Bully : "Losing"

I had already heard the first song off this album during my research for the top 50 songs of the year list Treblezine was doing. The second song is noisy and not as hooky as the first song, but over all they cruise along the kind of detached indie rock that bands like Sebadoh made popular in the 90s. More organic and less focused on the atmosphere created by bands like Sonic Youth. The guitar parts are more interesting and melodic than punk. On "Running" Alicia lets her voice go into more of a scream. This is contrasted by the sugary layers of backing vocals that harmonize under her , but there is enough of an edge to keep them from sounding like Haim. The songs are short and sweet with only two crossing the four minute mark.

More moods begin to crop up as the album progresses. "Seeing It " being bass driven , but more introspective than the first few songs. There is a looser boozy feel to "Guess There' which like many of these songs has some grunge around it's edges. "Blame" has that warm guitar sound that takes me back to 1995. Alicia's voice is what brings you back from the nostalgia and into this band's own identity. "Focused" ponders some of the drug mishaps and how they effect her mental state. This reflective tone makes "Not the Way" come across as to simplistic and straight forward.Even though there is a rough edge to "Spiral" it has a enough smarts to balance out. "Either Way" goes back to the more snotty raw punk tendency of the band.There is something awkward about "You Could Be Wrong" that doesn't really work itself out until the chorus.


 They go into the more indifferent grunge strum of "Hate and Control" to close out the the album. This seems an odd note for them to end on though it's not a bad song.It does end more powerfully than it starts. I will give this album a 9. There are no bad songs some of them just connect with me stronger than others. Having grown up during this era of indie rock most of this album is very familiar, I like how she injects some pop sensibilities into what she does and will keep my ears open for them. It makes sense that Sub-pop is releasing this Nashville band's new album as they sound more Seattle than Nashville.

Loss : "Horizonless"

So everything you liked about "Despond" is present, but the production is much fuller and shows they have gone the extra mile to expand their sound.

Haldol : "S/t"

O.k giving the revival another chance this time it's a band from Nashville, that understood there sound would work better in Philly. The guitar is kinda death rock and the drummer has a thing for the disco beat. It is the vocals that are stuck in punk. These guys have more ball them than your average punk crossover in death rock.So they more than likely have some back ground in hardcore. The creep factor increasing by a few degrees and the singer comes closer to singing on "Insomnia in Dream City". The bass tone is burly. It growls out from under the guitars. Then it proves to be two steps forward one step back on "Law of Indifference" which despite its very Black Sabbath bass line finds the band falling back into their old punk ways.

They always seem to have a ton of drive to them " Time is Not on Our Side" brings attention to this fact. The drummer sticks to toms and the band gets heavier sonically around them. The punk chorus is the disappointment here. The guitarist knows how to get noisy in a good way. They do not really  give the darkness that should come with this sort of thing it's due until they slow down for the closing song "Beyond the Pleasure Principle". There is not much to it. The song just throbs and pulses until a little over the half way mark when the drums speed things up and give the song more form. You can hear the influence of early Cure here.

There is some potential here. This album sounds good. With a little more melody these guys will be there. This album I am going to round up to a 7.5 as the sounds are dead on, it's the imatturity of defaulting back to punk that holds these songs back  that can mar the album. If you are a punk fan it might be an 8 for you.

3.

Catching up with 2014 - Alraune : "The Process of Self Immolation"

This album is a lot like Nux Vomica's new one in the sense, it takes several listens for me to gather my feelings towards it. These guys have wandered onto a few best of 2014 lists. They dropped this one back in June, and I do not remember hearing any buzz about it then, but here it is now. They do  not sound like they are from Tennessee, I'm am not going to say they sound like the next Darkthrone, but they are in more of the hipster New York or Cali sphere.

The ragged rough mix is as raw as you might want your black metal. The vocals are almost muffled behind the clanging and the snare sounds lost until they go into more of a thrash section. If not for the Deafheaven like clean break, to serve as a guidepost I might not have realized we were entering another song. They do jam on Simulacra"s lazy intro a while before gong into an even more furious blasting.There is a part at the four and a half mark that sounds like Converge. The vocals cry out in a somewhat cleaner tone. This Converge voice return for a more angular section at the six and a half minute mark.

Feedback bridges them over into "Kissed By the Red" . That Converge like anguish returns to the vocals right from the first few words he cries out.It's emotive in a manner that black metal is not known for. I am hesitant to really think of these guys as black metal , it's almost like if Converge decide to drone you with blast beats instead of dazzle you with angular jerking. The drummer is better than he lets on at first and gradual as the album unwind the flourishes have a craftier side than brute pounding.

The title track closes thing out. An 11 minute monster that is frothing at the mouth almost from the get go. The angular groove that haunt the song as a thematic element is teetering on something unsettling. The hardcore yells can not be denied on some movements. Still the lyrics are garbling beneath the guitar that dominates the mix for the entire album.The bass is a frequency some where but doesn't really come out of hiding. They default to blasting more often than not in the meat of the songs middle section.When they are not locked in a blast beat the guitars are attacking the song with a similar tension, letting the drum hammer the toms.

I seem to remember liking this album more the first listen, than I did sitting down do dissect it, then you see how many just droning blast parts there are , and the band leaves it up to the drummer to sort them all out. I like where these guys are going, fans of Ash Borer and Fell Voices take note. I;ll give it an 8, though I don't see this as something I have to have, but I feel they deserve the 8 as they are good at what they are doing .