I hope you’re ready for a weird week! There’s a lot of new music, most of it is heavy AF, and then there’s Jethro Tull. Let’s just get straight to it.

Steve Vai: Inviolate

It’s Steve Vai, what more can I really say? If anyone is a fan of guitar playing of any genre, listen to this. The man has very much still got it and is one of the best guitarists and composers of all time. However, for everyone else it is nine tracks and 45-minutes of instrumental, there are no vocals. It’s not for everyone, but as a musician I loved it! Highlights include ‘Zeus in Chains’ and ‘Avalancha’. 7/10

Jethro Tull: The Zealot Gene

Yes, that odd band that once denied Metallica a Grammy are still going and have just released their first new music (excluding a Christmas album) in 23 long years. One of the longest gaps between albums (more on that later) I know about, the band have still maintained their odd blend of blues rock, folk and jazz after all these years. It’s a weird combination but it somehow still works for Ian Anderson and co after nearly five and a half decades. Highlights include ‘Shoshana Sleeping’ and ‘The Betrayal of Joshua Kynde’. 7.5/10

Eels: Extreme Witchcraft

US punk(ish) rockers Eels returned with their 14th studio album this week. After a promising, up-tempo start to the album with a great opening track, it soon slows up massively and doesn’t really speed up again. There are still highlights to it like single ‘The Magic’ and the RHCP-esque ‘Grandfather Clock Strikes Twelve’, but the rest left me a little disappointed. 6/10

Pinegrove: 11:11

This is an interesting one for me as it’s pretty different from most of the other stuff we cover here. However, it’s really good. It reminds me a lot of the late 90s pop-rock of the likes of Matchbox 20 and Hootie and the Blowfish, and R.E.M, but with an ever so slight pop-punk edge at times. ‘Alaska’ may be one of my favourite songs of the year so far, it’s at least up there with the new Muse one! If you want to take 40-minutes to chill out, especially before the next few heavy bands, this is the perfect choice. Not a bad song on the album, hence why it gets a solid 8.5/10

Lawnmower Deth: Blunt Cutters

Local comedy-thrash band Lawnmower Deth have been on the receiving end of one hell of a resurgence in recent years. From their pretty high billing on festivals to their collaborations with Kim Wyld, they are going strong. The band’s fourth studio album, and first in almost three decades, was finally released last Friday. It’s everything you could imagine seasoned veterans of thrash metal would write when not taking it massively seriously. If anything, the band have gotten even better over the last 29 years. I would put ‘Into the Pit’ up there with any other true thrash anthem, and the silliness and punk-rock energy of the likes of ‘Swafega’, ‘Now he’s a Priest’, and ‘Raise Your Snails’ are all awesome. Hopefully the guys keep pumping out music after this, because damn, wahat an album. 8.5/10

The Last Ten Seconds of Life: Self-Titled

The deathcore band with the far too long name are back with their sixth album. It’s heavy, and it’s great. Some of it may be a little much, heavy for the sake of it instead of being ‘good heavy’, but there is enough great stuff here to make it worth a listen. Highlights include the opener, ‘Sabbath’, and the wonderfully weird ‘Vampire (A Blood Ballad)’. Worth checking out if you’re into the heavy stuff, but may scare more than a few off! 7/10

Shoun Shoun: Monsters & Heroes

The debut album of garage-rock band Shoun Shoun is one that I that I am in the midst of doing an in-depth review of, so I shan’t go into too much detail about it. However, it is very good from start to finish, so keep an eye out for that review! For now, I leave you with the awesome track below!

Burned in Effigy: Rex Mortem

US-based metalcore/death/extreme/whatever other sub-genre they want to be called band Burned in Effigy put out their debut album on Friday. It’s another album that goes HARD from start to finish, and honestly it’s awesome. The band show off their talent for both their instruments and song writing throughout, and the album is full of highlights. It’s like a groovier Cradle of Filth, which is definitely high praise! A damn good debut album, and I can’t wait to hear where they go next! 8/10

Vvorse: Kurjien elegia

The Finnish hardcore/Neo-crust (yep, I had to google it too) band Vvorsde put out their second album over the weekend. According to the press release we received from our good friends over at Inverse Records (because I don’t speak Finnish , the album explores ‘dystopian and existential levels’. All I know is that it’s another very heavy album. This one may even be too much for me. I like me some heavy music, but this was just a wall of uncomfortable noise. There really wasn’t much to it aside the heaviness, and it may have been a mistake for me to leave it until last. I have never felt so old as I do typing this, but it honestly gave me a bit of a headache. 2/10

And thus we finally reach the end of this weeks New Music Mondays and damn, was it a big one. A lot of good stuff and some not so great stuff, but it’s still been a great week overall! And next week is just as big, with the likes of Slash and Korn!

Did you enjoy the article? Check out our more in-depth reviews here.

I did warn everyone that New Music Mondays would become drastically shorter as we got closer to the New Year. Even I wasn’t expecting it this fast, though! One album, and it’s one I’ve reviewed already as recently as Friday. However, it’s a damn good album, so I may as well talk about it again!

Assimilate: Suffer in Silence

A damn good second album from UK based alt-metal band Assimilate. It’s full of catchy hooks, huge riffs and even huger breakdowns. If you’re a fan of the genre, metalcore or just heavier music as a whole I would highly suggest checking it out. I’ve even gone as far as to link one of the tracks below so you don’t have to search very far! Check out the full album review here for something more in-depth.

So yeah, not much else to say really. Check out the album, and keep up to date as usual on all of our content from our Facebook here. See y’all next week!

Another week, another six new rock albums to sink our teeth into. let’s not waste any time, let’s get into it.

The Darkness: Motorheart

One of the biggest British rock bands of the early 2000s, while The Darkness may not be at their peak in terms of popularity these days, they are still on a run of form quality wise. Now onto their seventh studio album, the band are seeming like they are on a run of form if their previous release and the singles are any indicator. I intend to review this in full, however, so I shall leave the score out until that is done…

Exodus: Persona Non Grata

Bay-area thrash legends Exodus are often regarded alongside Testament as the forgotten extra members of the Big Four. It’s a fair assessment, given how good their musical output has been, even in this century. Blood In Blood Out was a fantastic and triumphant return from Zetro and their others recently were also great. This new album was no different. It’s a punch in the face from the very first note of the opening and title track and I love it. It’s thrash at its absolute best and I’d put it up against any other of the older thrash bands’ 2000s albums, and maybe even a lot of their albums in general. Highlights include the title track, ‘The Beatings Will Continue’ and ‘Lunatic-Liar-Lord’. 8.5/10

Converge: Bloodmoon I

Hardcore punk band Converge have gone a bit of a different direction with their latest release after adding Chelsea Wolfe to it. It’s definitely got some heavy parts and elements to it, but the more open cleaner parts on tracks like ‘Scorpion’s Sting’ and the opening track give it a real atmospheric feel to it. Add that to the fact that Chelsea has brought so much to the sound here, she’s been used perfectly, and we have the workings of a really good album. Oh, and ‘Coil’ is another massive highlight on the album. I had heard nothing about this band before today but I have come away damn impressed. I can’t wait for part 2! 8/10

Deap Vally: Marriage

Changing direction rather abruptly into female-led punk music, Deap Vally released their fourth album this last Friday, too. Another band that I hadn’t listened to before this, they were another band that rather impressed me. It’s not the sort of thing I typically listen to as I feel like it all sounds like a Runaways rip-off, but there was something about this that at least felt a little fresh. Parts of it even felt like it had pretty heavy Dorothy or White Stripes vibes to it, both fantastic modern artists. Highlights are the opening track and ‘Tsunami’. 7.5/10

Me And That Man: New Man, New Songs, Same Shit, Vol. 2

And now to change it up even more again, we have a dark country/folk album from the man behind the extreme metal band Behemoth. Me and That Man have been going for a while now as an interesting solo project for Nergal, and this album is just as out their and fun as the last. It’s an interesting album for sure, with somehow just as many Satan references as his main project. ‘All Hope Has Gone’ is a particular highlight as it gets to show off Garry Holt and Blaze Bayley in much different genres as they are used to doing, and it shows both have tremendous ranges. The same can be said for ‘Goodbye’ with Alissa White-Gluz and the legendary Devin Townsend. It’s so impressive hearing Alissa actually sing after only hearing her with Arch Enemy, she’s got a cracking clean voice. 8.5/10

Mirrors: The Ego’s Weight

Last but certainly not least we get metalcore/hardcore band Mirrors with their debut album. I had checked out a couple of singles from these guys already after their album announcement email, and tracks like ‘Beneath the Sand’ and ‘Purple Static’ are awesome, as are album tracks like ‘Hereditary’ and ‘Automata’. It’s a good album and a very good debut overall. I look forward to hearing more from these guys! 7/10

And there we have it, a VERY good week for new music, if I do say so myself. Check back next week when we will have another awesome few albums out!

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