What I Want in 2020

This public service announcement is becoming a tradition. It bears repeating .  I listen to hundreds of albums of the course of a month. Not all get reviewed. I do all the reviews personally for this site, it's a huge investment of time. In order to not waste my 2020 it is pointless for me to listen to a death metal band that just sounds like every other death metal band.  I  have to work smart not hard and make use of the limited time I have to invest in this blog wisely.This s brings us to you dear band, p/r firm, or record label. Here is what I want from you in 2020..it's not vastly different from what I wanted last year, but a few tweaks have been made.

 I want black metal... but not just a blast fest or something that sounds like a Darkthrone album I heard ten years ago. I prefer you to be depressive, this trend of ripping off Dissection, is no longer going to fly now that I already have Watain and Tribulation under my belt. Don't sound like you were recorded in your grand ma's basement, but don't sound like Nightwish either.Some of my favorite black metal bands are Shining, Tombs, Urfaust, Totalselfhatred, Lifelover, Mayhem, Burzum & Watain if you need a point of reference in the sonic neighborhood.


 I want doom... I want the darkness and sonic depth of funereal doom without every song being dragged out over ten minutes. No excessive Sabbath worship, more doom than retro rock. Here is a rule for death doom since that applies to the current trend. If you are death doom, you need to do more than just play slow death metal, I need melancholy from you. My favorite doom bands are Pallbearer, Mournful Congregation, Evoken, Loss, Solitude Aeturnus, Ahab, Esoteric...don't rip these guys off, but you know the sonic zip code I am moving in.

 I want death metal...deep dark and atmospheric, yet not a total Incantation or Morbid Angel rip off, nothing derivative of Cannibal Corpse. See the above rules about death doom as well.My favorite death metal bands are ...Necros Christos, Obituary, Deicide, Morbid Angel, Goatwhore..stuff in those realms works.

 I want thrash...once again dark, think Voivod, Dark Angel and Testament, but don't be a carbon copy of those bands, melody and catchy riffs at must.

 I want punk and hardcore...don't preach, be able to play your instruments and write a song, if you don't know how to do this refer to the Misfits or Minor Threat. Dark is good just ask old Iceage. Fast won't make you better, loud might. My favorite punks bands aside from the ones mentioned here are ...New Model Army, TSOL, The Stooges, the Dead Boys, Black Flag, Poison Idea, Discharge...you get the picture

 I am not opposed to power-metal and folk metal...don't get too happy or sound like Helloween. Be dark and angry, think Kamelot or Tyr. Give me something that makes me want to play D&D without cheesing me out. No LARPing.


 I want death rock...but sonically intense, sleazy, drugged out, surreal, be able to sing and not just a punk band playing dress up. I want industrial...do drugs and make me believe it, this world is about to end I need you to set the mood, bring guitars. have your drums crush me... favorite death rock bands include Christian Death, Alaric, Atriarch, Cemetery, 45 Grave, Specimen, Alien Sex Fiend


 I want indie rock...be dark be melodic, be angular, use cool guitar tones don't just jangle, have some balls, experiment, shoe gaze is fine , just write songs don't drone.Some of my favorite indie rock bands include, Pinback, Minus the Bear, the Smiths, the Dears , the Twilight Sad, Glasvegas

 I want sludge...don't just sound like Neurosis, check out Bloodlet, dark as fuck is a must, atmosphere a plus, dynamics just as important other examples include Acid Bath, Fistula, Ilsa, Fister, Amen Ra


 I want goth...good beats and vocals are a must. Work old and new into something your own. Elegance is a must. Siouxsie rip offs no thanks. A dash of dark wave helps. goth covers a lot of ground so here are some of the places I go Cocteau Twins, Type O Negative, Bauhaus, Strvngers

 I want rock...here it can be tricky, some kind of shadow side or melancholy is a must, Black Foxxes did an excellent job of doing this a couple of years ago as did most of the grunge bands from the 90s. Have some balls, I don't expect you to be metal.

 I want prog rock...there is a hug gap left by Sleepy Time Gorilla Museum, at the same time I love 70s prog like Gabriel era Genesis and King Crimson, so dark not too happy or flowery, be able to shred when needed, but not just acrobatics, most important don't sound like Dream Theater.

I am also fine with other kinds of music Country, Pop, folk, hip hop...be dark be different. If you are Taylor Swift and an abosolute songwriting savant then the dark thing has wiggle room. But there is only one Tay Tay. ...other bands I am into are Amigo the Devil, the Dead South, Chrvches, King Dude, Ween, Modest Mouse, Death Cab For Cutie, Pale Waves, Rasputina, or go hunt down my Last Fm... Wilcifer


 IF YOU DON'T FOLLOW THESE RULES I WILL DELETE YOU IN 30 SECONDS. By all means be original, if you can break these rules but deliver whats in the bounds of my tastes in a way that will compete with the shit I normally listen to do it, I want new music. Obviously anything along the lines of The Smiths, David Bowie, the Cure , Kate Bush, the Cocteau Twins or Dead Can Dance works for me, it's the fine line between new and familiar

what I do not have any use for is , singles and splits, full albums only, mp3 zip files preferred. I need to have it in my iPod and listening to it for a bit to really fully digest it and just stream only limits my process. as always email it to wcifer@gmail.com