Greg Kennelty
News Editor and Reviewer
ABRAMS Modern Ways
Modern Ways sounds like a stoner rock band got a little too pissed off one day after listening to newer Mastodon records. Modern Ways blends harsher vocals with sunbaked riffs, throws more hooks than a tackle box can hold into the mix, and ends up with an incredibly unique sound. If this isn't the record that breaks Abrams to a much wider audience, then the audience was hopeless anyway.
Listen to Modern Ways in its entirety.
ELEPHANT TREE Habits
Elephant Tree manages to combine everything good about atmospheric doom, psychedelic sludge, and progressive rock and still sound flawlessly cohesive. Habits is a record for the patient. There's nothing quick about its melodies or riffs. Though in that measured slowness is a kaleidoscope whose changes were made for that speed, and whose slow-moving sonic images are worth every second.
Listen to Habits in its entirety.
LOWRIDER Refractions
Lowrider hasn't missed a beat in 20 years. The Swedish stoner rock unit is a hair heavier now than on their landmark 2000 effort Ode to Io, though the extra chunkiness is more than welcome. Refractions is a swirling cloud of blues guitar, spaciness atmosphere, and biting grit that's as likely to hypnotize you as it is to give you a permanent case of riff-induced stank face.
Listen to Refractions in its entirety.
SHINER Schadenfreude
Shiner returns after 19 years with a concise eight songs and 38 minutes of perfectly executed new music. Schadenfreude spans genres, going from the dreamy sludge of "Life as a Mannequin" to the noisier crunch of "Genuflect," down to the punkier side of things on "Paul P. Pogh" and closes out with a lonely keyboard on "O Captain." There is not an ounce of filler or lesser-than songwriting on this record.
Listen to Schadenfreude in its entirety.
SPOTLIGHTS We are All Atomic
Spotlights' new album We are All Atomic is one 28 minute song in four movements. We are All Atomic uses shoegaze, doom, and atmosphere of gargantuan proportions as a vehicle to explore the space between atoms. To dig down into the makeup of everything and move between the building blocks, leaving space where it should be between masses.
Listen to We Are All Atomic in its entirety.
Chris Luedtke
Reviewer and Writer of The Monday Grind
BLACK CURSE Endless Wound
Praise has been heaped on this record time and time again for good reason. Endless Wound is one of the most interesting and engaging death metal releases of the year. Featuring members of Primitive Man, Spectral Voice, Blood Incantation, Khemmis, and more, Black Curse churn out a death metal record that is also part-doom and even war metal. It’s something that’s different, fresh, and bleak.
Listen to Endless Wound in its entirety.
CODE ORANGE Underneath
No one could be more surprised by this release than me. Because before this album, I did not like this band. And I tried to. However, something happened, and this band really fell into place on this record. A fusion of hardcore/punk, industrial metal, and rock that on paper shouldn’t work. But it does. It is glitchy, really heavy, and, as expected, aggressive as hell.
Listen to "You and You Alone."
FLUIDS Ignorance Exalted
Here’s a band that’s been making some waves lately. Fluids is an ugly amalgamation of old, raw death metal and goregrind. Ignorance Exalted is the band’s latest EP and continues the three-piece’s reign of terror. Tracks can easily get stuck in the head and the brutality is endless.
Listen to Ignorance Exalted in its entirety.
INTERNAL ROT Grieving Birth
Oh, this is one filthy, goes-ballistic grindcore record. It’s nothing new, it’s just the genre in its best form: loud, fast, punk, and heavy. Internal Rot know how to grind. This is gonna be a hard one to top for the genre.
Listen to Grieving Birth in its entirety.
WAKE Devouring Ruin
Wake has evolved a lot in their 10-year existence. Though at their core they’re a deathgrind band, they’ve massively expanded their sound and songwriting capabilities album to album. On Devouring Ruin, Wake have created their longest and most sprawling record yet. It is grind, death, doom, and progressive metal thrown into a blender and pureed.
Listen to Devouring Ruin in its entirety.
