We’re officially past the halfway mark for 2019, and though there is plenty of time left in the year for music to come and shape our view of it, I think there are certainly a few themes taking shape already that we’ll still be talking about come year’s end. First…
Friends, I’m gonna be real with you. It’s been a busy week, and I’m writing this late at night, so this month’s intro will be brief. A couple of housekeeping items in case you missed it. First, though it’s officially out today if you haven’t listened to the new album…
Ah, May! What a heady month, as Spring makes itself known in most of our circles. It’s probably my favorite time of the year to listen to music; something about the combination between the weather, the symbology of the period, the days getting longer, and the fact that it’s just…
Covering music for the blog provides both an avenue for curation as well as a means of tracking stylistic movements in various scenes. We’ve used our platform to chronicle the evolution of dissonant death metal, the new wave of traditional heavy metal, progressive stoner/sludge/doom, and a myriad of other subgenres…
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…
If not for the fact I was browsing in Bandcamp’s “Jazz” section, I probably wouldn’t have approached Wandering Monster expecting an intricate, infectious style of jazz fusion. At first glance, the album cover and name looked like it belonged somewhere under the “experimental electronic” umbrella. Often times, jazz artists represent…
I love micro-scenes. If you’re unaware of the term, it is used to describe those little cliques you can find in the music community, cliques that aren’t big enough to be described as scenes in their own right. They’re often arranged around a person, a band, a family or a…
Praise be, after hearing my complaints about the paucity of quality releases in July, the post-rock gods have smiled favorably upon us and have brought us good fortune as the hellish days of summer (hopefully, please, have mercy on my pale self) slowly fade into the crisper and bountiful days of autumn. In fact, it’s possible that there were simply too many releases of note in August for us to actually cover properly. We can’t win, evidently. But no matter what you all win as we talk about some really fantastic music that’s worth sticking into your earholes. So let’s hop to it, shall we?
If you’ve followed Heavy Blog over the last few years, you’ve likely noticed how much we adore the output of Art As Catharsis. This year alone, we’ve seen phenomenal albums ranging from the nu-jazz-fusion of COAST to the artsy chamber pop of Lack the Low to the blackened, deathly metalcore of Bridge Burner. I’ve long…
Noyan is away, so Eden hosts fellow blog editor, Nick Cusworth! This gives the two opportunity to talk about stuff that usually doesn’t come up on the cast which they use to shine a light on Jim Grey from Caligula’s Horse releasing a video for the A Capela segment on their latest album, Plini releasing a new track, and a deep dive on the changes undergoing the post rock scene, recommended bands that make post rock or metal and the close knit networks that make these scenes happen! Along the way, they mention bands like Man Mountain, This Patch of Sky, Town Portal, VASA, Rumour Cubes, The Physics House Band, Alpha Male Tea Party, Mountain, Below a Silent Sky, Flora, Soldat Hans and more!
Then, it’s time for the bad news. They start off with surprising opinions revolving around gun control, first from Run the Jewels’ Killer Mike and then from Taylor Swift. They then move on to the click-bait article published on The Washington Post which claims that physical sales exceeded digital ones in 2017. While that’s technically true, the two analyze why that happened and get pretty personal on vinyl and CDs! Lastly, there’s a trio of terrible politics from the metal community. The first is the ridicule in the wake of The Faceless breaking up again, and what that says about the community’s terrible perspectives on addiction. Then, there’s another statement from Decapitated who totally by accident (allegedly) misinterpret and represent the facts of their trial again. Finally, there’s the awful news of Inquisition’s Dagon involvement with child pornography and, surprise, the community’s desire to protect him.
Cool people time includes The Witcher 3, CW’s Black Lightning and Ninefox Gambit!
