Weekly Roundup: August 30th
Featuring Living Weapon, DRAIN, Blackwater Holylight, and more.
MOSH PITHY:
A curated selection of cool shit for you to listen to.
Soul Blind – “Third Chain”
If you’ve already worn out your copy of Earth Is A Black Hole, then Hudson Valley quartet Soul Blind have a new jam just for you. “Third Chain” is the lead single off the New York band’s upcoming EP of the same name, set for release on September 16th through Other People Records. It’s got plenty of big, grungey riffs and soaring hooks, perfect for the inner ‘90s slacker in all of us. Watch the single’s kaleidoscopic video below:
Tunnel Vision – Shame Spiral
Adelaide newcomers Tunnel Vision have dropped a sick new EP titled Shame Spiral through the good folks over at Melbourne’s Life Lair Regret Records. The group’s debut EP features five hardcore ragers in the vein of No Warning, Turnstile and Primitive Blast. (And if you’re looking for more Aussie hardcore punk, here’s a list I prepared earlier.) Stream the full EP here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Chrome Waves – “Wind Blown”
I recently came across Midwesterners Chrome Waves and their upcoming third album, The Rain Will Cleanse, available September 10th through Transcending Records and Disorder Recordings. The group’s latest single is a brilliant blend of fuzzy, shoegaze atmospherics and post-rock and -metal instrumentation. It’s also got a soothing, melancholic vibe and it definitely has me excited to check out the full record. Listen to “Wind Blown” here.
Living Weapon – Paradise
It’s 2021 and I’m still hanging out for a new Vein.FM album. (Seriously. Please. It’s time, guys.) Until then, at least we’ve got the debut EP from bassist/backing vocalist Jonathan Lhaubouet’s new band, Boston metalcore/mathcore outfit Living Weapon. Paradise, out now through Closed Casket Activities, features Lhaubouet on vocals for seven collective minutes of completely unhinged, off-kilter brutality and it totally whips. Stream the full EP here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Totally Unicorn – “Trust Fund Glee”
Sydney punks Totally Unicorn are back with a new single in the form of “Trust Fund Glee,” a searing polemic against the privileged few who never have to think about the future. Over angular riffage and smashing percussion, frontman Drew Gardiner snarls in the verse: “Rate our success/ From your parents’ paycheques/ You know they are/ They are the trust fund glee/ Cunts.” Hectic. Listen to “Trust Fund Glee” here.
Blackwater Holylight – Silence/Motion
I’m not entirely sure how I failed to come across Portland prog stars Blackwater Holylight until now, but I’m so glad I did. This Oregon quartet are—as their name evocatively suggests—all about contrast: light and dark, heavy and soft, psychedelic and melodic. Their newest LP, Silence/Motion, out October 22nd through RidingEasy Records, promises to be their most thematically rich effort yet, with echoes of Pink Floyd, black metal, and ethereal shoegaze percolating within their prog-rock cauldron. Stream the LP’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
DRAIN – “Watch You Burn”
DRAIN’s debut album California Cursed was one of my favourite records of last year. So, I’m beyond stoked to see the band go from strength to strength off that LP. After signing to Epitaph Records, the band have now released their newest single, the crushing, metallic-infused banger “Watch You Burn.” And if this is a taste of things to come, then LP#2 is going to snap necks from coast to coast. Watch the Tarantino-aping runaway caper video for “Watch You Burn” below:
Terminus – The Silent Bell Toll
I listen to a lot of doom and doom-adjacent music, so it typically takes a special ‘something’ for a new band to stand out from the pack. In the case of The Silent Bell Toll, the newest effort from Arkansas metallers Terminus, it was their unique approach to what the folks at Heavy Blog Is Heavy have called “pop-sludge.” And while I might quibble at that silly moniker a little, it’s pretty much on the money here. Terminus make doom palatable, immediate and accessible—think of Mastodon, Torche, Pallbearer—and it makes for one hell of an enjoyable listen. Stream the full LP here (Bandcamp/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.
Spirit Adrift – Forge Your Future
I’m not sure exactly what is in the water over at Nate Garrett’s house, but whatever it is surely must account for one of the most prolific catalogues in contemporary heavy metal. Forge Your Future is the fifth project from Garrett’s baby, Spirit Adrift, in just five years, following 2016’s Chained to Oblivion, 2017’s Curse of Conception, 2019’s Divided by Darkness and last year’s Enlightened In Eternity.
And while it might not be an LP this time around, this three-track, while-you-wait EP is a timely reminder that the former Gatecreeper guitarist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist is one of the best soothsayers of Sabbathian doom and 80s Metallica thrash-dom in metal today.
“Wake Up” and the opening title track straddle huge mid-tempo riffs that allow Garrett’s quicksilver leads and soaring hooks to crest with grace and majesty. While “Invisible Enemy” returns to the band’s early cavernous doom in the mid-section, before bouncing off rolling hi-hats and new addition Preston Bryant’s synthesizers, as Garrett blends melodic metal, doom and hard rock into an unbeatable combination.
Stream here: 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.
