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Black Altar/Vulture Lord

Deathiah Manifesto
Odium Records (2022)

I'll be completely honest with you I am a bit of an amateur when it comes to black and death metal. I am only really familiar with the more well known bands of the genre; Mayhem, Burzum, Darkthrone, Carcass, Entombed and so on. I'm slightly embarrassed to admit to knowing almost nothing about Black Altar or Vulture Lord until choosing … Read more

Solilians

American Klezmische
I Heart Noise (2022)

The first time I listened to this EP I was waiting for it to properly start. I was already halfway through the second track before realising this was it. I was clearly not in the mood for this type of spacey music. Trying it again a couple of days later gave some better results. American Klezmische is the second installment … Read more

Plosivs

Plosivs
Swami (2022)

Plosivs are a new band with a lot of familiar faces. And, consequently, familiar voices too. Comprised of John Reis (Hot Snakes/Rocket From The Crypt/Drive Like Jehu), Rob Crow (Pinback), Atom Willard (Against Me!) and Jordan Clark (Mrs. Magician), it delivers almost exactly what you’d expect. It has Reis’ entrenched rock ‘n’ roll sensibility and surf-tinged, hook-driven, punked-up power-pop with … Read more

Pan American

The Patience Fader
Kranky (2022)

Sonic maturity is not always reached by further augmenting one’s sound. It can also arrive when the artist understands what is important. What it is at the core of the project that makes it unique. Mark Nelson has taken such a journey with his project, Pan•American. In the early days, Pan•American relished the experimentalism of drone music, the ethereal quality … Read more

Amorphis

Halo
Atomic Fire Records (2022)

Amorphis as a band have been going for over 30 years and this is the year that they bring us their new album Halo, a worthy finale to the trilogy of Under The Red Cloud (2015) and Queen Of Time (2018) and the fourteenth studio album of their career. The 3 singles released from Halo were "The Moon", "On The … Read more

Hakan

Hakan Manifesto
Striped Music (2022)

I was pretty into II, the last record by Hakan that I heard (apparently III slipped past me). And while I really dug it, Jeff Burke’s fingerprints were all over the production and it was impossible to listen without recalling The Marked Men. This time around, the Italian trio has enlisted Matt Bordin to record, mix and master, and the … Read more

Black Map

Melodoria
Minus Head Records (2022)

Black Map came to be in a moment of synchronicity. Somehow at the exact time period, dredg, Far and The Trophy Fire were all put on hiatus. As a result, Mark Engles, Chris Robyn, and Ben Flanagan started to collaborate on their new project. And so Black Map’s debut record, …And We Explode arrived in 2014, with the band coalescing … Read more

Salvation

Uncorrectable
Independent (2022)

Do you folks watch the show Queer Eye? Last season had an episode with a school. The kids that were graduating got to bury a time capsule. I have no clue when that capsule is supposed to be dug up. Listening to Salvations debut album Uncorrectable made me think of this episode a lot. The main reason being that Uncorrectable … Read more

Human Issue

Faceless. Nameless
Rad Girlfriend Records (2022)

Hunter Martinez is a scene vet, playing drums and/or guitar with Decent Criminal, Dwarves, and Slaughterboys, among others. In Human Issue, Martinez takes the lead. That’s not to say this is some dude-with-an-acoustic vanity project. Human Issue is a full-on punk band, with Martinez joined by a wide cast of collaborators on the 6-song EP: Rikk Agnew (Adolescents, Christian Death), … Read more

Mire

A New Found Rain
Independent (2021)

The first time I ran into Mire was about two years ago. I was looking for stuff that was at least somewhat adjacent to Gojira and a friend recommended Mire. At the time the band had an EP titled Shed which was released in 2018. For whatever reason, it seems that (mostly) all traces of it were scraped and there … Read more

Death Has Spoken

Call Of The Abyss
Ossuary Records (2021)

This is the second album from Polish death/doom metallers Death Has Spoken who formed in 2017. Taking inspiration musically from bands such as Paradise Lost, Swallow The Sun, Hallatar and My Dying Bride to name but a few this 7 track album gives us just over 40 minutes of dark, melodic doom metal. I've got to hand it to these … Read more

Sweat

Gotta Give It Up
Pirates Press (2022)

I’ve had a range of thoughts about this record as I’ve played it on repeat in recent weeks. At first it didn’t really hit me -- it felt too repetitive and didn’t really jump out from the pack. But that changed as I kept coming back. While circle pit hardcore is well established at this point, Sweat’s Gotta Give It … Read more

Alluvial

Sarcoma
Nuclear Blast (2021)

Last year was definitely a great year for metal. Probably the best year for metal in the past like ten or fifteen years. So great in fact, that I’m still trying to catch up with albums I didn’t get to either listen to or review. I actually had to make a spreadsheet for tracking purposes, imagine that, hahaha! Anyway, I … Read more

Various Artists

...And Out Come The Lawsuits
Lavasocks Records, Sell The Heart Records (2021)

Rancid’s 1990s catalog is a unique beast. It’s Clash-influenced street punk. On paper it sounds highly derivative, but its heart always shined through making it stand out in a hard to quantify way. Tim Armstrong’s songwriting is the foundation, but it’s his one-of-a-kind drawl paired with Lars Frederiksen’s vocal tradeoffs that makes it shine. It’s also why I was leery … Read more

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