I'm in Vermont. Doing tree things. Hills. Foliage. You know, the Vermont things. So, brief intro: music rules. Here's some music that rules especially.
Get to it.
Trudger - Void Quest
Sometimes I have more quiet years where I’ll listen to the myriad other genres I like and not so much to heavier stuff. It’s not that I don’t listen to heavy stuff at all; I don’t think that will ever happen. But sometimes I have more taste for color, for melody, and less for punishing buzz or echoing chords. I won’t lie: when this happens, the inevitable question of “is this it? Am I too old for this now?” starts to creep out. Luckily, there’s always enough really good heavy music to dispel such notions. I’m not the problem - it’s just that not everything is as good as Trudger’s Void Quest. The band, featuring some alumni from one of my favorite groups, Dvne, make exactly the sort of heavy, progressive, sludge-death that I first fell in love with Dvne for. But on Void Quest, everything has been turned down, creating a meatier and more aggressive sound.
“Occupied Frequency” (as Josh said elsewhere on the blog, the track names are just incredible) is probably my favorite example. You can detect that “spidery”, crystalline progressive stoner riff operating in the background but it is buried under a ton of tone, thick, chugging bass, and drums that sound like they are about to burst. More than anything though, the vocals simply deliver an aural assault. Through the release, they match and exceed the other instruments in their aggression, creating a thick presence that reminds me of none other than HARK (RIP as always; a thousand times RIP). Put together, “Merciless Saber” is two and a half minutes of pummeling yet intricate metal that has grabbed even my currently melody-starved ear.
That shorter run-time translates to the rest of the album, clocking in at just under thirty-six minutes. Trudger use every minute of it to introduce us to their high octane, pressure forged, and battle ready version of sci-fi sludge-death. Yes I wrote sci-fi sludge-death and yes, that’s what this album is: groovy, present, violent, and intricate in a way that doesn’t sacrifice a moment of tension.
-Eden Kupermintz
Deftones - private music
Nostalgia is an interesting thing. In life at large it can be a source of immense joy or deep pain, bringing back to our minds impressions of things as they once were, for good or ill. These feelings and moments often feel encased in amber, seminal dots on the maps of our lives that feel for whatever reason important enough to retain. Funny thing is research indicates that our memories are faulty as fuck, and it feels weird to have these big chunks of time swimming around in our heads that most likely did not happen the way we remember them. But they shape us nonetheless, accuracy be damned.
If there’s one band that triggers nostalgia in me more starkly than any other besides maybe The National, it’s Deftones. So much of my life has been played out with their music as the soundtrack, and cuts like “Change (In the House of Flies)” and “My Own Summer (Shove It)” are as intrinsically entrenched in time and place in my psyche as anything I’ve experienced with art. I have a deep love for this band that transcends logic and my evolving tastes, so I’m honestly deeply unqualified to critically assess the merit of their 10th full-length record private music. So I won’t really try. I really love this imperfect album for a multitude of reasons, many of them personal to a point that the experience is literally impossible to explain or attempt to replicate in word. But here’s me trying anyway. Bottoms up.
30 years into an already unimpeachably stellar and influential career, one could easily forgive Deftones for resting on their laurels. Fans somewhat did this with the just “fine” Gore, but to my ears private music is a significant step above that record and much of their post KNY output. A significant reason for this circles back to the phenomenon I started this review discussing: Nostalgia. While there’s often a negative connotation associated with that word when discussing music in particular, private music is one of the more sterling examples I can remember of looking backward as a principal strength.
Above all else, private music feels like a compendium of the band’s entire discography. There are shades of nearly every record the band have released thus far to be found here. But the brilliance of private music, to my ears at least, is that these tracks don’t feel like retreads of previously released work. Instead, private music feels like the result of a band fundamentally understanding what has made their best music the special thing it is, and leaning into those strengths with verve. “My Mind Is a Mountain,” “Infinite Source” (with its heavily processed The Cure-styled guitar wonkiness and epic chorus), “Milk of the Madonna,” and the gorgeous “I Think About You All the Time” are off the rip among the best tracks the band have written. Not because they feel particularly fresh or novel in the band’s back catalog, but because they encapsulate the aspects that have made the band’s music soar lo these many years.
Those hoping for another White Pony moment will obviously be sorely disappointed. There’s not a lot that’s fresh or new here. But those who have generally found power in Deftones’ music will most likely be transported by some of the band’s most tightly constructed, beautifully realized music to date. Sure, a focus on past work may not always be a good thing. But in private music, Deftones have tapped into the type of nostalgia that feels like… home. That moment you remember with a loved one that feels untainted by the irreverent and unrelenting beatdown of modern life. It’s special. It’s beautiful. It’s worth sitting in, even if only for a moment. And in this moment, Deftones’ latest release dances through my mind with me, unbothered by the pain that abounds.
-Jonathan Adams
Hexrot - Formless Ruin of Oblivion
As much as I think I have a reputation for dwelling in the swamps of brutal death metal and slam, my musical affections span a variety of niches and subgenres. My daily listening habits wander across the terrain of shoegaze, vaporwave, sludge metal, black metal, and of course, death fuckin’ metal. The common line: texture. Just like how some people crave powerful lyrics, mind-bending songwriting, or ground-shaking riffs, I need weird synths, caustic guitars, swampy vocals, and pummeling basslines to fall in love with an album. The range is useful for appreciating a range of sounds, but it’s rare that one artist can scratch all the sonic sweet spots in one release. Enter Hexrot.
Forget trying to define the subgenre, Formless Ruin of Oblivion dances maniacally on the line of electronic sound experiment and metal. If there’s remnants of structure peeking out from under the mangled wreckage (a pretty large if), it would likely be the high-octane riffs and pounding energy of thrash metal, which infects the album with the addictive thrill of a high speed chase. Aside from that…all bets are off as Hexrot aggressively skitters from warped synths to mammoth riffs to off-kilter rhythms that spiral into an angular mass of industrial and black metal flourishes. Structure is simultaneously actively rejected and ferociously explored as tracks are condensed into 69-second barrages and exploded into near 16-minute epics. Nothing is real and everything is dangerous.
-Bridget Hughes
FURTHER LISTENING
VOID - Forbidden Morals (heavy metal)
I will never forget that my first allegiance is to heavy metal. It’s where I started, where my love for metal first grew. VOID understand the power of heavy metal very well and serve up a version of it I absolutely adore: moving, dark, and well composed. Add in a touch of tech-thrash and speed metal and you’ve got it all sorted.
-EK
Haunt - Ignite (heavy metal)
If the above entry is about an alternative vision of heavy metal’s history, this is a tribute to that history, like all of Haunt’s releases. This one manages to recapture that lightning in a bottle energy of the first few releases, serving up hot, powerful heavy metal riffs directly to your frontal cortex.
-EK
Melpomene – A Body Is a Suggestion (instrumental post-prog)
If you think you know what this album sounds like, no you don’t. Smart, intricate, dark, and wholly engrossing, A Body Is a Suggestion is a fresh and immensely enjoyable take on progressive metal.
-EK
In Mourning - The Immortal
One of the most consistent bands in progressive metal releases one of the best progressive metal records of the year. Shocker. It’s pretty simple: If you like In Mourning, you’ll probably like The Immortal. Diverse, interesting, tight, and superbly performed. Great stuff!
-JA
Fell Omen - Caelid Dog Summer (dungeon metal)
Get in, loser, we’re going on a quest. Heavy metal meets blackened intensity for an old-school adventure through realms unknown. Listen for an instant mood boost and the motivation to fight dragons (or fascists).
-BH
Birth and Loss – Untitled (progressive grindcore)
Death Goals – Survival as an Act of Defiance (math/“queercore”)
Ihlo –Legacy (progressive tech-metal)
Suotana – Ounas II (melodeath/folk)
Uboa/Whitehorse – The Dissolution of Eternity (sludgy doom-drone)
Arcadea – The Exodus of Gravity (synth/psyche-rock)
Corridore –Abandon (post-black metal)
Farseer – Portals to Cosmic Womb (progressive sludge-doom, black metal)
Hundreds Of Au – Life In Parallel (mathy screamo)
Broken by the Scream – Solar Strain (progressive kawaii-core)
Asunojokei – Think of You (progressive post-black metal/gaze)
Dreamwake – The Lost Years (pop metalcore)
Völur & Cares – Breathless Spirit (blackened/progressive doom)
Creatvre – Toujours Humain (weird/progressive black metal)
The Depth Beneath Us – Descent (progressive post-rock)
Gridlink – Perfect Amber (grindcore)
Sallow Moth – Mossbane Lantern (weird/progressive tech-death)