Weekly Roundup: August 2nd
Featuring MØL, The Plot In You, Rivers of Nihil, and more.
MOSH PITHY:
A curated selection of cool shit for you to listen to.
The Plot In You – “Face Me”
Admittedly, I’ve never been the biggest fan of The Plot In You. I’m not sure what it is about their slick, polished style of post-hardcore, but it just doesn’t really grab me. You know? However, I’m always willing to have my geriatric tastes be challenged, and the band’s latest cut, “Face Me,” is certainly an enigma. It zigs when I expect it to zag, making it one of the most genuinely perplexing pop tunes I’ve heard in a long time. Maybe it’s more your speed? Check it out below:
Heiress – Distant Fires
Featuring current and former members of Himsa and Undertow, Seattle sludge juggernaut Heiress are finally back with a new record. Distant Fires (out October 1st through Satanik Royalty Records) is the full-length follow-up to 2016’s Made Wrong and will be the band’s first outing as a quartet. With only the crushing lead single and album opener available at present, I’m expecting mountains of glacial riffage and terse moments of unsettling ambience. Stream “All Ends” here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Rivers of Nihil – “Clean”
When Rivers of Nihil dropped Where Owls Know My Name in 2018, I couldn’t get enough. Vicious tech-death with prog tendencies and the occasional saxophone? Hell yeah, dude—sign me up. I’ve been anxiously waiting for the next effort from the Pennsylvania quintet and it’s finally here: their fourth LP, The Work, out September 24th through Metal Blade Records. Listen to the psychedelic lead single “Clean” here.
Time and Pressure – Halfway Down
St. Louis five-piece Time and Pressure are big fans of breakneck tempos, which makes their debut album, Halfway Down, a furious and wild ride. Recorded and mixed by Andy Nelson at Bricktop Studios (Jesus Piece, True Love), this is a ten-track slab of fist-pumping, socially-conscious hardcore punk made for sweaty pile-ons and deafening vocal chants. Stream the LP here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Dooms Children – “Psyche Hospital Blues”
Last month, I wrote about the prolific list of side projects coming out of the Alexisonfire camp, and right on queue, guitarist Wade MacNeil is back with the debut LP from his latest effort, Dooms Children. The self-titled album (out October 20th on Dine Alone Records) sounds like it’ll be a brutally honest, confessional fusion of psych-rock, folk, alternative, and country. Should be pretty chill, eh? Listen to the new single, “Psyche Hospital Blues,” here.
Fulci – Exhumed Information
This one was a recommendation from a close friend, and upon doing some research, it was a total no-brainer. Michigan death metal trio Fulci take their name from cult Italian film director, Lucio Fulci, and their latest LP, Exhumed Information, is a concept record based on the retro horror film, Voices from Beyond (1991). Oh, and the record has four tracks of weird, totally-banging synthwave tacked on at the end. See? No-brainer! Stream the full album here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
MØL – “Photophobic”
With Deafheaven going full-blown shoegaze, I guess it’s time for Denmark’s MØL to take their rightful place on the blackgaze throne. Their second studio album, Diorama (out November 5th on Nuclear Blast Records) was recorded and mixed by Tue Madsen (Gojira, Meshuggah, Heaven Shall Burn) and it sounds positively lush. Watch the video for their transcendent lead single, “Photophobic,” below:
The Seafloor Cinema – In Cinemascope With Stereophonic Sound
New additions to the Pure Noise Records roster, The Seafloor Cinema deal in a bright, feel-good blend of Midwestern emo, pop-punk and math rock. Think Dance Gavin Dance on good behaviour or Hail The Sun’s cool flatmate. I’m super keen to see what the band pulls together on their second LP, In Cinemascope With Stereophonic Sound, out November 12th. Stream the LP’s lead singles here (Spotify).
Listen to all these tracks and more on the TPD 2021 VIBING playlist, updated weekly.
HEAVY METTLE:
A closer, more in-depth look at a new record that ticks all my boxes.
King Woman – Celestial Blues
In a 2017 Bandcamp interview, lead vocalist and songwriter Kris Esfandiari described King Woman as coming “from a very spiritual, intuitive place.” It’s little surprise then that Celestial Blues, the group’s long-awaited sophomore LP, wrestles with themes of rebellion, tragedy, and triumph with the grand, sweeping energy of a sermon on the mount.
Esfandiari makes no apologies for the group’s penchant for blending genres. On their latest album, King Woman use their cavernous dynamic range to recast biblical archetypes, pairing tales of Luciferian demise and crises of faith with elegiac funeral doom, charged alt-metal, and folk atmospherics.
Pulling from her childhood with Iranian immigrant parents, raised under the Charismatic Christian faith that included speaking in tongues and exorcisms, alongside a near-death experience and a fascination for John Milton’s Paradise Lost, Esfandiari’s journey on Celestial Blues becomes a majestic “matrimony of dark and light.”
Stream here: Bandcamp | Spotify
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.
