Weekly Roundup: February 17th
Featuring OVERSIZE, The Callous Daoboys, Arm's Length, and more.
ERRONEOUS BOTCH:
I’ve got two bonus videos for you this week, so let’s jump right in. First up is the chat I had with Chris Cresswell of The Flatliners and Hot Water Music ahead of both bands cruising Down Under for the latter’s 30th anniversary (!) tour run:
Second is our pod episode with Hands Like Houses frontman and all-around good bloke Josh Raven (also of The Faim). We spoke about the creative freedom that led to ATMOSPHERICS—the group’s ambitious, 16-track double album (out now through Civilians)—being your own worst critic, unlocking new vocal talents, overcoming performance anxiety, and finally getting to the bottom of what’s up with chemtrails. Check it out below:
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Now, on with the words…
SIDE A:
A curated selection of cool shit for you to listen to.
The Callous Daoboys – “Two-Headed Trout/The Demon of Unreality Limping Like A Dog”
God may smile upon THE CALLOUS DAOBOYS, but I’m out here straight-up hooting and hollering like a horned-up teenager. No one does it crazier than the Atlanta mathcore sextet, and they certainly don’t look this comfortable (read: badass) doing it.
The band’s new LP, I Don’t Want To See You In Heaven (out May 16th through MNRK Heavy), is already destined to elevate their signature brand of sonic insanity to stratospheric levels, and if the ten-minute video setpiece for “Two-Headed Trout/The Demon of Unreality Limping Like A Dog” doesn’t convince you, then you need to promptly canine shuffle out of my goddamn newsletter (editor’s note: please don’t). Gaze upon their works and decide for yourself:
Split System – On The Edge b/w On The Loose
Sometimes, I’m in the mood for punk rock that knows when to not fuck around. You know what I mean? Some real deal, no frills, get-on-stage-and-just-play-the-fucking-songs type shit. That’s effectively the mission statement from Naarm/Melbourne garage-punks SPLIT SYSTEM.
The quintet’s latest release is the no-nonsense two-track rager On The Edge b/w On The Loose, and it’s out now via Legless (AU) and Drunken Sailor Records (UK/EU) (also coming soon to the US via Green Noise Records). Get it inya, etc. Stream the two-track single in full here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
OVERSIZE – “Vacant”
If you’ve been scrolling through TikTok lately (or, heaven forbid, Reddit), you may have seen the youth querying themselves into a fit by trying to answer an age-old question: “Are Deftones shoegaze?” (The Answer: an emphatic, pleading No.)
UK fuzz-lords OVERSIZE are also firmly not a shoegaze band, but on their forthcoming debut album, Vital Signs (out February 28th via SharpTone Records), it’s pretty clear that they’re big fans of 90s alt-rock staples like HUM, Smashing Pumpkins, The Pixies—hell, even Deftones. Unlike the kids, though, these English lads already know where the honest answer can be found: in the power of the Almighty Riff. Listen to the highly HUM-able “Vacant” here.
Pelican – Flickering Resonance
There was a period in the early 2010s when I was expanding my musical horizons and delving into the expansive textures of post-rock and metal. I was diving through it all: We Lost The Sea, ISIS (the good one), sleepmakeswaves, Russian Circles, and much more. However, a record that really clicked for me was Forever Becoming, the 2013 full-length from Chicago institution PELICAN.
Flickering Resonance, out May 16th through Run For Cover Records, is the band’s first full-length in six years and features the notable return of founding guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec (rejoining the band for his first full-length since 2009’s What We All Come To Need). If you’re looking to wade into the depths of post-hardcore, space-rock, indie, and metal, then this is for you. Stream the LP’s pre-release single/s here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Mannequin Death Squad – “Don’t Care” (feat. Emmy Mack)
Last year, I featured a track from Naarm/Melbourne-based indie punks MANNEQUIN DEATH SQUAD’s upcoming sophomore album, Wise and Dangerous, which included a wild DZ Deathrays feature. Now, with a release date firmly locked in (April 4th), the duo have unveiled “a concept album about how people can be considered dangerous by those who seek to control them.”
Taking that rebellious streak to heart, the band’s latest single is a fun, surfy cut that sports thrashy guitars, big grooves, and snarling vocals from frontwoman Elly Vex, bouncing playfully off a guest feature from F.O.T.S. Emmy Mack of RedHook. Listen to “Don’t Care” here.
SIDE B:
More tracks for you. Deep cuts for the real heads. Still cool.
Volcano – NO WAY BACK
Do you enjoy angry, blood-pumping music? Do you like it when the breakdown returns for a second time, only slower? Does listening to Sepultura’s “Propaganda” make you want to smash through some drywall with your homies? If you’ve answered yes to any of the above, you should be listening to VOLCANO.
NO WAY BACK is the latest two-track ass-beater from this beatdown hardcore outfit, following 2022’s debut FOOL 2 THA GAME, and was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Cody Davidson (Fix My Face Records, Sanguisugabogg), with Davidson performing all instruments and Jeremy Damron on vocals. Oh, and there’s a staccato section at the end of the B-side, “TIME AND DISTANCE,” that sounds like a jackhammer crossed with an assault rifle, and it makes me feel all kinds of goofy. Stream the two-track single here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Arm’s Length – “Funny Face”
In 2022, I really enjoyed Never Before Seen, Never Again Found, the debut LP from Ontario melodic punkers ARM’S LENGTH. And yet, for reasons I can’t quite discern (perhaps the never-ending daily deluge of new music), it wasn’t a record that I found myself naturally going back to.
Thankfully, on “Funny Face,” the latest single from the quartet, taken from their forthcoming sophomore album and Pure Noise Records debut, There’s A Whole World Out There (out May 16th), I feel like I’ve found my replay value. The record chronicles lyricist/vocalist/guitarist Allen Steinberg’s struggles with mental health in ways that are all too relatable, fusing the group’s emotive storytelling with gripping urgency and honesty. Watch the video for “Funny Face” below:
Rosasharin – If This Letter Leaves Candlelight
This one’s a very late addition to my newsletter picks, thanks partly to F.O.T.S. Peter Rono of Kaonashi, who shouted out this Texan post-hardcore outfit on his IG story. ROSASHARIN dropped their debut EP, If This Letter Leaves Candlelight, last month, and it should also have a physical release forthcoming through Ephyra, the veritable home of our current 2000s metalcore/post-hardcore revival.
If you’re into anything tangentially related to From First To Last, Scary Kids Scaring Kids, A Static Lullaby—hell, even Alesana (eighteen-year-old me is positively shook right now), this shit is for you. It rocks. Stream the EP in full here (Spotify).
FEATURE ALBUM:
A closer, more in-depth look at a new record that ticks my boxes.
Volatile Ways – Perfect Dark
Cards on the table, I don’t know the first thing about tarot (aren’t puns fun?). But my hot wife and adorable co-host offered this reading on our podcast roundup this week, and I feel like it’s an apt entry into what Newcastle death-mosh heavyweights VOLATILE WAYS are doing here on their bludgeoning debut LP.
According to most card readings, The Suit of Swords “mirror the quality of mind in your thoughts, attitudes, and beliefs.” Perfect Dark sports monochrome cover art featuring a knight holding a sacred heart pierced by seven swords—one for each of the monstrous tracks on the album. Within that suit, if the Seven of Swords is placed upright—as the album art suggests—this signifies “betrayal, deception, getting away with something, [and] acting strategically.”
This idea of malice and betrayal, followed by revelation, acceptance and ultimately acts of vengeance, underscores frontwoman Emilly Beekman’s grim lyricism, most notably on the heartbreaking “Motherless” and the record’s Nietzschean title track closer:
“Have you, have you felt it?
The will to end all you've dealt with/
When you stare into the void, and nothing stares back.”
Stream here: Bandcamp | Spotify