UngratefulDead

After the release of Joy as an Act of Resistance, IDLES felt like a band that struggled with a sense of identity. The release of Ultra Mono presented a picturesque view of band who had written themselves into a role they no longer wished to play: their audience demanded more of the witticism and sociopolitical angst that defined their first two albums, yet they had little else to say about the political state of the world. While its follow up CRAWLER was met with mixed results by audiences, I ... read more

If you told me a Green Lung album would have been one of the most impressive albums I listened to this year I would have first asked you what weird marketing stunt you were trying to pull, and yet here we are. This Heathen Land is an excellent doom metal album that feels less like a collection of songs and more like a fantastical journey through a sprawling landscape of occult vignettes. Its moody and off-kilter, and yet up-beat and energizing at the same time.

It should be worth saying that ... read more

As Stone casts away the color motif of their previous releases, so too is it a marked shift in sound for Baroness from the heavier stoner influences of Purple and Blue into more airy progressive leanings. Its not entirely new territory for Baroness, but while earlier albums in their discography were largely hard rock albums that occasionally flirted with broody atmospheric arrangements, Stone feels like a mirrored image of the dynamic.

While I'm sure that is an appealing enough prospect to ... read more

I'm of two distinct minds in regards to Back to the Water Below.

On one hand, there's a sort of thin veneer of an underwater motif that permeates through the album, and the best moments on the album occur when Royal Blood chooses to strip back the distortion and high velocity drumming in favor of off-beat piano bridges and droning atmospheric synths. Pull Me Through and The Firing Line turned out to be pleasant surprises for me, and even the more bog-standard Tell Me When It's Too Late added ... read more