New Music Fridays: Pearl Jam, Cloud Nothings, Melvins, and more
Albums typically release on Fridays. This is a thread to discuss week of April 19, 2024 releases that have recently arrived on our doorstep, or been announced for the future. Feel free to share albums, singles, EPs or reissues that have caught your eye and interest, or share your thoughts about any new music that you've had the chance to listen to this week.
Discussion Points
Is there anything you've been looking forward to listening to?
Any releases that have surprised you?
Have you listened to any new music recently? What are your thoughts?
What have you enjoyed from these artists in the past? How does their latest work compare?
Links:
Pitchfork - Out This Week
AllMusic - All New Releases
Stereogum - New Music
Shreddit Release Tracker
New Metal and Hardcore Releases - Lambgoat
Heavy Metal Album Release Calendar - Heavy Music HQ
Upcoming albums - Encyclopaedia Metallum: The Metal Archives
I'll have my list later, but wanted to get the topic up now. For the title, just chose a few I quickly saw on lists.
Thoughts: should we narrow this topic to only new releases/announcements from the week it's for (in this case, this week)? I feel like right now there's some overlap between this and the "what are you listening to this week" topics, but I think they can each exist with their own goals.
I have to plug my favourite album of the week:
Sentiment by Claire Rousay
She describes her music as "emo ambient", but this one is a bit more "ambient emo". But it's not really that at all. Any ambient, shoegaze, field recording or emo fans - or fans of difficult to categorize music - here, I strongly recommend giving it a listen.
I will second this. I checked out her work from a review on Exclaim.ca. As much as she 'name-checks' Broken Social Scene, this album kind of reminds me of their album "Bee Hives" which is one of my favourite of theirs.
I would also recommend checking out her earlier work which is just ambient/field recording material more in line with artists like Rachel's.
Since you mentioned it in the title but didn't provide the link yet, and I am a massive Pearl Jam fan:
Pearl Jam - Dark Matter album link
p.s. If you even remotely enjoy Pearl Jam's music, I highly recommend trying to go to one of their concerts if they ever perform in your area. They're by far the best band I've ever heard live, and I have gone to quite a few of their concerts over the years as a result. They're one of the few bands that I feel are actually way better live than in the studio.
That and between the awesome cover songs they usually do every concert, the marathon of encores they often perform when the crowd is hype enough, and the official "bootleg" CDs you can buy of every concert, it's pretty clear that they genuinely do appreciate their fans, and so are worth supporting, IMO.
Sorry for the delay, now my list of favorites from April 19 week. I didn't necessarily include those in the title in my list (not all anyway). I wanted the topic title to try to capture a wide swath of music, some of which are not my thing- but might be for others.
Non-metal
Cloud Nothings - Final Summer
Indie rock from Ohio whose vocal harmonies sort of remind me of bands like Sloan. Additionally, the guitar+vocal tones give me a particular type of vibe similar to bands like The Promise Ring, The Get Up Kids, and The New Pornographers- without the band really sounding like any of these.
Pillow Queens - Name Your Sorrow
Four-piece indie rock from Dublin, Ireland. Wonderful guitar leads that ring out over quieter rhythm sections. Vocals are forward, beautifully rich, and have plenty of character and along with the melodies remind me of Toad The Wet Sprocket and maybe a hint of Nada Surf.
Metal (primarily clean-ish / non-scream vocals or instrumental)
none this week
Metal (primarily harsh vocals)
Antichrist Siege Machine - Vengeance of Eternal Fire
Filthy, grindy, and noisy war metal from Richmond, VA. This wall of sound will flatten you.
Engulfed - Unearthly Litanies of Despair
Turkish death metal. The vocals are very muddy and gross and not even normally what I prefer for death metal but they make it work here. Tempo changes, deep and heavy riffs, plenty of changes to keep you interested.
Hekseblad - Kaer Morhen
Melodic and aggressive Witcher-themed black metal. Huge second-wave black metal influence with still some rawness to the production which really fits the cold, icy sound and stories. Majestic melodies.
Nuclear Tomb - Terror Labyrinthian
Death/thrash with some progressive elements in the tempos. Hammer-on guitar leads/riffs everywhere. This is thrash without cheesy tropes the genre is known for- thank goodness- this is the kind of thrash we need to see more often.
Selbst - Despondency Chord Progressions
Black metal- but not typical at all. Has more in common with the avant-garde sides of the genre. Not sure if the title is purposely on-the-nose or if something got slightly lost in translation. The chord progressions here are indeed despondent. Some dissonance and tense guitar leads- but written in a reserved, beautifully melancholy way. The entire atmopshere is drenched in despair- including the vocals.
Uttertomb - Nebulas of Self-Desecration
Murky Chilean death metal with some death/doom influence. Has a very claustrophobic, oppressive soundscape that is drawing comparisons to Outre-Tombe, though with cleaner (but not too clean) production.
Zao - Live from the Church
A PA band that is hard to pinpoint on sound/genre. Their sound is unique enough that really no other bands sound exactly like them. It gets called metalcore, but it shares very little in common with early 2000s metalcore OR modern metalcore. It's more like some strange crossover between alternative metal, punk, and death metal, or something like that? Like I said, very tough to describe- you just have to hear it. This album is called live but really is just recorded live in a studio- it's not a live performance for an audience. It's meant to become a DVD/Blu-ray and is also available in audio form. The songs range from across their discography (which sounds QUITE different depending on the album you hear) and definitely have been refined over the years with some extra touches.
They're a band I loved in my religious upbringing, that walked away from the faith (as did I)- appreciate when I find bands that share that common ground with myself. They're still around and still kicking ass (check out their catalog, even as far back as Liberate Te Ex Inferis they were staying non-preachy and vague in their lyrical content- any further back and that drastically changes).