So Much Music

and not enough time for an essay

Okay I am actually going to provide some context about the long gap between letters. While I can always come up with some excuse not to write, and I certainly have over the past three or so months, I actually had a good reason this time. I spent pretty much all of April attempting to get a new job, and that took a shocking amount of effort and energy, which paid off when I got said job in May. Since then, I’ve mostly been working on acclimating to that job, and then catching up on things that had been backburnered because I was “broke af.”

Well I have finally gotten to this particular pot. The good news is that my music listening did not slow over this lapse, which ultimately contributed to the lapse since I wanted to catch up. Thankfully, the release of Forza Horizon 6 gave me an excuse to listen to music while playing games with my friends. My apologies, Matt and Joe, if I missed something you were saying while I listened to “Ducksecution.”

The titles will pay homage to my inability to stick to any sort of routine here. I appreciate those of you who continue to read in spite of my unreliability here.

Let’s get after it.

Best Metal Album Since I Last Published

Portrayal of Guilt - …Beginning of the End

Portrayal of Guilt have been on a tear pretty much since they started, and …Beginning of the End, continues their hot streak. The bass playing is doomier and more clattering than ever before, more reminiscent of Korn than almost anything else. To that point, the album as a whole bends toward the grooviness of nu metal more than previous efforts, and in combining that bouncing freakout with truly ear ripping vocals and the occasional gestures toward less approachable styles of heavy music, they put together a listenable and challenging record that seems as though it could reach across both sides of the aisle.

Great Metal from the Past (Insert Unit of Time Measurement Here)

Usually I just list these out, this time I feel like I owe you all at least a short description:

• Neurosis - An Undying Love for a Burning World - Neurosis is back and they still sound like themselves. That’s an endorsement without need of further explication.

• Sunn O))) - sunn O))) - With bands like BIG | BRAVE out there, I have occasionally wondered if Sunn O))) is necessary in the world of drone. This album responds with a slow, unmistakable, “yes.”

• Immolation - Descent - Immolation has been active since 1986, just five fewer years than Metallica. It would be forgivable for them to put out a decent or middling record. Instead, Descent was the closest to dethroning …Beginning of the End, from its perch.

• concealer. - This Room Could Be Heaven. - Shout out to my brother for putting me onto this one. Nasty, nasty stuff. Reminds me of vein.fm, and for those out of the loop, that’s the best endorsement I can give a metalcore-ish band.

• Scimitar - Scimitarium II - Scimitar calls themselves rock and roll, which, sure I guess. But typical rock and roll doesn’t have the panicked urgency and technical precision that Scimitar brings to the table. An absolute ripper for those who need some of that classic heavy metal feel, yet crave a backing instrumental that’s blown to bits.

• Roman Candle - Unadulterated - Extremely loud and angry metal with a startling amount of pop sensibility around the edges. It’s a little bit like if Couch Slut decided they ever wanted to make some money.

• Moloch - Bend. Break. Kneel. Crawl - Filthy, disgusting sludge metal. Closest comp I can think of is Exhalants. The album just constantly rumbles with bass and fury. For a band from the UK, they’ve done an admirable job capturing the sonic humidity that’s so important to sludge.

• Rhododendron - Ascent Effort - Gorgeous instrumental post-metal/blackgaze adjacent album. Does a compelling job of balancing the need for adrenaline with the slow sections that make the sharp ones hit.

• Static Dress - Injury Episode - Oh hey, an Underoath feature. Very much in that vein of post-deftones nu-metal/metalcore, just on the harsher edge of that. If you liked the soundtrack of 1080 Avalanche, or wish that My Chemical Romance injected more of that first album’s aggression into future work, this is for you.

Best Non-Metal Since I Last Published

東京酒吐座 [Tokyo Shoegazer] - Remains

Approximately 900 variations of shoegaze exist. Tokyo Shoegazer spends a lot of Remains floating closer to the dreamier, more approachable side. All those sections are undeniably gorgeous. Each casts a lovely glow of atmospheric haze where the twinkling math rock guitar can cut through. What those sections really do though is carve out space for the rest of Remains to take place. See, when Tokyo Shoegazer isn’t doing “misty pretty twinkly” they’re dropping a building on you. In some instances, it’s a chugging doom metal roll, like in “Wisteria.” In others, it’s more of a Mudhoney/My Bloody Valentine/Sonic Youth jet engine roar, such as on “The Reckoning.” Whichever mode the band operates in though, they nail it, which is more than can be said for countless shoegaze bands that stick to just a single microgenre variant.

Runners-up

• Asian Glow - Arin Cot - More shoegaze stuff, loud but not as pretty as Tokyo Shoegazer. Still well worth your time.

• Grace Ives - Girlfriend - Nice, sad pop music that doesn’t grind on your patience. Has a bit of a static edge in places.

• Green-House - Hinterlands - Do you like guitars when there are tiny IDM style bleeps and bloops frittering in the back of the track? Here you go.

• logan - angels - This is sort of in the 2hollis vein, just more focused on the emo/pop punk side and less in the dancey bits. However, it does incorporate the blown out hip-hop thing, and is a blast as a result.

• The Leaf Library - After the Rain, Strange Seeds - Not quite my usual here. A good blend of indie pop, folk, and ambient.

• Chief Keef - Skeletor - Chief Keef has one of the most interesting careers in hip hop, and while he’s not nearly as popular as he was a decade plus ago, his stuff still sounds like it’s beamed in from the future.

• Slayyyter - WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA - The top contender against Tokyo Shoegaze for best non-metal album of the past howeverlong. Sleazy, horny, catchy, and above all else, loud. The Charli XCX influence is undeniable of course, but Slayyyter’s reach goes far beyond just that. Easily my pop AOTY so far, and likely to stay that way.

• The Heads - yourprettyplaceisgoingtohell - Blown out mega noise rock. Lots of psych in it’s bones.

• Tiffany Day - HALO - Noisy bubblegum pop that hits just right. An artist that clearly learned the right lessons from Charli and the EDM era, rather than just copying.

• Los Retros - Odisea - Wonderful guitar jazz that sounds straight out of Japan in the late 70s or early 80s, but is instead from Oxnard, CA and right now.

• Nine Inch Noize - Nine Inch Noize - Could be argued to be metal, and while NIN certainly has a metal bent on a lot of their stuff, I pushed this over to the non-metal side. In any case, it’s fun to hear reimaginings of some of NIN’s best tracks.

• Abigail Snail - Rad Berms - Extremely strange experimental jazz rock. Not for everyone but very rewarding if you give it time.

• Lip Critic - Theft World - Not quite up to the level of Hex Dealer unfortunately. Luckily, it’s still more fun and interesting than 95% of rock music.

• Olof Dreijer - Loud Bloom - A fun dance album that’s actually interested in pushing sonic boundaries. Which, given that Dreijer is a member of The Knife, should come as no surprise.

• Kevin Morby - Little Wide Open - An artist that I’m always interested in but rarely compelled by, Morby’s americana folk actually hit this time.

• Bleech 9:3 - Bleech 9:3 - I really wish this wasn’t an EP because there’s something very special going on here. It stays grungy and pissed without giving up on the melancholy at its core.

• Martyn - Music for Existing - Approachable jazz! We love to see it.

• JPEGMAFIA - EXPERIMENTAL RAP - Not the most consistent project ever made, still, the highs are exceptional and the lows aren’t unlistenable.

• Aho Ssan - The Sun Turned Black - Very much for fans of Ben Frost and Roly Porter. Downright apocalyptic synth work here.

• Basic Rhythm - Entropy & Energy - My journey into the world of dance music over the past five or so years has been a delight, and albums like this heavy, off-kilter, yet still retro feeling piece of work make it all the more so.

Things to Look Forward to

Metal Albums

• Converge - Hum of Hurt - Shocked they’re putting out another record just four months after Love Is Not Enough, and pretty happy.

• Voivod & Orchestre Symphonique - Symphonique - This is a live album. Normally, I would ignore this but the idea of Voivod playing with an orchestra is something I can’t miss.

• A.A. Williams - Solstice - I’m not as familiar with A.A. Williams as the other two artists here but when ToTheTeeth titles a newsletter “A.A. Williams made the most beautiful post-doom song of the year” you put that album on your highly anticipated list.

Non-Metal Albums

• Vince Staples - Cry Baby - Can’t lie, the album cover has me worried about this one. I certainly agree with the sentiment but there’s so much room for this to be cringy, something that Staples has deftly avoided his whole career.

• Skrillex - SOMA - It’ll be near impossible for Skrillex to top last year’s F*CK U SKRILLEX YOU THINK UR ANDY WARHOL BUT UR NOT!!<3, and I look forward to seeing the attempt. Very much intrigued by a Blawan feature on the second track.

• Death Cab for Cutie - I Built You a Tower - Late era bands are always a crapshoot, and this stands a much better chance at being good than the new Modest Mouse does.

• Blood Incantation - All Gates Open (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) - I didn’t put this in the wrong place. This is Blood Incantation’s ambient soundtrack to their new movie In Search of Absolute Elsewhere, which chronicles the recording of their 2024 masterpiece.

• KOAN Sound - Moments of Opening - Though I’ve only loved one project by these guys, they’re always doing something interesting enough to check out.

Shrinekeeping

As always, share this if you enjoyed it, or shoot me a text. Either is very welcome. I’ll be running a best of the year so far fairly soon (sometime in July) so keep an eye out.

Oh, and since I mentioned it up top, the job has been great. All the prep was well worth it. A big thank you to those of you who gave me advice and cheered me on.