Weekly Roundup: April 26th
Featuring Jim Ward, Deftones, L’exquisite Douleur, and more.
MOSH PITHY:
A curated selection of cool shit for you to listen to.
Deftones – “Ceremony”
Okay, let me level with you real quick: I’ve never been a massive Deftones fan, and I was largely ambivalent about 2020’s Ohms. LP #9 had some great tracks, but most of it went by without any need for further interrogation. However, now that their latest single “Ceremony” has a high-quality visual component thanks to Aussie screenwriter/film director Leigh Whannell of Saw/The Invisible Man fame, I’m back on board. Watch the intriguing video below:
Jess Rosenstock – SKA DREAM
What do you do during a global pandemic when you’re a full-time musician and your entire livelihood goes on indefinite hiatus? Well, if you’re former Bomb the Music Industry! mainstay Jeff Rosenstock, you take your highly acclaimed 2020 punk rock album, NO DREAM, and turn it into a fun, not-so-goofy ska project. Because… why not? Stream the completely re-recorded and reimagined SKA DREAM here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Hot Mulligan – “Pop Shuvit (Hall of Meat, Duh)”
Hot on the heels of 2020’s stellar You’ll Be Fine, alternative/pop-punk outfit Hot Mulligan are back with a new EP, I Won’t Reach Out To You, out May 28 through Wax Bodega. Their newest single offers up exactly what one expects from the Michigan quintet: upbeat, power chord riffage, dancey rolling hi-hats, and infectious, summery choruses. Listen to “Pop Shuvit (Hall of Meat, Duh)” here.
Portal – Avow
Brisbane’s Portal sound like they come from another dimension, one where the laws of physics are upside-down and inside out, twisting their austere death metal soundscapes into distorted, non-Euclidean journeys from the darkest pits of alien despair. It’s some real nightmare shit. However, for those brave enough, their latest LP, Avow, out May 28 through Profound Lore Records, might also be their most accessible effort yet. Stream the album’s pre-release single here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Jim Ward – “Paper Fish”
It’s no secret that I’m a huge Jim Ward fan. His work with At The Drive-In and Sparta helped to define alternative rock and post-hardcore for an entire generation. Thankfully, Ward’s newest solo album, Daggers, out June 11 through Dine Alone Records, keeps his knack for writing engaging earworms firmly intact. Listen to Ward’s newest single “Paper Fish” here.
Seven Doors – The Gates of Hell
The latest in obscure one-man projects to grace my ears this year, The Gates of Hell is a furious four-track slice of grimy OSDM from the UK’s South West. Seven Doors, aka multi-instrumentalist Ryan Wills, loads up each composition with Swedish buzzsaw riffs, bouncy snare, flashy solos, and hellspawn gutturals. It’s a little thrashy, even a little progressive at times, but the bulldozer brutality of Skeletal Remains and Asphyx remains front and centre throughout. Stream the full EP here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
L’exquisite Douleur – “I’ll Be Late For My Funeral”
So, I watch probably six hours worth of YouTube a day. And look, I know that’s a lot, but every now and again the almighty algorithm deigns to throw me something interesting. This track was a random auto-play gem, and for the first minute or so I thought it was a forgotten B-Side from I Brought You My Bullets…-era MCR. Florida’s L’exquisite Douleur were certainly an unknown commodity to me at the time, but they’re officially on my radar now. The Internet is full of surprises, folks. Watch the video for “I’ll Be Late For My Funeral” below:
Vatican – Become A New God
Keeping the cyber-core aesthetic alive and well, recent UNFD signees Vatican have dropped a blistering two-track single titled Become A New God. Fans of like-minded outfits such as Sanction and Vein.fm can expect caustic vocal shredding, off-kilter riff assaults, and mammoth, teeth-clenching breakdowns from the Georgian five-piece. Here’s hoping we get a new full-length project sometime soon. Stream the two-track single here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
HEAVY METTLE:
A closer, more in-depth look at a new record that ticks all my boxes.
Zao – The Crimson Corridor
In metaphysics, there’s a well-known thought experiment from Plutarch’s Theseus that goes something like this: When Theseus, the mythical king and founder-hero of Athens, returned home from Crete, his ship was preserved for centuries. As the ship decayed, the Athenians took away the old planks and replaced them with newer and stronger planks. Gradually, over time, the Athenians replaced all the planks leftover from Theseus’ original voyage. The question becomes: Is this ship still the ship of Theseus? Can an object that has had all of its original components replaced with new components remain fundamentally the same object? Thanks, Wandavision.
Listening to Zao’s latest LP, The Crimson Corridor, I can’t help but think about concepts like identity and change over time. Founded in 1993, the Pennsylvanian outfit have been at the pioneering edge of metalcore for nearly three decades. In that period, the band has released twelve full-length albums, nine EPs, and gone through nineteen different members. Vocalist Dan Weyandt is the closest thing Zao has to a constant, with his distinct raspy bark acting as a recognisable fixture of the band since 1998.
So, it’s no surprise then that a track like “Ship of Theseus” loops these ideas into a cohesive and abrasive melting pot. As the band explained in an interview with Metal Injection, they are nothing if not self-aware: “This song is an enigmatic tribute to the long surreal history of Zao and its shared parallels with the Ship of Theseus paradox. It also explores the idea that the band is somehow an entity in and of itself beyond its members past and present.”
Taking this philosophical outlook to its logical conclusion, “Ship of Theseus” is clearly Zao of the now—both vintage and modern. The opening gunshots of Jeff Gretz’s cracking snare and punishing double-kick fusillades. Guitarists Scott Mellinger and Russ Cogdell unfurl serpentine discordant riffs against Martin Lunn’s ever-present bass thrum. At the halfway point, after a series of bendy pinch harmonics, Weyandt snarls the Theseus thesis, summing up the record:
“Nothing can ever stay the same.”
Stream here: Bandcamp | Spotify
Listen to all these tracks on the TPD April playlist, updated each week.
ERRONEOUS BOTCH:
Links to some of my other published work across the Web. Take a look, share if you feel like it, and help a brother out.
For the good people over at Exclaim!, I reviewed the newest Liam Neeson action thriller, The Marksman. Sadly, it was a dud, with an “under-written script, leaden dialogue and flat direction.” But then again, I’ll happily watch Neeson mutter cheesy dialogue through his grizzled face and shoot random henchmen any day. So, if you feel like sating your Neeson B-movie fix, you could certainly do worse.
And over at Letterboxd, I have some stream-of-consciousness thoughts about a bunch of new and newish film releases—Love and Monsters, Nobody, The Kid Detective, Chaos Walking—and you can suss those out here if you feel so inclined.