Weekly Digest July 12-18
Seems like it’s nothing unusual here, but actually we managed to pick up releases for all tastes this time: post-punk, doom, power metal, shoegaze, dreampop, death metal – all this you may find in our Weekly Digest!
A Place To Bury Strangers – Hologram
"Hologram" is the first release by New York Post-Punk legends A Place To Bury Strangers on their own newly formed label, Dedstrange. "Hologram" is the follow up to their highly regarded fifth album "Pinned", and it is a sonic return to A Place To Bury Strangers’ rawest, most unhinged sound. The band claims: "With songs addressing the decay of connections, friendships lost, and the trials and tribulations of these troubled times, "Hologram" serves as an abstract mirror to the moment we live in".
bandcamp | spotify | apple music | youtube music
Laceration – Demise
It’s been 15 years since their inception and only in 2021 the full-length debut of Bay Area death/thrash metal horde, Laceration, gets born. Following the steps of 2018’s "Imitation" EP (tracks of which are included here, too), 11 tracks on "Demise" dispense a non-stop volley of furious drumming, rapid-fire riffs, and rampaging tempos. It’s the kind of crushing chug that came roaring out of the late ‘80s and into the early 90’s, where death metal and thrash metal converged and bands like Demolition Hammer, Solstice, and Pestilence were delivering benchmark releases.
Lucid Express – s/t
Lucid Express is the name of five young dreamers, creating a stunning airy blend of shoegaze and indie pop amongst the skyscrapers, mountains, and packed alleyways of Hong Kong. The name itself means and states a modest mission of the band. In the poetic sense of something bright and radiant, Lucid Express operates as the service taking the listener out on a journey through the band’s color-soaked sounds.
bandcamp | spotify | apple music | youtube music
Midwife – Luminol
Midwife is the moniker of the multi-instrumentalist Madeline Johnston. As a self-taught guitarist and recording engineer, Midwife explores dark subject matter in her anthemic, soft-gaze hits, self-described as "Heaven Metal", or emotive music about devastation – catharsis. "Luminol" navigates themes of incarceration, locus of control, clarity, self-harm, confinement, agency, and truth-seeking. "Luminol" features collaborations with Tucker Theodore, Angel Diaz (Vyva Melinkolya), Zachary Cole Smith, Ben Newman, and Colin Caulfield (DIIV), and Dan Barrett (Have A Nice Life). This work is mesmerizing!
bandcamp | spotify | apple music | youtube music
Powerwolf – Call Of The Wind
German theatrical power metal pack of werewolves and their new album "Call Of The Wind". Powerwolf has released eight albums in their 18-year career, gaining a lot of fans around the world, both among metal-dads and those who are just starting to listen to heavy music. Powerwolf is a band with a fairly low entry threshold, everything is clear and obvious, so the attitude towards them among fans of extreme music is "condescending" at best, but they and Amon Amarth brought many children to metal, who might then possibly release some obscure death metal release that you will praise so much. So, maybe, give this album to your children or younger siblings to listen to.
bandcamp | spotify | apple music | youtube music
Spiral Grave – Legacy of the Anointed
Spiral Grave was formed by Iron Man musicians in 2018 after the tragic death of their longtime band member Alfred Morris III. Spiral Grave's debut album is an example of great doom, that leans towards stoner and heavy metal. Along with Wheel, it is probably the best release in this micro-genre this year.
spotify | apple music | youtube music
Vomit Ritual – Callous
After a few demos and split records, Vomit Ritual finally proudly presents their debut full-length record – blackened death metal with bestial growls.
spotify | apple music | youtube music
Wavves – Hidaway
"Hideaway" is about what happens when you get old enough to take stock of the world around you and realize that no one is going to save you but yourself, and even that might be a tall order". Lo-fi rock with the elements of surf and punk straight from Los Angeles, check it out!
bandcamp | spotify | apple music | youtube music
Wizardthrone – Hypercube Necrodimensions
"Featuring members of Alestorm, Gloryhammer, Aether Realm and more, Wizardthrone is an otherworldly Extreme Wizard Metal force of cosmic dimensions!" – Napalm Records states about this release. It’s definitely a weird one, commercially oriented blackened metal.
bandcamp | spotify | apple music | youtube music
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