Month: July 2022

Record #872: idle threat – Blurred Visions (2021)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Across the last several years, it’s been almost impossible to have any presence in the Midwestern DIY scene without running into Idle Threat. The Nashville post-hardcore outfit has been the dictionary definition of workhorses, playing every small festival I’ve been to (or organized), and even organizing their own.

And for years, they’ve done this all as an entirely independent band. Then, fate moved the hands of justice, and they were added to the iconic Tooth & Nail Records (alongside fellow indie workhorses Salt Creek and Valleyheart).

That deal brought about Blurred Visions, the long-awaited debut full-length. While it’s obvious that they had some additional funds, it retains all of the passion and earnestness of their early EPs without ever getting unfocused with the longer running time.

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Record #871: Grivo – Omit (2022)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

If you’ve been following my posts at all, you know that I have a fatal weakness for music that marries the heavy with the beautiful. I am powerless to resist just about any album that uses crushing volumes alongside gorgeous melodies and lush atmospheres (it’s kind of a problem, financially speaking).

Even though my record shelves are already stuffed full with such records, I am constantly on the hunt for more. Recently, I was trudging through Spotify’s “Fans Also Like” of bands I already love, and on Holy Fawn’s page, I discovered Grivo, a heavy shoegaze trio from Austin. I was instantly smitten, and when I went to show a friend who I knew would love it, I noticed that he had already sent it to me a few weeks prior.

But where Omit outshines so many albums with a similar ethos is in their glistening ambience, which is reminiscent more of dream pop bands like Cocteau Twins.

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Record #870: Executioner’s Mask – Winterlong (2022)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

As I’ve made my way to reviewing music more or less full time, I’ve noticed that my own tastes have started trending into stranger and darker directions. A few of the records I’ve fallen in love with recently exist in eldritch soundscapes that might sound abominable to the average listener (see also: Cremation Lily, HERIOT).

So when I first came across Winterlong, I was already poised to love it. But when I saw that the press release compared them to Deerhunter, The National, and Alcest, I was rapt with intrigue. What sort of music could be accurately described by that unlikely trio?

As it turns out, Winterlong doesn’t just fall right in the middle of those three—it also has plenty of nods to Joy Division, The Cure, Slowdive, and even Black Sabbath. And that’s all while sounding focused and gripping.

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Record #869: Elliott – False Cathedrals (2000)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

It’s no secret that I’ve been known to miss important bands. For example, I missed Louisville emo legends Elliott entirely until I bought a copy of Song in the Air after coming across it in a record store in St. Pete FL in early 2020. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that most people consider that record to be a disappointment. 

The real show, so I was told, was False Cathedrals. So when that record got a repress, I did the same thing I did with Song in the Air: I bought it without listening to it.

And while personally my opinion on its follow up hasn’t been changed, it’s easy to see why this album gets the love it does.

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Record #868: Bloodmoon – Bloodmoon: I (2021)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Usually, when artists announce a collaboration, you can make a pretty educated guess as to what the end result might sound like. Take for instance Volcano Choir, the union of Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and mathy post rockers Collections of Colonies of Bees, who released music that sounds like Bon Iver playing mathy post rock. Or May Our Chambers Are Full by Thou and Emma Ruth Rundle, which found ERR offering her gothic country vocals over Thou’s relentless sludge.

But then you have projects like Bloodmoon, which unites all of Converge with Chelsea Wolfe, her ubiquitous collaborator Ben Chisholm, and Cave In’s Stephen Brodsky. There isn’t much common ground between the chaotic mathcore, gothic doom, and melodic space metal of the three respective projects to predict what it might sound like.

There’s no low-hanging fruit so ripe that it’s practically picking itself off of the vine. Instead, this album is carefully and laboriously worked. It sounds cultivated, not gathered. And, every drop of sweat was worth it.

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