Category: First Listens

First impressions do count. Here are ours.

avatar

Vildhjarta — Måsstaden Under Vatten

✦✦✦✧ Vildhjarta prefers their djent jarring and jazzy (djarring and djazzy). Good god, this album is heavy. But the heaviness hides some inner subtlety and beauty, in the staccato spaces between the palm mutes and quarter-note crashes. Vilhelm Bladin’s Swedish screaming are paradoxically an essential part of the listening experience, adding a layer of focus and attention to the music that can often sound chaotic at best; familiarity with the Swedish language is not required.

See the rest here

avatar

Carcass — Torn Arteries

✦✦✧✧ Torn Arteries is fun enough, and yet it feels like a slight step downward from the more entertaining 2020 EP Despicable. All the elements you’d hope for are here: the dual vocals of Bill Steer and Jeff Walker, the deft guitars and rumbling bass, the clever riff salad. But there’s a laidbackness to the whole album, a simmer that never quite progresses to a full boil.

See the rest here

avatar

Twelve Foot Ninja — Vengeance

✦✦✧✧ This is an ambitious yet ultimately upsetting album. I generally admire bands who make a practice of blending disparate styles together, although in retrospect the unspoken aim is usually for some kind of cohesion. Here, it feels more like self-indulgent whiplash for abuse’s sake, like a meaner Mr. Bungle. The music defies the listener to settle into any particular mood.

See the rest here

avatar

Limp Bizkit — Still Sucks

✦✧✧✧ What we once loved so much about Bizkit, back at the height of their powers, was how deftly they fused metal and rap, with equal deft contributions from all members of the band. This, the Jacksonville quintet’s sixth studio album, is something else: a hip-hop-centric collection of songs from all over the musical map, except there’s virtually no metal here at all.

See the rest here

avatar

Korpiklaani — Jylhä

✦✦✧✧ Finnish folk beerhall music at its finest, which touches of extreme and power metal. The lack of any English lyrics may be a drawback, but I’ve enjoyed plenty of American metal that was equally as indecipherable. Why this album is an hour long is beyond me, though.

See the rest here

avatar

Between The Buried And Me — Colors II

✦✦✦✧ If you’ve never listened to BTBAM before, start with Alaska or Parallax II, but work your way back here.

If you’re already a BTBAManiac, here’s the deal: this is pure fan-service, and you’re going to eat it up. It’s as much a remake as it is a sequel. Fear not: you’re going to love all the many callbacks to Colors I, as well the novel forays into straight-up jazz, flamenco, and… hard rock?

See the rest here

avatar

Tomahawk — Tonic Immobility

✦✦✦✧ Is this even metal? No, it is not (which is a surprise, given that the group now consists of people from FNM, The Jesus Lizard, Mr Bungle, and Helmet/Battles). But it is imminently listenable, endlessly innovative, and just lots of fun. Mybe I’m just a sucker for Duane Denison’s inimitable guitar stylings propping up Mike Patton’s vocal madness.

See the rest here