MOSH PITHY:
A curated selection of cool shit for you to listen to.
Compromise – “Perihelion”
Well, folks, I can genuinely say that I never thought I’d be hearing new music from Compromise. Without going too deep into the back story, the melodic hardcore band are an oft-overshadowed piece in the dissolution of 7 Angels 7 Plagues and the rise of metalcore monolith Misery Signals (of which vocalist Jesse Zaraska is the original and current frontman). Yet, here we are, in the Year of Our Lord 2022, with a dead Queen (RIPiss) and the video for “Perihelion,” the band’s first new track in two decades. It’s a beautiful, hard-hitting reflection on grief and the will required to overcome adversity. Watch below:
Knifeplay – Animal Drowning
I can’t quite remember exactly how I came across Knifeplay, but I’m certainly glad that I did. While I may have missed their debut album, Pearlty, all the way back in the Before Time of 2019, their sophomore follow-up, Animal Drowning (out October 19th through Toipshelf Records), is quickly shaping up to be one of my most anticipated records of the year, with a towering lead single that successfully blends restrained indie folk with soul-crushing shoegaze momentum. Stream the LP’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Sumerlands – “Force of a Storm”
Philly rockers Sumerlands have dropped some more trad-metal heaters from their upcoming album, Dreamkiller, out September 16th through Relapse Records. “Force of a Storm” gets down and dirty by skating just under a three-minute runtime, packing in plenty of energy and gusto alongside guitarist and producer Arthur Rizk’s (Kreator, Power Trip, Show Me The Body) quicksilver riffage. In a statement, the group declared that the single “is about those times when you do whatever it takes to get the blood up.” Hell yeah. Two horns up. Listen to “Force of a Storm” here.
A Hope For Home – Years of Silicon
Post metallers A Hope For Home have roared back to life with the surprise release of Years of Silicon, their first LP in 11 years (!). I originally came across the band by downloading a copy of their last album, In Abstraction, from some poorly maintained, somewhat hidden Blogspot page of yore in the early 2010s; an antiquated form of alternative music discovery that frequently yielded exciting results, albeit with the increased risk of malware. According to guitarist/vocalist Matthew Ellis, a humble academic and all-round quality poster, the group’s new record is:
“A paradox of returning to where we left off when we were younger (in a scene we hated) now as older guys, as well as an attempt to really account for the decade in between that led up to how now feels: musically (maybe more melancholy, more ambient stuff) and conceptually (trying to account for the inescapable fact that everyone knows that the present order is collapsing, and wanting to get at how that is felt).”
Stream the LP in full here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
FJØRT – “Bonheur”
In an album review from 2016 (that’s also mysteriously fallen victim to what I suspect are archive migration issues and crossed font wires), I gushed about FJØRT, praising their “talent for delicate and lush instrumentals, with atmospheric guitars and huge, dynamic crests” alongside “fragile moments of emotional rhapsody … tempered with aggression.” Six years later, it’s rewarding to know that nothing has changed, and, if anything, the German trio may have gotten better with age. The group’s latest album, Nichts (“Nothing”), comes out November 11th via Grand Hotel van Cleef, and believe me when I say that lead single “Bonheur” is a transcendent melodic hardcore banger. Listen to it here.
Sparing – No Room Left to Grow
Following the release of their debut four-track EP, 2021's Old Dreams, Sparing frontman and songwriter Zach Godwin was feeling creatively stifled and listless. On his latest EP, No Room Left to Grow, Godwin dials in the pop-punk/post-hardcore sounds of the early ‘00s harder than ever before, drawing from a wellspring of influences that will sound intimately familiar to fans of acts like Thursday, The Movielife, and Senses Fail. Stream the EP’s pre-release singles here (Bandcamp/Spotify).
Wednesday – “Bull Believer”
I remember reading Kelly Liu’s Pitchfork review for Twin Plagues, the 2021 sophomore album from Asheville post-everything quintet Wednesday, and having the closing paragraph stop me dead in my tracks: “Twin Plagues can feel relentless, almost interminable. After all, this is a record haunted by its own becoming. [Karly] Hartzman’s vocals are often submerged underneath the noise completely, crushed by its weight.” As great as that record was, I think I only truly grasped what Liu meant upon hearing the group’s recent devastating single. I won’t spoil anything here; suffice to say, it’s a total doozie. Just listen to it, and you can thank me later. Watch the video for “Bull Believer” below:
Dream Unending – Song of Salvation
Only ten months out from the release of their debut album, the expansive and unceasing Tide Turns Eternal, Dream Unending are back with another slab of dense, lumbering, incredibly proggy “dream-doom” of the contemplative mindfuckery variety. Given that one half of the duo (Justin DeTore) also pulls double duty in heavy-hitter acts like Innumerable Forms and Sumerlands (see above), it’s clear that labelling this pair as prolific isn’t just an exercise in PR smoke and mirrors, either. Song of Salvation is out November 11th through the good folks over at 20 Buck Spin, and you can stream the LP’s pre-release single here (Bandcamp/Spotify).