that made the band so special. So I felt really stupid when I finally put this on and immediately realized how much I've been missing out. This album is full to the brim with crunchy melodic riffs, catchy song writing, and to top it off, Keith's vocals are honestly amazing. Brennan might be one of my favourite singers of all time, but Keith's screams are so raw and emotive that this album almost veers into early 2000s atmospheric skramz
territory at times. The Tide is a classic of it's era, and I'm happy I finally gave it a chance. |
One Step Closer This Place You Know |
Place of Refuge Winter Demo |
Polaris The Death of Me |
Polaris Fatalism |
Razel Got Her Wings Reaching Serenity |
Rival Consoles Now Is |
Saosin Saosin |
Saosin Along the Shadow |
Secret And Whisper Great White Whale |
Sentinels (US) Collapse by Design |
Serration Simulations of Hell |
Silent Planet Iridescent |
Silent Planet Superbloom |
Silverstein Arrivals and Departures |
Silverstein A Shipwreck in the Sand |
Silverstein I Am Alive In Everything I Touch |
Silverstein Redux II |
Smart Went Crazy Con Art |
Stateside It's What We Do |
Termina Soul Elegy |
The Bled Pass the Flask |
The Drowned God Pale Home |
The Men Leave Home |
The Republic of Wolves shrine |
The Requiem A Cure to Poison the World |
The Used The Used |
Thursday Waiting |
Thursday Common Existence |
To Speak Of Wolves Find Your Worth, Come Home |
Underoath They're Only Chasing Safety |
Unwound Leaves Turn Inside You |
Unwound The Future of What |
Unwound Challenge For a Civilized Society |
Vein.fm Errorzone |
Void Sessions 1981-83 |
Waxahatchee Cerulean Salt |
Wheel (FIN) Charismatic Leaders |
Wolves and Machines Ailments |
Year of the Knife No Love Lost |
Your Ghost In Glass Objects In Mirror… |
Zao The Crimson Corridor |