Weekly Roundup: January 2nd
Weekly Roundup: January 2nd
Featuring Eternal Sleep, Fireworks, Honest Crooks, and more.
MOSH PITHY:
A curated selection of cool shit for you to listen to.
Bouquet – “Curtain Call”
Iowa up-and-comers Bouquet have returned with a brand new single. It’s called “Curtain Call,” and to my ear, it’s a mid-tempo post-hardcore track with delicate guitar leads, urgent rhythms, and catchy alternative choruses. They’re a relatively new band on my radar, so I’m excited to see what they have in store for the new year. Watch the video for “Curtain Call” below:
Honest Crooks – The Sounds of Hell
Newcastle heavyweights Honest Crooks have perfected their intense fusion of heavy beatdown hardcore with the technical edge and ferocity of death metal. Their forthcoming record, The Sounds of Hell (out February 10 through EVP Recordings), finds them operating at the peak of their sonic powers with clench-fisted aggression and devasting heaviness on display. Parkway Drive vocalist Winston McCall also gave the band a nod in his recent Knotfest shortlist of breakthrough Aussie artists, so that’s an accolade worth mentioning here, too. Stream the LP’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
The Secret Chord – “Hadley’s Hope”
The stellar-oriented “Hadley’s Hope” is the latest single from Swedish duo The Secret Chord. The song takes inspiration from 80s postpunk and new wave, fusing both subgenres into a nostalgic mix of retro soundscapes. Instrumentalist Joakim Paulsson and vocalist Ida Trosell have great chemistry on the track, and it bodes well for future space synth bangers. Listen to “Hadley’s Hope” here.
New Miserable Experience – Philosophy On Pessimism
My first metal-adjacent supergroup for this week comes in the form of New Miserable Experience, featuring vocalist David Grossman and drummer and producer BJ McMurtrie (both of Rosetta), guitarist Joshua Mahesh Kost (Model Prisoner, Lotus Thrones), and bassist Brett Bamberger (Revocation). The group’s debut album, Philosophy On Pessimism (out January 27th via Translation Loss Records), is a dark slice of glittering electronica meets post-rock, taking disparate inspiration from the first season of True Detective and Kentaro Miura's acclaimed manga, Berserk. Stream the LP’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
The Holy Ghost Tabernacle Choir – “Thinking About the Immortality of the Crab”
How great a name is The Holy Ghost Tabernacle Choir? Outstanding stuff. After dropping their Slow Murder album last year (check it out; it’s great), the Savannah, Georgia collective also featured on a four-way split for Fest 2022, originally released in October by Salvaged Records. The split includes tracks from Gillian Carter, Machinist! and Cursed Birth, and THGTC’s offering serves up a skronky slab of molten screamo and unhinged noise rock with a radical political core. Listen to “Thinking About the Immortality of the Crab” here.
Eternal Sleep – Desperate Prayer Blues
We love a surprise album drop, don’t we, folks? This one comes courtesy of Pittsburgh bruisers Eternal Sleep. It’s titled Desperate Prayer Blues and features twelve new tracks of crushing metallic hardcore and grunge-infused melodies. The record was produced, engineered, mixed and mastered by hit-man of the moment Arthur Rizk (Show Me The Body, Power Trip, Glitterer, and many others). It’s very sick. Stream the LP in full here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Venomous Concept – “Timeline”
Speaking of supergroups, Venomous Concept is the brainchild of Kevin Sharp (formerly of Brutal Truth) and Shane Embury (Napalm Death, Brujeria, etc.). The quartet’s upcoming album, The Good Ship Lollipop (out February 24th through Decibel Records), is equal parts catchy and crunchy with pulse-pounding rhythms and rollicking guitar work. It’s thrashy but fun. Watch the video for their latest single, “Timeline,” below:
Misþyrming – Með hamri
The masters of Icelandic black metal have skated in at the end of 2022 with another imposing exercise in blunt-force trauma. The latest six-track LP from Misþyrming (pronounced ‘Mis-thyr-ming’) finds the band’s ritualistic adherence to brutality as frostbitten and spinetingling as ever. In their own words:
“Með hamri [With a Hammer] is a celebration of violence and excess. Arrogant, vitriolic, and with contemptuous disregard for your every sensibility, this album is our statement against all that is false and vain in today’s underground scene… There is plenty of room for nuance and subtlety in Black Metal, but the hammer leaves no room for interpretation.”
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.
Fireworks – Higher Lonely Power
It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Michigan outfit Fireworks, and guess what? They, like everyone else, got old. They were a regular fixture of the early 2010s emo/pop punk revival, touring regularly with acts like New Found Glory, Four Year String, and Set Your Goals.
After taking a hiatus in 2015, the sextet reappeared briefly in 2019, dropped a new single and announced a new record for 2020, Higher Lonely Power, which—as it happened—didn’t actually see release until yesterday. (Hhhmm, I wonder why they had to wait for so long…)
So now, two years on, in the early dawn of 2023, we finally have the surprise release of the band’s fourth LP, a record anchored at all times by frontman David Mackinder’s unique vocal range and a more mature, introspective sound akin to the likes of Manchester Orchestra, The Wonder Years, La Dispute, The Hotelier.
Stream here: Bandcamp | Spotify