Slightly Behind The Times

    These are still monthly, I just haven't published the last several of them that I've written because I didn't feel like it because depression happens. That is a true story.       Today I am doing two recommendations from the same band because they are criminally underrated for how downright impressive their songwriting, production, and entire concept are.     Subetroth are a doom/stoner metal band from Modesto, California that use entirely fretless guitars and basses, tuned a full octave down from standard tuning. That means that their guitars are tuned as low as a bass would typically be, and the bass is tuned so low that the only accurate descriptor I can give for its sound is "pissed off grizzly bear."     The first album I'll be talking about is the reason why Anaxiom, my death metal solo project, uses a bear skull in its main logo, as an homage to the band that introduced me to doom metal as a genre. And that first album is... N...

Harakiri for the Sky Arson (2018, Austria) Melodic Post-Black Metal, Depressive Suicidal Black Metal, Post-Hardcore Harakiri for the Sky is an Austrian black metal band formed in 2011 who combine traditional black metal speed and dark tone with post-rock's atmospheric, semi-experimental tendencies, and post-hardcore's aggression, dynamics, and melody. Comprised of vocalsit Michael "J.J." V. Wahntraum, and multi-instrumentalist Matthias Sollak, the pair has already made a name for themselves in the extreme metal world despite their relatively short career, including fairly heavy touring with a regular lineup. Arson is the pair's fourth effort, and with just over a seventy minute runtime across eight tracks, it's a lot of music to get through, so I'll truncate my rambling here and get on with things. The album opens with what one might call a banger in Fire, Walk With Me. After opening with quiet reverb-drenched, tremolo picking guitars under p...

It's been less than two months this time. Are you proud of me? You shouldn't be. This time, more female-fronted indie rock, and the best thing since things. Everything's melodic again, too. Can't help it, I guess. Skating Polly New Trick (2017) Grunge, Indie Rock, Alternative Rock This band's primary vocalist/bassist, Kelli Mayo, was born on the exact same day as me. She's in a band playing a painfully 90s/early 2000s brand of alternative rock and some riot grrrl influence. My main musical project is a painfully 90s/early 2000s form of metal and punk rock. The lesson here? Generation Z is doomed to repeat the mistakes of our predecessors. Except in this case, it's not a mistake, because Skating Polly is a surprisingly good band, and I am giving this EP the strongest possible recommendation based purely on the second track, Hail Mary, which the YouTube algorithm so kindly threw at my face one day. I then proceeded to listen to this song over 75 t...

Oh lord, it's been nearly two full months since the last one. So much for monthly(ish). Oh well, this one's easy because there's a new Tricot album and it is getting a recommendation by default because it's Tricot. Everything is melodic this time around, sorry. Wormwitch Heaven That Dwells Within (2019) Atmospheric Black Metal/Blackened Melodic Death Metal/Thrash Metal Wormwitch is a band that I consistently ignored recommendations about for about 6 months, because I got sick of hearing the name after I made the mistake of saying I liked melodic black metal one too many times.  Fortunately, nearly a year after this album's release I had forgotten they existed and could discover them anew to listen to on my own terms, and it is definitely a good thing. And go figure, they're Canadian. Canadians make very good extreme metal, apparently, although typically it is of the technical/progressive death metal variety rather than the black variety. Heaven...

This blog was made so I had an excuse to review older albums that I like, but I also listen to stuff that's newer or just new to me, and figured I may as well share that too. So here you go. I spend my days digging through the depths of YouTube, Bandcamp, the Metal Archives, Reddit, and many other places, trying to find good music of all types. Metal, hardcore, rock, pop, jazz, hip hop, classical, folk, electronic, pretty much anything you can think of. Typically I try to find two or three really good albums every month. Sometimes I am successful in that search. This month, I have been, so following are a few of my favorite albums that I have discovered in the last little bit. Rosemary Fairweather  Heavenly - A Collection of Songs (2016) (and) Heavenly - A Second Collection of Songs (2019) Dreampop/Lofi/Indie rock Whispy, dreamy pop with hints of indie rock, funk, and lofi hip hop. Just generally really chill stuff. Catchy vocal melodies, lots of great bassl...