Hello everybody, Welcome back to that No Matter, your weekly Rocking Matter podcast,
and welcome to the album review show. We have got eight of the
best and most interesting records from this month to tell you all about, from
all pretty up and coming bands as time as well. This is classic TNM
stuff where if you've come to discover some new favorite artists. I hope this
episode we'll do the trick for you. My name is Paran Hash and returning
to the fold, Elliot Paisley is joining me for this one. Hello,
how you've been? It was Italy as sweaty as the last time I saw
you, emerging from the death grips pit. I feel like every time I
one here, I've just emerged from some sweatpit. Every soon time I can
escape at every festival is the horsest festival in the world. Even my holidays
are record temperature. My whole life is just drinking water now. Yes,
So, I did you get into any sort of heavy metal adventures over in
Yonder Italy? I had some fisheads. That's pretty fucking that's pretty mental inspo.
Yeah, wild. So Sam is not able to be here today and
Elliott has just got back from holiday. So impressures of these albums have been
pretty on the fly. It is a bit of an impromptu episode. It
might be a bit wings, but I think we can do it. I
certainly have spent you know, there's plenty of time with what we're going to
be talking about today. We are going to be reviewing episodes from Black Braid,
Mutoid Man, Torture, Rap Out of Heaven, Caligram, The Sun's
Journey through the Night, Temple of Angels, and Home is where I hope
that a lot of those names will be relatively new to you because it means
we can tell you all about them. News. This is one that I
didn't know how to put this in news. I've just kind of slapped this
in as it's kind of developed today. You know, we've got some kind
of sillier stuff later, and I didn't want to put it after that because
that's, you know, transitioning out of stuff. It feels bad. But
today we did wake up to the news that Anti Flag had very quietly,
through their kind of social media Patreon kind of means very quietly disbanded and broken
up. And over the course of the day it became clear that some very
serious rape accusations had been leveled against their front man just insane. So again
this is very very very fresh. Have to you know, see where these
things go. But obviously, you know, compassion with survivors. Horrible stuff
going on there. Yeah, so that's the anti flag at news. Let's
talk about what we really want to be talking about. Code Orange have come
through. We have been speaking about Code Orange fairly frequently of late. They
came through some new songs not too long ago, we saw them not too
long after that. But the news that we have been waiting for for I
guess however many years now, is that their new album is all completely thought.
It kind of would be when they're released, you know, Groom Replacement
and those songs. But there is a new Code Orange album that is coming
on September twenty ninth. It is called The Above, is being released through
their new label, Blue Grape Records, and there is a song that we
have today. I mean, obviously we've heard other songs shoums before because Groom
my replacement in the game. The two prior singles are on here, but
the song we got along with this is called take Shape. It features guest
vocals from Billy Corgan of of course smashing Pumpkins fame, and I have to
say, coming off of an unbelievably extreme, intense Code Orange performance at Outbreak
Festival, jumping back to people on the internet whining because they've released a song
that's less fallen is like, it feels like real whiplash from what we've experienced
of Light. But Code Orange they're very much in their fucking divide people era,
aren't they like, which feels like that almost feels like underselling what they
were doing circa forever and everything when not everyone was on board. But Code
Orange have really been testing how willing people are to go with them. Yeah,
I feel like there's been a slightly more muted run up to an album
than we were used to last summer, and I think went under Underneath was
coming out. It felt like every single little move they made was documented by
everyone, and this time it's kind of been more of a normal roll out.
I don't know if that's the division causing that, or if there's something
that they've kind of orchestrated themselves. I mean, I think I think part
of it the fact that grew might placement in the game. We're put out
of singles without an album announcement. Yeah, that's probably true as well,
and they didn't really have a video be another aspect of it. I mean,
for me, those songs, I really liked them when they came out,
but since Outgreat, they've both risen up massively in my estimation, even
if they didn't play the game, both those songs, I kind of see
how much more complex they are now like that I didn't really give them credit
for in the first place. Yeah, I don't really understand where all the
division has come from because for me, well they've done with this song is
they've managed to write a big, stomping, general messil anthem, but I
don't think you would have sounded as a place at the Outbreak set. For
me, this is a triumph. Well here the thing in terms of I
mean, obviously a huge part of it is a vocal minority of kind of
I guess the hardcore community, which is where code or has come from.
But it's not really where they live anymore, and it's not entirely who they
are just trying to win over an appeal to. But if you've got people
who are just you know, rinsing, you know what the King Nine Records
or whatever. All the time, You're not going to win them over by
putting out songs like this or like Out for Blood. I think this is
a again, So that's kind of one area. Do you get the full
spectrum where I've seen people going, oh, this is a much better single
than Out for Blood, and that I don't under out at all, because
if Out for Blood was like an embarrassment to you, but by that I
mean people who are like really really like shitting on Out for Blood and now
are like, oh, this is much better them doing a for me a
less obvious banger track here while being softer and more melodic and everything. If
you were like, oh, Out for Blood as a sellout, I fully
I don't compute exactly that they're thinking there. All I can think of is
is again as someone we seem to be the only people like not fucking losing
our minds every time Code Orange do anything that's a little bit different. I
was listening to just before coming on doing this. There's a new Hard Law
episode which is the podcast I'm Through Not Fest with a colin from Twitching Tongues
and both from Harm's Way, and they were talking to Jamie from Code Orange
and he was talking about the reaction to Out for Blood from kind of again
sort of primarily people ensconce in the hardcore community really really like having their knives
out for Code Orange, and he was saying, like I was kind of
I was taken aback by how unwilling people were to kind of see what came
next, because we've given you so much of all these different things that show
different kind of stripes of what's happening. For you to go, oh,
this one thing is like all you are now and not see it as part
of the bigger picture. It feels very very confusing, I guess to him
as an artist, and that's how I've sort of seen this as a listener
as well. This track for me, in terms of this one is part
of an album rather than Out of La which was a standalone thing. We
have heard two aggressive tracks from it. I like the song. I'm still
kind of sorry, I'm still kind of trying to get the pieces of going
to It feels like a very like odd ball put together song for something that
feels so instantaneous because the like the really rigid base groove is really ear catching.
I think to go that kind of simple but also threatening I'm getting my
head around Jamie's vocals, particularly in the verses when it's sort of more brought
back. Do you know what I mean in terms of like, because because
Out for Blood didn't really feel like clean singing necessarily, this has like a
very clear focus on melody, primarily from Jamie. Yeah, it's kind of
funny that they've called Billy Corgan on for this song because in the verses he
really does sound like Billy Corgan slightly wind. Yeah, it kind of it
throws me a little bit in terms of, like, again how subdued that
verse goes, and then moving into the chorus, which I think the chorus
is great, and that's where that met melody totally pays off. And again
like Rebe's a little part in the chorus, just like one little line,
but it's perfect. That's got They have so much cool and so much star
power in them, unmistakably. But then again, in tends of get to
get to the pieces, I think it's it's just got an odd momentum as
a song because when you get to the bridge with Billy, the song literally
stops and it's pretty much just Billy Corgan's voice for a minute. It's funny.
I don't find this sort of as off kilter as you. I don't
think Alpha Blood. I mean I was I like that song now fast.
I really like at the time, I was pretty unsure. And what I
will say that's sort of sympathetic to the kind of oh they did Alpha Blood
and now they suck crowd is that when that came at, our song is
a statement of you know, we're taking back the air waves and press photos
with it and stuff like. It did feel like its own kind of mini
era of Code Orange in a way, so I can understand at the time
people going, oh, this isn't for me. It feels a bit silly
now, but at the time it's certainly did well. I think the song
does better than Outpha Blood is the sort of the weirdness and the alien nature
of COLDE Orange I think is more present here. That's probably fair. I
think for me that Alpha Blood is so much more of an obvious like that
was just always going to be an out and out floor filling. You know,
we like fucking Rob Zombie. You're like full on smash it to piece's
hits, and I love that about it. This I agree with you.
I think the momentum of this is a little more sort of like up and
down. Yeah, And I think one thing I will say it's I do
think this is a great first single, but maybe after the two songs they've
released, it's certainly a lighter touch. But it's another song in that kind
of slamming tempo and code Orange like great songs of that tempos, so it's
not necessarily surprising. Maybe I would have liked hear something a bit different in
that sense, but maybe it lacks on that front. I think that Billy
Corgan feature is really good because he comes in over those plucks acoustic chords,
and I don't think it doesn't assarily interrupt the flow of the song. At
least it doesn't to the point where you go, oh my god, Billy
Corgan like for me, maybe it's because it sets up with Jamie kind of
imitating him. I think he slots in quite nicely. Yeah. Again,
I think I could probably see this in the context of an album being more
of like a particularly I mean that Billy Corgan moment which he was weird,
was essentially the breach of a song. But how kind of again, it
really kind of comes out of the blue and almost like punctures the song.
I think it does lead back into the following chords really really well, and
I suppose what you're saying about like them kind of doing a similar sort of
tempo we have heard obviously again Grew My Replacement and stuff are very different tracks
to this, So in terms of piece together different parts of what this is
going to be, I think that there is a very clear kind of similarly
to I guess something like the title track from Underneath when that came first,
and that was that kind of more like um whatab the word sort of like
deceptively straightforward sort of song. This is how I feel about this where I'm
still like again, I really like that chorus. I think that is where
like again, Jamie fully taking that mic like really is showing that you can
do a little bit more than just be the kind of screamy guy that we've
we've known him as. And in regards to that chorus itself, which you
know, the the kind of oh your new metal now, fucking tomato throwers
over the internet talking about yeah, obviously that there are choruses and melodies that
take inspiration from the era of heavy music. When you know code Orange were
kids. That is not a shock. Literally every band around fucking does that.
But I will say the guitar in that chorus is so mean as well,
like for a quote unquote linkin part chorus, the tone of the guitar
in that chorus, he's fucking insane. And that's when he go, yeah,
that's still Code Orange. Yeah. I mean when I saw that they
work with Steve Albini on this new record, yeah, that's another bizarre fact.
Yeah, the first thing I thought was like yeah, and then suddenly
I went, oh, hang on, because he's known as a sort of
raw, basic, honest approach guy, and one of my favorite things about
Code Orange and this really blur the lines between what's organic and what's some manipulation,
and listening to this, I don't really have to worry because it sounds
fucking monolithic, like it has that rough and ready energy that's Steve Albini kind
of he fosters that, but it's ultimately still cold orange sound, and they
are one of the best sounding bands around despite their size. Yeah again I
think that sonically, I think this sounds brilliant. Again, that baitch,
like that bass lurch at the start is just sounds so good. Um.
In terms of Steve Albini, they said that this is that they kind of,
at least a lot of this record they recorded together live in the Room
with Steve Albini, which so much of Code Orange you imagine being assembled like
a jigsaw puzzle, right, And I wonder whether it's like when they when
they did Forever and Famously they kind of recorded the sort of like the bass
band elements of that with Kurt Blue and then the whole sort of like second
layer of the record was primarily handled with will Yip, And I wonder whether
there's a similar thing going on there where they kind of did this, you
know, Steve Albini full or live in the room, let's play like a
band, and then weaved in everything else on top, which has worked for
them before, even if it seems like a really mad way of kind of
working. But yeah, I think this is again the choruses in my head
right now as we're speaking, I think really really stands out. I think
putting this together with some like groom replacement, of course, I'm really fascinated
to hear what the record is going to be, even if it does keep
riling up people who say they sound like fucking pod now or whatever, even
though those people clearly you've never heard a pod song. The Menzingers have also
got a new album that is one that has not been announced yet. It
feels like we've been on here a few times talking about Menzinger's songs, been
like, yeah, it's a mending a song. I wait for the album
now, And even with them saying this is the lead single from the album,
we've not actually got an album announcement yet. So it's another one of
those I'm sure you know if you like it or not. A whole bunch
of more hardcourt stuff going on. Because Harm's Way are also back within your
record that is coming out on the same day as Code Oranges September the twenty
nine. That record is called Common Suffering, the traffic called Silup Wolf.
It's been a five years over five years an ounce it's Harm's Way last years
something creatively, so that is a welcome return. Also, Angel Dust are
back with a brand new record called Brand New Soul. Angel does confuse the
fuck out of me. I don't know where you stand. I mean mixed
feelings, rocket the fuck on forever. It's really good and pretty buff is
kind of funny. I've heard these new songs. I found them really annoying.
It's like you, I'm kind of baffled by them, right, Yeah,
you know. I briefly listen to this like one minute forty single,
and the guitar tone seems like it's more present than it was on Pretty Buff,
which was like essentially like a fucking campfire acoustic hardcore punk record, and
that with the most confusing part to me, But yeah, we'll see what
happens and vanngeled us. Now this is really good. Fugitive back again with
another little EP released. Fugitive is the band featuring Blake Ibanez of Power Trip
doing some more crossover thrash type stuff we spoke about, I think, like
a little five track EP or something a little while ago. They put out
another one of those are through band camp, a two track record called Blast
Furnace, And this is just really fucking good, isn't it. Like the
first track, Blast Furnace has a fucking stellar like stomping beat down part halfway
through it that you can totally say tearing up, a kind of nineteen ninety
three Sepultura like mosh pit part, and then the second track for that like
really like really fast end riffing, super super sweet. Yeah, I mean,
Fugitive for me were quite a hard bance to get on with at first,
which is weirds crossover thrash. It's like what's not to get instantly?
But for me, this is my side a bit sad, but part of
me was kind of struggling to imagine it without Riley Gale, if that makes
sense, Like, yeah, it's hard to imagine him not barking over these
riffs, and that kind of got worse the best or I thought Fugitive were.
But now I feel like that's kind of gone away, that feeling,
and now I'm able to enjoy it for what it is. This is,
Yeah, two fucking great songs. It's not too much more to report than
that. Really. Yeah. Again, it's just waiting to see again what
this band really developed into. But I think, you know, this might
be the most I've enjoyed something for Fugitive so far, So very good.
There Paradise Lost when ounce there. Their rerecording of their icon album is going
to be out on remember the first. They're playing some shows around that in
December as well. Um, I don't know if you heard the Cavallera rerecordings
for Morbid Visions and Best Devastation are really fucking good, Like they are some
of the most extreme, like ravenous sounding recordings, a sort of like you
know, thrash musicians of their generation have kind of put to tape recently.
So that's quite quite cool. And I think, you know, obviously very
very different kind of music. But Icon is one where I can kind of
imagining sort of like modern Paradise Lost sound being applied to like those kind of
nineteen eighty three songs or whatever. I think is one I'm you know,
if not going to be something I'm reaching over the original four agam, we'll
see, but like I am curious to hear what that sounds like. It's
a weird will though, because Paradise Lost have never sounded particularly youthful, Like,
Yeah, there are a lot less sort of heat fielding now, aren't
they. They might have more of this sort of you know, this kind
of stature to them, I guess, so that Icon, to me,
it's still one of the best sounding metal albums of that time, So it's
weird to kind of want to go back and rerecord that. I do hope
they call it Nick's version, but yeah, I don't. It strikes me
as well because like even when Exodus have done it, and there's been a
few of them, it's not even their most popular record, right. If
they were just going to do this fully as like a cash grab thing,
you'd expect it, Oh yeah, we'll return to draconian times. This feels
like they have gone like, yeah, there's something about Icon that we really
feel like kind of coming back to and giving a fresh like a paint too.
I would love to hear the story. I'd like to know why they're
doing it, but it's just it really weirds me out because the album salsd
like no one listens to Icon and goes the wasted potential. If only they
could do it now, it's like it's a ten. Yeah, But I
am again, I think there is something that is so sort of of that,
you know, very nineties again, the thing that Paradiso's really really kind
of brought in and changed on kind of mainstream level in metal at that point
in time of that sort of like gothic metal come black album kind of feel
that became really really popular for a little bit. I am I'm very very
curious to hear what again the very like Smoothers butter kind of Paradise Lost sound
now does I'm definitely there's no question. Yeah again. I'm just saying in
terms of like re recorders, I'm curious about this again. I'm more curious
about if they again them doing Icon than doing again like the two most classic
Paradlecels albums in my mind are Raconian times in Gothic. Either of those,
if they return to be like, Okay, Icon, it's like, oh,
what we're doing this for? Okay, I'm interested, I'm intrigued.
So that's going to be coming out, And we have a follow up on
what myself and Mark were heavily discussing last week, because the Creed fucking wagon
continues rolling on, and we did get the news that Creed are in fact
reuniting and specifically the I don't know if this is the only thing they're doing.
I don't know if there's a one off or whatever, because it's the
first thing that's been announced. Creed are back, but they are playing a
Creed cruise named the Summer of ninety nine, which also includes on the bill
three Doors Down, buck Cherry, and then genuinely a load of bands that
I don't think I am fucking post grunge enough to have any like spot for
my brain at all vertical horizon, not to my knowledge. Maybe I do
a song in Bruce al Mighty, a movie I haven't seen in twenty years.
Probably Creed Cruise. You weren't here talking about this last week. Oh
are you excited? This is begging for a torpedo. I say that I
would love to go. That's that's yeah, I'd love to be on it
when it's hit by a torpedo. It sounds awful, But also like I'll
be able to set when it's happening and I'm not there, of singing higher
on the waters of the Bahamas, yeah, or varying. Indeed, I
do hope there is a there's more in them than this, and they come
to our shores and elsewhere as well. But they'll be sailing around the Caribbean
first of all, on the Creed Cruise. Damnation first of all have added
another pretty big set to the bank for this year's event. They have bagged
Catatonia doing what number of other bands in the bill are doing, which is
playing two sets distinct sets. One at the Night of Salvation pre show even
though at the stage it's not really a pre show, it's literally just like
another incredible, equally important part of the event. And on the main donation
date, they're going to be doing a sort of general set covering their career,
but that special set from the NAT Salvation is going to be playing their
dead End Kings album in full, which I think is You know, when
we reviewed Catatonia earlier this year and I was saying that their new record I
think is really really great, I was like, the last one that came
out that I like this much and they are consistent band, right, the
records in that gap I still think are very good. But the last one
I like this much was dead End Kings from just over ten years ago,
so I think returning to it at this point, I think that's very enticing.
Yeah, I've never seen Catonia, so the prospects seemed twice and two
days is pretty instant. Dead End Kings. It's a record that, even
if I wouldn't put it right at the top of my Catatonia ranking, I've
got a weird soft spot for it. I think it's just the time it
came out, but I can't really be Yeah, it's ten years old.
Well it's eleven years old now. They were they said they were going to
do it last year, but they didn't kind of you know, find the
moment with Coding Sin. But yeah, I certainly probably top five Catonia records,
and they've got so many that they they're a bit like Enslaved, who
again Enslaved are literally doing two album in full sets that are completely different,
and neither of those I would even say, oh, their best record,
And yeah, I'm really excited to see both of them. Catonia have got
records that they've returned to different patches, different eras or whatever. And I
think even if it again it's not my absolutely number one pick, it's high
enough to go like dead End Kings deserves the kind of moment to be like,
yeah, for this one off thing, we're going to do that.
So I think that's very very cool indeed, and that is indeed the highest
build sort of slot on the night a Salvation events that's going to be closing
the whole affair Iron Maiden. In the time since myself and Mark saw them
on this tour when we spoke about a few weeks ago, they have been
having gong problems, which just makes me think about the Karli Ra Jepson gone
problems. I don't have gone problems. But did you see what's going on
with the various gong mishaps? Why does it happened multiple times in different ways?
This isn't a problem for Harm's Way, is it. I wish Harm's
Way had a gong. I bet twitching tongues could put it off. I
bet like Colin could come out dress of the wrestler and smack a huge gong
before a beat down or something. But what's going to be, by my
maid is one point in time the gong beat the end that just flew across
the stage and Bruce just sort of stood there dumbfoundered and started playing it like
a flute. And the other slightly more serious thing is the gong fell on
Nicco while he was playing, and amazingly he just continued. He was just
kind of sort of slightly leant forward with a big gong on his back.
Can you imagine I annoyed? You'd be because this is the downside of heavy
mail theater. It's so great, but when it goes wrong, it's not
if you've heard yourself doing something really stupid and it's a bit embarrassing and shameful.
It's like, why did we even have a gong? And now I'm
crushed underneath it? Yeah about me, fucking you know, good job it
wasn't higher up or something and fell with serious sort of a yeah you know.
Wait because if at the end of Iron Maiden's storied career they broke up
because their drummer got you know, crushed by a gong, the most final
tap thing would have ever happened in the history and heavy metal. If they'd
gone through forty plus years of a career only to end with with a gong
death, it would have been seriously something that our community as a whole would
never ever have lived up and got on passed. But he lives so brilliant
there and now this is a solemn moment for that's not my podcast as a
whole, because it seems that psychosexual slash psycho Sinner, as I believe it
was cooled at the end, very briefly for some reason, is no more
because Jeremy Spencer, I don't know if you saw this quote from him gone.
So Jeremy Spencer is basically he's talking about psycho sexual slash sinner in the
past tense. Now he's saying, you know, it was a thing that
we did. It was a thing I did. I had fun doing it.
But particularly he is talking about how hated it was and how it was
the butt of the joke, and how he was like, we put out
seven albums and fucking one day and people, you know, throw it back
at us. And now the thing he's doing is he has started a new
death metal band called Semi Rotted, and they put out a track that features
corpse Grinder and everything, unfortunately being Jeremy Spencer, It's terrible and it sounds
fucking awful. It it's like a five finger death punch, but on the
cheap production job applied to like what is attempting to be I don't know,
I'm morbid, angelous one or something. It's not doesn't sound good at all.
Corpse Grinder obviously innocent, and I don't want to, you know,
beat a man while he's down in this regard in terms of Jeremy Spencer,
because I think, you know, obviously it's you don't want to have your
your creative pursuits just absolutely turned into the laughing stock of the internet. But
uh, psychosexual I think was a special moment. It was. It was
more than just isn't this bad? It was it was bad in a fascinating
kind of way. And maybe it wasn't to last for too long, or
maybe we should treasure the memories of psychosexual uh that that we have, but
it certainly seems at that time is no more. It's a weird thing to
do and being secure about what I've just yeah, you feel like that guy
would own it? Right? Yeah, you really was all out. It's
all come flooding back to me. And he said something about like, oh,
people were closed minded. It's like Jeremy, no one names, you
call yourself devil daddy. Yeah, and actually I've really he said something else.
He went on, we had seven number one songs on the secondary radio
market of rock radio. It's like, that's quite the cabin spencer. And
again he's trying to scrub it from the internet, like you can't get some
of the videos anywhere. They don't buy the CDs and people listen, you
won't be able to see this. That's as flex on you, perm o,
what psychosexual lives in my house? He cannot say this away. Elliot
is holding a CD from I've Got Songs to Stalk You buy? Why do
you have a CD of Songs to Stalk You by? Which one was?
Oh my god, For a second I thought that was a seven inch.
I was like, when did Psycho the most limited real cred thing. Yeah,
I've got the demo, I've got the split they released with Dysphear.
I think this is the first EP. So I'm pretty wow, how serious
dragging? Right? You are right. I do think it's strange how he's
kind of um like, at least let it live on the internet for all
to see, right, And I know that people should like be existing on
the internet for everyone to see is hard, But yeah, Jerry Spencer again,
the way he threw himself so wholeheartedly into that, I think it is,
I guess sort of surprising to see how sort of thin skinned it was.
And I think backtracking and deleting its existence is a shame. And you
are quite right, they can never take away from you the fact that you
hold the physical evidence maybe the only the only man on earth who holds the
physical evidence of psychosexuals existence. So yeah, I guess we'll end the news
on that particular note. If you would like to support this podcast and help
us out and keep us going. The best way to do so is by
heading over to Patreon dot com slash that's no matter. We've just pound out
a new album Roulette episode where if you're new here, if you don't know,
we pick a theme with these episodes and we pick some albums to talk
about the go with that, and it's usually a lot of fun. Every
summer, it's a great opportunity to talk about stuff that just bakes you in
that and makes you feel good. Oddly, no one else who is on
that episode with me is here right now. But this does mean I can
ask without fear of a I don't know sort of input from anyone else.
Elliott in point of entry, A good album? Yes, yeah, is
it, like, like how good? Obviously everyone who isn't you know,
a terrible person agrees heading out to the highway and the peaks on it.
Right, Oh yeah, yeah of course. But what what what? What
level of good are we talking about bout the entry? I mean, if
I ranks the prest albums, it probably is around ten or eleven. Yeah,
but that's that's pre standards, No exactly, if that's pre standards,
so it's I mean, it's one of those word it's in aids and then
I put it on and I go, this is the best album I've ever
heard, very very good. Indeed, I'm glad you've said that. The
next question is does Frank Turner make music that is in any way cool?
Absolutely not. We're two for two here and can't we complete the set?
Have you felt the power of Blessed by a Broken Heart? I've not felt
the power. Does that mean you've not heard the record or you are displeased
with the record. I've not heard the record. You should first thing tomorrow.
I'm feeling the power. It's really something and if you want to hear
you know, much fuller versions of those discussions and what's going on, plus
other records as well. That is all in that episode I've just mentioned there.
Next week it's album club time again. We didn't get the moment to
do one last month because of download and outbreaking everything else. But it is
a thing that we generally want to have every month, so it's very good
to be back with it. Another pack is coming at you of four of
the coolest, most interesting albums to talk about from rock and metal history,
and I can tell you that they are a band already cemented in heavy music
history, but capping off their classic run with an album that some people might
tell you as their best slayer seasons in the Abyss. We are going to
try and drill into what might be different about the slayer of that record from
the slayer of before, Like is that the slayer of a new era.
We're also going to start talking about something that is one of the great kind
of unspoken influences on a lot of what we're going to talk about. I
guess what we do talk about in general today, but we've never really done
any like Patient Zero, ground floor shoegaze type records. So we are going
to talk about one of the mammoths, my Bloody Valentine's seminal loveless in punk.
We are going to talk about one of the kind of modern eras Staple
TNM bands. They've had like two album clubs before. I think there must
be pushing a record, and it's kind of a strange band to think about
be pushing that record. But it is about time that we talk about the
Cancer Bat's wobbliest record in terms of how people responded to it, Searching for
Zero, And we are going to talk about one of the death metal records
from the last ten years, that little fire that we are still feeling today.
We've done nineties death metal classics, so let's talk something modern. Blood
Incantations, debut albums, star Spawn, Patreon dot Com, slash that's done
metal coming at you very very soon. Indeed, like we said, this
reviews bag is almost the polar opposite of the one we did last month,
because which I like that. I like having that variety. Last time we
were overwhelmed by huge bands, where we had a Queen of the stone Age
album third in the running order. Today, the most monthly listeners on Spotify
any of the bands we are reviewing has is one hundred and seventeen thousand.
To put that in perspective, Queens of stone Age, who again, will
the third biggest band we did last time have well over eight million. We
are not even going to be starting with that particularly biggest number. But we
are talking today all about, you know, cool names that might bubble in
under the giants of this year. First late, we are going to talk
about just the buzziest band on this list, I think it's fair to say,
and that oddly takes us straight away to extreme metal, although not so
extreme as to sort of pigeonhole its appeal. I guess black Braid and his
album Blackbraid two. Blackbraid is a name that really surfaced last year with shockingly
the Blackbraid one album. Very smooth turnaround of another record here, and every
now and then you get something from a world like black metal that gets a
lot kind of bigger voices on board with it, and Blackbraid pretty immediately was
that. We didn't get the moment to review that first one, but it
was totally on the radar as like something that was really turning heads, and
so it only feels right to talk about the next one, now, Elliott,
did you have much of kind of Blackbraid like crossing your path in terms
of the last year or so, Yes, you saw the name a lot
when the record came out last year, but I never got around to it.
It was one of those things where it felt like it almost because it
got popular so quickly, it kind of hurtled over the black metal circles talking
about it. Yeah, felt like a very similar thing to happen with Elan
Arder in that regard. Yeah, exactly that, and that took me a
while to get around to as well, just because not like it's a media
plant or an industry plant or anything cynical like that, but there was something
about it which didn't really reach out and grabbed me straight away. I think
part of it, to be honest, and I understand why this was so
widely reported, because it is an interesting aspect to the record and central aspects.
In fact, they felt like a lot of the things I was reading
were making more of a thing about the artist's origin than it was the record
they're in. And there's been a few signs where that's happened, where it
feels like that story is sold in place of having great music, and it's
maybe quite cynical about those kind of stories. So I kind of had alms
on it, but I never went back and checked it out, but I
certainly will now. Yeah, and this is a primarily one man project,
although there's a live band that recently has been on stages on you know,
the kind of the Decimel tour with counters, the appetition and the like,
getting some rave reviews there. I think there is a session drummer on this
album, but primarily it's one guy literally, formed in February of twenty twenty
two, so very very quick, we're getting this whole project off the ground.
Now he's getting features in like the New York Times. That's where this
is going. It's a guy who goes by the name Skaga Sower. I
believe it is the pronunciation, and he comes from a Native American background,
which which he's very much channeling into this black metal project. The first album
I liked, it did feel like a almost like it could be a first
EP, compared to this being like the debut album as a bit, some
of them maybe like how kind of some of the early MIRCA stuff sort of
felt leading into where she went with it. There are a couple of really
good songs there that kind of stood out. And now this project has gone
from like just over half an hour to including I guess the bonus track here
over an hour this one so literally, it's like, it really feels like
the second album means a lot more business despite the only year turnaround. And
I think that's why it's the perfect time press really kind of bring this forward.
I think this album is really beginning to kind of deliver on the promise
of Black Braid, and certainly we'll draw in a lot of people for something
like this and the kind of world it has origins in. Absolutely, for
me, I think this album is really excellent. It's an album that,
while all the factors that go into it are present and correct and important,
it doesn't feel like it's overrided by its concepts anywhere. Like listening to it,
you can know all the concept around Black Braid, and it maybe it
enhances the listening experience, But for me, this is just super high quality,
fiery, imperious, black Mail, and most of the albums that starts
to me and that's in black Mail this year on more of the sort of
chuse experimental kind. So it's really refreshing to me to have something new that
is this kind of I wouldn't go as fast a blockbuster, but nearer to
the sort of behemoth end than it is the the Liturgy And yeah, well,
I mean the base sound of this is it's that strain of American black
metal that is kind of particularly sort of celebratory of kind of you know,
nature and the earth in it sounds. The guy very clearly loves Agaloc also
Wolf from the Throne Room, Panopticon, etc. A lot of the kind
of heavier guitar tone sound like Wayfarer to me one there is loads of like
very melodic black metal stuff like Uarda as well and kind of bringing those things
together. But also there is a very direct kind of melodic heavy metal sensibility
with how big the sound is that I think in terms of like an extreme
band who kind of or again almost jump over appealing to a lot of extreme
metahus and just go hey, metal fans, you like us a modern math
and stuff like that, and that kind of that that relatability in terms of
the crossover appeal that this is having. There is a kind of modernity about
this despite how roots of the atmosphere is that does make you that kind of
would sound big on a big stage. You have one of Mouths, one
of the bands that came to mind for me on the twilight of Ancient Blood,
and that all slows down. It is so withold and on our side
there's all just like MT and Stomp and again the bands you're sort of Agalock
and Oxscone, that sort of thing stomp and crunch and fist in the air
is not therefore ta so much. It's more about world building and subsuming in
a particular environment, and this having a bit of that heavy metal flare makes
this just rattle along in a way that I think those bands not necessaries to
their detriment, but maybe hold some of their appeal in certain circles. Yeah,
well, I think again, the reverse of that conversation is my sort
of fear with Black Tarade when it was kind of first surfacing, was that
something like, again, if you take bands like an Agalock or whatever,
but if you made a kind of one mainstream, palatable version of them,
is that we would have something like that, but without the real depth and
the real magic, right. And I think in order to be able to
sort of sell that, you need to really make the songs work. And
I think that is really what's happening on this Black Braid record, that it's
like, Okay, these like compositions and the songs and that kind of again
rousing heavy little spirit and everything is like powerful enough now that it doesn't need
to sound like you know, the Mantle or whatever, or you know,
Died Ever, twelve Stars, whatever you may say. There's just a real
like it's very easy to understand this, Like it's not a murky black project
in the slightest, it feels huge and immediate, and the core progressions feel
like they have a very sort of clear, emotional sort of goal they're moving
towards. The production sounds really warm and brilliant. When it goes like full
throttle with the double bass and everything, it's really earthy and powerful, and
it still has again, I think the usage of things like the acoustic intros
and interludes and all that is very well done. It's not kind of disconnected
and just there for show. It just really sets you up to kind of
end to the palette of the record incredibly tastefully. But The Spirit Returns is
like a four and a half minute song that just has this really ear catching
main riff, and for the kind of thing that it is, it's just
a very concise, direct song that shows a very strong sense of song craft.
It's a genuine gin. Yeah. It's funny. What's more Paradise Lost
earlier because they have that same kind of flavor where it was Gothic, it
was theatrical, it was all of those things. But because it was centered
around an easily decipherable vocalist and big riffs, it could have had a sort
of populist appeal and the spirit returns. It's almost like icon shades of Godia
a Paradise Lost played fast and harder because the riffs and riffs and hooks are
so easy to pick out in the world. Yeah, it's not you know,
kind of straining to hear the song. It's plops right in front of
you. Yeah, I think that's I guess the primary appeal of this is
how like the wolf that guides the hunter's hand is made in my favorite song
on this round, because when it just locks into that kind of galloping double
bass part, it just feels brilliant, like you don't have to mess around
with it. It's just so thick and powerful. You go, yeah,
good, I get this. And when that song goes double time that is
really a modern Maath like very kind of almost like old school versus of the
world stuff or whatever. A song of Death on Winds of Dawn opens with
this leave that could be like Michael Ammett or something like just very like well
conditioned hair blowing in the wind, before the rest of the song goes that
much more kind of you know, melodic Uarda style kind of blast. It
is just a thing that I love. So there's just a there's a constant
sense of kind of emotion in the melody that it's very you know, plainly
kind of melodic extreme metal playing that is meant to you know, kind of
rowls the soul in some way, and it really it sells that so well.
There's a slower rift break towards the end of the Wolf that guides the
Hunter's hand and that goes super kind of melodic doom, but in a really
beautiful way, and I think they kind of land those moments increasingly well.
Yeah, Moss Covered Bones on the Alster of the Moon, which is the
most more to the Throne of Room title that they like. That starts like
a dirge and it gradually builds the tempo and intensity and it goes from something
pretty downtrodden into a sort of triumphant new way of British heavy metal gallop and
then this ecstasy in the final act with these dueling leads. It's really great
musical storytelling, which you don't have to appreciate it on that level. You
can just enjoy the parts. Yeah, I mean, that's the longest track
on the record. It's thirteen and a half minutes long, which for something
that if you are kind of hearing I'll talk about it's like having heard the
record and you're like, oh, you know, it must be just a
very very simple, straightforward, you know, nuts and bolts thing. No,
he's still capable of going really fucking you know, kind of methodical and
it's pacing and everything, but it's so kind of legible in what he's doing,
Like it is very clearly this big pick, heavy metal kind of march
that when kind of layering the guitar leads stuff on top of that, that's
what kind of makes it immersive, and that's what makes it really sort of
pop. Vocally it again bands like Aglok Nuada or sort of the reference points,
but it's that weird sort of thing of like more appealing than it should
be on paper, like a sort of shrill gurgle that is weirdly oddly tuneful.
It just fits in really well in this kind of you know, modern
metal sounding mix, and if you are expecting kind of tons of like folk
instrumentation or whatever, it's very subtle. There are again, those like acoustic
interlude stuff which are really beautiful. They have that kind of you know feel
of you know, the wilds about them that really really works for the mood
of the record. But in the kind of long metal tracks themselves, it's
not like a constant barrage of like fiddle lines or whatever all the time.
It's big moments where something really really takes the four and elevates, something like
in the middle of a song of Death there's kind of or as well,
moss covered bones about six and a half minutes in there's like a really big
flute melody that takes it over. Those moments. Again just very he knows
how to time these things. Well. Yeah, autumnal Hearts ablaze as that
kind of fuzzy, rustic acoustic quality which lends it lends eleven of realism to
the record, I think, and in the way the battery lens drama and
grits to Master Puppets or the intro of that at least and again, like
we was talking about things like Knox car Walls in the Throne Room, I'm
sure there'll be some people listening to think maybe it delves into sort of hey,
nonny, nonny, and slightly to which bit too, you know,
dance around the may pole. There's none of that. It's it's it doesn't
lose the grits or the drama or make it sound remotely silly. It just
sort of heightens that all of those things. Yeah, well, again there's
that sort of strain of American black metal that we're talking about. I do
think ever does go for that sort of more I guess twee end of like
sort of stroke black metal or whatever. But this definitely feels like a a
much more immediately obvious and kind of like having that kind of metal power behind
it version that can really really sell to people. And that I mean speaking
of Metallica, the thrash metal riff in the middle of Twilight and of Nature
Blood, where does that come from? Like that's that's a real detail that
just fully turned into like a black and thrash Metallica part for a minute.
Yeah, that was a real head spinning moment because again, so much of
this album in a sense is about world building, but maybe less so than
some of the things influencing, because for long stretches of it, it seems
like they're just interested in hitting that spot that heavy metal can do when it's
done great. And I think balancing those two things it's not easy because what
you were saying that adding the elements of modernity. You think it could kind
of maybe dull the impact of either in a sense, but the way it's
put together, when those moments happen, it just provide a lift that makes
the records so much more exciting, especially towards the hour the end of the
hour run sign. Yeah, I think it's definitely if he can find a
kind of sweet spot between these two releases that he's done in terms of like
sort of length and substance, kind of really finding the ideas to really justify
this heft of a record. I like everything on this, but just kind
of keep honing it and keep making these structures work to the best of their
ability. I think this is a again, considering this band was formed like
a year and a half ago. This is album number two that is basically
doubled in length from the first record. I think it's very dramatic progress.
I think we're seeing and that is again I like Black Braid. I'm now
very very keen to see kind of where this continues going. And then I'm
not sure if this is part of the standarddition of the album or not.
I mentioned it earlier, but at the end, when he covers the masterpiece
song that is A Fine Day to Die by Bathory. I know Emperor have
already well worn that particular cover version, but I swear Black Braid do it
like way faster, Like this is a really fucking hard hitting like urge and
fine day to day. Yeah, I mean, to me, my estimations
of this album is slightly affective. But whether or not that's a bonus track
because it's a great cover and like you say, it's a classic, but
again, when you're sort of in the world, there is something slightly distracting
about that iconic opening guitar coming in, Like, I mean, I'll never
get sick of hearing A Fine Day to Die, but yeah, like literally,
it's one of the fucking like er text like epic black metal songs of
all time. Yeah, it's one of the best songs on one of the
best black metal records ever made. But it is a bit like maybe if
the next Onto Others record ended on a cover of Christian Woman or something,
It's like, I'm sure that would be great, but you would also maybe
have a mixed feeling about that. I don't know. For me, it's
almost like kind of um, it's always the way with black metal. I
like sort of like nodding the hat and paying tribute in a way. And
again I like that obviously this is this is a black metal record that like
could not be released in a decade prior to at least the last one,
right like, in terms of how it sounds, in terms of its mix
of influences, in terms of where it's coming from, it is super super
like this is where black metal is right now, and I like that that
goes. But we've still got time to knock at a Bathy cover for you
guys, So I think that's cool. I think it's truentally and in its
kind of songwriting style, it sounds a lot like band. So I really
love again the sort of main reference points where we're mentioning, so like,
not the most original there necessarily that it does it speak to a particular part
of my brain that goes, yes, I love that stuff. And then
the extra elements of his own personality that are really being blended in on top
are giving this its own kind of feel identity and plain and simple. The
songwriting and the riff writing and the power in the sound and everything is get
it better all the time. So I think it's not quite one of my
very favorite black metal records of the year, but I can absolutely see why
it'd be one of the most widely acclaimed because it's just so kind of satisfying
in a big, full, obvious kind of way. So black braid too.
If you are just a metal fan, I would encourage you to give
that one a bash and see what you make of it. Next band actually
is that kind of most established band that we were talking about. Three albums
under their belt. It might be the most of anyone we're talking here,
but also many, many more than that in their assorted projects, Mutoid Man
and an album very on brand simply titled Mutants. The cover is brilliant.
It's got a crabman like crawling out of a nuclear vat's fucking great. Mutoid
Man are one of the most all star all star bands on the planet because
Stephen Brodsky, frontman of Cavin, Ben Coller, drummer of Converge, quite
possibly in my top five drummers of all time. Newly added member to the
ranks here Jeff Matt's, otherwise bassist of an almighty band called High on Fire.
That is what you call a motherfucking power trio. Yeah, I mean
pretty much anyone in that band. If you're starting a supergroup, they'd be
in a conversation. But if you want a guitar player, Stephen Rodsky from
the drummer and why would you not want the guys from High on Fire.
Yeah, that bass tone on those fucking references fucking right. So you know,
Mutoid Man ostensibly a side project of those kind of legendary acts, but
I think there is something so charming about them because, I mean, particularly
if you take you know, Stephen Brodsky and Ben Koller, who have been
the kind of again the anchor of this band up to this point. Both
of those are like the kind of hyperkinetic spark of their bands. Right,
even if you are watching Converge do the heaviest shit you've ever seen, Ben
Koller is playing like an excited puppy. Even when you're listening to Converge his
blood Moon project, the biggest splashes of like kind of different colors and stuff
in that are coming from kind of Stephen Brodsky's like major moments in the spotlight.
So when you take Newtoyd Man, you're like concentrating all of that wide
eyed kind of brevity in one place. It's been a long time since the
last newtoy Man record six years, but their first two and whenever you see
them live in that time. For me, this isn't a side project that
I guess forget exists. I'm always like, yeah, I could go for
a bit of newtoy Man. Yeah, so I kind of I wouldn't say
if I forget they exist, but the owner's bands were. When they release
a new record, I go, I should really listen to more New toyd
Man because it's such a laugh, And then I kind of continue to not
do so for whatever reason. And I think maybe it's because they both play
in such cerebral, devastatically heavy bands in their day job that News and Man
sees are like a bit of a folly. But they're a lot more off
kilter and probably and wouldn't maybe look experimental, but they're kind of denser and
more worth unraveling than that sort of dismissive comment gives some them credit for,
because every time I going back to their records, I'm kind of taking it
back by how much there is going on. Yeah, I think I mean,
in terms of what you were just saying, then it wouldn't be a
million miles away if you were to plot mutoy Man on like a municipal waste
bill, and you could just have a really fun party, but they would
be by far the weirdest band in that sort of area. And I feel
like they're the weirdest band on most bills you could put them on. I
always remember seeing them open for Mastered on in Cavell Attack and it just being
like the most my mood has been boosted by the very first band at a
show, Like just this absolutely ray of heavy riff sunshine that they are,
and this record, they're so creative, Like the riff that opens the album
with call the Void is utterly bananas, like full on, how is that
what you've conjured out of this guitar for this? And then you're going to
base your song on that. It's like really proper out there thinking that.
I think particularly in the guitar ideas on this one, like the really fucked
up riffing Unborn. There's a screeching solo in Frozen Hearts that made me clench
my teeth. It's so like shredded and fucking you know, white knuckle.
His guitar doesn't sound like a guitar at point, it's mental. You know
a few people on Earth you know how to get a better sound out of
the electric guitar than Stephen Vroski. Yeah, whether that's his production or the
way he plays it either all like I'm broken glass singling. It sounds like
dying back playing in cathedral, which is not a combination. I could have
even imagined in my head that it sounds great. That made me think about
kind of like it's like a sludged up version of a classic era Danzig riff.
It's like Snakes of Christ and stuff like that, with a kind of
guitar squeal, which again it's exactly kind of shit. You could imagine them
sort of like smashing out one like a two minutes to Late Night video or
something, and it's it spoke to me and having that like warped rock and
roll personality that they always have. But again, he keeps finding ways to
make riffs more fucked up as they go along, Like Siphon is already this
dizzying thrash metal riff at the start, but the last time he goes round
on it, it's like bloopin all over the place. It's fucking bizarre.
Yeah, the Graveyard Love is like two riffs for most of the song,
one of which is like one of the fastest, most lumbering riffs you can
hear all year, and the other one sounds like this sort of Jane's addiction
style up tempo gate. It does so much that three minute run time and
you know, how did you write that? And yet it's stuck in my
head. Yeah, that Graveyard Love has a really crazy riff. I think
this record compared to other Muto Man records again, the stuff that stuck out
to me more was that kind of like really just like mangling of heavy rock
more side. Maybe they're super anthemic end I think mutoy Man have got songs
in them that, if they weren't such like art rock freaks, would be
radio hits. Like bridge Burner from the first album particularly, is like a
just an unbelievable fucking rock song, and this has maybe less of those.
Maybe I would like some more kind of real mega brodsky vocal moments, because
like kif for Death from the last albums another one that's always in my head.
But I will say the big Whoa in Cool the Void, it just
makes you smile because they have just such a sort of excitable energy around them.
Yeah, the Certain Sun as the finale melotopally, that's a bit sad
Wings of Destiny, But again, having Ben Coller in the band, the
engine is so supercharged then it never feels sort of retro or they're trying to
hark back to something. And even when it feels like they are, like
the sort of melody parts of Frozen Hearts, even that sounds like Feel Lizzy
playing thrash, so it barrels along, but as that melodic nows that bands
like that did so well. Yeah, and then they will have these like
super guttural heavy turns that just have this like you know, crazy fat guitar
tone and broad sky roaring. There's a breakdown at the end of Unborn.
The Honest to God sounds like Matt Cavallera rope, Like it's fucking well,
how do they get the toms to sound that big so that they've multi tracked
the drum kid, it's just so fucking huge. I wouldn't be surprised if
that was just Ben collar But like stuff like that Siren Song groves like a
Red Fang song. I think when they go super fast, it's always kind
of really thrilling. I feel like that's where their heart really lies. But
then they do again switch it really really well. I like the way that
siphon just starts with one of them yelling, just like I think Ben Coller
is deeming broad Sky considering them. They aren't even in their sort of main
band together. They just have this like unbelievable chemistry like that clicks, like
their energies just clearly work really well with each other. When you're hearing broad
skied, he's fucking, you know, a couple of van Halen's space thrash
riffs or whatever, and then Ben Coller is just like absolutely smacking behind him.
It's just two guys in perfect synchronicity. And then credit as well to
Jeff as well, of course for how he's well to He's kind of fit
into that like being a trio. The bass is very prominent and there are
parts where it forms really important parts that kind of the axis of the songs.
I think the last Caven record that we reviewed last year is really fantastic,
and it's more of a kind of a recent high watermark with some of
these guys. This is much more like cutting loose and doing some freaky ideas.
I think they're still one of the most like just really fun riff bands
out there, and they're still something of a secret I think for kind of
the heavy music community, like how sick this band are. They're like a
roadburn rat band, but they just have some of like the raddest heavy rock
shunes in them. Yeah, I mean, it's just again, maybe it's
because of the other bands they're in. You wonder if if it would be
a different story if they were just three guys and this is the stuff they
came out with. I think it says so much about them as creative individuals
that this is their cut loose band and you listen to it and you still
think, how the fuck did you manage to put that together? Yeah,
I think getting a guy to coming in play bass who could make it all
work, make these ridiculous parts sound coherent. I think this is my favorite
of the music. And Man records really far to be honest. Yeah,
I mean, like I said, those are the words why I listened to
them, and I thought, that's great. I'll definitely come back to that,
And I don't I think there's a fairly strong chance to come in to
this one and having it into my regular listening. I really really enjoyed this
very nice indeed. Okay, as we move through our reviews, we've got
a couple of little pairings for you where if these are your vibes, we
have got some stuff from you, and then we'll move on to something else.
We have got a couple of death metal records to talk about. We're
going to talk about a couple of black metal records, and we're gonna talk
about a couple of emo records. As we to start with talk about death
metal first, we are going to talk about a band on twenty buckspin who
if you're into your recent death metal, that should perk up your ears immediately.
And when it comes to straight up dirt death metal, this is one
of my very much one of my favorites, if not my favorite thing that's
hit this year. Torture Rap is a brilliant, brilliant classic name for a
death metal band. Great name, great logo, absolutely sensational death metal artwork
on this where if you know, like you do, just know what the
fuck that album is going to be from the cover. And there's a lot
more great word combinations to come. As we talk about this album. The
record is called Primeval Onslaught. It's twenty six minutes long. It is completely
skull crushing brutality. This things are hoot, is it not. I mean,
right off the bat any band where their logo is made up of things.
The artwork is so good. You can just on any one of those
guys and they're all fucking destroyed. There's a snake, there's an axe,
there's a rib cage that you looks like a bag of eyes, and just
from that, you know it's a good time. And I already suspected I
knew what this was. And then when the first riff is basically staring through
the eyes of the dead, exact thing written down, it's like, yeah,
there's this is pure cannibal worship with room for very very little else,
but yeah, for twenty six minutes, that's that's a dream come true.
I think this record is fucking awesome, Like this one. It came out
last month, which you know, along with everything coming out, but I
mean, elliot, you've got a record later at the end of the show
that you really want to kind of give its moment and already come out.
That's how I felt about this one. Very very different Torture Out. They
are a very fine death metal band. They share members with some other bands
like Witch Vomit. I got on board with their last album back in twenty
eighteen, Melithic Humiliation, which speaking of fine poetry, had a very good
track on it called Destined for dog Meat. But this one, I think
has hit me even harder because my first listen to this record was the day
after the depeche Mo Twickenham show a few weeks ago, and I was at
Victoria coach station. I was waiting to go home bit tired, but the
riffs on this thing had me just sat in that station, pulling faces and
sweating death metal sweat while patiently sitting around. I love how utterly dirt brutal
this thing is. Like the guitar tone is fucking horrible, Like it's so
the antidote I need to anything I've said about bad, overly stiff production jobs
or whatever. Like it sounds like they are playing death metal entirely on instruments
made out of bones at their big spike tankers like run Over. But at
the same time, it is very very legible in its riffing and very very
immediate in grabbing you by the throat, as you say. The opening riff
a ceremonial flesh feast has that brilliant like kind of sort of offbeat but really
still stomping, catchy death mental power that you get from stuff like you know,
Bleeding eera Cannibal Corps or whatever, and having some of those similar reference
points they remind it even as the man have been around longer, but almost
like a kind of like a gutter underwell version of something like Undeath, right,
Like, they have very similar strains of like very catchy, well laid
out death metal songwriting that doesn't skimp on the basics of white people like that
music. But this is just like nastier and slimier. When I was writing
down influencers, I didn't. It didn't take long. Frankly, I thought
this sounds like a bit of a cross between Beating Back to Life and the
Bleeding, which are two Cannibal records if you know, Fay, and it
has the sort of rapid, slimy, sloppy, thrashy quality of the former
and that groaning, okay riffs, catchy songwriting of the latter. Let you
say, everything's completely legible. The only other two things that entered into the
equation, or maybe a bit of early carcass on the shorter songs, and
maybe a bit of bolt Thrower. Yeah, I think it's like fourth from
the Pit. I've got both throw down but which again a lot of bands
are doing. But the tone here just makes it more evil. Yeah,
and the album was just a riff Schmoger's board. Every song has a standout
riff like bone snare, I mean the way that opens, an alternating between
grooves and blasts seamlessly and in such an infectious way. It's one of those
where you was out loud go oh yes. Also just conscribing their production job
in the title there, Yeah nailed it, no knows. And then like
the crappier Funeral Home. That's just what a stinky, stinky song there is
that that the rift opens that one. I'm the same. There are so
many parts in this where a song will open and then also when they'll land
on a rift towards the end of the song. Just riff switch is that
just make me gofour They are just like stupidly hard. The last riff in
Ceremonial flash Feast just breaks your whole body. But the first one of the
crepit funeral Home. How that comes in, It's like, you know,
double based, I can runaway train. But the riff is this really kind
of discipline sort of steam roller descent to infernal chasms? Does that kind of
again really immaculate kind of stomping groove that makes you want to like smash your
feet through the ground as you're walking. Mentioned the sort of bolt thrower thing
on fourth from the pit. But when they bring it back kind of halftime
towards the end, it's another of those like final riff moments. This makes
me go, whoa, Like they just they just know how to fucking pull
that axe back and swing it. It's so satisfying, Like this just might
be the most just meaty. Yes, that's what I want, satisfying death
metal record I've heard this year. I mean I was already excited to listen
to it, and I was down Onlady for the flight, and that saw
the phrase fucked by death on a song for some minute long. WHOA,
let's quickly talk about this kind of you were saying, sort of the influence
and take long. There are a couple of like they do mix things up
a little bit because again twenty seven minutes, it could be all that death
metal. But first they've got a track called morning Star Massacre, just fucking
sensational, and that is a forty nine second just like punk death metal wrecking
Bull. And then that is not actually the biggest like punk in spirit pivot
on the record, because you are right fucked by death notably not to death
by death. That makes the world of difference and it makes it much more
fascinating. But when that comes in on just a full on okay crust punk
time, and the first guitar that comes in before any of the others is
the bass guitar doing this like really manic discharge come motorhead thing, spinning that
into a death metal tone, with that tune, with that tone that they
have and everything, it's just so exciting and so rowdy. It made me
last because it's been more or less the same thing. God's the thing absolutely
we love for the previous twenty minutes or so. Then they'd change it up
slightly and they only go for a minute and go no, back to back
to business. This is a bit out there, guys. Don't do it
a jazz obviously seriously, like yeah, strip out, but fucking out again
that song though still so hit friendly and catchy, like loans a little fun
I can I can sing you the riff to Fucked by Death right now,
like it's a catchy tune. It's a ditty, fucked my Death ditty.
You're absolutely right, you know that that autopsy punk, death metal, spirit
Alive and well here. I think this record is just super fun, immaculate
pseudonym check the drummer in one of his other bands, because they're all a
million bands, but one of them goes by the name squid Nasty, which
is one of those things. I don't know where you've got those words from
to put together, but together it's somehow just very funny. The vocals again,
it's all very guttural, but they even still like boarding Star Massacre,
forced from the pit, like there's just little enunciation in certain moments, just
makes you fucking have a great time with it, and it doesn't leave you
for like, you know, a second longer than what you want from it.
Yeah, you know, it's not big, it's not clever, but
it is fun. And I think death metal, for all the imagery of
being as ugly and nasty as possible, ultimately it is fun, Like it's
fun to bounce arounds a scotful of maggots. It's fun to bounce around when
the rift to Immortal Rights kicks in. That's worth exploring. And it's a
valid type of death metal and we need more of it. Yeah, Torture
Rack please. Yeah. And considering this is a bunch of like two and
a half minute songs that occasionally go into one minute songs, I think that
the standard of the songwriting is just very very good here, beyond the awful
of stuff that could be doing something similar. I think, if you know,
if you love Cannibal Corps or maybe Undeath or two Under Stab Wounds,
that that kind of thing you're looking to go further into the death metal underground,
but in a way that still will make sense to you and just delivers
you the kind of goods of like big, hea bangable grooves above anything else.
I think this is one of the best death metal records you will hear
this year. It's from a band called Torture Rack and our second in this
death metal pairing. It gives you something a little more cosmic than Torture Racs,
just bone cracking brutality from Relapse Records, This is Out of Heaven and
their second album, Infinite Psychic Depths. Debut album, Realms of Eternal Decay.
I Love death Metal came out in twenty eighteen, so it's also been
a little minute for these guys. And around that time, so you know,
the end of the last decade was when we got this insane glove of
kind of old school death metal records from bands like these. Again, we
can do the album Club on Star Sporn, the sort of post that huge
boom in records like this, and with that sort of cosmic being beamed in
through a kind of warp in spacetime air to we had seen leaders light blooding
scantation and two Mold really stepping up to kind of become that, you know,
forefront of the scene. Five years later, a lot of the death
Mettle conversation has moved to things like, you know, Against Sangui, Sugabarg
and Frozen Soul and so on. So I feel like it's been a it's
been a few years since we've had any death metal from like the couple bands
I just mentioned, So I was I was almost waiting for something to kind
of scratch that particular itch out of Heaven again in terms of whether it was
the previous record or this one lit any kind of spark for you of the
death metal fan. Yeah, I don't know why, but Rolls of the
Tunnel of Decay completely passed me by when it came out. I don't even
remember it being released and the time we had a lot of it, And
now I said, it's almost like this is almost more of a like,
oh cool, one of those yeah, because it came out around the time
of like Man of Infinite Forms, and I think the year later was Yeah
and the classic my opinion, Blood in Cantation record, and then for those
years a lot of death metal was really cerebral, so you kind of weren't.
You didn't really have to seek it out out of Heaven. I know
they fall into that kind of camp with their spacey cosmic five and they feel
like more of the sort of healthy middle ground between the maybe a bit dumber,
caveman death metal and that really cerebral thing. Well, I think this
record is dense, right, and like like the Torture Rap record sounds like
it's just beating you into a pulp, but the riffs are all very immediate
and very groovy. This record I think demands a lot more of your attention
span because it is a lot denser, particularly when you consider it's twenty minutes
longer than that record, but it's still on absolute kill mode all the time.
Is the thing, like like Soul Remnants is crazy aggressive, warp Transcendence
has a riff in it that's just got like a little piss grave in it
because it's got this really horrible, like stomach churning buzz in it. But
because there is this there's a really technical edge while flying at you so constantly,
you know, warp speed, it means you have to kind of actively
work with this one a little more, I think to keep up with it.
Yeah, I feel like I'm not really that much for a musician.
I could probably play in Torture rac I mean, I want to get that
vibe, whereas here everyone involved is clearly it's super talented composer and or player.
But it never feels particularly nordly, And I think it's because it sounds
like a ton of fun. Like my favorite thing about this record is the
shred, Like it's almost rings of saturin level of fooding. At some points,
it never feels like a kind of bedroom projects. It's a sort of
soloing that would make lasers come out of the guitar in an eighties metal video,
I mean, and just having that as a flavor in this dense,
complex, sidewinding death metal record I think does a lot too, maybe overcome
how obstus it can be. Yeah. Again, I didn't ask Sam what
they thought these records, but I would guess of the two death metal records,
the torturet one would be their favorite because it's so much one that kind
of like punk sphere. This one you mentioned, the laser thing. Unspeakable
Aura has this like crazy like tapping type riff that is genuinely like dizzying.
And Derek Vella, who is the riff writer extraordinaire from two Mold as well
as Dream and Ending, he plays bass on this record, and there are
parts when the bass will go which is full on like fucking ham Steve to
Georgio style, you know, all over the place, like Fragment and Suspension
has a bit of that, even though that track is again it's one of
the most full on speed on the record, but it has the basis you
go and ape shit and like again, the first time I started really getting
excited about this record was he posted the video on his Instagram of him tracking
the riff that turned out to be the second part I presume the DMT part
of Rotting Stone slash DMT, and it's a really mad riff that transitions the
back end there, and already just from that video of him tracking the bass,
I was like, Wow, that's one of the coolest death riffs I've
heard this year. But in the kind of context of like these NonStop barrage
of the songs, it's like a little overwhelming, Like you've really got to
be like, shit, okay, stick with this, because the songs aren't
long. They're almost exclusively three to four minutes, so they're not wildly longer
than any songs that Torture record other than Fucked by Death, and some of
them do lead into the hardcore at least tempo wise, that you do get
flashes of that, But with all the twists, they kind of managed to
feel longer. And I don't mean that as a diss in the way that
it tends to be. It was like if Gate Creeper were just born on
another planet. Yeah, exactly like Torture. I have not seen a fretless
bass in their life. I don't know if they've ever seen a fully stringed
basse. So yeah, like listening to this again, mentioned this earlier,
some of these in more cursory listens. I've gone through about two listen to
this, and I think it's gonna be a lot more before I kind of
get all the way to the bottom of it. Right now, I'm really
impressed by it. I liked it a lot more that not as I was
expecting, but because I hadn't heard the last record, I didn't going with
too much expectation, but I was really really taken with it. Yeah,
I think they can still detonate just a particular moment. I think, you
know, two minute mark of Soul Remnants, they just drop a riff on
and it's like, okay, you know, no need to decipher this one,
it's time to move. They can still do the similar kind of just
morbid angel at loose moments like Liquefied Mind is maybe the most dummy brain track
on the record, and like halfway through the record, it's like a real
treat to get something like that, but you know, the big beams of
like, oh this is something different from the rest kind of reset come from
a really impressive cast of guest performers, particularly j R. Hayes, a
Pig Destroyer comes in for a guest vocal on the second track, pillars off,
and it's quite something how the entire track just changes tacked for him,
Like the whole track changes. What it feels like to just move into this
like horrible dissonant sidestep part and his like really acerbic yell just curdles your blood
on that. Yeah, I couldn't work out if they decided to get JR.
Hayes and then wrote that once they wrote that and then thought of jis.
It's that level of adapting to the to the guests they did. They
did a cover's EP a couple of years ago when they had a really cool
selection of songs, and they did Junkyard God from Prouder in the Yards.
It's nice again, obviously an influence there, but like it really is like,
oh shit, fuck, we're in big destroyer land for a moment.
Palasite Chambers has Alex from Undeaf on it, but then particularly as well,
for a big moment, Star Crusher has Steve Tucker from Morbid Angel, which
also has some of those sort of like steamroller rifts in it. But there's
a moment where the song similarly, it just like fully announces this like legendary
guest vocalist by essentially turning into a song from the last Morbid Angel record,
when Steve just comes in roaring I have come to Destroy, Like it's pretty
epic. Again not, I'm kindly of made sounds where bands have been so
accommodating. Let's just be like, oh, what band are you in?
Oh we can be that band piece more a angel for a bit. We've
written a riff that sounds like Morbid Angel. Let's just ring up Morbid Angels
singer and getting more brilliant. And I do like as well, there's a
moment in an unspeakable aura when there's just like this big, huge female choiet
over it, and it's like get almost like a release valve of like,
oh cool, it's something to really different to grab the attention. I think
those go a long way on this one, when it is again so dense
and so tacky and everything. Again, I think compared to those sort of
standard bearers of like the Spaceyer Death Meut of bands out of Heaven, have
this really crazy aggression to them that's really all out an awful lot of the
time, and in a way, I think that almost limits them more because
they aren't as dynamic here. You mentioned this sort of being like a halfway
house, that they don't have the really meditative moments that you know, a
bland cantation or whoever do. And I feel like this record will be better
if it will thirty three minutes or if it was forty six minutes still and
had more sort of different turns. But how they put their riffs and songs
together there is really dizzying and sonically overwhelming. They do nail some proper like
whoa moments, and if you want some death metal that requires more sort of
like active listening to keep you on your toes, there's a lot to unpack
and to satisfy into outer heaven. So the next couple of records are more
in the realm of black metal, will swing that pengrum to the other side
of the extreme metal coin. And I normally wouldn't put so much of that
in an episode when you know, our lead review was literally a black metal
record, but these albums are actually less Here for thought of the necro black
metal spots and more the UK heavy scene slots, because these two bands have
become very common sights in the UK metal scene of late and so we should
probably check in on what they're up to. Emblematic of that, I think
our Caligram, who released a record called Position Momentum, and they have been
around for a few years, and when you listen to them, like,
yeah, that's a black metal band, but there is an edge about them
that feels like they fit in just as well with kind of the hardcore and
just generally sort of crossing over UK metal scenes of the moment where you could
very easily imagine them slotting in alongside people slicer employed to serve conjuror whoever.
They're more damnation than they are like beyond the gates, right, Yeah,
for sure. I mean, just listen to this. I kind of put
them down as a black and hardcore band because yeah, you're quite a both
breaker some raw quel or celesque that sort of thing, Like it's the emotionally
waiting pummeling in the way the black metal is. But again it's called the
engine of an article ban. They blur the line between dbats and blast beats
quite a lot on this record. I think that's something that you kind of
gets, something you only get when you when you blur those genres together.
Yeah, certainly, I feel like I feel like Caligrams are a black metal
band, Like this isn't a black and hardcore band. This is a black
metal band, but it feels like a black metal band comprised of people who
have history playing in hardcore and punk circles, if that makes sense, and
you can really really tell they feel that they've been around in that scene for
kind of a fair bit. But their day Brown was only released in twenty
twenty. That was called The Eye is the First Circle. So this is
a sophomore fullnth down from them after I saw them live for the first time
last year and they were unbelievably intense, like putting their records to shame a
little bit, least in terms of like how you alive Violet it was.
If you get a chance to see him at festival or something in the UK,
which you probably will do, they're very impressive, but their albums are
also very good as arms of just kind of modern extremity. Right. Oh,
this is my first time listening to them. I don't know how it
passed me by. But right, this is the first time I've gone through
with a Caligram record. I've heard bits and pieces along the way. I
think I've had a song or two off the last record. This is the
first one I've sat down and digested a record in full. Sure, Well,
what do you make of it? I really liked it. I think
it's really good. Like like I said, it's a band I've seen bandied
about a lot, and it's not something I've had sometimes made the efforts to
go into my spare time. And I kind of feel a bit silly about
that, because while there is a lot of those bands I was mentioning earlier
in this record, I like that they're willing to go into the brutal aspects
more than a lot of those bands, rather than the ethereal end. And
that's quite a refreshing change when it feels like most of those bands they end
up sort of just constantly leaning at sigaros and explosions in the sky and thinking
that's the only way to progress. It's quite refreshing to listen to a bounderbid.
Well, if we had Guss roles and a real cruising low end.
Yeah again, you mentioned those bands. The one that really jumps out to
me in terms of the riffing and everything is the Vein of Fry Heights.
But you are right, it's like the veg and of Fry Height with all
of the pretty stuff they're exchanged for more bitterness and hatred. Like the songs
are just very turbo charged by negativity. Like there's just something about the combination
of notes they have in their riffs that just makes me feel like grimmers all
fuck, and then they are able to kind of bolster that with that again
very trained in crust and grind engine like Austrianinny is just skull rattlingly heavy.
I think their songs just again they're very based in like big whirlwinds of ferocious,
intense tremoro guitars, black metal riffs propelled by musicians who again you can
tell have a hardcore punk background. It's just like in the sort of the
NonStop way they kind of throw themselves around and it is it's essentially like those
two elements combine for most of the runtime basically, but it definitely gets you
moving. Yeah, And there are some things that took me by surprise.
That one of them was the lead work kind of like out of Heaven.
There was a bit of a slight rock star quality to the lead guitars,
and most bands in the style that we're talking about, they often use their
lead guitars in a fairly static way, not all of them, but sometimes
they're just holding a note before moving to the next one, and sometimes that
has real emotional power. But with this one thing I liked about it is
there are multiple times on the record, but the one that stood that was
on tebe TV one or the other, and he probably gives it that like
wow wow wow. Well, and even just having little things like that,
it increases the energy and for a record day is pretty emotionally one note.
Maybe having little dashes of color like that, they kind of had a bit
more clarity to the murk. I think, Yeah, you mentioned I believe
all of the lyrics are Italian because the singer is originally from Italy, but
it is just actually a big blast of bile vocal and most of the hooks
come from Again, there's like NonStop crazy black and guitar lines and stuff.
It's produced by Russ Russell, who is most synonymous with the like whole last
bunch of Napalm Death Records, So it has this very you know, big
hulking kind of sound despite how again sort of necro it is, and again
it just makes it sound very very caustic. I maybe sim differently to you.
I think the moments of light and shade that they have maybe in sort
of moderation, but like I think they're very necessary on the record to stop
it being like super one note. And again it's those big moments where you
go like, ah, yeah, there really is there's something more here where
tebe. When it had that really moody kind of swell in the middle,
I think like stuff like that, they can it feels like they can get
more out of that, and so it was quite encouraging for me when the
second half lent more into that, because the closer has moremost like a post
metal feel for the first couple of minutes before this crazy like sort of black
and thrash burst that's got loads of power. And probably my favorite sort of
section of the record is Austronennian Existeer, when they both like they do that
thing of amping up the drama and the guitars while flying on the dB.
And I think this band, they're often so tuned to grim. I guess
I agree with you. I like tool whether the Grim is like their kind
of home base, and when they add in a little more than that,
it's like, oh cool, you know, just that extra something for your
record. Yeah, I think with bands like this you kind of need to
do that if you're going to stand out, because it's a genre that because
it perceives to be easy. There are a lot of bands doing that sort
of post black metal with tingers of hardcore. There's a lot of that going
on, and it is a great sound, so you know, more power
two of them. But I think to really elevate above that, you need
to find those moments of real dynamic quality, because again, for a lot
of the bands, it just seems like they were if we go quiet for
a bit and then loud, that would be the same, even if emotionally
it's one level. I think just having flashes of really flash the guitar with
lots of my density, they're saying those really moody swells, just stuff like
that. I think that I think this is really strong. I don't suspect
it's the finished product. I think I have every belief that the next time
they'll go further down those avenues. Yeah, I think I agree in terms
of, like when I mentioned those sort of those UK bands that they sort
of might sit alongside with as peers. I don't think this band have quite
made their kind of sort of scene classic yet in some of those maybe have.
But again, just thinking about what we're talking about, it's like,
you know, we we've mentioned post black metal, and we've mentioned sort of
like hardcore punk, and they feel like they are some of various influences that
has made them quite sort of like almost unpigeoned hooleable, despite how seemingly in
one direction at all times. Their sound is so interesting stuff going on there
from a Caligram And the second band here is one with a name that you
probably want to write down, The Sun's Journey through the Night. The album
is called world Us and these guys have been around for just a couple of
years. They're a pretty fresh face, but if you've been going to black
metal shows in the UK, you may well have seen these guys or their
name. Having said that earlier, that kind of a three albums from newtoy
Man might be the most That's actually a lie because despite only being around for
like two years. This is the fourth one from this lot. It's a
very productive project and there are I guess there's a few kind of newer black
metal bands kicking around the UK. Bands like Abduction and Spider God, who
we've reviewed before. Sons Journy, throm and Night sort of fit in with
with that sort of school of bands that have entered again in the early part
of the twenty twenties. This one actually comes from Church Road Record. I
believe that they'll be playing on the Church Road stage at this year's Downation Festival
Insteadily, I like that Church Road doesn't seem to have any particular genre base
compared to like, you know, the label that sort of filled that gap
in the market before Church Road. There's not like a particular association of what
makes a Church Road band. No, it just seems that anything that you
know, Sammy and just see like yeah and beyond the label, Well yeah,
I think that was cool because again, very wide reaching taste in metal
and hardcore and the light so you will have like like we reviewed this and
going Off and owns and that they're all in the same, you know,
quite small label. I think that's cool, and this is maybe the most
like sort of like, oh, you're really going into kind of black metal
territory over there, which I think is again an interesting sort of move to
be making this record. You've got six tracks here, normally around sort of
six or eight minutes long. Often you'll have a bit of atmosphere ramp up.
The one at the start of void Walker with the kind of sinister acoustics
is particularly cool, and then all hell will break close. Particularly, this
is how I think it's very thick for what you might normally think this black
metal to be considering this. I once saw this band support Lamp of Murmur,
right, even though he's started in some kind of similar places. This
is little to do sonically with that really raw side of what's currently popular in
black metal, because it's really it plays a similar kind of music, but
it's very very girth like the tuning is often very low for what you think
of as black metal. There's a riff in the final moment of Abolishing Consciousness
that is this really thick, bendy riff that you might expect more to you
on, like you know, kind of a sludgier band on that label.
Yeah, see, this is this is where he comes from. Maybe my
issue with this record. So for phone transparency, I've only listened to this
twice, and I was someone who allows someone who really likes Eternal Black Transmissions.
That was one of my favorite albums of the year that came out.
It felt like a kind of rule. Is that one of those band's prior
records? Yeah? Yeah, all right, Okay, so you're actually this
is the first again I saw this band live as the first proper record IVE
listened to, so you actually have more experience than me in that regard.
All right, right, yeah, so again you described a perfectly kind of
a raw black metal project that's somehow graduated beyond the confines that scene. Like
the sound of that record, I mean, is it more dingy? I
mean it is, but it also sounds like you're looking at a burning castle
that you have to go in a vanquage and you're still on a hill looking
down on it in the moonlight. So yeah, it is dingier, but
it's got a lot of scope within that dinge, if that makes sense.
Yeah, this record, if it was a little bit too clinical for me,
But that production style I find it slightly too studio builts and I know
one man blackmail projects you know, I'm used to hearing cheap electronic drums and
dungeon sins on cassio keyboards and that sort of thing, and there's something about
this that doesn't quite sit with me. I don't know if it's just because
I projected expectations onto this record or what, and maybe it will grow on
me, but it slightly irked me throughout. I think production wise, I
still think like there is even though again it's it's going for that kind of
thicker, more sort of contemporary I guess sound. I think there's still like
the mixing and mastering and stuff on this record. I think they're still work
to be done in terms of every instrument on this feels like it's cranked to
ten, and it's kind of a real fight for anyone to kind of anyone
element to kind of particularly surface. I think again, even though the Outer
Heaven and the Caligram records are similarly fiery, I think this is the most
ear fatigue record that we have where I listened to a couple of songs and
we're like, yeah, cool, that's that huge blast of kind of infernal
black metal. It's sort of tick that off in that regard, and I
wonder whether again, I think it's approaching that in terms of the the Again,
the mixing of the mastering is one thing, but also if they're able
to add in a couple more trick to their bow, that might really sort
of move it forward as well. Yeah, I don't think it's healthy to
hear every single double bass hit in this style of music. Like they kind
of sit in that uncanny valley where it's not as perfectly recorded as its perfectly
recorded some of the blockbuster bands, but it's also not as tangible or charming
as some of the Low five. And it's a weird quibble it's sitting in
that sort of uncanny valley. It kind of bothered me. I like I'm
saying, everything being cranked at ten, it feels like not much atmosphere is
allowed to develop. Now again, I had some similar feelings myself, and
I can certainly understand why that might be a kind of a turn off from
the record. I do think, just looking in terms of the composition themselves,
I think the title track is quite stirring to begin with and then gets
really like warlike with its blast, and again I like they kind of when
they flipped and the kind of you know, balance those ideas of just like
it's super fucking aggressive, but also like songs that are almost blasting for like
their entire seven minute run time past a sort of acoustic intro or something,
but they're trying to find kind of ebbs and flows on top of that.
In terms of like again when they get core progressions, I have a grander
sense of emotion in them, Like Void Walker and Flood of Flames are both
the big ones there. I think they really go they kind of lay into
that throughout the run time and they make that the kind of constant through line.
I think that works for them, and I think that is something that
if they can keep extrapolating that idea into kind of more and more dramatic shape
to really really feel that you know, ebb and flow across that thing,
I think that would be the most obvious way to me of kind of pushing
this beyond the kind of meat and potatoes of it. Because again, there's
a song on a Ryan at the end that has this sort of subtle symphonic
style build into the big final crescendo you know the record, and again it
is like it's you know, it's working on the budget that it has,
but in terms of like a moment like, oh, where's it going to
go? And then erupting, that's when it starts to go like, yeah,
that's where it starts to sound quite serious. Yeah. I mean,
on one how I do admire the ambition of this record, like wanting to
step up into the more blogbuster style, and there's things about it I think
really work that weren't there on the previous records, like the way the album
opens with that synthy warbling, so it's almost like when the orchestra tunes up
at the theater. Yeah, that real sense of ground and then that to
be punctured by any sub drop gut punches. That to me was the first
moment of real surprise and the last track of Ryan I agree, it's fantastic
to me. Songwriting wise, it's one of the best songs they've done,
so the most emotive riffwork, really pained vocal delivery, and I think if
they could go further down that road, pulling on that sort of emotional through
line and maybe go for something a bit more human in the performance, I
think they can find a really cool balance between where they are now and where
they've been before. Yeah, I agree, because I think as it is,
that's kind of almost both the Blessing and the Curse, where it's not
too slow burn or atmospheric, like it's certainly not what you would call black
Gays or post black Mattal or anything, but it's also has a kind of
grand scope to what they're doing with the songs, and it's not too raw
or too primitive. It kind of is just like a big or consuming blast
of extremity. And I agree if they can iron out that sort of making
that land a little better, I think that's when that will start to sort
of reap rewards with them. I mean, I think this is the first
one that the main guy has written together with his live band, and so
I think if they can continue sort of again different voices and contributions within the
sound to kind of stop it getting stale, I think that, you know,
potentially could see some rewards. And I do just like how sort of
destructively heavy it is where the drums on it just like carpet bomb you with
so many fills, and again it's it's almost it's a strange experience hearing like
that black metal just howl it has it feels like like I wouldn't be surprised
to hear that some of his favorite artists are things like Leviathan and such,
where as like kind of reverberating horror of that kind of raw, you know,
DSBM type thing, but it's in this like quite thick sound that makes
it sound like this sort of huge vortex. That's kind of an interesting dichotomy
that they can kind of keep getting more out of. So that is the
Sun's Journey through the Night for the last reviews. Now we are going to
completely change tact, which is very refreshing if you want to hear us stop
talking about you know, screamy heavy stuff. This is a band that I
have seen no talk about at all. So if people haven't heard it or
aren't aware of its existence, I hope you enjoyed this. Temple of Angels
is their name, and this is their debut album, Endless Pursuit. I
found this band in quite literally the most analog way possible, where an outbreak
festival, as you will know if you watched the last final tap video on
the That's Time at Old YouTube. I bought a couple of records from the
Run for Cover stall that they had there and in with those records. They
gave you a seven inch label sampler of some of the singles that they had
coming out. That there's that new fiddle Head track that's just come out that
was on there. You all know them with a Face, Springs Eternal that
named in around a while. But then this other song comes on and even
though I just bought some records from them, I'm not someone who, like,
you know, everything on Run for Cover Records is going to immediately light
my fire, you know, in terms of what I go, I go
for. But this song comes on and I go, that is a bit
of me. These guys are from Austin. They're from the kind of I
guess, the same circle of bands that's produced like narrow Head and the like.
But I feel like this is an album to unite turnover fans and drab
majesty fans, you know what I mean? Yes, he like, I've
never had this fan for this week. And when I looked them up for
his gothic and post punk came up a fair bit and I thought, parents,
that's it again, Yes, but they did. It's not. It's
not really that at all. This This doesn't sound again. We like we
review the Noughts record earlier here, which I think it's very very good.
That's a very fine, indeed you know, gothlic style postpunk record. It
doesn't sound like that. No, this is this is what's weird like to
me. This is pure dream pop but with a gothic edge. I think,
yeah, it's you know, I was. I was really pleased to
hear that in a band, because again, alternative rock with big dream pop
or shoegaze leanings is like the furthest thing from you, right, But if
you take someone like Narrowhead, for example, there's that hum influence. It's
like all the rage at the moment. This is like what one of those
dream pop kind of emo bands would sound like if instead of that they leaned
way way harder on post punk and like four ad gothic rock and such.
It's you know, full of the Cocteau Twins and the Cure and bits of
the Comedians and stuff. Like the album cover even looks like an early Cocktau
Twins cover all kind of icy gothic mood. And hearing those things brought together
on this debut album, I mean, I think this is one of the
best sounding records to come from this kind of school of alternative rock bands in
a little while, because it's got that will yet mastering job, but it's
imbued with this like seductive, swirling abyss of an atmosphere that the more sort
of I guess, you know, sort of humble band in a room tight
axe don't quite have like I mean, yeah, we're doing kind of you
know, some formative, dreamy alt rock stuff that's coming week on the album
Club. So you know, how did this land? Yeah? I mean
this was such a pleasant surprise, like, isn't it. It was just
like again, I'd listened to this after I've been listening to Torture Rack and
Out of Heaven and all of that stuff, and I really enjoyed all of
those You've already heard that, but I wasn't really move for postpunk. And
then when this came on and it was that sweeping, shimmering, beautiful dream
pop done to such a great stand. Let you say, Cocteau, Twins,
Echo and the Bunny Man, the Cure, Bak Bush, even some
of the National at their populist it's just like air candy. Yeah, I
think it almost again. I heard singles first, but if you're the press
play on this record, it almost would fool you where the opening title track
is just all that like lush, dark dreaminess, and that might just set
you into kind of you know, okay, close your eyes, drift away,
this is going to be a vibe record. But it was so encouraging
that they can actually really pen a great standout song as well, because Tangled
Enjoy when it comes in is like genuinely one of the best singles I've heard
from a band like this in years, Like that main guitar riff, which
twinkles with all the bliss and the playfulness of like an upbeat Cure single.
I just love that, like it lights up the room when it starts.
I mean, I'll go one further than the Cure that reminded me of two
is for Fears. I'll take it the way that when Everybody wants to Rule
the World comes on And you might not going me on this, but when
that comes on, you just feel like everything in the world is okay.
It's a It's an assuring song, isn't it. Yeah, Tangle Enjoy has
that quality. Would Enjoy It's perfect. It was just like, oh,
this is just like it's a warm blanket and a Cold Shower at the same
time, it's just it was beautiful and it's funny they're being lumped in with
post punk because so many of those bands like going around at the minute,
even the ones they like, they have such stark aesthetics, and there's nothing
particularly stark about Temple of Angels. It's like a warm hug. Yeah,
now again, this is this is absolutely a I don't think the post punk
things should be downplayed too much because I think it's what makes them different to
an awful lot of stuff that's been again on Run for Cover or something in
the like. But it is a again, a sort of you know,
shoegazy dream pop stile alternative rock band who are taking a lot of pointers from
that like post punk and you know, nineteen eighties gothic rock in a way
that not many of their peers do. And it makes for some really magic
results where love spins around that is quite cure in terms of like the little
Chord ramp up at the start, like it almost could be the start fucking
Boys Don't Cry or something does the Dan and then it's off. You've got
weirdly kind of dancing songs like Stay and the Little Dream pop guitar lines they're
coming out with. I think when they're imbued with that little bit of like
heavier dark atmosphere, like you'll get like lost in darkness and stuff, I
think it anchors them in something that doesn't always have when it's just pure brightness.
It feels like they're really purposed. Yeah, I mean it's all about
some of the dream pop bands or the rock bands of the do dream popmail
That last turnover record putting on it sounds nice, there's something slightly frivolous about
it. It felt slightly undercooked, whereas this it's like it's clearly they've written
the song and then built this lovely instrumentation arrangement around it it and it just
again, it's nice to have a band in this scene who aren't afraid to
be really really uplifting, and they do have down a moments. There's a
one two three of A when the Shadow Smalls Back, Torment and Secret Place,
which are definitely the more downbit downbeat section of the record, but the
opening run and the closing salvo are really sincere, earnest and danceable. Yeah.
I've been listening to a lot of high Viz after outbreak as well,
So I've been on that kind of sort of like eighties slash early nineties British
alternative sort of thing, and a riff like the hill On Here has a
lot of that same kind of feeling. The singer as well, really really
rich sounding voice and the vocal lines that she's coming out with a like tang
would enjoy. Again, they really dance around the ear so naturally, and
you know you mentioned Secret Place, there's that kind of that sort of you
know, oscillating kind of repetition in the vocal part that just kind of floats
it into your ear really really well. They really when they're in that kind
of downcast area, there's still that element of beauty but also capturing us in
the in the vocal Waving to the Wind was the song that I first heard,
and that is undeniably that's a full on post punk dance floor thing,
and that's again you could really see how that would stick out on the Run
for Cover Roster because it's pure eighties. But it's also like the one point
on the record when they do a drumbeat that really sounds like that and they
top it with their own kind of style of melody. So well, they
don't just suddenly start going through a little I am in a post punk band,
like you know, it's they do their own thing with it. Yeah,
I mean there's certain post punk singers or eighties jangle pop associated singers who
there seems to be like there's less than a dozen, and you have to
choose which one you're gonna be, Like, so, do you want to
be Robert Smith, you want to be Andrew Eldrich, Do you want to
be Ian Curses, et cetera, et cetera. And it's nice to have
someone who's like, now I'm going to be Kate Bush, like that sort
of really swelling, beautiful vocal tone. I just small details like that I
think makes such a difference. I think the songs are great anyway, but
like you say, it never, even when it goes dour, it never
feels kind of try hard. Yeah, I mean, this might refuse something
that you've just said. But there's also there's a couple of tracks where one
of the guys in the van starts singing and love spins around is a big
example of that. And I think he does how quite a sort of Morrissey
tone to his voice. But genuinely he's got one of the best voices I've
heard in this lane in a while as well, Like it's not just like,
oh, we'll let the blokes sing for this one, and he comes
and you know, it's not rubbish, Like it's another of like the best
songs on the record, and it sounds so great. And then they again
they introduced him early there, and then in further into the record they start
kind of duetting with each other one time when the shadow smiles back and again
combined with the guitar lines, there's there's a such a strong sense of like
both songwriting and atmosphere together on this when how he bounds only get one of
those right, Like, yeah, this is a record that you're really going
to get lost income autumn time. But it's for the melodies as much as
it is the kind of sonic, you know, kind of job on it.
And I think that's very, very encouraging. I'm really glad you mentioned
Morrissey actually, because I know he's even outside of his character just as purely
as a singer, he's quite a divisive one, and even as someone who
likes his voice, people who try and emulate it. Ninety nine times out
of a hundred. It's just it makes your shoulders a with the second hand
embarrassment. It's it's a really tough thing to get wrong. Oh yeah,
he doesn't sound like he's doing an impression. It generally sounds like, um,
it's a very unforced record. I think, No, that's that's exactly
I'm going to say, Like he he's clearly taking notes from the Smiths,
but it's still his voice. But he's not giving God, he's not He's
not given it that But that's all Residents that Morrissey has carrying that through and
playing as a really nice yin and yang to those female volks, like compared
to Kate Bush. I mean, we're basically just listing all the great British
like new wave dream pop artists to the eighties, and it does feel like
a kind of montage of those things. Yeah, I think maybe if you
miss what bands like Turnover or Hoever sort of used to do but with like
a really beautiful kind of gothic atmosphere and you know, tone of its own,
you should definitely check out this Temple of Angels record. I mean,
again, I don't get super excited by stuff from this world that often,
but this is the most one has felt like it's aimed at me in quite
a lot of Like Jena, like we spoke about all those extreme records before,
this is one of my favorite records of this episode. I think this
record was very very good, indeed from a band I just hadn't heard of
prior to about two weeks ago. You know, I've seen, you know,
the least talk about of any of the bands we're talking about in this
episode. That might be the circle I'm in, but like, I really
think people should get on this one. So that is Temple of Angels,
Endless Pursuit. And the last album is where you can really take the reins
Elliot because we were talking about Home Is Where and their album The Whaler.
Home Is Where are an emo band, proper emo as well. We are
talking full, you know, Midwest style, even though they're from Florida,
very sort of militant and self styling themselves as fifth wave emo. But this
record I don't wholly know what they're kind of counting as like albums versus EPs,
because this looks like it's their first thing that's going over like half an
hour long. This is an epic for them. But Elliott, you joined
us here in twenty twenty two. You've said a couple times that home is
Where's twenty twenty one release, the eighteen minute I Became Birds was your favorite
release of that year? Yeah, I mean in a year with Glow On,
Hey What and all sorts of other things that I consider among the best
records of the decade, I Became Birds was for me the standout release of
the year. It's the only time that I can remember, at least when
an EP has topped my arms the year list, and for me it was
such a breath of fresh air. For a breath of fresh air, because
in a genre of music where I can love it seldom do it was just
nice to have a record where all the problems I've expressed about contemporary emo were
just totally remedied and reversed in that eighteen minute package. Like it had a
unique inventive instrumentation, The vocals were expressive about ever feeling performative or like they
were just tugging on your shirt. The lyrics didn't fall into cliches, and
the songs could go from sounding like Modest Mouse to Blood Brothers, And somehow
I didn't even know they were coming out with another record, like someone just
pops it in the TNM discord just went oh, hope As won't have a
new record, and I've mentioned them already, were like imagine if someone just
went in and said, oh, hey, guys, unto others, strops
a new record and you didn't know about it. I just sort of baffling
and thrilling. So immediately I went from not knowing they were going to release
anything new to having the record in my lap. And I've listened to it
loads, and I be honest, on the first even I listened to it,
I really wasn't sure. Is actually that level of kind of you know,
obviously you've you've built up so much around the previous one that the first
time you hear the one afterwards like all is it the same? Yeah?
I mean nothing can be the breath of fresh air again. Not really,
not at least not in the same way. And it's a hard bar to
clear in that sense, but that with this record, first time I listened
to it, it felt a lot more like the Emo records that have made
me roll my eyes and become disenfranchised than what they've done before, and more
like a record that another band could put out a Brandon's vocals will always set
them apart. That southern rule like it makes a massive difference. But a
lot of the instrumental quirks I thought was so great about I Became Birds was
at least seemingly gone, and a lot of the vocal lines seemed closer to
what you might hear on a recent one Dyear's record. And you say that
Midwest like traditional emo. For me, one of the things I loved about
them so much was their southern quality. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
I mean again you mentioned performative. There are parts on this record where I
wasn't quite sure if it was like a character or not. There are like
a couple of songs when all of a sudden it's full on, like oh
hey, how would he part none? It's like you didn't sound like this
before it. There was one of the songs and the note I've written is
finding me Fine? Which know that is so does it? They Turn A
five hundred has like a seventies southern soft rock feel, and I mean it's
like the get up kids become the whole down kids for one song, Like
it's like country radio. And so there is that moment, but broadly speaking,
there were long stretches where it felt like that southern quality had kind of
emigrated to the Midwest, and I was slightly demoralized because it was like,
this is the band that I saw was the great White hopes for my enjoyment
of this style of music, because so many of them have either disappeared or
gone too things I don't like or haven't. I even just like the last
record of some of them, and suddenly it's sounded more like the bands I
wasn't so keen on. But going back to it again and again, this
record has grown on me substantially. Yeah. So, I mean my perspective
is very different. I don't really listen to this kind of music, right,
Um, and uh, you know I certainly I wasn't. I wasn't
you know. Therefore I became birds in the same way I put this on
and you were like, oh, the instermental quirks were gone. I wasn't
quite prepared for how weird a lot this was going to be. Like,
I wasn't expecting that bizarre fucking like country rock Daytonah, you know kind of
quirk that they'd go for. Um, I wasn't expecting weird little earworms of
skin meadow, skin meadow, skin meadow, and then there's like a theremin
in skin meadow, like bizarre fucking elements being put in, and you're saying,
this is less weird. Well, that was the thing. I think
now having sort of separated it from I became birds, It's not less weird.
It's just that I've seen the trick before, right, So for me
it was just a of having heard some of these things done before. They're
listening to this. I was like, Oh, it fucking sounds like pissing
dashboard confessional. This doesn't sound like dashboard confessional because I can tolerate it.
Um, I don't especially love it, right, Like again, it's not
not really, it's not it's not my thing. Um. It's you know,
jangly emo with sort of little nudely melodic guitar parts. Um. Again,
it's produced by Jack Shirley of Oath Breaking, Death, Heaven Fame.
But it still feels very intimate and live in the room Like it doesn't.
There's a lot of layers kind of place between you in the performances. Um.
In regards to I guess what you were saying about the kind of almost
like if I became birds as like a sort of concentrated, like very very
like you know, dense of all those things that really stood out to you.
Um, Like I said, this is their longest you know kind of
thing. And there's there's something with a concept going on ah in this record
apparently. Um but I guess in terms of stretching it over, I mean
the first two tracks one There's are both over five minutes each, which again
for where the spanis come from, very much pushing the boat out right.
Yeah, I mean, and the way you've already mentioned skin metal. But
there's a lot of interesting stuff in those songs, like that hook is wild,
leepad Pupils. The way that starts, it's like that these waterfalls of
trickling guitar and piano wins to play and the rhythms shift in a slightly uncomfortable
way. It never feels gets trying to be clever, but the song almost
feels like it's calcifying before your very eyes. And yeah, that's my favorite
tracks on the record. I liked again. Clar is my first real musical
exposes as this band when the western slide guitar comes in that on what otherwise
feels like a kind of quite classic nineties emo thing. But then there's this
false light guitar part. I was like, oh, you know color,
and then by the end of that song it's just shrieking at you, even
though the beginning was so going to tranquil. Yeah, and like that trick
is it's funny, like there's probably emo and post hardcore bands you can look
to that might see more direct, but for me, the big englorm was
on them that I hear is Modest Mouse, who are one of my favorite
bands. I never listened to a Modest Mount out of my life. Oh,
actually, don't know if that's that's all surprising at tall. I don't
know why man in an iron monkey shirt. Yeah, but they could go
from sort of deranged screeching to Beck style slow slow stuff and slow core in
points and then straight up Indian And they've got quite famous bops like float On,
which I'm not that crazy about, but anyway, there's multiple songs on
it that could snugly fit on one of the first Modest Mouse records, like
Wailing for Sport, just the sound of the harmonicas with that post rock base.
It's one of my favorite timbers of any band working today. Just hearing
that combination Nursing Home right is almost pure slow core, and in the span
of three minutes they built to a crescendo like four times. I don't know
how it's possible. They Tony five hundred already mentioned having that soft rock,
southern feel like. There's loads of really inventive stuff on this record, and
to me they're just sort of in the league of their own when it comes
to that sort of thing, and yet super memorable songs I think, not
quite as memorable as the Last time. Well, I can just pick out
like two dozen hooks that occur in those eighteen minutes, but lows of great
moments. And in the last week or so of listening to this record,
it's gone from something which I really felt quite disheartened by to really kind of
having to reset my expectations in a way. Yeah, you mentioned the harmonica
and staff for the instrumental diversity, I think like I go more with the
sort of like unsettling, skeletal parts of the record that feel like sort of
the wind blowing through like a deserted, you know, fucking whaling village or
something more than I like the jaunty side where where you're like some of the
songs you mentioned as like, oh yeah, those are the parts I didn't
go with, like Whaling for Sport and Day twenty five hundred where they it
gets kind of cartoon nition for me, a bit greating, not really going
with that. But it doesn't stay in those places for too long, because
then you will have something like every day feels like nine to eleven, which
I'm sure whatever you say, but in that that's a full on, you
know, scratching your voice box to listen to it, how hoarse the screams
are. It jumps around a lot in terms of those feels. And then
also that nine eleven track, the one two of that, that's where I
can see kind of the concept because that goes into at dawn September the twelfth,
two thousand and one, everyone went back to work over this like very
simple little piano line, you know, very little point to the point kind
of message there, that kind of sort of carrying on that you can feel
in this record. I mean, if you know, an eighteen minute release
was your like your favorite release of that year that it came out. They've
now doubled that length you've gone back to the drawing board with it a little
bit. How is this for you, I guess in terms of sort of
extrapolating the ideas and you know, hopefully, you know, suggesting a bright
future. Yeah, I mean I would call this a great but maybe floored
follow up. So the one of the decades best records so far, So
it's not really a failure by any real soundselight you mentioned maybe they feels like
nine to eleven. That's one of the songs that I'm still not so keen
on, Like I like the sound of it, but if it was slightly
forced and maybe not to take the concepts into account or something I don't know.
And then yes, yes, a thousand times yes, which I believe
was a single. That's the most they fall into the kind of email by
numbers territory, and I think that really dominated my initial impressions, and I
can see why it's there, but that's not really jelling me. However,
the vast majority of their best and most interesting attributes are still present and correct,
and the old detour into something less palatable to myself, I kind of
admire that with the stretch of the running time that they've taken that risk.
In those extra moments, I don't just want to hear the thing I like
done twice. I like hearing that they're doing new things, and for me,
it's a really thoroughly enjoyable moment with many moments that exhibit their real greatness.
So I don't know what the ceiling is from bound Lot Holmes workers.
I've really have no idea how palatable they are to most people. I think,
to be honest, if a more chance trying to go for the modest
mouse fan, which which is a lot of people, to be fair,
then maybe they wouldn't something like the Wonder Years. But I think that I've
seen this getting them a lot of acclaim at least and then maybe success capitalizing
on that. But you know, who knows. I know what their expectations
of themselves are. Either way, I still say the top of the tree
in their field. Yeah, well, I mean what you just mentioned terms
like maybe the different branches of what kind of a band like this go for
the last thing that we reviewed that was I guess sort of a similar area
something like this was like that hot Mulligan record. And again when this goes
into areas I'm not so keen on it is almost like I don't really know
why you're being like, you know, one of the cartoon cowboys from the
Primus on a big Viva video on a song like Day twenty five every one
this but I as a record overall, I got on it a lot more
than something like that, which felt more out kind of like that real like
yucky area of this thing can be and maybe if that appeals more to the
kind of like the pop punk fan um. This was like a like a
like a slightly eccentric version of something that is still very based in sort of
quite rootsy email ideas I suppose, And again, well that's not necessarily my
thing as a record, I could be like, yeah, you know,
I can I can see where that kind of that lineage is and also what
it's sort of like adding to the to the conversation. So that's Home is
Where and the Whaler and that is eight albums rocking, fucking knocked out in
record time. It must be said that you should go and check out let
us know what tickles your fancy, what is hitting the spot for you.
There's a lot of cool stuff there. We've got a couple more sort of
like more stupid months over the horizon when everything's out, so it is nice
to be able to do episodes like this where we can. Next week we
will have a hyper blast out when we will also have our album Club Pack
only that something Patreon with those wicked albums we mentioned earlier Slayer, Blooding,
Cantation, etc. That will join our summer album Roulette that is available if
you want some records to warm you up the summer, as if you would
need it, but talking about all sorts of feel good stuff there. Thank
you for listening. We'll see you soon.