Weekly Roundup: January 11th
Featuring Crosses, Suffering Hour, Pale Waves, and more.
MOSH PITHY:
A curated selection of cool shit for you to listen to.
Pale Waves – “She’s My Religion”
Following up their acclaimed debut, 2018’s My Mind Makes Noises, UK outfit Pale Waves are back with more sugar sweet, mall goth-tinged pop and this time around, they’ve thrown in a neo-grunge aesthetic for good measure. Squint really hard and previous single “Changes” almost looks like The Cranberries covering B*Witched’s “C’est la vie”. Thankfully, their newest single “She’s My Religion” digs deep enough into exploring queer identity through a road-trip romance to stand out a little. Suss out the track’s video below:
Arctic Sleep – By The Horns (Original Soundtrack)
Written, performed, engineered, mixed, and produced entirely by Milwaukee resident Keith D., “Blade Through Your Heart” is the first taste of two new original Arctic Sleep songs inspired by the Scout Comics original series By The Horns, created by Markisan Naso and Jason Muhr. There are elements of progressive doom here, mixed in with shades of power metal and fantasy epics. If that sounds like your kind of thing, then stream the track here.
Beaten To Death – “Melankolske Oppstøt”
When I look for weird shit, the Internet typically provides, and this find is no exception. Coming in at barely two-minutes in runtime, “Melankolske Oppstøt” is the opening track from Laat maar, deel vier: ik verhuis naar Endor: the fourth and last instalment of a concept EP series focusing on wooded exploration of the forest moon of Endor from Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi. Oh, and it’s also a furious blast of melodic Norwegian grindcore. Did you get all that? Good. Check out the track here.
Lizzard – Eroded
Having shared the stage with metal titans like Gojira and High On Fire, French rockers Lizzard are all set to unveil their fourth LP, Eroded (out February 19 through Pelagic Records). Recorded during voluntary isolation at the legendary Castle Studios in Germany, singles like “Blowdown” and “The Decline” add shades of 90s grunge and noise rock to the group’s heavy aesthetic. Pre-order the album and stream the singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Suffering Hour – “Obscuration”
When I think of Minnesota, I associate the American Northwest's frigid plains with charming accents, overly sincere nice people, and delightful acts of not-so-accidental murder. You know, Fargo (1996). “Obscuration” is about as cold and black and bitterly fierce as one can get with music, which means that Suffering Hour’s Profound Lore debut The Cyclic Reckoning (out February 19) is going to be one hell of a ride. Listen to “Obscuration” here.
In Inertia – Efflorescence
I didn’t know that Indonesian post-rock was a sub-genre that existed until this week, but I’m glad I know now. On Efflorescence, Jakarta-via-Kyoto outfit In Inertia specialise in creating delicate instrumental soundscapes of the sprawling and ambient variety. If you’re looking for a musical journey that’s perfect for quiet moments of reflection, stream the record here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Asphyx – “The Nameless Elite”
On their tenth (!) full-length album, Dutch death-doomers Asphyx are taking no prisoners. Necroceros promises to be as grim, dark, and mercilessly uncompromising as anything in their already extensive back catalogue. And judging by their latest single “The Nameless Elite,” no one is safe from their relentless assault. Take that, plutocrats. Check out the video below:
††† (Crosses) – The Beginning Of The End
Following the lauded release of the latest Deftones record, Ohms (2020), frontman Chino Merino has decided to resurrect his electronic side project ††† (Crosses). Featuring collaborations with Shaun Lopez of Far fame and Chuck Doom, the latest single release is a cover of American synthpop duo Cause & Effect’s 1990 track “The Beginning Of The End”. Stream the release here.
You also can find all these tracks on the TPD January playlist, updated each week.
HEAVY METTLE:
A closer, more in-depth look at a new record that ticks all my boxes.
Frozen Soul – Crypt of Ice
Most of the time, album reviews function as little more than excuses for band namedrops as overwrought similes. (This also happens to be more of a self-own than I originally intended, but I’m rolling with it.) Reading press coverage for Fort Worth bruisers Frozen Soul’s debut LP, Crypt of Ice, one finds this music journo crutch in action, where oft-cited comparisons to groups such as Bolt Thrower, Entombed, Black Breath, Nails, Xibalba, Fuming Mouth, and Gatecreeper abound. And while this apparent attention-seeking for likeness isn’t entirely without merit, I’m going to let this mini-review skew towards the phenomenological instead.
Crypt of Ice opens with a bitter chill, as the Texans unfurl a blizzard of frosty cymbals, neolithic Yeti-esque bellows, and an unending avalanche of pounding drums. Across the ten-track album, passing through OSDM ragers like “Hand of Vengeance” and “Beat to Dust,” the HM-2 buzzsaw neck-injury style remains firmly locked-in and ever-present—but it’s not a purely anachronistic pursuit either. While the frigid riffage might be sluggishly down-tuned for sub-zero glacial crawl, it’s also sharp enough to pierce flesh and stick around, like an icepick in your neck. (See what I did there?)
Stream here: Spotify
ERRONEOUS BOTCH:
Links to some of my other published work across the Web. Take a look and help a brother out.
Over at New Noise, I kicked off 2021 by reviewing the new EP from Frank Iero and The Future Violents, Heaven is a Place, This is a Place. It’s an effectual slice of modern punk rock, with a surprise REM cover tacked to the back end. Check out the review here.