Weekly Roundup: December 21, 2020
Featuring Lucero, Kid Dakota, High Command, and more.
MOSH PITHY:
A curated selection of cool shit for you to listen to.
Frozen Soul – “Wraith of Death”
There must be something in the water in Texas. Sounding like if Bolt Thrower were reanimated in their prime after being thawed out from some dark cryogenic tomb, Fort Worth bruisers Frozen Soul are doing the Lonestar State proud. With their Century Media debut Crypt of Ice on the way for early 2021, “Wraith of Death” is a welcome taste of the many riffs to come. Suss out the band’s frigid video below:
Wolves Like Us – Crooked Covers
I completely slept on Wolves Like Us releasing their Brittle Bones record last year. So, in an effort not to seem like a totally fake fan, I bring to your attention their follow-up release: a three-track covers EP which puts the band’s rowdy Norweigan post-hardcore spin on an eclectic selection of songs from Bruce Springsteen, Napalm Death and Leatherface. If that sounds like your kind of thing, then stream the full EP here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Lucero – “When You Found Me”
Tennessee rockers Lucero are back with a new album and their newest single is a slow and sombre number, carried along by delicate piano and frontman Ben Nichols’ soulful Southern drawl—perfect for deep thoughts and a contemplative whiskey (or seven). Check out the record’s title track here.
Kid Dakota – Age of Roaches
I’ll come clean right now and say that until a week ago, I’d never heard of Kid Dakota or Darren Jackson. But sometimes all it takes is a really sick album cover for me to have my interests piqued. Age of Roaches is a curious record, one that hovers aimlessly over the nexus of alternative, rock, and indie, never quite settling for one genre over the other. If nothing else, the sheer ambivalence in tone is an impressive feat in of itself. Stream the full album here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
As Everything Unfolds – “Stranger In The Mirror”
It’s been a busy year for UK post-hardcore sextet As Everything Unfolds. Despite the stagnation of touring prospects worldwide, the band’s profile has grown steadily off the back of great single drops, a signing to Long Branch Records, and a new album on the way for 2021. If you’re in the mood for something with the heavy stomp of Polaris and the aching emotive register of heyday Paramore, then this will be right up your alley. Check out “Stranger In The Mirror” here.
L’architecte – The Fool
This was something I stumbled upon on Bandcamp, and I can’t remember how or where it came from. Ostensibly a one-person alternative project from Brazilian musician Ramon Gallo, The Fool takes cues from the cards of the Major Arcana and pushes L’architecte’s introspective indie showcase into some weird and wonderful places. If you’re looking for a musical journey with a blank space for the destination, stream the record here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
The Acacia Strain – “One Thousand Painful Stings” (feat. Courtney LaPlante)
Metalcore heavyweights The Acacia Strain dropped one of the most crushing records of 2020, in the form of the stunning Slow Decay. With their trademark goofiness ramped up for quarantine, the band have released the album’s closing track “One Thousand Painful Stings,” which also features an equal parts haunting and hilarious cameo from Spiritbox songstress Courtney LaPlante. Check out the video below:
High Command – Everlasting Torment
Sometimes bands sing their own praises better than I ever could, and crossover thrash/doom outfit High Command are no exception. The brief for their latest two-track reads as follows:
“In an age of mystery where knowledge is shared through steel, Everlasting Torment offers two fables of esoteric savagery. Gaze upon the sanguine dawn where ancient lands were carved by ice and stone. Scream for mercy as you bear witness to an arcane god’s unquenchable thirst for bloodshed. Ride the frost winds north to the fantastical lands of Secartha. See where the madness began…”
Need I say anymore? Hear the tales of triumph told here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
You also can find all these tracks on the TPD December playlist, updated each week.
HEAVY METTLE:
A closer, more in-depth look at a new record that ticks all my boxes.
Yashira – Fail To Be
Yashira were dealt a heavy blow in 2018, shortly after the release of their previous album Shrine, when drummer Seth Howard was tragically killed in a car accident at the age of 24. Given everything the Jacksonville outfit have gone through in the two years since, it would have been understandable for them to want to throw in the towel and call it a day. Instead, the band’s core members—guitarists Dylan Mikos and Connor Anderson, along with bassist Luke Barber—channelled their pain and catharsis into power and creativity.
Dedicated to the Howard family, Fail To Be is a thick slab of technical post-metal, shot through with furious blasts of sludge, hardcore, doom, and post-hardcore aggression. On tracks like the roiling “Shards of Heaven” and the crushing “Shades Erased” (featuring Full of Hell’s Dylan Walker), Yashira charge forward relentlessly with tectonic grooves and barbed vocal sections, echoing scene luminaries like Isis, Converge and The Dillinger Escape Plan. Produced by Greg Thomas (ex-Misery Signals, END), the album’s mix is expansive and vibrant, immersing the listener in pounding waves of despair and distortion.
Stream here: Bandcamp | Spotify
ERRONEOUS BOTCH:
Links to some of my other published work across the Web. Take a look and help a brother out.
Over on The Pitch of Discontent blog, wordsmith extraordinaire Tom Valcanis and I posted a selection of our favourite records of 2020. Some will be familiar to frequent readers of this newsletter; others may surprise you. Also, keep your eyes peeled for a more fleshed-out 2020 list before the year’s end!