A usually stacked week of new music for us to sink our teeth into, from metal to country to hardcore! Let’s dive right in!
Powerwolf: Walk Up the Wicked
We’ve already checked out this awesome album. Read the full review here!
American Aquarium: The Fear of Standing Still
I’ve checked out a fair bit of this band ahead of them playing at The Long Road festival this year. Having said that, this was still a surprisingly punky release. I think it’s the raspiness in BJ’s vocals, giving off a combination of Tim Armstrong and Ricky Warwick. However, the instrumentation is also definitely on the alt/punk/rock end of the country/folk spectrum. All in all, it’s fucking awesome.
Honestly, it’s very hard to pick highlight tracks, as it’s a real solid album from front to back. Whether it’s the more upbeat stuff like the opener and ‘Head Down, Feet Moving’ or slower, ballad tracks like ‘Cherokee Purples’ and ‘Southern Roots’ (featuring backing vocals from the wonderful Katie Pruitt), it’s all excellent. It’s 40-minutes of well crafted, unique alt-country music. And damn, some of the lyrics, especially on the folk-epic ‘The Curse of Growing Old’, gave me goosebumps with how emotional they are. If any readers are a fan of not just country music, but even indie/soft rock too, I cannot recommend this album enough to you. I’m gonna be jamming this album a lot over the next few weeks and months, and it gets an easy 8.5/10 from us!
Category 7: Self-Titled
This absolute powerhouse of a supergroup put out their debut album this last week, and it goes hard. It has two of the greatest modern guitarists in Phil Demmel and Mike Orlando. The two surprisingly compliment each other pretty perfectly; Mike’s unmistakable guitar tone and style from Adrenaline Mob working well with Phil’s more thrash leaning. Then between the powerhouse rhythm section of Jason Bittner and Jack Gibson, and the one of the most underrated voices in metal in John Bush, it’s one hell of a sound all round.
Musically, it’s fantastic, too. It’s 52-minutes of heavy, thrashy awesomeness, and very much feels like a spiritual successor to Adrenaline Mob (fuck, they were so good back in the day). Tracks like the opener, ‘Exhausted’ and ‘Mousetrap’ are all big highlights of a pretty solid album! If you’re a fan of 80s thrash or generally any of the bands that the members have formerly been in, I’d highly recommend checking this out, you won’t be disappointed! It’s one of the best supergroup albums I’ve heard in years; especially for a debut release. It gets an easy 8.5/10 from me!
The Red Clay Strays: Made by These Moments
The sophomore album from the Alabama country rockers has had plenty of hype around it. And honestly, it’s easy to see why. This is an amazing album, just like their debut. It again wears its inspirations on its sleeve, be it Lynyrd Skynyrd, 49 Winchester, Flatland Cavalry or even a more soft rock sound. However, it also feels so distinctly RCS in the best possible way. Songs like ‘Wasting Time’, ‘Wanna be Loved’, ‘On my Knees’ and the foot-stompin’ ‘Ramblin’’ are all massive highlights, but there isn’t a bad song on the album!
The band are all insanely talented songwriters and players, and honestly 42-minutes when by in a flash and felt somehow too short, I immediately needed more! Brandon Coleman has one of the best vocals in the genre currently, and it’s none more evident in ‘Drowning’, honestly having me drawing comparisons to Chris Stapleton, he’s that good. But the rest of the band compliment him perfect, and this whole album is a testament to how fantastic they are. They deserve all the massive success they have achieved in their short careers so far, and this album seems set to push them to even greater heights. They are going to be a massive name in country for years, maybe decades to come, and this album, alongside their debut, will be pointed to as to why. 9/10, amazing stuff!
Dream Evil: Metal Gods
More power metal, this time from the Swedish legends’ seventh studio album. I’ve been a big fan of the band over the years, but I have to admit I somehow missed their last release. Even that was seven years ago now, the band slowing down a lot in their release schedule over the last decade or so. However, if it means the band are going to keep producing music as good as this, I’m fine with the wait! This is just as good as their first few albums, with songs like ‘Chosen Force’, ‘Lightening Strikes’ and ‘Born in Hell’ being huge highlights.
Every member of the band works their ass off throughout the entire album, and it makes for an awesome, classic-style power metal release. The band have definitely won me back around into more of a fan of them again, and I’ll definitely be both listening to this a fair bit going forward and going back to check out SIX to see what I missed! If you’re a fan of Hammerfell or other old-school power metal, I’d definitely recommend checking this out! 8/10
State Faults: Children of the Moon
The Californian post-hardcore band put out their first album in half-a-decade last week, and is packed full of just as much emotion and heaviness as their previous releases. After the tension-building intro track, ‘Blood Moon’ bursts in and gives the best introduction of the band to new listeners, including myself. Jonny Andrew has a pretty interesting scream that certainly puts across the emotion of the track, and the clean vocals are also pretty great. Some of the drum and guitar work is pretty fun and interesting, too.
Sadly, that’s kinda where my enjoyment ended. I can appreciate the hell out of the musicianship, and definitely see the overall appeal of the band, but it’s not really something I’d choose to listen to. Not on track, anyway, I feel like it would pop off live! But, as such, I don’t really have any highlight tracks. Plus, at over an hour long and 14 tracks, it’s pretty bloated to even find them. I completely get that it’s been a while between releases so they have a lot of material, but slimming it down may have helped. If you like this, that’s awesome, and I can imagine it’s gonna have a lot of massive fans. But I won’t be listening to it again, and it certainly isn’t my thing. So, for me, it gets a 4/10
KAHFA: Le Poison et La Reine
The Swiss heavy/punk rockers put out a very fun album as a debut. I’d never heard of the band before now, but they’ve certainly won me round into being a fan! From the doomy, stoner opening instrumental track to the almost Rancid-like at times ‘Infernale Torréfaction’ to single ‘Errance & Dissonance’, the band certainly have a unique sound. It’s heavy stoner stuff but still filled with punky swagger and attitude. I wish I knew what they were saying, because I’m sure most of the lyrics are also excellent. And at just over 30-minutes in length, it’s very much all killer, and an awesome listen from front-to-back. I feel like this would pop off live, so hopefully this pushes them to big enough heights that they can tour nearish us soon! For anyone into stoner, desert rock or punky stuff, check this out, you won’t be disappointed! 8/10