Tag Archives: Body Count

Music of 2024: Update

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Back in April when I posted the first look at early releases, I mentioned that I have been busy and haven’t had a lot of time to really seek out new music (or old music, for that matter, apart from the ‘old’ music I’ve been listening to as research). That situation has not changed much. Over the summer I focused more heavily on writing my book, so I continued to not hear much new music; now I am back at the wage-earning slog and trying to write my book and …yeah. Even less time.

Still, in the months between April and now I have managed to squeeze in some new stuff, and here’s what I got so far. Up for brief comment this time around:

Albums

Airbag: The Century of the Self

Bent Knee: Twenty Pills Without Water

Elephant9: Mythical River

Bill Leeb: Model Kollapse

Loma: How Can I Live Without a Body?

Oceans of Slumber: Where Gods Fear to Speak

Wretchgod: Suffering Upon Suffering

A few singles from:

Body Count, Klone, Front Line Assembly, Kanaan/Meller, Amplifier

In this post I’ll do the singles. It takes longer to review albums and I’m not done yet. This is not a ranking, but alphabetical order.

Amplifier: “Guilty Pleasure”

A single in advance of a new Amplifier album, apparently called Gargantuan, to be released some time this year. Their last album came out in 2023, and I ranked it pretty high for the year, tied with Riverside’s for the top spot, despite a couple of rather messy songs. The rest were lovely.

“Guilty Pleasure” sounds like one of those messy tracks, wherein everything seems to be happening everywhere all at once, which is okay if you like that sort of thing, but I am not overly fond of it. I like a song that has some kind of recognizable direction to it, or at least  not sounding like it is galloping madly off in all directions (hat tip: Stephen Leacock). This single barely holds it together. Which means I have to wait to hear the rest of the album before I decide to buy it.

https://amplifier.bandcamp.com/track/guilty-pleasure-advance

 

Body Count: “Psychopath” and “F*** What You Heard”, released in advance of their new album apparently called Merciless. This is supposed to drop sometime this year, but so far there has been no word on when.

These are both solid offerings, the first reminiscent of tracks like “Carnivore” and “Here I Go Again” from earlier albums, Ice-T rapping about unrestrained predatory violence: it’s not bad but we’ve already heard it. The second though is a rap-metal monster, political and angry, and I swear the duo of Will Dorsey (drums) and Vincent Price (bass) is one of the heaviest, most thunderous rhythm sections in the business.

 

Front Line Assembly feat. Seeming: “Molotov” (remix)

“Molotov” the original comes from the 2018 FLA album Warmech, which is the OST for the video game Airmech Wastelands. Seeming is an indie/post-punk/industrial duo with three albums out so far: in my blog I ranked their Sol: A Self-Banishment Ritual as the best album of 2017.

FLA has released a few remixes of pieces from Warmech, and I noticed “Molotov” because it is one of the best tracks from the original album, and, well, Seeming. It is remixed to dial back the synths and include lyrics, written and sung by Alex Reed, on resistance politics: “Revolution is not a mood/revolution is not a vibe/…revolution is showing up” he declares. It really works: Seeming skillfully redirect the energy in the original piece and create a powerful new song.

 

Kanaan/Meller: “Olympics”

A joint track between Robert Kanaan, a Polish electronica musician, and Riverside’s (and ex-Quidam) guitarist Maciej Meller, celebrating, well, its title. It is a soaring, melodic instrumental piece with lots of synths, nice guitar, and well-worth the few bucks to buy it on Bandcamp.

 

Klone: “Interlaced” and “The Unseen”

These are out in advance of the new album The Unseen, to be released on November 8th—a bit of a surprise, really, since their previous album was released just last year. Anyway, there is no mistaking Klone, with their orchestral, guitar-rich heavy prog and Yann Ligner’s soaring voice. Both these tracks are strong, the first one featuring a couple of jazzy sax solos, the second getting pretty metal with Ligner almost growling. They bode well for the album, but also suggest we aren’t going to get anything radically new from the band in terms of sound or direction. That is, there isn’t a lot to say specifically about the songs because if you know what Klone sounds like, you know what these tracks will sound like.

As noted, I’ll post up comments on the albums when I have time to finish listening/thinking about them. I did in fact sample more than just this, but so far these I’ve listened to enough to have something to say. Who knows… I may be able to add to the list as time goes on. Stay tuned.

The Albums of 2020

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I discussed in Part 1 why I didn’t get to a lot of music this year; no point in going over it all again. My head was just not in a listening (as opposed to hearing) space for most of 2020. At any rate, my album list is very short, eight albums in total, and one of those isn’t even from 2020 (despite the title). Of course I heard way more than these albums, but they didn’t make enough of an impact to get included here. Might have been different, in a different year.

Except for the first one, the Album of the Year (because it is such a clear winner), I haven’t ranked/rated the rest except in terms of repeat plays, but they are all albums I play relatively frequently.

Continue reading The Albums of 2020 →

June 2020: The State of the Music

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 A couple of years ago I gathered up my pile of ticket stubs, most of which I had saved from the beginning of my gig-going career, and began to organize them. The physical stubs are in an ever-expanding catalogue, and dates, bands, and venues are recorded in a document. It’s a long and interesting history, although there is a large gap in the middle, but all that is probably a topic for another post. What is relevant here is the second gap: The Year of No Gigs, the enforced global pause.

 I have two shows listed under 2020: The Musical Box in January, and then the Katatonia live stream that happened in May. I decided to list it because I paid for a ticket to watch it, and it was better than many gigs I’ve seen in person, not just by Katatonia themselves, but other bands as well…once you got past the eerie silence at the end of each song.

 Everything else has been cancelled, or postponed. There were some shreds of hope in the early days of the lockdown, that maybe by June there would be a return to normalcy or something close to it, but as the weeks went by it became depressingly clear that no such thing was going to happen. Tours were cancelled, postponed gigs were jettisoned, and even the gigs shifted from March to August are looking unlikely. It is probably safe to say that concerts, at least in any meaningful sense, are going to be the last things to return.

Continue reading June 2020: The State of the Music →

Welcome to the Post-Apocalypse Or: The Year of Introspection 2

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The Music of 2017 Part Three: Albums No. 7 to 1

It has been an interesting year for music – lots of good releases, a few disappointing follow-ups from bands I had found earlier, strong entries in genres I did not expect.  The best albums of the year examine the human condition and find it wanting, and this year the expression of it has crossed all genres: the thrash-metal anger of Heart Attack and While She Sleeps, the existential philosophy of Alex Reed (Seeming), the bleak vision of Gary Numan, the push-back rage of race and poverty from Ice-T and Ice Cube.  A beloved musician – one who is no stranger to lyrics of pain as it is – placing his torn-up heart on view with an album whose intensity of self-examination is almost too personal.  It has been a tough and exhilarating year for listening.

This year brings a new Lunatic Soul, always a cause for celebration even if the album itself doesn’t strike quite as hard as previous ones. Once again, a plethora of unknown names with some great releases, and well-established acts who finally caught my interest with worthy efforts.  In terms of genres: still some metal, still industrial electronica, some albums on the edge of prog (but no actual prog to speak of), some albums on the edge of pop, and this year a bit of…gangsta rap.  Well, as I often say, You Just Never Know.

2017 also heralded the discovery of a band whose (recent, anyway) music has hit me inexplicably hard. They have been around for thirty-five years and I suspect for most of that time I would not have paid them any attention (if I had heard of them) … but their last four albums (new producer, entirely new sound) have just blown my head off.  Those albums (and the related side-project by the lead singer) have all been on pretty heavy rotation since early spring, and I don’t see that changing any time soon.

Every year brings its particular sorting challenge, but this year it is a bit different.  The top two spots are not in dispute; the issue here is that these albums tower so far above the rest of the pack I have given them their own slots, and kept 15 albums for the rest.  In other words, I have a list of 2 and a list of 15, or I have a list of 17…whatever.

After the first two…well, things get much harder to sort out.  Most of the subsequent fifteen albums are almost equivalent in quality; the mix of genres and styles is so wide that blunt comparison may as well be decided by closing my eyes and pointing: how does one fairly compare an album of country-rock by Swedes to gangsta-metal by an experienced Los Angeles media stalwart? Each album brings its strengths, and its weaknesses, and it becomes a matter of deciding which strengths are stronger and which weaknesses are least intrusive to the listening experience.  That said, the first six albums in the List of 15 are almost equal in quality. But we will start with Number 17 overall (15) and work our way up. Continue reading Welcome to the Post-Apocalypse Or: The Year of Introspection 2 →

Welcome to the Post-Apocalypse; Or The Year of Introspection

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The Music of 2017, Part 2 — Honorable mention, and albums 17 to 8.

You can read the introduction to the Music of the Year posts here. 

Honourable mention:

Tune – III

I did not receive this album until the second week of December, which is too late for it to be considered for a spot in the Album of the Year list.  But I do want to comment on it.

Tune are a rather odd bunch, a quirky art rock quartet out of Poland; I liked their second album (Identity) from three years back, showcasing clever and accessible pop songs but with a bit of an edge, but still there was something a bit too fey about them.

III is a step in the right direction.  It is a very short album, pretty much EP-length, but I have never really been concerned with that sort of thing.  It is better to have an album on the short side than one that outstays its welcome. At any rate: the songs here are darker, heavier, much edgier, demonstrating maturity and experience, and less quirk. The production is rich and up-close, showcasing the nice chunky bass sound and guitar – suddenly it is obvious that these guys are pretty damned good musicians.  Hopefully this album will bring them a bit more attention – it is worth the listen.

 

  1. Steven Wilson – To the Bone

Steven Wilson continues down the road well-traveled as he heads closer and closer to pure pop.  The last album had its pop moments, but this one Is pretty unapologetic: breakthrough is what he wants, and To the Bone gets him a lot nearer.  It is not a bad album but it is a rather boring one, really; Wilson is sticking to the safe route. There are those who excoriate him for his apparent abandonment of the prog that made him so beloved in the first place, but he has always been an International Pop Star at heart. Album review is here.

 

  1. Necro Deathmort – Overland

Another new album from one of the more prolific of the ambient electronic acts out there. Necro Deathmort never seem to be overt: they don’t promote themselves much, they don’t have a major social media presence, but they never quit and somehow I have amassed quite a collection of their stuff.  Overland is smooth and chill and unsettling, as befits the best of their music. The duo appeared on Steven Wilson’s latest album and they have slyly made use of the same colour scheme on Overland.

 

  1. Eclipse – Monumentum

Eclipse is a hard rock quartet from Sweden, been around for a few years now, and they make pretty decent no-frills rock songs: melodic and heavy and not too long, definitely worth a listen or two.  I like the album, and I really like two or three tracks from it.  Eclipse joined with Pretty Maids singer Ronnie Atkins to make one of the better hard rock efforts from 2016, Nordic Union.  Rumour has it they will do it again in 2018.  Thumbs up for that one.

 

  1. Glass Apple Bonzai – In the Dark

Upbeat synthpop from Toronto, cheerful retrowave about satanism and devil-worship.  Well…why not?  It is actually a pretty good album.  And the guy does have a great voice.

 

  1. Nathan Gray Collective – Until the Darkness Takes Us

In July, I said this: “At some point in his life, Nathan Gray lost his faith in God and it made him very very angry.” Well, he’s still pretty pissed off, but the album has grown on me a bit.  Dark and dense and pretty heavy at times, and Gray certainly sounds like he means what he says.

https://nathangraycollective.bandcamp.com/track/skin

  1. While She Sleeps – You Are We

These guys are a metalcore quartet from Sheffield, been around for a decade or so, and with You are We they have created a pleasingly melodic but face-meltingly heavy collection of tracks well worth checking out.  Alternating between screams and clean singing, they have a bit of a Linkin Park vibe, but in a good way.

 

  1. Ulver – The Assassination of Julius Caesar

An outfit that has been around for a while, but I can’t say I have paid them much notice. They do seem to shift styles and genres to a considerable degree, however, and this incarnation has managed to catch my attention.  This version of Ulver seems very synth-driven, dense and musical, and they do some interesting things here. Definitely worth a listen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaCBkv_2Ht4

 

  1. The Quill – Born From Fire

Stoner blues rock from the southern US, an album about redemption, reclamation, conversion, finding God.

Oh wait – these guys are Swedes.

Well, they do this thing very well indeed.  I’ve been putting a lot of mileage on this album, and if I’d started playing it a bit earlier, it might have risen higher than 10.  It is certainly engaging, and I like it a lot better than I thought I would.

 

  1. Royal Blood – How Did We Get So Dark?

Everyone needs a little pop in their lives, I think.  But make it good pop. Real pop, heavy and fun – like Royal Blood, the British bass-and-drums power duo. These guys are pretentious, popular, and very good at what they do, and I have an unaccountable fondness for them.  The album is short and to the point, and they put out so much wattage you would swear they have onstage help – but I have seen them.  They don’t.

 

  1. Mastodon – Emperor of Sand

I never really paid much mind to Mastodon, and at this point in the year I don’t even remember why I listened to the new album.  But I did, and I liked it a whole lot, and went to see them live and everything.  In the meantime Emperor of Sand continued to grow on me. I don’t know if I will dig into the back catalogue, but I’m happy with this one.

 

 

Albums of 2017, the Half-way Point

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Okay, it is July, and in about 5 months I will be winding up another year of music.  It is time for the mid-year rundown of what I have found so far: the stuff that is good, the stuff that is not so good, the stuff that should be good but fails, and this year a list of the stuff I missed from previous years.

My music discovery process derives from all manner of sources: recommendations from friends, blurbs from various websites/review sites, accidents, and for the first time *cough*Spotify*cough*, via its weekly Discovery list, which does deliver up some interesting and unusual suggestions, especially given that I do not much stream, so its analysis of my tastes is necessarily limited.

Every year I seem to run a theme – some genre or style of music that tends to dominate my listening.  I’m not really sure why that is or how it happens.  Last year it was largely industrial electronica and ethnic-based post-rock; this year is Old Fogey Year – discovering the music of well-established outfits I heretofore ignored because I thought I didn’t like them.  It seems the older I get, the less of a music snob I become.  That is probably a good thing.

So here is the list of contenders so far, in reverse order of interest, with a brief capsule review. You may notice a certain…theme to some of the album titles.  Naturally, this order is subject to revision at any time.  And I will just note: So far my albums of 2017 were released long before 2017.  I just found them this year.

Continue reading Albums of 2017, the Half-way Point →