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What have you been listening to this week?
What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)
Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.
You can make a chart if you use last.fm:
http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/
Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.
Almost all of this is all solidly in the indie pop/rock genres, though I'm including one Spanish song at the end.
I'm going to see Enter Shikari in early December, I last saw them on their Take to the Skies tour in 2007 where I was jumping around with the rest of the pit as a 17 year old but at 34 I'll gladly take a backseat and just enjoy the music.
To prepare I've been listening to a bunch of their music lately. The album "Flash Flood of Colour" has been in regular rotation, really great album but I'm also listening to their newest album "A Kiss for the Whole World" and really enjoying it.
Fantastic group of musicians who have truly developed and evolved from their electronic metalcore beginnings.
Mostly been listening to releases from 11/1 to make my faves list. Link (or spoilered LONG post below)
Faves for the week of 11/1/24
Or you can view them in a spoilerbox (forgot this was an option until now)
Click to view long list
Clean-sung, instrumental, or otherwise non-extreme music.
Bubble Tea and Cigarettes - We Should Have Killed Each Other
Whispery dream pop / indie rock that may or may not be an intentional nod to Cigarettes After Sex. Beautiful soft warm indie rock guitars, piano/synths, and an overall ethereal atmosphere.
Leaving Time - Angel In The Sand
Energetic, heavy shoegaze/indie rock. Perfect soundtrack for driving. Minimal, simple, and effective vocals. Great drumming and song structures here too. Has an energy that makes you want to move which is a bit opposite of the classic shoegaze atmosphere.
Fionn Regan - O Avalanche
Indie folk from Ireland. Not really traditional folk, more like standard folk-rock/singer-songwriter. Borrows the reverb and light and easy vocals you'd hear in other genres like shoegaze and combines that with the acoustic guitar and more folk-sounding instrumentation. Crisp, ringing, shiny acoustic strums and gentle vocal melodies and layering.
Flower Face - Girl Prometheus
Indie acoustic folk/rock from Canada. Gentle vocals, gliding steel-guitar like atmospheres with piano, picked guitar chords, but progresses into big bombastic atmospheric indie rock and then back to whispery silence. The album is constantly playing with dynamics and contrasts and makes a hell of a statement in doing so.
Deary - Aurelia
Continuing a very common theme throughout this week and really, a lot of my softer music listening in recent years, with this dream pop from London. Like many other artists from this week, you've got the laid back whispery vocals, reverbed guitars, and beautiful atmopshere.
The Cure - Songs of a Lost World
A band that really needs no introduction or explanation. These english goth rock legends return for their first release in 16 years, and buck the trend often seen with these older bands that come out of hibernation by actually releasing something very strong that stands up to the rest of their catalog. Most bands that resurrect like this do themselves a disservice, but The Cure have avoided that pitfall.
Neon Nightmare - Faded Dream
A guilt-free way to listen for Type-O fans who rightfully can't stand Steele's awful views and lyrics- Neon Nightmare is a Type-O Negative worshipping (to the point of sounding extremely similar) goth doom metal/rock band from the US that executes the sound wonderfully. Just forget Type-O ever existed and listen to this instead. Neon Nightmare gets to own the sound now.
Tribulation - Sub Rosa in Aeternum
Third goth release on the list this week. I've always enjoyed Tribulation, but I understand their middle era (featuring harsh vocals but with increasing goth rock attitude and less metal musically) was a contrast of sounds that didn't work for some listeners, especially fans of the early Tribulation releases.This time, they've leaned much heavier into the goth rock sound, and I think they've actually nailed it. Many more cleans, and still a few harsh vocals. But a refined, well-chosen placement of both. As was the recent Poltergeist release, I think this is yet another goth rock/metal release that is outshining Unto Others' latest a little bit, exposing their flaws a bit more in comparison. It feels like the expected conclusion of Tribulation's trajectory so far and I think it succeeds more because of leaning into it, instead of straddling the line like their last few releases. I enjoy all Tribulation, but I definitely feel like their strongest output chronologically bookends everything else in between.
Extreme heavy music (harsh vocals)
Gravekvlt - Full Moon Fever
Step aside Devil Master and Zorn, a third horror punk/metal with chorus-soaked guitarwork has entered the arena, and they kick ass! The album is name your price on bandcamp as well? Sold! Horror themes, fast punk energy, aggressive black/thrash-like vocals, this is pure fun.
Vampirska - A Liminal Heart Paints the Deepest Shade of Serenity
Vampiric, melodic black metal that seems to avoid the sketchines often associated with the subgenre. Some goth rock influence- pianos and melodies that would not be out of place there, but it's all soaked in an aggressive layer of black metal. Because of this it leans a bit more bright and melodic at points than one would expect for a black metal project on the raw side. It works great, though. It doesn't get too post-metal, nor does it sound like a carbon copy of every other bedroom black metal band.
Paganizer - Flesh Requiem
This remains my favorite Rogga project of them all. High quality Swedish HM-2 death metal. Great riffs and aggressive, sharp death growls. This project just has the right polish and stands out as a lot better than their HM-2 peers.
Petrale - The World Down There
Avant-garde/dissonant black metal with pained shrieking vocals, punky drums, and lots of dissonance and plenty of interesting songwriting. The entire thing has a very spooky air about it. Given that the lyrical themes are incredibly specific and unintentionally-humorously described on metallum as "Manifestations of the Devil in a rural Mediterranean Catholic area" it all makes sense. I wouldn't expect music with those themes to sound like anything other than exactly what Petrale does.
Rotborn - Shrapnels of a Panic Spiral
Brazilian death metal that has influence from Suffocation, Krisiun, and others. Very Suffocation-like vocals and palm-muted guitar chugs. They used AI art on their last release, but since the new one seems to have avoided that trend, I'll grant this an exception, though I am torn about including it at all.
Lifesick - Loved by None, Hated by All
HM-2 hardcore / death metal mashup from Denmark. Aggressive hardcore yelling vocals, sawblade HM-2 death metal guitars, and songwriting that falls somewhere in between.
Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean - Sisyphean Cruelty
Now this is heavy. Sludge in the vein of Thou (given the band's name is a reference to a Thou song, that comes as no surprise). Super heavy bass low-end, blown out crispy guitar distortion, despairful and pained vocals. Filthy, depressing, and cathartic.
Sun Worship - Upon the Hills of Divination
Black/death metal from Germany. Atmospheric but heavy and fast. Produced in a way that makes it a forceful wall of sound. Melancholic and angry. Multiple vocal styles from growls to pained yells.
Mitochondrion - Vitriseptome
It's difficult to pick just one release, but this is definitely in the top of the running for the week. One of my favorite bands returns after 13+ years to release a huge, 90 minute, 17 track record that rivals anything they've done before. Super heavy, dissonant, dark, sinister atmospheric death metal. Think Ulcerate and Avtotheism. Constant barrage of extremely low-tuned blasting. This isn't your standard death metal, this is something much more sinister and evil, and it's hard to describe that without experiencing it for yourself.
Cryptic Blood - Necrotic Flesh Bacteria
Death/doom with some experimentation, with plenty of old-school death metal influence and production. Huge variations in tempo. Moments that almost feel like funeral doom, where drums and guitars linger while vocals fill the spaces in-between. Swirling speed changes that keep songs from falling into any particular pace, from blasts to extremely slow doom.
Aethyrvorous - Akephalic Palingenesis
Fans of the Mitochondrion recommendation should like this one too. Dissonant, evil, dark death metal with a very sinister atmosphere. Incredible that both this and the Mitochondrion release came out in the same week, and only a week after the Avtotheism release. Been a great few weeks for this particular brand of death metal. Deep growls, low-tuned blasting, and Aethyrvorous are more adventurous in their tempos, leaning into nearly a doom version of the aforementioned projects in some spots.
I walked the John Williams documentary on Disney+ and I've been on a kick listening to his music.
Sleep Token
For me, this time of the year, post Halloween and pre-Christmas music, I listen to Incubus' - Morning View album for about a week. It has a good middle spot of chill and rock.
It hits a little bit of the nostalgia nerve since it definitely makes me miss the days of being able to relate to people with music, without having to get into the weeds any other personal nuances.
But mostly just helps with my minds pace and clarity....
That's a great album! This one and make yourself are such a sweet spot for incubus. Afterwards their sound started changing and I slowly lost interest in them.