As the years go by, the trepidation and sense of the sacred with which I approach these posts only increases. I’m not a believing person but there’s something about A Year that combines the intimate and the small with the incredibly big that triggers all my sacral instincts. “Sacral instincts”…
Our brain tends to think that things must be the way they are, by the very force of their existence. When reasons are occluded, we simply tend to assume them, to hand-wave and let our lizard brains fill in the blanks so that we’re less worried. This often manifests in art; people…
I’ve been listening to “brighter” music lately; whether it’s the shrill tones of thrash and traditional heavy metal or the expansive beats of more electronic genres, something in me just hungers these days for cleaner, more direct tones. But I’ll make exceptions as I always do for the best of the best, even if it’s from a genre I’m not currently paying too much attention to. Enter Leonov and their thoroughly corrosive Wake from which we’re proud to premiere the opening track today, “I am Lion, I am Yours”. We’re talking about post-metal which totters on the precipice of sludge, accompanied by excellent and otherworldly vocals of the most rarified sort. The entire album is a bleak, moving work of art and this track is all of it in microcosm. Head on over the jump and dive in the murk.
Female vocalists in doom metal bands are far from a dime-a-dozen, but their presence is thankfully much more common than in previous decades of metal’s existence. There’s something utterly transfixing about soaring female vocals covering all the heaviness of doom metal in a haunting, ethereal light. Nina Saeidi is the…
Like I wrote in one of the earliest Editors’ Picks of the year, there’s no better indication for the health of a musical year than variety. This ended up being the pitfall for 2017 for plenty of our Staff, even though overall it was very strong for certain genres. When…
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…
Hype is a curious thing. It can serve as the catalyst for an up-and-coming band to gain notoriety and exposure, or as a crushing blow to an established act that falls short of the stratospheric expectations attached to their work. It is a simultaneous blessing and bane, building and destroying…
Messa, an Italian band that’s been very active in the recent few years, wield a powerful chimerical creature made of doom and stoner with great expertise. Their 2016, Belfry, is a masterclass in the powerful combination of doom and stoner (often dubbed “occult” metal) and we’ve been way, way too quiet about it.
Just this past week we saw how important the ACLU still is. One of the first to confront the so called “Muslim ban” enacted by the indifferent pen of Donald Trump, it began the long and arduous legal battle against this administration. With not only the presidency but also Congress and Senate painted in the most extreme and reckless red imaginable, their work will grow seven-fold; now they must take on the legislative branch instead. Thus, and despite of the already remarkable success their fundraising has seen in the past week, Bandcamp’s contribution to the ACLU is admirable. We’re here to do our share; below you’ll find a list of artists that are worthy of your support on this Friday.
