Crawl : " Altar of Disgust"

 Sweden is fixated on worshipping Entombed. Crawl are high priests at this altar. They infuse it with a modern sense of brutality that makes it perhaps even more raw and pounding than Entombed. Sometimes they are too relentlessly hammering for their own good with the second song, as a good example of these excesses. They somewhat redeem themselves with the head-banging "Knieves' which manages to find a marginal balance of extremes. There is certainly a more deliberate riff that challenges the rule which states "cool riffs alone does not a good song make". Feedback squeals, and makes it clear that while their previous albums had more of a crust punk influence, this time around they are more driven by grindcore. 

The more deliberate stomp to " Ethereal Depths" is more effective and makes it the album's best song so far. The vocals are just as guttural as what we have already heard on this album, but they have more purpose here. They experiment and find themselves in a more Neurosis-like place on "Where No Light Escapes" These are the kinds of sounds I think might have worked well incorporated into their other songs. Instead, they hammer at you with more of a grindcore intensity. "Visions of Burning Apparitions" has dense guitars but their crunch is still something that makes it evident they were writing a song. This is not as true for "Until They Crawl". A large part of this is because the vocals are buried. 

There are some moments where they embrace a little more of a black metal feel and this hits like Nails jamming with Goatwhore.  I had to listen to the last time a second time before I realized it was not just an angry passage to the previous song. Thus hinting many of these songs sound the same when just driven by their brutal nature. I will give this album an 8, as there are strong songs, and this is one of the heavier albums you are going to hear so far this year. Was released on Transcending Obscurity Records. 

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Strung Out : "Dead Rebellion"

 I understand that once punks learn to play their instruments they become metal bands. Even with this understanding, there was a jarring change in Strung Out over the years I was unprepared.  It had been some time since I listened to them so I had to go back and give their 19994 debut "Another Day in Paradise " a spin to refresh my memory. I am not crazy they were more of a Bad Religion-like take on pop-punk It's a bigger production for sure. Jason Cruz has improved as a singer, and there is less owed to Bad Religion. The opening track almost feels like Poppa Roach. Much like earlier AFI some moments feel like they are influenced by LA Guns. This band is from Los Angeles so that is not surprising. I some ways this is only the logical sound I should have expected from punk coming from the City of Angels in this day and age. 

"New Gods" makes more sense and sound a little more punk. Lyrically it seems like he is just quoting cliches. "White Owls" works better, and one weird thing is the album has a different sound after the first two songs, which is more raw and live sounding and works better for what they do. Cruz's vocals also get more melodic and dynamically nuanced as things progressed. He has always been one of the better punk singers. Not all of these moments are as inspired as "Cages" feels more like filler trying to find its place in 2024. "Empire Down' sounds like Duran Duran making pop punk. 

"Resistance" works well for what they do as it feels like who they are now meeting their earlier punk work. There is a little bit of that 80s hair rock feel in a few places. I don't mind their more melodic side in fact it is more interesting than if this was just a one, two, three, go... punk album. Most of this album's success of mistakes lies in how the two are integrated. The drummer to 'Ceremony" feels off in this regard. "Vanessa's Song" works really well at finding the best balance of sounds. "Dystopian Party Bus" marries punk with a more 80s radio rock feel. "Plastic Skeletons" ends the album with a little more middle-of-the-road rock feel. I will give this album an 8.5, it is better than most bands from the 90s  are doing,  for as long as they have been at it things were bound to change and they just became the kind of rockers their surroundings turned them into.The most punk part of it might be that Fat Wrek Chords is releasing it.  

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Dool : "The Shape Of Fluidity"

I like the two previous albums, but it raises the bar high for them. The way the vocals are produced reminds me a little more of Ghost and I can hear how they are closer to conforming to a more mainstream brand of rock as the opening song places them closer to the Pretty Reckless and Halestorm. While they do not have the more retro stoner rock sound, which is more aggressive and darker, I will just have to keep listening and see how this pans out for the album as a whole. The second song has a more sinewy prog feel. None of it comes within striking distance of doom, but it is well done. 

The first song that grabs me is the title track which has a darker slither to its winding groove. This is a more refined and accessible effort. The production is really crips and all the sounds are dialed in 110 percent. There is also a cool jammed-out section to the title track that features so great guitar work. It reminds me of the last Royal Thunder album. The androgynous alto of their lead singer sits at the forefront of most mixes. "Evil in You" is dark but more rock than metal. Even when the pace picks up. I appreciate the mood being invoked here despite the melodies not having the same hooks as the previous albums. 

"House of a Thousand Dreams" is dark enough, and finds vocals intersecting interestingly, but the slow burn allows it to drone a bit. "Hermagorgon" has a more ominous tone. It might be the closest they have come to doom so far. However, the aggression that comes with metal is dialed back which does not allow the heavier dynamics to hit as hard. "Hymn For A  Memory Lost" works for what they are going for here, which is really all you can ask for. 

I like the reverbed-out guitar tone used in the last song. The song meanders in the shadows.  However, a guitar tone is not enough to build a song around. While this album sounds great the fact that it does not pack the same kind of metallic punch hinders some of the dynamics that needed to go up to 11. I will give this album an 8, in some ways it was a bit of a letdown after the first two albums, but I can appreciate not just cooking into the same formula again. 

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CUTTERRED FLESH : "Love At First Bite"

On the more extreme end of death metal, this band from the Czech Republic are thankfully just not settling for being brutal. The opening track carries a little more hook in the guitars in its first half with the second half of the song finding them more content with pouring on the speed. Where most death metal has a fixation on horror these guys seem to be into the bleak realities of space. Their grim vision of science fiction is translated sonically to get the story across. With "Repeated Intersexual Misunderstanding" the atmosphere helps give the song the room it needs to breathe while allowing an angular dissonance to pervade the efforts at groove. It is technical without being just about the math of it. 

This is their sixth album so they clearly know what they are doing. They attack your ears with renewed feral zeal for "Code of Zuurith" though this is where the album begins to get mired down in a blur of riffing that does not clear up until "Descent into Torment of Abyssal Whispers". The guitars give the vocals room to create a more purposeful narrative. Up until this point like most music of this kind, the vocals are more of an afterthought.  The riffing is also more memorable on this song making it one of the album's best moments. The production of the guitar tones becomes more noticeably conforming to the current trend of modern metal to have a very processed machine-like feel.  "Sarkam's Wrath Unleashed' also displays this more nuanced take on their songwriting. 

When they pour on the speed at the beginning for "Amanda" the results are not as impressive. The base does come forward more when things slow into what might be the chorus. "the Last Supper" is more deliberate. It starts off with a powerful syncopated chug. They contract this into a taunt palm-muted riff before stepping on the gas. They maintain this frantic hyper-speed for "Spawn of Vathus". There are some crunchier parts within this, but mostly dependent on speed. They have their moments on this album a sense of their identity in a genre that could have easily turned them into a faceless blasting machine. I will round this down to an 8, as the overall sound is uniform, but they are skilled at grinding it into your ears. This is being released May 24th on Transending Obscurity. 

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St Vincent : "All Born Screaming"

You never know what to expect from here. The single "Broken Man" made sense as it was angular and quirky much like a great deal of her previous work. Then the next thing I saw was a clip of her playing around with a Moog, Yet the album opens in a manner that makes you think she is going in a more Tori Amons-like direction until midway into the second song when she breaks from the minimalist emoting for an almost industrial beat. Clark who produced this album herself calls it post-plague pop. That makes more sense than not. \

 There is a more electronic vibe that bleeds into the hushed groove of "Flea". This album is odd but well-produced. It is hard to tell if it is all synth or if guitar is present in the mix. There is more of a Bjork-like groove to "Big Time Nothing'. It almost feels like Bowie's "Fame" in some respects. But if you are getting compared to Bowie and Bjork, you are obviously doing something right. 'Violent Times' sounds like it should be a James Bond theme. You can not deny the fact that over the years she has matured into quite the singer. 

"The Powers Out" finds her crooning through a Kate Bush-influenced ballad that carries all the atmosphere and melodrama that comes with such a comparison.  "Sweetest Fruit" is like some kind of weird 90s indie pop, which must be what she is talking about when she calls this post-plague pop. The Dvinyls come to mind in this regard, but there are also lots of Talking Heads vibes. She was obviously smoking lots of pot when she wrote the reggae-influenced "So Many Planets". There is a similar 70s New York New Wave feel to the title track that closes the album. Not her hookiest album, but it does have something to say and covers a great deal of stylistic ground while staying true to a theme. I will give this album a 9.5, and see how it grows on me. 

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SETH : "La France des Maudits"

 

This band is not what comes to mind when I typically think of French Black Metal, which tends to be left of center from the more traditional storm of fury that marks Scandinavian Black metal. The first four bands that come to mind when I think of French Black Metal are Deathspell Omega, Blut Aus Nord, Alcest, and Peste Noire, granted four of my favorites. They all have their own odd touch. Why is this an issue you ask? Well it's not, but it does mean that I am going to this album listening for what these guys do to set themselves apart, so scowled vocals and blast beats are not going to do it. 

The market is plenty saturated with black metal at this point so we have to have standards. In this case regional standards. It is a well-produced album with a big guitar sound. They are also not just trying to blast their way through the songs. By the third song, it is beginning to all run together for me as they continue to sound like they are from Sweden. By the fourth song things begin to take a somewhat darker turn, the question then becomes can they use the restraint to maintain this? "Marianne" is an instrumental interlude and while I appreciate the melodic nature I think it is something that would have been better intermingled in their other songs to give them more depth. 

It was not until "Insurrection" that I checked back into the album and paid attention, but what I heard was just another band getting caught up in a storm of blast beats. The last song is a cohesive continuation of what they have been doing for the entirety of the album, so depending on how impressed you are with that will determine how you feel about this song. These guys excel at the execution and decent arrangements, but in terms of bringing something new to the table, this church has already been burnt I will give this album a 7.It drops July 14th on Season of Mist  

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Ten Artists Who Should Play Sick New World in 2025

The week has barely passed and fans are making their wish lists regarding who they think should play next year's Sick New World Fest. The main problem with these lists is that they are either acts who have already played or just boring radio rock fodder that plays  Welcome to Rockville or Rockahoma and would turn Sick New World into just another rock fest, by diluting the theme that made the first year so appealing a marriage of traditional goth acts, nu-metal and darker metal / industrial bands.  So the list complied here leans more in the direction of the first year. These are not bands who have played the previous fests but Fresh Blood fitting for 2025...that is if the world does not end before next May. 

10-Astari Nite 

This Miami-based death rock band is great live and has a good middle-of-the-road vibe for the fest 

9-Godflesh

Perhaps less popular in the States, this crushing project from England influenced most of the industrial and metal bands you're listening to today. 

8-Sleepy Time Gorilla Museum

The reunited cult of prog-rock weirdos brings a Victorian steampunk wonderment to their sonically angular anti-rock attack.

   

7-Chelsea Wolfe

 Wolfe has toured with Ministry before, and her hypnotic songs are heavy in their own way. Live her sludged-out shoegazing is powerful.

   

6-Final Gasp 

This punk band from Boston casts plenty of shadows with their sound while still being aggressive enough to fit in no matter what act they have to follow. 

5-Mindless Self Indulgence

Jimmy Urine and Friends might have been out of action for a minute but would be the perfect blend of nu-metal swagger and dark wave angst.

 

 

4-Grave Pleasures 

This band from Finland used to be Beastmilk, their brooding brand of post-punk is anthemic enough to win over festival audiences 

 

3-My Dying Bride 

There is no bringing back Peter Steele, so these guys are the next best replacement for Type O Negative with their brand of gothy doom.

   

2-the Misfits 

They have already been booked on festivals since reuniting, the only real hurdle would be seeing how this is System of a Down's fest, so would Danzig and the boys be ok with not headlining? Aside from that they would be perfect

  . 

1-Marilyn Manson 

Already booking shows after emerging from his legal troubles, this only makes sense.

 

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