It’s no secret that the lines demarcating metal have blurred as of late. From Alcest and Deafheaven‘s fascination with shoegaze and post rock to Zeal and Ardor’s melding of black metal and black spirituals, the sonics of heavy metal have never been less sacred.
It’s a tough time to be a metal purist. Luckily, I am not—at all. And good thing too, because if I were, I would have likely put up my noise at the brilliant genre-bending catharsis from Belgium power trio Brutus.
The second installment of My Epic’s two-EP project finds the group unleashing the catharsis that they spent Ultraviolet holding back. And once they let go, they don’t stop.
While Ultraviolet found the group restraining themselves, Violent finds them as heavy and unhinged as they’ve ever been.
After hearing My Epic’s name in the periphery of my awareness for years, the project that finally drew my attention was Ultraviolet, one half of a pair of EPs.
While their M.O. has always drawn heavily on experimentation, the Ultraviolet/Violence project finds them restricting themselves to specific elements of their palette.
Ultraviolet, the softer of the two, leans heavy into dream pop, electronica, and ambient post rock, without losing any of their edge.
Over the last few years, I have found myself crossing paths with Colorado’s Comrades on a number of occasions. We’ve played the same festivals (they always have a much better time slot), they’ve played in my living room, and one occasion, I pretended to be on the road with them and Deathbreaker to get free Chick-Fil-A.
Yet for all of this familiarity, I am still astonished every time I get a chance to hear them play (especially in my living room). Their newest record is another genre-melding, heart-rending masterpiece that’s just as likely to fuel a mosh pit as a moment of quiet reflection.
If nothing else, no one can accuse Moving Mountains of putting out the same record over and over again.
Across their three full-lengths, the Purchase, NY outfit visits many of the same sonic touchstones without ever repeating themselves. Their self-titled draws from the same wells of post rock, emo, and indie, but with a marked maturity.
A lot changed in the four years between Pneuma and Moving Mountains’ second record.
Most notably, what was once a studio-only two-piece was now a proper full band. And it shows. Compositionally, Waves has a heft that its predecessor lacked. But that comes at a little bit of a cost.
The marriage of post rock and post hardcore shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone. After all, the roots of each are closely intertwined: post rock godfathers Slint came out of the punk and hardcore scene of early 90s Kentucky. Unwed Sailor was founded out of the husk of Tooth & Nail post hardcore outfit Roadside Monument.
But still, when the horns and glockenspiels of “Aphelion” give way to screamed vocals and pounding chords, it’s a bit of a surprise. And as this record continues to weave between the purest forms of each genre, it doesn’t get any less unexpected.
For the longest time, I wrote La Dispute off as a mewithoutYou ripoff band. Who else was mixing hardcore poetry with spoken word (shouted word?) poetry?
It was only after hearing the subdued, almost jazzy “Woman (reading)” off of 2014’s Rooms of the House that I gave them any real attention at all.
And while that album had moments that lived in that same sparse space, it spent most of its time in a passionate, throat-ripping hardcore. Panorama on the other hand, stretches their softer side into a full album—and I couldn’t be happier. Continue reading
HUM may have never gotten much mainstream recognition, but you’d never guess their cult status based on the pantheon of groups that list them as an influence. Their huge, earth-shattering brand of space rock influenced groups from Deftones to Hopesfall to Cloakroom to Smashing Pumpkins (who some accuse of getting famous off of HUM’s template).
Most people point to their seminal record You’d Prefer An Astronaut as their finest work. And while they pioneered their trademark sound on that record, their swansong Downward Is Heavenward is a much heavier and more cohesive record.
At some point in college, I decided that I was “over” all of my adolescent tastes. I ignored all of the emo, punk, metal, and whatever else in favor of folk, indie rock, post punk, and “weird” stuff like Krautrock and dub reggae.
I’ve since come back around, but I’m still trying to catch up on all of the stuff I’ve missed during that time (I still haven’t listened to a full album by The World Is A Beautiful Place). In trying to sort out what’s worth diving into and what isn’t worth my time, a friend recommended Basement. And from the first listen, I was absolutely enraptured by the jangling chords, soaring melodies, and dynamic shifts.