Weekly Roundup: June 14th
Featuring Lantlôs, Illuminati Hotties, Ekulu, and more.
MOSH PITHY:
A curated selection of cool shit for you to listen to.
Illuminati Hotties – “Pool Hopping”
Just in time for summer, Cali indie-rockers Illuminati Hotties have dropped a new single, “Pool Hopping,” taken from their forthcoming sophomore LP, Let Me Do One More (out October 1st through Snack Shack Tracks/Hopeless Records). According to frontwoman Sarah Tudzin, “this track is for when it’s hot, you’re crushing on someone new, and your adventure senses are tingling.” Check out the splashy video below:
Ekulu – Unscrew My Head
NYC crossover act Ekulu have released their debut full-length, Unscrew My Head, out now through Cash Only Records and the whole thing totally rips. This album has everything for your inner thrasher: electric solos, hardcore stomp, headbang swing, and searing lead riffs. The band are clearly inspired by the look, sound, and feel of the late 80s, but the riffage on show is memorable and all-too present to be passed over. Stream the LP here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Deafheaven – “Great Mass of Color”
It’s been almost a decade since Deafheaven dropped Sunbather and everyone inside the music industry lost their collective shit. Rolling Stone even compared that record’s hooks to U2—an act of unusual prescience considering the graceful touch on display with the band’s latest single, “Great Mass of Color.” On Twitter, I saw someone describe this track as “AFI covering Turnover” and that pretty much sums this one up perfectly. The blackgaze trailblazers are clearly up to something with their fifth LP, Infinite Granite (out August 20th via Sargent House), so consider me curious. Listen to the track here.
Meat Wave – Volcano Park
On Volcano Park, the latest EP from Meat Wave, the Chicago trio whip up a fierce blend of post-punk, post-hardcore and noise rock. The EP makes for a slippery and serpentine mix, refusing to sit and brew on any one sound or idea for too long, constantly shifting and evolving across its six-track runtime. Trust me, it’s a rollicking good time. Stream the EP here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Pet Fox – “Imagine Why”
I got put on to this beautiful little record thanks to fellow Substack writer Danielle Chelosky (seriously, go read The Waiting Room, people). Featuring members of cult emo/shoegaze act Ovlov, Pet Fox deal in the type of fuzzed-out, propulsive Mid-west emo that’s perfect for midnight drives, mindless navel-gazing, and sunrise contemplation. While More Than Anything is only a short three-track EP, the songwriting on offer here is delicate, immersive and rich, giving up just enough to hold fans over until their next effort. Listen to “Imagine Why” here.
Lantlôs – Wildhund
Thanks to Google, I finally found out what gets returned when you search “Hum, Deftones, and Alcest.” Now admittedly, I expected very little, but I was more than pleased to hear German alt-metal outfit Lantlôs, who further complicate the Venn diagram above by adding Devin Townsend, Smashing Pumpkins, and Foo Fighters into the mix. Suffice to say, based on the two pre-release lead singles, Wildhund (out July 30th through Prophecy Productions) is now one of my most anticipated albums of the year. Stream here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Times of Grace – “Medusa”
After vocalist Jesse Leach returned to the Killswitch Engage fold in 2012, it seemed unlikely that fans would get another taste of his metal side-project with Killswitch guitarist and producer extraordinaire Adam ‘D’ Dutkiewicz. And yet, a full decade on from their album debut, Times of Grace are back once again with their follow-up LP, Songs Of Loss And Separation (out July 16th via Wicked Good/ADA Worldwide). Watch the landscape porn video for “Medusa” below:
Angel Du$t – Bigger House
Coming in hot at the end of last week, Baltimore’s Angel Du$t surprise dropped their new EP, Bigger House. Functioning as an expanded addition to 2020’s Lil House, this release features two new tracks and two remixes for the band’s previous single, “Never Ending Game.” Vocalist-guitarist Justice Tripp describes the new tracks as “pimp and chill,” which is pretty much the only endorsement anyone needs. Stream the EP here.
Listen to all these tracks and more on the TPD 2021 VIBING playlist, updated weekly.
HEAVY METTLE:
A closer, more in-depth look at a new record that ticks all my boxes.
Wristmeetrazor – Replica of a Strange Love
My affinity for metalcore started a good fifteen years ago—almost half my entire lifetime. The year was 2004 and I was a country boy in the big city listening to Taking Back Sunday and Brand New and Alexisonfire and getting called “emo” by water polo players (yep, The O.C. truly nailed that part) while also lacking the cultural understanding of what ‘emo’ was and how that slight even functioned.
Around this time, a more musically adventurous friend of mine mentioned that he had some “heavier stuff” that I might be into. Naturally curious, I obliged him and began diving into burnt copies of Bleeding Through, Killswitch Engage, and early Parkway Drive. By the time I attended my first basement show a year later with Every Time I Die at a now-defunct venue, I was well and truly hooked.
It would be easy to denigrate Virginia’s Wristmeetrazor as merely a throwback band, rehashing a done-to-death sound for the cheap nostalgia kick. Listening to their sophomore effort, Replica of a Strange Love, one finds all the hallmarks of mid-2000s Ferret/Trustkill Records metalcore: bludgeoning breakdowns, guttural vocals, staccato chug sections, overly dramatic spoken word breaks, melo-death inflected lead riffs, throat-shredding screams, and dissonant panic chords.
But the difference is in the delivery. Wristmeetrazor channel the spirit and energy of the era without merely copying stylistic elements. It’s more feeling than facsimile, with genuinely exciting moments of earth-shattering heaviness (“A Fractured Dovetail Romance”) sequenced between soaring cleans (“This Summer’s Sorrow II”), gigantic reverse snare hits (“Our Distress Entwined”) and new-wave/industrial instrumental palette cleansers (“99 & 44/100”). It’s a vicious love letter to a subgenre with the salutation marked ‘Sincerely Yours.’