✦✦✦✧ While The Police were falling apart in the mid 1980s, Stewart Copeland put increasing energy into scoring for film and television. One of his first products was a soundtrack for the TV show The Equalizer… an ultra digital, mood- and tone-heavy soundscape with elements at turns progressive, jazzy, and dark. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ I absolutely didn’t want to like this at all… but it’s fun! Dirty-ass riffs, dirty-ass vocals, massive dirty-ass bass… even the production makes a point of being filthy. If you’re not an uptight purist, have even a little respect for a punk sensibility, and don’t mind getting some mud on your clothes, this album may be just the treat you need right now. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Hey, this new Linkin Park is pretty rockin’! See the rest here
✦✧✧✧ Some people really get off on slam death metal: the lack of subtlety, the cookie monster vocals, all of it. Even within that niche subgenre, this is not a great example of the form. It’s definitely a step up for Pathology, and I can hear them trying to do new cool stuff. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ To be honest, this one’s kinda boring. (Just contrast this to the new Elder album, and you’ll see how much Russian Circles could have done with instrumental shoegaze.) See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ Djenty deathcore with a shiny (somewhat distractingly) digital gloss. Even more Vildhjarta-ish than Vildhjarta (which makes a kind of sense, seeing as HLB currently boasts two members of that other band). One thing’s for sure: this album is unformulaic, jarring (djarring), and above all else, dark. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ “Hey man, good to see you again! …Me? I don’t know… ‘How long I’ve been a Deadhead’? I dunno… But then, what is time anyway? I mean, it’s all just a construct, you know what I mean? A figment. Wow, man. Wow.” See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ See, this is how you spring from a retro sound and make it fresh and fun! This epic tech-inspired deathcore album evokes comparisons with Fleshgod Apocalypse or Anaal Nathrakh more dependably than Thy Art Is Murder or Whitechapel, and this is a good thing. Oddly, the tracks with guest appearances by Alissa White-Gluz and Angel Vivaldi don’t add much; fortunately, the rest of the material stands on its own. See the rest here
✦✧✧✧ Why is everyone trying to go industrial in 2019?! I mean, I get that cultural trends come back every 15-20 years, but why not bring back early Mastodon or Slipknot? Considering the greatness of the band’s previous album, the post-djent masterpiece “Mesmer,” this feels like a step backward when considering any criterion imaginable. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This doom album is a very mixed bag for me. On the one hand, if you’re looking for a recording of a band who are delivering jawdropping riffs, or you want to shake your fist triumphantly at the sky, this album is not for you in the slightest. On the other hand, I’m hardpressed to name another album this year that is as successfully moody, evocative, or noisome. See the rest here
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