The kitchen table is the place in my home where I have spent a lot of time lately. Shortly after I finished my last column I didn’t feel too well. That quickly changed to feeling very ill as I ran high fevers. A couple of tests later and I knew I had COVID. Well, I had managed to escape that fate for a long time, so I figured it would come sooner or later. After a couple of days I started feeling a bit better, but I am left with a couple of complaints. My main issue now is a lack of energy. I can do more by now than I could a few weeks ago, but I still cannot manage to work a full day. Which is really frustrating.
So why the kitchen table, you might ask? That is an easy question. I work from home at the moment. After working a couple of hours I go and sit at my kitchen table to rest a bit and regain some energy. I am not only blankly staring into space (or at the wall), I put on some quality music (opinions are divided on that statement though). So let’s dive into what I discovered while regaining my energy and getting myself ready for a couple more hours! I should warn you that with an attention span of a goldfish, the gems I found the last couple of weeks are all over the place.
Grind again?
After my last column you might think: “oh no, not again!”, but yes, here we are again. I’ll keep it very short this time around (short like a proper grindcore record). We are back with good reason though, because by now not only is Cloud Rat’s newest record Threshold released, but I have had the time to listen to it. And let me tell you: this band cannot disappoint. As long as they stick to grindcore that is, because their experimental album left me flabbergasted. Threshold did too, but in a good way -- I should say: in an excellent way. Cloud Rat have crafted a niche for themselves within the grindcore world. It is instantly recognizable, which is a real feat! I am not sure yet if this album will beat Wormrot as best grindcore record of 2022, but luckily for me I still have some time to let both albums sink in.
Let's travel from metalcore to screamo, shall we?
I said a couple words of praise for Crossed in one of our earlier conversations at this table. You can imagine I was happy with more music fromthem. This time they deliver a split record called Pena. The band they share this EP with is Vibora. This is not just an ordinary split. After touring together both bands wrote the skeleton for two songs. Each shared one of these with the other to be completed as they wanted. I really dig this approach! Although I have to add: I have not yet figured out which band wrote which tune. If this tells you these two bands operate in the same subgenre, you are absolutely right. I called Crossed album Morir a hand grenade in sound form and that also holds true for this split where Vibora adds to the sonic violence by their own twist on the genre. Starting from metalcore and incorporating other influences such as crust and grind. Discovering Vibora’s discography is high on my to do list because of the two songs on this split.
After that short burst of intense violence it is time to move to another sonic landscape. A landscape with its own kind of intensity: the screamo side of post-hardcore. In this desolate and angsty environment we meet janpalach. Considering this band is from Ukraine and all the shit that is going on there, the name of this band has gained a lot of meaning, I would say. Having said that, I am very much impressed with their first full length, Celestials, and how amazing it sounds. The production is really top notch and allows the music to shine. The album deals with a heavy subject: emotional states, mental traumas and how to overcome them. This is very much reflected in the music which is every bit as intense as you would expect with these subjects. There is no quiet introspection, janpalach sounds as if they are ready to face their inner demons. The interaction between the two vocalists makes it sound like a dialogue at times, which adds an extra dimension to the sound. Highly recommended!
That is kind of proggy, isn’t it?
What is kind of strange is that I found a couple of records, all very different, but all with proggy tendencies. I call this kind of strange as this is usually the kind of music that requires a bit longer attention span than I can muster at the moment. And yet these albums left a big impression. The first of these albums is Disillusion with their new album Ayam. In previous encounters I brushed them aside quickly. It seems I will have to go back and revisit their earlier albums again, as Ayam is really a ride. The easiest description would be to say this album lands close to the best Opeth albums. That would not be very fair to them as they have a sound of their own. The mix of more proggy passages and more death metal oriented passages does make me think of Opeth, but it is also just as wrong as saying Judas Priest and Iron Maiden sound alike. Yes, they use the same tools, but they utilize them differently. This release also reminds me of An Abstract Illusion or Kardashev, two albums my colleague Piro seems to enjoy a lot. It resembles those releases in that it plays into emotions big time.
Another proggy release is the new EP from Creatvre (or Creature, at least that’s what this band was called previously) called Chimerapolis. This weird French band is the kind of band that firmly says NO to genre boundaries. They just utilize whatever they feel a song needs. If you dig deep enough you’ll find a foundation of black metal with some death metal added for fun. But that is only what this seems to be built on. There is also classical music (I have heard baroque music as a description, but I do not know enough about classical music to be able to tell you if this is correct), but rap/hip hop (Électrisé is a prime example of this) is also a territory that Creatvre is not afraid to explore. On this EP I feel Creatvre is playing around with ideas more than on his previous albums. This also means the EP has less focus than those albums. At times it is a bit too much all over the place. Still, I can only admire and appreciate the exploratory nature of this type of music.
Another band that is not afraid to explore everything music has to offer is Cyborg Octopus. Once upon a time I was urged to listen to their previous album (thanks Piro!) and was blown away by it. I was so happy to see new material from this band. I am not sure Between the Light and Air should be considered a full-length album or an EP, but I don’t really care to be honest. This is about half an hour of musical madness and weirdness. The starting point for this band can be found in the proggy metalcore corner of our universe. Like Creatvre this is only the starting point. Horns, spaghetti western music, whatever works for this band, they use it. In doing so coming up with combinations I would say shouldn’t work, but it does, so I stand corrected. The most amazing thing about both bands is that they blend all these influences together and never lose focus of the song. I would expect the biggest traps these bands face, but both avoid it perfectly!
Isn’t it the season for being doomy and gloomy?
Doom metal and I have a complicated relationship. At times I absolutely crave it, at other times I find it boring beyond belief. Yet, each year I try to find albums to my liking. One that got my attention is Atlas from Besvärjelsen. This band caught my attention because of the singer. She has that certain sound that I always fall for. A sort of cleanish voice with a little rough edge to it and loads of character. Jex Thoth is a prime example of such a voice. Besvärjelsen operates in a different part of the doom arena than Jex Thoth though. On Atlas you’ll find a band that is strongest when they operate close to the more traditional doom template, but funny enough are most interesting when they experiment with more psychedelic influences. This leads to an album that offers a very entertaining listening experience. It also means that I have high hopes for future albums. I hear so much potential the band hasn’t fully tapped into yet.
A band that has successfully tapped into the psychedelic doomy realms is Moura. On Axexan Espreitan the band blends a lot of Galician folk, some krautrock and progrock into the mix to create an album that is enchanting and mesmerizing both. It is a sound I can not say I have heard before, but considering my knowledge of this specific genre that doesn’t have to mean that much. Where I introduced the band with the term doomy this has to be taken with a grain of salt. This is more of a doomy Pink Floyd and less of a psychedelic Black Sabbath. This is the kind of album that you need to spend a lot of time with to really unravel all mysteries it holds. And although I have given it a lot of time I am by no means finished with this album. I find something new and interesting every time I put it on. That is quite an achievement.
Do you also listen to punk?
Yes, yes I do listen to punk! Although I will admit that in the (recent) past I labeled the first album I want to talk about as fun black metal. Ok, I added there was also a horrorpunk vibe going on. I am talking about Polterwytch here. They recently released a split with Medwegya. I had plans to review this around halloween, but the aforementioned COVID prevented me from doing so. Let me try and make that up by talking about this split here.
I was very curious where this fun and messy band would head on this release and what the band they chose to release this split with would sound like. I mean: split records are an excellent format for getting to know new bands, right? Let’s first look at what Polterwytch has to offer this time around. They offer us six new tracks, but that includes the intro and outro, so I would say four new tracks. Anyway, Polterwytch developed their sound a bit on these four tracks. It still sounds messy and very much under-produced, but that still has its charm. Apart from “Raw Psychedelick Nekromansy” it appears to me the band has slowed down a wee bit. Just enough to make me wonder if they tried to write a bit more complex music, less horrorpunky if you catch my drift. I don’t want them to do that. The aforementioned track is exactly what I want from this band.
After that there are nine tracks by Medwegya. Before I talk about these tracks a bit more, let me add that I explored the wonderful world of dungeon synth and horror synth a bit and I found out I am extremely picky in this genre. I have not found much that I enjoyed. Having said that: listening to all Medwegyas tracks proved to be a frustrating experience for me. I do not enjoy it, it usually annoys me even. Too much synth, the vocals are an acquired taste (or, in other words: terrible) and where I experience the messy production of Polterwytch as fun, here I find it lazy and off-putting. The tracks sound more like ideas that still need a lot of work and not like a finished song. This might also explain the incredible amount of releases on this band's bandcamp. I guess it is relatively easy to just record an idea instead of editing it and play around with it to write a complete song. Lets just conclude this is definitely not my cup of tea and leave this band to those who do enjoy it.
Enough bitching about music I don’t like, I prefer to focus on the positive side of things. In this case, music I like. And Pöls delivers just that. This Spanish band recently released their second album Instinto. Imagine Rata Negra or Accidente but with a second singer with using hardcore voice that sometimes joins in on the fun. In other words, this band has a poppy sense of songwriting that works extremely well in punk as it is extremely addictive. This has huge hooks that make you want to sing along. If you do not master the Spanish language this can prove difficult; I speak from experience. I think those who do master the language would not recognize my singing as something sung in Spanish, but I do not let that hold me back. As with Rata Negra and Accidente this band is fronted by a very good singer. She has a keen sense for melody and knows how to pick her vocal lines. I was surprised the first time the hardcore vocals kicked in, but grew used to it very quickly as they fit like a glove in the more aggressive parts.
I think I will leave it at that for now. There are so many more releases I would like to discuss with you, but there is only so much time in a day. As you leave I will start to think about my yearlist. There is a lot of music that needs to be sorted to get to a list that displays what I enjoyed last year. See you next time!
