Monday, 7 January 2019

2018 End-Of-Year-List - Brandon Kellum (American Standards)


2019 may be underway and the holidays are by now a distant memory, so hears a 2018 EOY list from my good friends Brandon Kellum. Brandon is the vocalist of the chaotic hardcore/noise punk band American Standards from Phoenix, Arizona. He picks his favourite new albums released in 2018 below. If you’re a fan of chaotic, mathy and dissonant noise, these are bands you’ll want to keep on your radar.

TOP 25 FULL LENGTH LPs (in no particular order)

1. Greyhaven - Empty Black
Label: Equal Vision
Formats: Vinyl/CD/Digital
Release Date: 16 Mar 2018



2. Birds In Row - We Already Lost The World
Label: Deathwish inc
Formats: Vinyl/CD/Tape/Digital
Release Date: 13 Jul 2018




https://www.wearebirdsinrow.com/
https://www.facebook.com/birdsinrow/

3. Fucked Up - Dose Your Dreams
Labels: Merge Records
Formats: Vinyl/CD/Digital
Release Date: 05 Oct 2018





4. Limbs - Father's Son
Labels: UNFD
Formats: CD/Digital
Release Date: 27 Apr 2018





5. Vein - Errorzone
Labels: Closed Casket Activities
Formats: Vinyl/CD/Digital
Release Date: 22 Jun 2018



https://www.facebook.com/veinma/

6. Daughters - You Won’t Get What You Want
Labels: Ipecac Recordings
Formats: Vinyl/CD/Digital
Release Date: 26 Oct 2018




https://www.facebook.com/daughtersmusic/

7. Rolo Tomassi - Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It
Labels: Holy Roar Records
Formats: Vinyl/CD/Digital
Release Date: 02 Mar 2018





8. The Armed - Only Love
Labels: No Rest Until Ruin/Throatruiner Records
Formats: Vinyl/Digital
Release Date: 27 Apr 2018





9. Ken Mode - Loved
Labels: New Damage Records/Season Of Mist
Formats: Vinyl/CD/Digital
Release Date: 31 Aug 2018





10. Turnstile - Time And Space
Labels: Roadrunner Records
Formats: Vinyl/CD/Digital
Release Date: 24 Feb 2018





11. Black Matter Device - Modern Frenetics 
Labels: Self-Released
Formats: CD/Digital
Release Date: 06 Apr 2018





12. Palm Reader - Braille
Labels: Silent Cult Records
Formats: Vinyl/Digital
Release Date: 06 Apr 2018


https://silentcult.tmstor.es
https://www.facebook.com/wearepalmreader/

13. MouthBreather - Dollmeat
Labels: Self-Released
Formats: Digital
Release Date: 06 Jul 2018





14. Kaonashi - Why Did You Do It
Labels: Get This Right Records/Self-Released
Formats: CD/Digital
Release Date: 23 Nov 2018





15. Coilguns - Millennials
Labels: Hummus Records
Formats: Vinyl/CD/Digital
Release Date: 23 Mar 2018





16. 156/Silence - Undercover Scumbag
Labels: Innerstrength Records
Formats: CD/Digital
Release Date: 14 Sep 2018





17. Cult Leader - A Patient Man
Labels: Daymare Recordings/Deathwish Inc
Formats: Vinyl/CD/Tape/Digital
Release Date: 09 Nov 2018





18. Cancer Bats - The Spark That Moves
Labels: Bat Skull Records/New Damage Records
Formats: Vinyl/CD/Digital
Release Date: 20 Apr 2018





19. Lower Automation - Shoebox Companion
Labels: Self-Released
Formats: CD/Digital
Release Date: 27 Jul 2018





20. Faus - Apestate
Labels: Blackhouse Records
Formats: Vinyl/CD/Digital
Release Date: 04 May 2018





21. Frontierer - Unloved
Labels: Self-Released
Formats: Vinyl/CD/Digital
Release: 27 Jul 2018





22. Snakehound - Imitation Crown
Labels: Self-Released
Formats: CD/Digital
Release Date: 01 Jun 2018





23. Zapruder - S/T
Labels: Apathia Records
Formats: Vinyl/CD/Digital
Release Date: 23 Nov 2018





24. NoiSays - Self Titled
Labels: Dark Trail Records/Self-Released
Formats: Vinyl/CD/Digital
Release Date: 17 Oct 2018





25. Old Wounds - Glow
Labels: Good Fight Music
Formats: Vinyl/CD/Digital
Release Date: 09 Nov 2018





5 Notable EPs/Splits

1. The Threats - Saboteur
Labels: Self-Released
Formats: Vinyl(Pre-Order)/Digital
Release Date: 12 Oct 2018





2. Converge - Beautiful Ruin
Labels: Deathwish Inc/Self-Released
Formats: Vinyl/Digital
Release Date: 29 Jun 2018





3. Fero Lux - Cheap Funeral For Me
Labels: Self-Released
Formats: Tape/Digital
Release Date: 01 Oct 2018





4. Arms/Seizures - Split
Labels: Dark Trial Records
Formats: Vinyl/Digital
Release Date: 02 May 2018





5. Pressure Cracks - S/T EP
Labels: War Against Records
Formats: Vinyl/Digital
Release Date: 25 May 2018





American Standards’ recent release “Weep” is available on iTunes, Bandcamp, and Spotify. The band will be premiering a new single titled “Phantom Limb” in January 2019 with a US tour to follow.

Thanks go to Brandon for taking the time to put this list together. I'll have another two lists up by the end of January. 

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Sunday, 6 January 2019

(The True) Veiled - In Blinding Presence


Labels: Into Endless Chaos Records
Formats: Vinyl/CD/Tape/Digital
Release Date: 07 Jan 2019

Tracklist:

1. Glaring Brume
2. Triunity
3. The Healing Atter
4. Steps
5. Saintly Aisles
6. Selfchasm
7. Bringer Of Lambency

2018 was dominated by two of extreme metal's most productive sub-genres, death metal and black metal. Focusing on black metal, there was mainstream album from Deafheaven, Marduk and Watain that garnered a lot of attention. Below that bands including Falls Of Rauros, Panopticon and UADA played to ever increasing crowds and both European and UK black metal grew with labels including Avantgarde Music (and sub-label Flowing Downwards), Blackwood Productions and Into Endless Chaos Records releasing lots of underground bands of varying strains. It's the latter, Into Endless Chaos Records that I'm focusing on here as they prepare for the release (tomorrow) of the debut full-length from Germany's (The True) Veiled. "In Blinding Presence" follows on from the mysterious entity's debut 7", which was released last year.

As with much of the black metal I’ve mentioned in my opening paragraph, Veiled being with a short ambient track called Glaring Brume, which is starkly haunting and cold. No sooner has it fallen silent when the noisy metallic ferocity of Triunity springs forth. Its pummelling percussion and driving riffs are set against an orchestral melody and tortured screams/shrieks. Veiled definitely writes and delivers some very rhythmic and (dare I say it) catchy black metal. The Healing Atter, while being shorter, is full of musicality. That and the production make it better too. It’s too easy for bands to settle into the whole noise, lo-fi bedroom project sound, which doesn’t happen here.

That being said, it’s by no means an easy-listening record and Steps is probably one of the blackest songs on “In Blinding Presence”. The vocals are seemingly delivered at random while the instrumentation is off-kilter and jarring, but it all fits together. The riffs at the beginning of Saintly Aisles remain throughout the song, sitting underneath the band’s wall of extremity and gives an alternative edge (if that doesn’t sound too pretentious) to what is already a chaotic beast. What’s also surprising is the amount of music that Veiled can fit in to the song, which is over in under four-and-a-half-minutes. I hear elements of some of the Black Twilight Circle band’s within it too. 

Selfchasm goes by without fuss and in the blink of an eye. It’s another angular demonic hymn that forces itself into the deepest parts of your brain and buries itself. It retains some of those catchy elements from earlier on in the album but its maddening edge of all too obvious. Bringing the album to a close is the lengthy, twisted Bringer Of Lambency, It’s progressive nature and use of repeated structures only reinforce how creative and scary Veiled is as a band. The music ends abruptly leading to an outro as haunting as Glaring Brume at the beginning, though the female singing here is kind of comforting given what you’ve just been through. Judging by this record, we’re in for a truly frightening year of black metal.

You can stream both The Healing Atter and Selfchasm via Veiled's bandcamp page, where the album is available for digital pre-order:-



Physical copies can be ordered from Into Endless Chaos Records here - https://intoendlesschaos.de/

Into Endless Chaos Records - https://www.facebook.com/IntoEndlessChaos/
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Thursday, 3 January 2019

The Mound Builders - The Mound Builders


Labels: Failure Records & Tapes
Formats: Vinyl/CD/Digital
Release Date: 18 Jan 2019

Tracklist:

1. Torchbearer
2. Hair Of The Dogma
3. Separated From Youth
4. Acid Slugs
5. Star City Massacre
6. Regolith
7. Broken Pillars
8. Vanished Frontier

It's time for the first taste of new sludge in 2019, coming courtesy of The Mound Builders, who ply their trade in the Midwestern US city of Lafayette, Indiana. This heavy quartet has been playing sludge and metal since 2009 and their self-titled second album comes a whole seven years after their debut "Strangers In A Strange Land". They've been letting their music grow and this is the result. They'll be supporting it's release by heading out for various dates across Indiana in mid-January and February. 

Distilling all that’s great about the UK doom/sludge scene and mixing it with the chops of their own US genre forefathers, The Mound Builders present groove-laden riffs, varied tempos and harshly shrieked vocals on album opener Torchbearer. It’s obvious how much they love sludge here and reading about the bands that influence them, it’s easy to understand why. Their rock chops ain’t bad either and that’s what gives them extra personality. Sludge is always best when it’s delivered with classy lead-guitar, which is here in spades. Talking of varied tempos, Hair Of The Dogma starts with a thrashing intro and that pace only adds to the urgency of the song, which barely reaches three-minutes and is in stark contrast to the opener. The Mound Builders don’t just settle into a slow slog, they actually take their music in different directions, which can only be good for the listener. 

The closest comparisons musically I can make would be Crowbar and Electric Wizard; however, that’s not to say the TMB are mere copyists. Separated From Youth borrows from those bands but the higher-pitched shrieks of vocalist Jim Voelz point to something more unhinged. Acid Slugs is the perfect name for a stoner band, though it would probably be too predictable. Instead, it’s the name of a song here and if slow is what you’re looking then you’ve found it. Hypnotic in delivery and a little bleak in atmosphere during its first half, TMB pick up the pace in the second with the help of some punk rock percussion flourishes. 

The thrash is strong again in Star City Massacre, which leads you into the second half of the record with neck-snapping metal and gang-vox. It’s still sludge-filled but it rages from start to finish and it’s over before you know it. Throw in another great solo and you’ve got yourself a winner! Regolith conjures the sense of urgency once again and there’s no hiding this time. The addition of subtle semi-clean vocals is a nice touch, though they are very subtle and don’t detract from TMB’s whirlwind at all. The whole band is well in their stride here and clearly enjoying spewing out these sludgy tunes. 

Penultimate behemoth Broken Pillars sees the band going back to their slower roots again. As with the record, the bass work of Brian Boszor and the guitar of Robert Ryan Strawsma is filled with low-end heft while Jason Brookhart’s drumming keeps everything steamrolling on. Album closer Vanished Frontier, like Torchbearer at the beginning, is another long one and it will remind you of a certain troupe of Cowboys from Hell. It ends the album on an ever slowing note that’s actually quite reassuring, considering everything that came before it. The Mound Builders aren’t reinventing sludge  but they are making sure it’s enjoyable and listenable. To me, there’s no better music than that. Good work!


The full record is streaming on Youtube here prior to it's release https://www.youtube.com/watch.

The record can be pre-ordered on CD and vinyl here - https://failurerecordstapes.bigcartel.com

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Tuesday, 1 January 2019

Downcast - Downcast EP


Labels: Self-Released
Formats: CD/Digital
Release Date: 11 Jan 2019

Tracklist:

1. Anthurium
2. Sombre
3. Window Seat
4. 2013
5. I'm Sorry

New year, new band, new review. 2019 will see the debut self-titled EP from UK pop-punk band Downcast and I'm lucky enough to be one of the first people to review it. The four-piece only formed in mid-2018 but worked hard to write and record an EP, as well as organise a run of shows in support of the release at the end of January and into February, alongside fellow pop-punks Who Saves The Hero?. "Downcast" will be released on CD and also across all major digital platforms on 11 January.

UK pop-punk’s in pretty solid health as we fly into 2019 with Neck Deep’s star rising and plenty of other up and coming bands following on underneath. Downcast will be joining them upon the release of their debut EP and they’ll slot in perfectly, with catchy pop-punk that’s gruffer than you might think. Opener Anthurium is the best introduction to this new band and it’s filled with melody and riffs. It was also chosen as the band’s first single and bands don’t choose to reveal weak songs as their first singles, so you know it's strong!

Their songs tell a story and Sombre proves this with sensitive lyrics and an acoustic delivery that tugs on the heartstrings. Vocal harmonies are accentuated by it and there’s a positive message that comes out of it. There’s no filler on this EP and Downcast has chosen to keep things succinct. Window Seat is an up-tempo number that plays on their British roots. It’s so catchy you’ll be humming it without realising after a few spins. 

Twin-guitar melodies are normally the preserve of rock/heavy metal bands but Downcast use them to great effect as they open penultimate song 2013. The melodies give way to a solid punk song with chunky riffs and one that will be great in a live setting. There’s a true maturity about EP closer I’m Sorry. One that’s beyond the band’s years and considering “Downcast” is their debut, they show no signs of a band that need to develop over time. 

With it becoming easier and easier for bands to release music, it’s still hard to ensure it reaches the right audience. Downcast’s approach and music will definitely earn them the chance to leapfrog some of their peers and gain greater fans in 2019. 

You can watch their latest video for the song I'm Sorry on Youtube below:-


CD copies can be pre-ordered from their webstore here - https://downcastuk.bigcartel.com/

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