Top Picks
FKA Twigs – Eusexua (experimental electro/pop)
I promise I'm going to talk about some heavy-ass fucking metal next week. This week though, the more extreme genres continue to drag their feet, while FKA Twigs has gone and released what may well be an all-timer. Prior to this I was only aware of the artist formerly known as Twigs from the first few minutes of her 2022 Caprisongs mixtape, and her atrocious performance in last year's rather abominable Crow remake* (and that one time she was guest judge on Drag race UK). It was also only recently still reeling from the revelation that she was called "F.K.A." rather than "Fucka' Twigs!" So count me doubly shocked when, not only does Eusexua sound more like the lovechild of Arca and Björk than any of the mainstream R&B/hip-hop acts I had mistakenly associated her with, but is also extremely excellent.
Sure, the vocoder occasionally slips into GLaDOS mode (specifically on its opening and closing numbers), which can make its confronting expression of sexual euphoria can be hard to take seriously, and having 11-year-old North West rap "Konnichiwa, My name is North-chan, From California to Tokyo ... Jesus is the one and only true God (You need to know)" in Japanese on the obnoxious "Childlike Things" was probably ill-advised, and that's even before getting into the album's overtly sexual context or her father's current cultural standing. Outside of that though, Eusexua is a flawless masterpiece of modern electronica, that dazzles as much with its electronic experimentation as it does with its melodic memorability. The hard-hitting "Drums of Death", more minimalist "Perfect Stranger" and sultry, trip-hop-drenched "Girl Feels Good" are guaranteed stick in your mind for days, just as the rest of the album is sure to get under your skin.
Release Roundup
A Terre – Embrasser La Nuit (sludgy post-metal)
Abduction – Existentialismus (blackened death metal)
Acolytes of Moros – Sphere of Adversity (blackened doom)
Across the Shade – Madness (progressive melodeath)
Aeonist – Deus Vult (dungeon-symphonic black metal)
Ancient Tome – The Implications of Ascendancy (death doom)
The Andronovo – Ira Diabolica (doomy blackened death metal)
The Archon Rift – The Arcane Chronicle (instrumental symphonic/tech-death)
Atramentum – The Wrath Within (black doom)
Avatarium – Between You, God, The Devil And The Dead (post-goth, mellowdoom)
BeaconFire - Sudden Trauma (djent)
Beneath A Steel Sky – Cleave (post-metal)
Blacktoothed – Headway (nu/alt metal, baddiecore)
Bonfire – Higher Ground (heavy/speed metal)
Bottlebelt – Toxic Brew (death thrash)
Bumblefoot – Bumblefoot…Returns! (prog/tech-shred)
Caprahed – Empire (weird/shitty/prog doom)
Century – Sign Of The Storm (trad metal)
Chaos Control – Lost in Time (power thrash)
Clear Sky Nailstorm – Problem Solved (deah metal)
Concrete Icon – Voracious Streams (death metal)
Corroding Soul – Corroding Soul (blackgaze)
Crown of Asteria – Rime of the Clouds (weird ambient)
Dax Riggs – 7 Songs For Spiders (spooky alt-sludge)
Deadspawn – Bile Of The Gods (blackened death metal)
Death Cult 69 – The Way of All Flesh (black doom)
Descarnado – El eterno odio de las almas desterradas (deathcore)
Discordant Meditation – Tragic Creature (death metal)
Disrupted – Stinking Death (crusty death metal)
Dream Elixir - Anthology (deathcore)
Enveiled – Death Awaits All (black/death metal)
Fleshbore – Painted Paradise (brutal tech-death)
The Ferrymen – Iron Will (heavy/melodic metal)
Gokseong 곡성 – Whispers from the Haunted Shadows (blackened melodeath)
Grand Devourer – Traversing The Void (death metal)
The Great Old Ones – Kadath (deathened black metal)
The Machinist – Contempt for Life (industrial/groove death)
Hammer Strike – Scorched Earth (death-thrash)
Harakiri For The Sky – Scorched Earth (post-black metal)
Haven – Causes (blackened prog-metal)
Hellvetika – Lifespring (font metal)
Highest Torch – A New Eera (groove metal, hardcore)
Hjort – Evolve IV-VII (folky post metal)
I See Ghøsts - Goddamn Fine (post-hardcore)
Ice War – Feel The Steel (trad metal, not Steel Panther)
Insanity Black – Locked & Loaded (heavy metal, thrash)
Kalyptra - Mania (electro-metalcore)
Knogjärn – Bly (groove metal)
Labyrinth – In The Vanishing Echoes Of Goodbye (prog/power metal)
Loss Becomes – Sonder (groove metal)
Martyrion – Gaia Uprising (mellodeath-doom)
Master Spy – Maze Runner (power metal)
Membaris – Black Plasma Armour (black metal)
Merzotna Potvora – Poliuvannia (black metal)
Mogwai – The Bad Fire (post-rock)
Můra – Needle Cathedral (blackened death-doom)
Nekomata – Euphoria (prog metal)
Oh The Humanity! – Ground To Dust (prog-punk?)
Oni – Genesis (melodic metalcore, djenty butt-rock)
Putred – Megalit al Putrefacției (death metal)
Retador – Earendel (black thrash)
Resistor - Headcase (nu metalcore, djent)
Ringlorn – Tales of War and Magic (power metal)
Rohan – Suffering With A Smile (blackened death metal)
Rosary – The Broken Sacrament (doom/death metal)
Sabhankra – Nocturnal Elegies (shady black metal)
Scitalis – Maledictum (deathish black metal)
Sheoru - Vantage (alt/goth metal)
Sinner – Pity Fate (black metal)
Sisters Doll – Scars (hard rock, hair metal)
Skylimit - Skylimit (alt rock/metal)
Sleepbomb – The Sleeping Dead (post-doom)
The Slime – Crabwalk To Oblivion (hardcore)
Slumdweller – Prequel I: Grim Desires (Anguish Machine) (post-industrial?)
Storm Kingdom – The Savage Garden (posty meloblack/death)
The Summon – Deus Vult (progressive/blackened death metal)
Sunrot – Passages (blackened sludge)
Swept to Sea - Lost Shores (metalcore)
Sypha – Borderland (nu metal)
Thlipsis – Servants of Apathy (meloblack)
Tormentor Tyrant – Excessive Escalation (death metal)
Trishula – Becoming The Enemy (mellowodic rock)
Umbersound – If The Flies Can Sing (doom metal)
Veenlijk – Galgenberg (crustish black metal)
Voidfallen – The Rituals Of Resilience (symphonic black metal)
Vomitriste – Black Abyss Invocation (industrial/blackened ambient)
Vukovi – My God Has Got A Gun (nu metal, badiecore)
Wardruna – Birna (folk, metal?)
Watch My Dying – Egyenes Kerülő (progressive death, tech-groove)
Wildness – Avenger (soft hard-rock)