Weekly Roundup: November 20th
Weekly Roundup: November 20th
Featuring Dear Seattle, Heriot, Better Lovers, and more.
MOSH PITHY:
A curated selection of cool shit for you to listen to.
Heriot – “Soul Chasm”
Congratulations to UK metallers Heriot, who have announced their signing to Century Media last week. As Mike Gitter, the label’s Vice President of A&R, said in a statement on their signing:
“Heriot are not merely a landmark band for this generation of UK metal but a benchmark for a new generation of heaviness. They meld the brutal with the cerebral in a way that’s uniquely theirs.”
The group’s first release for the label is their mammoth single “Soul Chasm”, which picks up where last year’s Profound Morality EP (released on Church Road Records) left off and continues the genre-bending industrial metalcore forged on previous single “Demure”. Watch the video for “Soul Chasm” below:
Glazed Eyes – Holding Out On a Dream
Pensacola outfit Glazed Eyes are putting out their debut LP, Holding Out On a Dream, on December 1st through the good folks over at Sunday Drive Records. The group mix late 90s alt-rock mixed with emo sing-alongs—think Jimmy Eat World meets The Goo Goo Dolls—which is perfect for solitary bedroom pining and/or long midnight road trips. Big hooks with even bigger dreams. Stream the LP’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Dear Seattle – “idc”
Sydneysiders Dear Seattle have dropped a new hook-laden slacker anthem, “idc,” out via Domestic La La. It’s got fuzzed-out guitar riffs, a dash of radio-rock nostalgia, and a gargantuan stadium chorus. The track was produced by long-time friend and producer Fletcher Matthews (Trophy Eyes, The Buoys, STUMPS); according to guitarist and vocalist Brae Fisher:
“‘idc’ started out as a joke. Our producer Fletcher and I had spent a whole week writing a new song every day, and I think we both went a bit loopy and needed to blow off some steam. I was actively trying to write the worst lyrics I could for the chorus, which is where the line ‘write a chorus rhyme, it with nirvana’ came from … and we were just laughing the whole session.”
Go listen to “idc” here.
Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes – Dark Rainbow
We’ve got another new single from rock troubadours Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes. “Brambles” is the second single from the duo’s forthcoming fifth studio album, Dark Rainbow, due on January 26th through International Death Cult. Speaking on the “melancholic bop”, Carter explains:
“Like our neural pathways become stronger and deeper with each unconscious action, the thorns of love hook deeper, and the brambles wrap tighter until we are barely recognisable and even our loved ones can no longer comfort us or lead us to safety for fear of being cut and torn themselves. An ode to the passion of love and a warning not to get lost in it when you go looking.”
Stream the LP’s pre-release singles here (Spotify).
Sacred Hearts – “Crocodile Tears”
Meanjin/Brisbane duo Sacred Hearts, the confessed femme-fronted, swampy post-punk outfit, have dropped a banging new cut and their first hint of new material this year. “Crocodile Tears” will be the opening track of their forthcoming 2024 EP, and it finds the group’s sonic evolution coming into a sound they can call their own. Or, as the duo put it on social media this week:
“It’s a fast-paced, electro-industrial dance track! Influenced by the club tracks of 90s industrial pop, we can’t wait to unveil this one to you.”
Listen to “Crocodile Tears” here.
Creature//conspire – False Face
This week, the new band on my radar comes in the form of Canadian post-hardcore outfit creature//conspire from Edmonton, Alberta. The quintet recently released their debut five-track False Face EP through InCloud Music. The band’s pedigree speaks for itself, with the group featuring Levi Zaraska (brother of Misery Signals frontman Jesse), who’s also a member of reunited hardcore crew Compromise, along with Byron Jay Ellis, who provides guest vocals on the epic closer “Difference of Vengeance and Wrongs” from Misery Signal’s first album, Of Malice and the Magnum Heart (also my favourite album of all time). If you enjoy the stylings of Hopesfall, The Bled, Alexisonfire, and Planes Mistaken for Stars, this is for you. Stream the EP in full here (Spotify).
Better Lovers – “Two Alive Amongst The Dead”
Nothing like a surprise standalone single drop from metalcore supergroup Better Lovers to brighten up the week. The band’s latest offering, “Two Alive Amongst The Dead,” was birthed on tour over the summer as the quintet have been smashing out opening slots across the US and UK with acts like The Ghost Inside and Underoath. As frontman Greg Puciato (Killed Be Killed/The Black Queen) explains:
“This song is about saying fuck you to the societal and institutional pressure to fall for ‘me versus you’/’us versus them’ divisional tactics and realizing that we’re stronger when we remember the ways we’re the same, trying to find commonalities instead of differences. Understanding and finding compassion for one another instead of allowing ourselves to be separated and controlled. Brothers and sisters. Pieces of the same consciousness.”
Watch the visualiser for “Two Alive Amongst The Dead” below:
Darkest Hour – Perpetual | Terminal
It’s been six years since we last heard from Washington, D.C. quintet Darkest Hour, but they're finally back and sounding better than ever. The band are following up 2017’s Godless Prophets & Migrant Flora LP with their upcoming tenth album, Perpetual | Terminal, out on February 23rd through MNRK Heavy. The record’s title track is the lead single and album opener, described by the band as “a whole Darkest Hour album in one song”:
“[It's] the perfect place to start as we present this new album to the world. Lyrically, it touches on all of the themes of the record — an album centred around the duality of survival and rebirth. Or, you could just say, some new music from old friends who just won't ever give up.”
Stream the LP’s pre-release singles 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.
Allwarm – Camellia
Sometimes, my list of new releases throws me a curveball, and this week was no exception, with a surprise find courtesy of Connecticut-based label Ephyra. The band is called Allwarm, and their seven-track EP Camellia, which dropped last week, is one of the most interesting sounds I’ve come across all year.
It’s chock full of scrappy punk rock that recalls 2010-era Title Fight, particularly the youth hall, pile-on pop punk of The Last Thing You Forget alongside the introspective post-hardcore leanings of Shed. The release is weird and fun and nostalgic all at the same. The EP also has a cover of Box Car Racer’s “Sorrow”, which totally rules.
Stream here: Bandcamp | Spotify
ERRONEOUS BOTCH:
Following a horrific road accident last year, Cali metalcore purveyors Silent Planet have opened up sonically and creatively on their astonishing fifth full-length, SUPERBLOOM: a sci-fi concept album about a teenager who happens upon an extra-terrestrial encounter and goes missing. It’s a dense record overflowing with heady ideas, and our chat with vocalist Garrett Russell on The Pitch pod covers spiritual awakenings, remote viewing, theoretical physics and perceptions of time, UFO sightings, and the artistic dialogue between reality and fiction. Check it out in full below: