Weekly Roundup: May 15th
Weekly Roundup: May 15th
Featuring Flowermouth, Make Them Suffer, Resenter, and more.
MOSH PITHY:
A curated selection of cool shit for you to listen to.
Cloak – “The Holy Dark”
Gothic metallers Cloak hail from Atlanta, Georgia, but their sound is most definitely of the Scandinavian ‘true kvlt’ variety. You know the deal: tremolos, frosty drums, shrieking vocals, gauntlets, etc. The group’s third album, Black Flame Eternal, will be out on May 26th through Season of Mist, and here’s a little blurb to get you primed for it:
“In an era that is designed to beat down and weaken the individual, Black Flame Eternal is an album that represents strength, empowerment, and total opposition. With mounting pressure to engage in modern societal tribalism, Cloak invokes a spiritual rebellion that exists beyond good and evil.”
Watch the video for “The Holy Dark” below:
(Various Artists) – Balladeers, Redefined
Balladeers, Redefined is a compilation LP put together by the folks over at Secret Voice, the label owned and run by Jeremy Bolm of Touche Amore. The comp features 31 different artists of varying types of “screamo and scream-adjacent indie or hardcore,” including old staples like Jeromes Dream and Hundreds of AU to exciting newcomers like Soul Glo, Infant Island, and Gillian Carter. The full collection will be out on July 14th, and you can stream the compilation’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp).
Flowermouth – “Float”
Perth alt-rock outfit Flowermouth have come through with a catchy two-track single release. From what I can gather, this one serves as a while-you-wait “taste of more to come” as the quartet prep what will hopefully be their debut full-length album. Their latest single “Float” is paired up with a re-recorded version of 2018’s “Gown,” helping to bridge the old with the new. Listen to “Float” here.
Chamber – A Love To Kill For
While they’ve been dropping the occasional single release here and there for some time now, it’s been a few years since Chamber’s debut LP, 2020’s Cost of Sacrifice. Well, the wait is finally over, as the abrasive Nashville bruisers come through with their sophomore follow-up, A Love To Kill For, due for release on July 14th via Pure Noise Records. According to guitarist Gabe Manuel, the record is:
“About people getting lost or mired in bullshit, whether that’s addiction or narcissism or selfishness. There are all sorts of ways the people you love can fail you in search of themselves and ways people don’t come back from that.”
Stream the LP’s pre-release singles here (Spotify).
Spiritual Cramp – “Phone Lines Down”
I’ve been singing the praises of San Francisco punk rockers Spiritual Cramp for what feels like forever. But, look, the real question is this: Debut full-length when? I sadly do not have a satisfactory answer for you, dear reader. However, the band has come through a new, slick and catchy single that’s self-deprecating in all the ways that I enjoy, resting on a big, sassy guitar line and crunchy bass with lyrics about being sick of looking at your phone. Feels. So, for now, that’ll have to do. Listen to “Phone Lines Down” here.
Fotocrime – Accelerated
It’s been a few years since Coliseum disbanded. They were one of my favourite bands of the late 00s/early 2010s, and if you’re not immediately familiar, please go listen to their 2013 dark opus Sister Faith right now–it rules. Fotocrime is the current project of Coliseum frontman and producer Ryan Patterson alongside guitarist Nick Thieneman and bassist Will Allard. The group serve up danceable post-punk stacked with drum machines, glossy synths, and Patterson's now-iconic baritone. Their fourth LP and first for new label home, Artoffact Records, is called Accelerated, and it’s out on September 8th. Stream the LP’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Make Them Suffer – “Ghost of Me”
Perth heavyweights Make Them Suffer announced their signing to SharpTone Records and then dropped a brand new rager to celebrate. After some lineup shuffles last year, they dropped “Doomswitch” on us, and it feels like they’re coming back in full swing now, stronger and catchier than ever. Their latest single “Ghost of Me” continues that journey, blending their infectious metalcore template with mechanistic, industrial tendencies. There’s also some fantastic vocal interplay between frontman Sean Harmanis and keyboardist Alex Reade, which, in my humble opinion, continues to function as the band’s “secret sauce.” Check out the video for “Ghost of Me” below:
Resenter – I Thought This Was My Dream b/w Morningstar
Last year, I featured Melbourne alternative outfit Resenter in this very newsletter on the release of their debut EP, Psalms. After leaving an impression on me then, I’m pleased to include once again off the back of a recent signing to the good folks over at Last Ride Records. Their latest release is a shiny new two-track single featuring a pulsing rock number called “I Thought This Was My Dream” and a moodier, more patient and introspective cut called “Morningstar.” They’re both excellent and now I only wish I had more (again). Stream the two-track single here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Listen to all these tracks and more on the TPD 2023 CUTS playlist, updated weekly.
HEAVY METTLE:
A closer, more in-depth look at a new record that ticks all my boxes.
The Acacia Strain – Step Into The Light & Failure Will Follow
I’ve been a big fan of The Acacia Strain since the mid-2000s—literally since my adolescence, or roughly over half my life. So it’s a little wild to think that the group kicking around in 2023 is still the same band (at least functionally anyway, member shuffles aside) that was responsible for 3750. Yet despite a number of changes, the band has still managed to retain an essential quality of brutal, nihilistic heaviness.
Throughout the 2010s, they experimented with slower, doomier textures and various album concepts after their 2008 opus (and my personal favourite) Continent. Their latest double LP release, Step Into The Light and Failure Will Follow, manages to fuse these sonic tendencies together into pure misanthropy and existential acceptance. It makes for a collection of tunes that are sprawling and spiteful in equal measure in ways that are totally gripping from the jump.
Stream here: Spotify
ERRONEOUS BOTCH:
Joining The Pitch pod this week is Keldon Theodore, vocalist and resident mic-swinger for Brisbane/Meanjin hardcore outfit Half Man, as well as one of the prime movers and shakers over at Burning Hammer Records. We spoke about all things hardcore, the appeal of the DIY ethos, metal gateway records, and why making four different bands with your best mates is fun actually and not completely stressful. It’s a super fun chat and check it out below:
Additionally, outside of my freelance music industry shenanigans, I’ll be running two free online lectures this week (May 20-21) on 2018’s Annihilation as part of my independent scholarly work, discussing how Alex Garland’s film adaptation:
“speaks directly to humanity’s fears of the natural world through themes of bereavement, trauma and transformation, juxtaposing hallucinatory images of human-animal chimeras and killer flora with the alien motivations of a nonhuman otherness.”
The lectures are part of the event calendar for Romancing the Gothic: a collection of “free-to-access classes, workshops and book clubs on anything Gothic, Romantic, Horror or adjacent.” Come along! It’ll be fun—trust me.