Another stacked week of New Music Mondays this week, with everything from country to extreme metal, and plenty in between!
Blackberry Smoke: Be Right Here
We’ve already checked out this awesome album! Check out what we thought of it here!
IDLES: TANGK
I have never quite ‘got’ this band whenever I’ve tried in the past. Surprisingly enough, that didn’t change with this release. They’re somehow Avant-garde indie/punk, like the Dillinger Escape Plan of the indie world. I don’t get it. Then again, as a country/metal fan, I doubt I’m exactly their target audience. They certainly have fans, and I’m sure they’ll love this album. And heck, at least they look good fun live. Maybe that’d win me over, but on track they do less-than-nothing for me. The closest thing to something I enjoyed was ‘Gift Horse’, but it was in there with a lot of very questionable music. 3/10, sorry lads.
Middle Kids: Faith Crisis Pt 1
The Australian alt/indie rock band are back with their third album. Honestly, though it’s not typically the sort of music I’d go for, it’s a good, incredibly chilled album. It’s very similar in sound to the likes of Cold War Kids and Young the Giant, that early 10s radio-indie, Life is Strange sound. I’m a fan of the sound for sure, and this is maybe the best release it has had in years.
Tracks like ‘The Blessings’ and ‘Terrible News’ are awesome. However, as an album as a whole it’s a good listen, from start to finish. There’s nothing bad on it! It’s perfect to stick on and relax to or have on in the background while doing stuff. My only slight issue is that it doesn’t have that single on it, nothing stands out as a massive radio hit. Then again, that’s not exactly a bad thing when talking albums! Nothing quite gets Twenty-One Pilots quirky enough to make it to that. But they are clearly a massive band with a huge following, who will no doubt all love this! 7.5/10, good stuff!
Kalah: And Yet It Dreams
Honestly, I have no idea what to think of this album, aside for the fact that I love it! It’s chaos in the best possible way. I’d classify it as extreme metal despite the vocals, it definitely has clear influences from old Cradle of Filth. However, there is also deathcore, and symphonic metal, and electronic influences that all mash together surprisingly perfectly. The two-part opener ‘This World Factory’ is the perfect example of what I’m talking about, and is very much a highlight track of the album! It’s heavy, insane and yet also somehow structured and catchy. And there is no denying everyone involved’s talents and writing ability; they are all on full display just in this track alone.
Other highlight tracks include ‘Runtime Error’, ‘Gentle Gears’ and ‘Helichrysum’. However, there really isn’t a bad track on the album, I could name any of them as highlights. The former even brings in more of a prog/djent sound to the mix, while ‘Helichrysum’ has more of an epic power metal ballad feel to it, and I love it! And yet it still gets heavy, of course! There is not a second of this album that is boring and I didn’t feel the length at all, happily listening to it from start to finish and it was over in no time. I completely understand it won’t be for everyone, but I thought it was a fantastic album and if you’re into metal, you should check this out! 9/10
Mother Mother: Grief Chapter
Even more indie rock for this week, though I’m not sure how I feel about this one. It’s an odd one, that’s for sure. It’s like early 2000s radio-rock meets the weirdness of Queen or Muse’s stranger discography. Sometimes it works and is cool and a lot of fun. Other times it doesn’t and is jarring and odd for the sake of it. What I can say is the band are certainly all talented. There are some insane, math-rocky guitar licks that are far too good for indie music, and vocalist Ryan Guldemond almost has an air of Mika at times, that’s how good a singer he is. Heck, some of the pop elements like in ‘Explode!’ are VERY Mika.
The aforementioned track is actually a big highlight of the album, and a real turning point for me. Tracks like ‘Days’, ‘Normalize’ and ‘Matrix’ after it are also interesting and fun enough for me to love, with the latter again being a massive highlight for me. But yeah, when I finally ‘got’ it, I loved this album. Everything after ‘Explode!’ had me hooked and hanging on every weird turn and note. It’s not all fantastic, but it is all interesting enough to enjoy, and there is enough truly incredible tracks on the album to make me love it. If they put on a good show too, I feel like I’d LOVE to see this live. They remind me of AJR or early Twenty-One Pilots in their creativity, and I can’t help but love it. There are easily four or five tracks here I’m going to be listening to a lot moving forward. So, it’s gotta be at least an 8.5/10 from me!
The Obsessed: Gilded Sorrow
I feel like we don’t cover enough doom metal on this site, so whenever a band like this comes along and releases a killer album like this, I instantly love it. Of course the riffs are top notch, but so is everything else. The songs are very well crafted, the vocals fit perfectly and are catchy in the choruses, and the drums and bass hold everything down perfectly. It’s old-school, plodding doom metal in all the best ways. The whole album is packed full of incredible tracks, but my favourites include the opener, ‘Wellspring’ and the title track. I also have to bring up the fantastic production, something a little rarer in the genre but whoever mixed this NAILED it. Honestly, there isn’t much to say, it’s a solid doom metal album through and through. No frills, no crazy prog or genre changes, just a great album for fans of sludge. 8/10
ILLUMISHADE: Another Side of You
The Swiss metal band released their sophomore album last week after a near four year gap, and their first with Napalm. The band have been making waves since their inception in 2019, and look to continue their momentum with this release.
They’re symphonic metal for the most part, but are definitely on the heavier end of that spectrum. The combined intro track into ‘ELEGY’ perfectly encapsulates the band’s sound and style, and I personally love it. It has an edge and moderness to it that the big bands in the genre, Nightwish and Epica, do not have. It feels like the next step in the genre for sure, this band spearheading the way for the 2nd generation of symphonic metal bands alongside the likes of Metalite and Ad Infinitum. The guitars are chunky and almost have a prog/djent style and feel to them. The drums and bass are heavy too, while the synths, keys and operatic vocals ground it firmly in symphonic metal. It’s a really cool listen!
Honestly, there isn’t a bad track on the album, either. Songs like ‘ELEGY’, ‘ENEMY’, ‘Here We Are’ and epic ballad ‘Fairytale’ are certainly highlights, though. The band are incredible players and songwriters, and it’s no wonder they feel like they have a rocket strapped to their backs. They are going to be a massive name in the metal scene sooner rather than later, and this album will play a big part in getting them there. It’s an awesome release, and worth checking out for any fans of the genre. If I had but one complaint… it is a tad long. However, when it’s all this high quality, that’s hardly an issue! 8.5/10
Volucrine: Etna
The modern melo-death band released their first album in half a decade last week, and third overall. I have to say I wasn’t familiar with the band before this review, but found myself loving it. It had just as many elements of metalcore and hardcore as it did melo-death, and blended the genres together perfectly. The mixture of low growls, hardcore screams and great clean vocals are all great and hugely impressive. That’s not to take away from the rest of the band too, who all work their asses off here with some fantastic riffing and drumming.
It’s yet another album this week packed to the brim with awesome songs, too. Though every track is amazing, personal highlights include the opener, ‘Old Friend’ and ‘Godsized’. This band deserve to be so much bigger than they are, especially with the genre having a bit of a resurgence currently. I would 100% recommend this album to any metalheads reading, and I have my fingers crossed that this helps push them into the mainstream, they more than deserve it with their incredible songwriting skill! 8.5/10
Frontier Ruckus: On the Northline
This is not at all what I was expecting from this album. It was advertised to me through a country site, so I was expecting that, folk, Americana etc. Instead what I got was closer to The Presidents of The United States of America, Lazlo Bane or Pinegrove. It’s quirky, early 2000s indie-radio-rock, and while not at all what I was expecting, I did enjoy it! Don’t get me wrong, there are some elements of Americana to it; there’s a pretty prevalent banjo throughout and the opener is pretty folky. But yeah, mostly it’s more strange indie stuff. Highlights for me were ‘Magdalene’ and ‘Clarkston Pasture’. It’s another great album to sit back and relax to, and some of the lyrics are really interesting and well written. If you’re into the slower, more chilled-out stuff, this is definitely the album for you! 7/10
The High Hawks: Mother Nature’s Show
A much more traditional country/Americana sound now, from the debut of the supergroup. Featuring members of Leftover Salmon, Railroad Earth and Hard Working Americans and boasting a sound akin to The Grateful Dead, the band are of course going to have a hit on their hands with this release. And after listening to the album, I’m sure they do. It’s packed full of highlights, from the singles to tracks like ‘Fox River Blues’ and ‘Backwater Voodoo’. It’s a very fun album for someone who’s into folk, Americana, rock and blues, as it combines all together perfectly. And yet again it’s another album to stick on and simply chill out to. It’s all simple yet hugely effective, and written and performed by some of the best in the genre. 7.5/10