Top Pick
Maruja – Pain to Power (progressive jazz-punk)
I'm a bit out of my depth here, but I think anyone would have a hard time describing Ireland's Maruja, who blend grimey hip hop, metal, folk, post punk, saxophone-led jazz among several other styles—emphasis on blend, rather than just throwing in random sections willy-nilly, like some other progressive bands are wont to do these days... It's tempting to pitch them as Ireland's answer to Arab Strap or modern Swans, or perhaps simply the answer to the question what if Idles were (way) more interesting? But even that's hardly scratching the surface of what's going on on the band's first full length Pain to Power.
While I don't particularly care for overly saxified, sad ballad "Saoirse", everything else on the album is wholly and often hypnotically compelling. Lead single "Look Down on Us" reminds me of Chat Pile, with its industrial-ish, down-tuned grind and confrontingly political lyrics, which is continued several tracks later on the confrontational, Rage Against the Machine-esque challenge of "Trenches", which sounds like the aforementioned Idles covering "Killing in the Name". "Born to Die" is a ten-minute track that spends seven minutes sounding like mournful slam poetry being recited over the start of Pink Floyd's "Shine on You Crazy Diamond", before exploding into a bombastic math/noise rock crescendo that briefly borrows the bass line from Stone Temple Pilots' "Vassoline", but is also very good somehow and manages to remain engaging the whole way through, and there are even some slight nods towards their countrymen in post punk turned stadium rock superstars U2 via the the climactic vocal wails of "Zaytoun" and "Reconcile".
There's a lot going on here, but Pain to Power's deceptively minimalist presentation also makes it extremely digestible and engaging, while also giving the impression that each and every moment of its varied arrangements are utterly essential. ...except for "Saoirse" perhaps.
Release Roundup
Aedan Sky – The Universal Realm (power thrash)
Alltheniko – Balls of Steel (heavy metal, power doom)
Appalooza – The Emperor Of Loss (desert doom)
Arjen Anthony Lucassen – Songs No One Will Hear (prog metal)
Ashen – Chimera (nu baddiecore)
Balt Hüttar – Tanzerloch (folk metal)
Barrens – Corpse Lights (post-rock/metal)
Beth Blade & The Beautiful Disasters – Vintage Rebel x Trauma Bond (hard rock)
Between The Buried And Me – The Blue Nowhere (wacky prog-metal) Review
Bone Fetish – Bone Fetish (death metal)
Booze & Glory – Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (punk)
The Cards I Play – Diamond Avenue (nu metal)
Caesarean – Wretched Decrepitude (death metal, goregrind)
Cea Serin – The World Outside (prog rock/metal)
Chameleons – Arctic Moon (indie/goth rock)
Cheap Gas – Altars of Patrician Genocide (death metal/grind)
Colorblind – Who Sold You This Truth (baddiecore, emo)
Colosalist – Two Suns (doom metal)
Crippling Alcoholism – Camgirl (deperessive post-goth)
Crucible – Hail To The Force (Iron Maiden)
Der Weg Einer Freiheit – Innern (post-black metal)
Demon Hunter – There Was A Light Here (Christ/butt-core)
Die Spitz – Something To Consume (alt rock, sludge punk)
Electromancy – Visions Of Utopia (robo metal)
Exelerate – Hell For The Helpless (speed metal, power thrash)
Foxcult – Watercolors: The Emerald Grove (progressive alt rock/post-hardcore)
Gnaw Their Tongues – The Genesis Of Light (noise drone)
Golden Serpent – Lullabies from Hell (blackened death)
Greysight – Where the Light Won't Reach (nu metalcore)
Headless Kross/Pound Land – Split (sludge doom)
Helstar – The Devil’s Masquerade (heavy metal)
Heruvim – Mercator (old-school prog death)
Ho99o9 – Tomorrow We Escape (nu metal, electro/rap core)
Hyperstrike – High Risk (heavy metal, power thrash)
I See Stars – The Wheel (post-hardcore, emo)
I, Cursed – Heretical Onslaught (blackened grind, sludge-core)
Infernal Thorns – Christus Venari (brutal blackened-death)
Intercourse – How I Fell In Love With The Void (posty mathcore, noise rock)
Jawtrap – Hellscape (crusty speed-grind)
Jo Quail – Notan (droney post-folk)
Kalamity Kills – Kalamity Kills (heavy metal, prog groove)
KFC Murder Chicks – 233 (noisy glitch/breakcore)
Lament Ov Lilith – Lament Ov Lilith (bad/blackened deathcore)
Lastelle – Exist: Vol II (post-hardcore, emo)
Lorna Shore – I Feel The Everblack Festering Within Me (brutal/symphonic/samey deathcore)
Matt Miller – Fiber Tormentum (tech-death)
Moribund Oblivion – Intertemporal (prog/meloblack)
Mortal Scepter – Ethereal Dominance (prog/black-thrash)
Motherless – Do You Feel Safe? (blackened sludge, crust)
Must Kill – Condemned to Torture (groove thrash)
NecroticGoreBeast – Brute (slamming brutal death)
Nepal Death – Pilgrims And Psychonauts (psych rock)
Nevertel – Start Again (baddiecore)
Nicolas Cage Fighter – I Watched You Burn (death/metalcore) Review
NinjaWitch – Frequency Of Gods (stoner doom)
Not Enough Space – Weaponize Your Rage (metalcore)
Oak Coffin – The Obsidian Ritual (blackened melo/death)
Optical Sun – Diabel (blackened doom)
Problem Patterns – Boring Songs For Boring People (punk, rock)
The Rasmus – Weirdo (y tho?)
Raven Black – Black Sonata (blackish goth-metal)
Restraining Order – Future Fortune (punk)
Revelator – Light The Devil’s Fire (deathened black metal)
RinRin – The Nut House (death-dubstep)
Silverstein – Pink Moon (post-hardcore, alt rock)
Slomatics – Atomicult (fuzzy prog-doom)
Sorrowful Land – Hiraeth (mellowdoom)
The Sound Of Animals Fighting – The Maiden (prog punk?)
Souvenirs Pr – Echoes of Conflict (instrumental post/prog, djent shred)
Spite House – Desertion (post-hardcore, emo punk)
Spinal Tap – The End Continues (please stop)
Stargazer – Stone Cold Creatures (heavy/melodic metal)
Sweet Savage – Bang (heavy metal, hard rock)
Syrinx – Time Out Of Place (weird prog)
The Switch – No Way Out (melodic rock, AOR)
Thorndale – Spiritual Chains (sludge/groove metal)
Transgressive – Never Go Quiet (black thrash)
Traversus – Navigate (alt/prog metal)
Tripas Sangrientas – Crude Autopsy Examinations (brutal death/grind)
Twenty One Pilots –Breach (alt/indie/pop/bad rock)
Unaligned – A Form Beyond (progressive blackened-death)
Under Exile – Under Exile (metalcore)
Waking the Sleeping Bear - Grands maux, grands remèdes (Partie 1) (when keeping it real goes wrong)
Winternius – Underwater Darkness (black metal)
Year Of The Goat – Trivia Goddess (doom metal)
Yotuma – The Final Void (slamming brutal death)