This is every bit as good as I reasonably expected. Even if it’s not always to the best of its ability, I love how well-measured this project is and how the climaxes are used. I love how it’s not afraid to get kinda dreary and even experimental on songs like “Rewind” or “Beyond the Sun”. “Lost Changes” is an early SOTY contender with a magnificent display of bittersweet relationship introspection. She may sit on an idea forever before dropping, ... read more

Persefone is frustrating because certain passages of theirs are some of the most replayable and badass in today’s prog metal landscape. However, their whole discography is just “fine” because Persefone’s songwriting has mostly struggled to stick out for me. Metanoia was one of their best songwriting efforts yet, but this new EP is slightly worse in every way, even in performances. They’re back on track with the title track and I actually find the closer to be a ... read more

For a debut record and a band that only started 3 years ago, I’d say they’re off on a damn good foot. This is an ambitious record with lots of pizzazz that’ll come with surprises in places you wouldn’t expect like the whiplash transition from “Gjuha” to “Sinner”. They, so far, perform best as a catchy indie rock outfit (songs like “Burn Alive” and “The Feminine Urge” make great use of the catchiness). The sky’s the ... read more

Who the hell is making all this spaghetti with all of this noodling! Yeah, this was decent even if a bit overkill. The guitarist is obviously insane and the vocalist actually has great range. The bookends dominate the tracklist except for “Survival’s Careening Inertia”, a neat instrumental break in the middle. Tech death fans will enjoy, but I won’t return to this much.

6 +- 0

Best Songs:

1. Shame and Its Afterbirth
2. He Will Fight Savagely
3. Survival’s ... read more

A nice, healthy dose of glittery screamo. Obsidian Wreath starts on an impressively strong foot with a three-track run of totally different skramz styles that all wonderfully fit the band’s atmospheric rage. The rest of the album overglazes the glitter a little bit and, because of that, straightforward bangers like “Fulfilled” would’ve been very welcome in the album’s back half. Despite that, it’s still raw, it’s still punchy, and it’s still very ... read more

I really wanna buy into Alkaline Trio’s hype, but this album unfortunately continues them just being average to me. The band is instrumentally talented especially with the shred candy on “Hot for Preacher” and “Break” and these moments do bring a “pop” to the pop-punk sound. However, this album also leans into other pop punk staples like the chanting backup vocals and similar verse-chorus structures on every song. That would be fine and dandy, but these ... read more

I was more excited to hear this than I would’ve expected 5 years ago. Their debut was good by itself, but I was also excited to hear more from an indie rock band who cared little about conventions and did whatever the hell they wanted. The expansion on what is much of what makes Plastic Death so endearing, and better than the debut. Yes, it can be way, way too scatterbrained. Yes, the production’s kinda inconsistent. Yes, I sometimes wish J McClendon wasn’t as shy vocally in ... read more

As Spoken is probably maybe better than Metempiric? The experience this time feels slightly more balanced and I like the approach of giving certain tracks longer lengths than normal to let them breathe and develop. The title track is a great, blistering summary of the rest of the record. It and its absolutely chaotic follower, “Offering” make for a wonderful 1-2 punch. Afterward is a mixed bag of doom/post-metal hybrids and experimental passages, the latter of which often just ... read more

Thom Yorke and his new gang continue to excite on their new record with grander movements and songwriting (and drumming, somehow) than on their last record. I still prefer their 2022 outing because The Smile is currently at its best as an "idea factory" like that album was, but the margin is very slim. The first half of the album is terrifically strong, and that's not even including the album's best song, "Bending Hectic" an obvious early SOTY list contender. It ... read more

I've always had awkward luck with this band. Even if their last record, Rise Radiant, was one of my favorite efforts of theirs, each album by Caligula's Horse has been a "pick your favorite track" album rather than a great full album experience. That feeling’s exacerbated on Charcoal Grace because the scaled-up songwriting direction change left the weaker tracks more bloated than before. “Mute” is a fantastic closer and the titular suite was done quite ... read more

The artist's background is honestly more interesting than the album. There's just a point (none more evident than the very first song) where the "ideas at a wall" approach becomes too much for any sort of consistency to save. Production could certainly be improved on the guitar work and synth passages. Some tracks happen to gel into well-rounded bangers, but it's a pretty mixed effort. Perhaps a less profilic approach would benefit greatly.

6.5 - 0.5

Best Songs:

1. ... read more

I’m so happy that Willi Carlisle’s had a good breakthrough with this record. Peculiar, Missouri is still one of my favorite modern country albums, and Critterland just continues the excellence. It’s a little less consistent and there are some odd production bloopers here and there. The highs on this, however, set a ridiculous standard for the year to catch up to.

8 +- 0

Best Songs:

1. Critterland
2. When the Pills Wear Off
3. Higher Lonesome
4. The Arrangements
5. Jaybird

Heavy psych with a grotesque emphasis on the “heavy” part. The drumming is a big highlight of the record. The jam sections are fine, but I’d like the progressions to be more substantial, especially for how long the album runs. My thoughts on this are very similar to their last record. This would probably be mind-blowing in a live setting, though; I’ll give it that.

6.5 - 0.5

Best Songs:

1. Weavers’ Weft
2. The Words That Have Never Been Heard

The title track :( RIP Kai

Cult of the Lamb update OST

So bad it's good? Kinda.

Ahab has had a robust setting in the death-doom realm since their Moby Dick-inspired debut in the mid-2000s. I gave that debut a spin out of curiosity and noticed a common level of progression when just taking the catalog’s bookends. There’s a heightened clean vocal presence and a production value that’s much smoother around the edges, watering down the “death” of the death-doom style over time. While Ahab’s debut is very good, improvements could have been ... read more

Thy Darkened Shade is a black metal project from Greece that began in 1999 and bizarrely went without any official releases all the way up until 2012. Unfortunately, I could neither find nor decipher the lyrics from the new record, but I think the first entry of the Liber Lvcifer series gives us a good idea of what to otherwise expect. On that album were complex descriptions of damnation and referenced fallen figures from an immense range of religions and associated texts. It seemed like every ... read more

As stated on the band’s Bandcamp, this is the second straight album from Cicada that’s based on a hiking expedition, and another of many of the band’s projects based on geographical or biological impressionism. Since this is a classical instrumental record, what’s key here is how the composer’s journey is translated through mostly technical aspects. The general sound of this reminds me of several indie game OST’s I’ve enjoyed in the past couple of ... read more

Nicole Bell, or Nicole Dollanganger, has made a pretty decent career thus far building on a brand of intimate, soft, and sometimes unexpectedly heavy pop-folk music. She’s had some hits here and there and a relative breakout record in 2015, Natural Born Losers. That record thematically was a collage of significantly dark song topics and situations, all tied together by the idea of the loss of self-control. Her next album, Heart Shaped Bed separates itself from that throughline while ... read more