Weekly Roundup: December 5th
Featuring shame, The Amity Affliction, Zulu, and more.
MOSH PITHY:
A curated selection of cool shit for you to listen to.
Zulu – “Fakin’ Tha Funk (You Get Did)”
Californian hardcore exports Zulu are rushing into 2023 with the release of their debut full-length album, A New Tomorrow, out March 3rd on Flatspot Records. The record showcases the group’s blend of punishing hardcore and soul-infused powerviolence, with guest features from Soul Glo’s Pierce Jordan, Playytime’s Obioma Ugonna, and Truth Cult’s Paris Roberts. Watch the video for the album’s lead single, “Fakin’ Tha Funk (You Get Did),” below:
Ashenspire – Hostile Architecture
I somehow missed the boat on the “avant-garde” Red and Anarchist Black Metal (RABM) outfit Ashenspire earlier this year. If my Spotify Wrapped is any indication, I listen to a lot of music but still barely scratch the surface of what’s actually out there. The Scottish septet’s latest record, Hostile Architecture, is “a sonic exploration of the ways that subjects under late capitalism are constrained and set in motion via the various structures that uphold stratification and oppression in urban contexts,” drawing inspiration from Mark Fisher’s concept of “Capitalist Realism” (from the 2009 book of the same name). It’s extremely my shit, and I’m glad I found it. Stream the LP in full here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
One Step Closer – “Dark Blue”
Melodic hardcore upstarts One Step Closer were a big fixture of this newsletter last year, particularly with the release of their outstanding Run For Cover Records debut, 2021's This Place You Know LP. While keeping their hardcore origins firmly in check, the quartet also displayed an intuitive sense of melody and dynamics, which is also noticeably present in their latest single, “Dark Blue.” Recorded with Jon Markson (Drug Church, Soul Blind, Koyo), the new track harnesses their energy and bite into something anthemic and yearning, akin to Title Fight’s Floral Green (2012). It’s a big mood. Listen to “Dark Blue” here.
Tribunal – The Weight of Remembrance
On their 20 Buck Spin debut, The Weight of Remembrance (out January 20th), funeral doom outfit Tribunal evoke “crushing tragic heaviness and forlorn purpose.” Consisting of classically trained cellist/bassist/vocalist Soren Mourne and guitarist/vocalist Etienne Flinn, the Vancouver duo make gothic metal for sad people that’s slow, lumbering, and gracefully morbid. It’s great stuff. Stream the LP’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Kaonashi – “I Hate the Sound of Car Keys”
On 2021’s Dear Lemon House, You Ruined Me: Senior Year, Philly post-hardcore quintet Kaonashi crafted a frantic and unhinged concept album of post-hardcore, emo, and screamo, with theatrical nods to acts like Coheed and Cambria and mewithoutyou. It’s a record with big main character, inner dialogue energy, and the group’s latest track is very much the same. So, I’m curious to see where the band’s sprawling and intricate narrative goes next. Listen to “I Hate the Sound of Car Keys” here.
shame – Food for Worms
Ever since I heard 2018’s Songs of Praise, I’ve adored UK post-punkers shame and followed everything they do with intense fervour. In my review of 2021’s Drunk Tank Pink, I described how that record manifested pandemic “anxieties through an instrumental identity crisis, adding shades of ‘80s pop and funk to otherwise angular post-punk soundscapes.” The band’s forthcoming third LP, Food for Worms, is out on February 24th through Dead Oceans and was recorded with renowned producer Flood (Nick Cave, U2, Foals). Stream the LP’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
The Amity Affliction – “Show Me Your God”
As I wrote in my Goods Things festival primer, it’s wild to me that Gympire-come-global metalcore institution The Amity Affliction will cross their twentieth anniversary next year. Last week also saw the quartet drop the first track from their as-yet-untitled eighth full-length album, their first self-produced record, and—according to frontman Joel Birch—the “heaviest material they’ve ever written.” In a press statement, the band states:
“The song is the first in a series of explorations and internal meditations on how our past shapes us and interacts with our various mental struggles in the present, drawing from both personal experience and also the trauma of close friends who have passed away or who have dealt with close loved ones passing away.”
Watch the video for “Show Me Your God” below:
InTechnicolour – Midnight Heavyweight
I wasn’t familiar with Brighton outfit InTechnicolour until this week, but the band’s sophomore album is right up my alley. Written throughout the winter of 2020 and recorded in an old chapel on the UK's south coast, Midnight Heavyweight is full of gritty, emotional textures, big hooks, great harmonies, and tasteful nods to 90s/00s post-hardcore staples, remixed and reinterpreted in cool and interesting ways. Stream the LP in full here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
HEAVY METTLE:
A closer, more in-depth look at a new record that ticks all my boxes.
Heart to Gold – Tom
One of the worst parts about end-of-year lists is finding records that already came out months ago that you missed (and/or neglected), and now you’ve only got so much room in your ranked list. Heart to Gold are three guys from Minneapolis, Minnesota, who dropped their second full-length record, Tom, back in April.
As the band state, the record is a “swaggering, scrappy punk rock love letter to their hometowns and all the glory, pain, conflict, and reward that come from being of a place and a community and seeing both through, even to bittersweet ends.”
There’s a fun, upbeat sentimental core to the album, where you can hear a trio of dudes who grew up on acts like The Germs, Nirvana, The Ramones, Joyce Manor, Remo Drive and Title Fight, pulling together a potent mix of American Football’s Midwest emo and the brash messiness of Hüsker Dü. It rocks from front to back.
Stream here: Bandcamp | Spotify
Listen to all these tracks and more on the TPD 2022 TUNES playlist, updated weekly.
ERRONEOUS BOTCH:
Did you know that The Pitch is now an exclusive Spotify ‘music + talk’ podcast? New episodes go up every Monday and Friday with some cool things planned for 2023. Check out the show and let me know what you think!