Overkill Inc. never miss! That said, if I had to pick one album from my best-of that I really want you to check out, it’s the Night Verses.
The Armed is not only a grower, but it may not ever grab you. They are definitely marching to the beat of their own drum; sometimes it works for me, sometimes it doesn’t. See the rest here
Thanks for the list! As usually, I have heard very little of them. Enjoyed the Enslaved a lot, and have heard some of the In Flames (saw them open for Meshuggah last week, which was great—more on that in another email). I will try to listen to a few. I’ll tell ya what I did love is the new Overkill! See the rest here
Hey freinds,
Barring any last-minute writeins or surprises, this is my set of the finest new releases I heard in 2023. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ First off, I can’t in good conscience call this metal. That said, this is clearly one of the best metal albums of the year. The Armed are the closest group I can think of that truly treat the genre like it’s one equal color on their palette; they’re not metal-with-embellishments, and they’re not pop with high gain guitars. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Former Arsies winners The Armed return with yet another slab of performance art (noise) that is about as metal as The Mars Volta or Boris, which is to say: tangentially. Still, Ultrapop hits my ears as subjectively more interesting than its predecessor Only Love. Pitchfork loves this album, so there’s that. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Giving my beloved The Armed the benefit of the doubt, this is definitely some next-level noise art. However, the dearth of actual tunes here is notable, and a detriment to the album. I’ll listen to it again to see if it grabs me any more, but after my first listen, I’m not (yet?) See the rest here
★★★☆ On paper, there should be nothing remarkable about this album. It’s extreme noisecore, produced by Kurt Ballou, with no real standout performances throughout. But in a strange way, that chimaeralike quality is the album’s greatest strength; without the distraction of distinctions, the resulting impact is more pure and devastating. See the rest here
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