Over the past few years (and specifically in 2018), I’ve been taken aback by the critical affinity with metalcore. It’s not just because of the music itself, though I’ll admit that I’m not particularly fond of recent critically acclaimed albums from bands like Code Orange and Vein. No, what really…
It’s a good practice to stagger your releases a bit in order to keep your music and name fresh in your audience’s mind. If you release an album every few years, you run the risk of losing the attention of both the media and your listeners, unless you’re a big…
January is like a box of chocolates; you never know exactly what you’re going to get. That’s how the famous saying goes, right? In any case, the start of the year does tend to be an unexpected affair. December sees many of us going into relative hibernation, as PR and…
Heavy Pod Is Heavy Cast!
New year, new music! We discuss new material from Jinjer, Dream Theater, Born of Osiris, Saor (and an extended discussion on nationalism), In Flames, Soilwork, and Astronoid. Plus Genghis Tron being on streaming services and Al Mumin’s repsonse to The HAARP Machine’s crowdfunder failing. Then, cool people time with Informer, Darkest Dungeon and more. Enjoy!
Each month, we always seem to come to the same conclusion when it comes to our Editors’ Picks column: Friday release days open the floodgates and unleash a seemingly endless stream of quality new music. But while some of our Editors and Contributors sit down gleefully each week to dive into this newly stocked treasure…
Well, here we are – another year full of new releases. In lieu of our weekly Release Day Roundup, we thought we’d preview the months ahead of us and highlight which albums we’re most heavily anticipating. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and we hope you’ll comment with…
Heavy Pod Is Heavy Cast!
Lot of good stuff this week! New Born of Osiris album, new material from Crystal Lake, Maximum the Hormone, Astronoid, Downfall of Gaia, Shokran, Arcadia Libre, Children of Bodom, In Flames, and Grimes. Also a full pro shot live show of Trivium without Matt Heafy. Then we discuss a Decibel article about bands who successfully changed memorable vocalists. Then cool people time with Artifact, Bodyguard and Isinona. Enjoy!
Heavy Pod Is Heavy Cast!
Title doesn’t matter because blogs don’t matter! Apparently. Other than that, we have the obligatory Threatin conversation, then discuss some new #content like Archspire, Born of Osiris, Sarah Longfield, Aenimus, Postwax, Slipknot and Soen. Then we do cool people on Cam, Call of Cthulhu (the game), Homecoming, Total Warhammer 2 Vampire Coast, and Peter Watts’s The Freeze-Frame Revolution. Enjoy!
I promise this episode title isn’t about the podcast itself. I think this is one of the better episodes in a while, in fact! We discuss a bunch of new music, including Krisiun, Epica, Born of Osiris, Anaal Nathrakh, Daron Malakian and Scars on Broadway, and Erra. Then some happenings, like Kvelertak getting a new vocalist, Matt Tuck of Bullet For My Valentine and his terrible hot take, The Ocean (not to be confused with Oceano, Eden) working on a double album, Eden’s Alkaloid prognotes, and me meeting a fellow metal musician and discovering his awesome band Cartilage. Along the ride, we discuss how modern production is ruining death metal (I promise it’s not “old man yells at clouds”), the DC cinematic universe, and more. Also, we do cool people time with Enter the Gungeon and Middle Earth: Shadow of War DLC, and me waxing poetic about puzzle games, including The Spectrum Retreat, (The) Portal 1/2, The Talos Principle, The Witness, The Swapper and more. Enjoy!
Djent had an explosive entrance into the world of heavy music, around the start of the decade. It was a truly exciting occurrence, with first-wave acts like Periphery, Animals As Leaders and Cloudkicker filtering the technically-driven progressive sound of acts like Meshuggah, Sikth, and those of the budding “Sumeriancore” movement, into something altogether more accessible, while still retaining much of their forebears’ technical and progressive edge. Yet, like most new sub-genres, djent quickly devolved into pastiche and gave way to over saturation—perhaps a little bit quicker than most. Djent, it seems, has had a propperly ballistic trajectory, and—in 2017—as its momentum trails off, it’s hard to get excited about this once-promising phenomenon.
