Author Archives: theradicalsloth
Danny Elfman – Big Mess
Release Date: June 11, 2021 Label: Anti- From the promoter: After releasing a series of singles over the past few months, Danny Elfman is announcing his first solo album in thirty-seven years today, titled Big Mess. A slow burning track, True faces down hopelessness and despair head on. Elfman’s vocals are gritty and growling here, […]
Emma Ruth Rundle – Engine of Hell
Release Date: November 5, 2021 Label: Sargent House From the label: Engine of Hell is stark, intimate, and unflinching. For anyone that’s endured trauma and grief, there’s a beautiful solace in hearing Rundle articulate and humanize that particular type of pain not only with her words, but with her particular mysterious language of melody and […]
Converge – Bloodmoon: 1
Release Date: November 19, 2021 Label: Epitaph “Something grander than the typical four-piece Converge” says Converge vocalist Jacob Bannon in reference to the inspiration that eventually bloomed into Bloodmoon: I. This record features guitarists and vocalists Chelsea Wolfe, Stephen Brodsky (Cave In, Mutoid Man), and Ben Chisholm (Chelsea Wolfe). The title track is haunting and features […]
Genghis Tron – Dream Weapon
Release Date: March 26, 2021 Label: Relapse Records Dream Weapon is Genghis Tron’s first release in 11 years. Gone is the screaming, the blast beats and Nintendocore. Instead, we get sparse electronica post-rock. Traditionalists will be disappointed but this record represents an impressive progression. Pyrocene is sinister and pulsating industrial rock. A clear progression from […]
Wolves in the Throne Room – Primordial Arcana
Release Date: August 20, 2021 Label: Relapse Records Wolves in the Throne Room have stretched the genre of black metal with an atmospheric sounds and lyrics that are nature-reverent and frankly quite progressive. Band members aren’t covered in corpse paint and they eschew much of the bombastic clichés that often define the genre. Mountain Magick […]
Hammerdrone – A Trinity of Rage
Release Date: December 14, 2021 Record Label: Self-released Aggressive, heavy, and hauntingly melodic in places, A Trinity of Rage incorporates a variety of black and progressive metal influences to present an EP that pushes the boundaries while also embracing the roots of old-school, melodic death metal origins. A Trinity of Rage is a concept album […]
Bone Tower – We All Will Die One Day
Release date: 11/5/2021 Label: No Funeral Records From the artist: “Both sonically and lyrically, We All Will Die One Day represents a collective status of disarray. Challenging speed and complex rhythms serve to accelerate unfavorable emotions to the forefront of your mind. A raw and unfiltered byproduct of mental health in disarray and unfocused aggression, […]
The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die – Illusory Walls
Release Date: October 8, 2021 Label: Epitaph Illusory Walls is by far the most technically proficient and hardest hitting music released by the band. You can hear cynicism grown from the dystopian period that we’re all navigating. Queen Sophie For President opens up on a bass line that seems inspired by The Cure. This song […]
Quicksand – Distant Populations
Release Date: September 24, 2021 Label: Epitaph Quicksand, continues their post-hardcore renaissance. After lying dormant for 22 years, this is the second Quicksand record in 4 years. Distant Populations has a punchier, more up-tempo sound, with 11 concise songs that are sonic jewels. The band doesn’t waste a single note. Its gripping lyricism and raw […]
Mouse Rat – The Awesome Album
Release Date: August 27, 2021 Label: Dualtone Mouse Rat is fronted by local Pawnee, Indiana Parks and Recreation shoeshine employee Andy Dwyer. Dwyer is known around town as a prolific genius, fronting many local acts through the years including: A.D and the D Bags, The Andy Andy Andies, Andy Dwyer Experience, Angelsnack, Crackfinger, Death of […]
Angel Du$t – YAK: A Collection of Truck Songs
Release Date: October 22, 2021 Label: Roadrunner Records A pleasantly short album from members of Turnstile and Trapped Under Ice. The musical style goes on to show that we haven’t reached the limits of the ever-expanding genre of post-hardcore. The lyrical content deals with mundanity of life the beauty of the routine. The opener, Big […]
A Great Big Pile of Leaves – Pono
Release Date: August 13, 2021 Label: Topshelf Records After releasing their first two records in 2010 and 2013, A Great Big Pile of Leaves went on hiatus. Pono picks right back up where they left off. Wistful musings on adolescence abound. Cue Hit Reset. It’s full of simple auditory pleasures. Beat Up Shoes is a […]
Full of Hell – Garden of Burning Apparitions
Release Date: October 1, 2021 Label: Relapse Records Twelve songs in 21 minutes. This one comes at you fast and furious. Likely, the bands most extreme release to date, Garden of Burning Apparitions incorporates elements grindcore, noise, hardcore, death metal, and industrial music and reconstitutes them as something sinister, sharp, and dark. Checking in at […]
Christone “Kingfish” Ingram – 662
Release Date: July 23, 2021 Label: Alligator Records Christone “Kingfish” Ingram hails from the city of Clarksdale, in Coahoma County, Mississippi, just ten miles from the legendary crossroads of Highways 61 and 49. A blues guitar prodigy, Ingram proudly carries on the legacy of Mississippi Hill Country Blues. The title track is honest blues played […]
The Blood of Christ – The Lonely Flowers of Autumn
Release Date: August 21, 2021 Label: CDN Records Canadian death metallers The Blood of Christ are reissuing their early 1990’s demos from “The Lonely Flowers Of Autumn” (1995). These are rough mixes of blackened death metal hybrid that sound similar to a mashup of Carcass and Enslaved. The lyrics are more abstract and poetic than […]
Tommy Dahill – E Pluribus Unum
Label: Self-released Self-described as Alaska DeathMetalBanjo Trance, Tommy Dahill plays heavy delta blues but as he describes it, his music sounds more like Booker White playing with the Minutemen. The music is simple – many of the songs share notes and chords but it’s an interesting listen to be sure. Tracks 2, 3, 4, 7 […]
Turnstile – Love Connection (EP)
Release Date: June 28, 2021 Label: Roadrunner Records I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that Turnstile is currently one of the hottest bands in the country. Prior to the release of their full-length record this month, they simultaneously released a four-track EP and a short-film. There’s something here for everyone. Fans of Tame Impala […]
Reality Grey – Beneath this Crown
Release Date: May 7, 2021 Label: Self-Released Reality Grey delivers metalcore that will destroy your speakers. They blend brutal and aggressive metal with sweet melodies. Kings of Nothing begins with a groovy and brutal intro with crazy riffs, gives way to a “spacey” interlude with a fusion guitar solo. Preachers of Hatred may be the […]
Red Fang – Arrows
Release Date: June 4, 2021 Label: Relapse Records Red Fang, the stoner rock quartet from Oregon, released their fifth full-length record in June. Stoner rock bands are seemingly a dime a dozen these days. However, Red Fang consistently deliver their distinctive brand of grungy, sludgy stoner rock. You might have to brush the grit off […]
Sufjan Stevens – Convocations
Release Date: May 6, 2021 Label: Asthmatic Kitty Records For all of the hits, Sufjan Stevens‘ back catalogue is full of experimental and conceptual tracks. Convocations may be his most experimental work to date. A record that hangs on the fringes. Full of grief following the death of his father, this is two hours, 49 tracks, […]
Death From Above 1979 – Is 4 Lovers
Release date: March 26, 2021Label: Universal Music Canada Death from Above 1979 is sleazy and primal dance-punk firmly rooted in the indie rock boom of the early 2000s. The band first gained recognition marrying monster distorted bass riffs and funk rhythms to devastating effect. Over the last 20 years, they haven’t strayed far from the formula […]
The Armed – Ultrapop
Release date: April 16, 2021Label: Sargent House I was doing work the other night and a song came up in one of my New Release playlists that immediately caught my attention. It sounded like Broken Social Scene teamed up with Converge and recorded an album during a pandemic while doing lots of Crossfit. The band […]
Gojira – Fortitude
Release date: April 30, 2021Label: Roadrunner Records Gojira, the socially-conscious metal giants, have released the much-anticipated Fortitude. The opening track, Born for One Thing, is absolutely obliterating. The grooves stand out. Amazonia, if you didn’t guess by the song title, takes a strong stance against the destruction of the Amazon rainforest and the killing of life […]
The Antlers – Green to Gold
Release date: March 26, 2021Label: Anti New York’s The Antlers recently released the wistful Green to Gold, their first new album (along with a full-length film) since the 2014 release of Familiars. Familiars occupied a space between slinky jazz and smoked-out space rock. It was eerie and full of melancholy. Truly a record for listening after […]
The Mommyheads – Coming Into Beauty
Release date: February 12, 2021Label: Mommyheads The Mommyheads recently remastered and re-released their 1992 sophomore release Coming Into Beauty. This is early, pioneering experimental indie-pop. There is dark whimsy on the instrumental track Nino Wrote a Tune. I Started Breathing might be the album’s focal point. The tune gently strides along the spare ukulele and rattling percussion, […]
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