Weekly Digest 31 May- 6 June

Several high-profile albums were released this week – Rise Against, Red Fang, Wolf Alice. But there are some quite good ones from the underground, too – atmospheric black Antient Wisdom, heavy traditional Starlight Ritual metal, heavy and extreme in various manifestations Seputus, FLUIDS and Hannes Grossmann, as well as melodic hardcore and a cappella metal. This all may be found in our Weekly Digest!

Ancient Wisdom - A Celebration In Honor Of Death

Swedish musician Marcus E. Norman releases a new record after the 17-years hiatus. The music of Ancient Wisdom is atmospheric black metal, epic, sometimes doomy, with the elements of dungeon synth. Nice album, the return of Ancient Wisdom may be considered successful.

Fluids – Not Dark Yet

Brutal death metal borderlining with goregrind from Phoenix, Arizona. With a drum machine, an interesting production, and an atmosphere of horror in the spirit of Mortician. Overall, straight evil, primitive, but wildly groovy metal that makes it hard for me not to start grimacing and approvingly shake the head while listening to this record. 

Hannes Grossmann - To Where The Light Retreats

Hannes Grossmann is a drummer, writer and producer from Nuremberg, Germany. He made a name for himself as the drummer for Necrophagist, Blotted Science, Obscura, Alkaloid, Hate Eternal and Triptykon. His solo album «To Where The Light Retreats» showcases the insane drum performance, yet it´s not just technical death metal for the sake of technical, songwriting is quite good on this once, too.

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Love Is Red – Darkness Is Waiting

Love Is Red was a straight edge melodic hardcore band created in 2000 and active until 2005. And now they are unexpectedly back together, record the EP that sounds like they are as young, pissed off and passionate as when they were in their 20s.

Red Fang – Arrows

Four bearded dudes in the flannel shirts that smell like mix of craft and cheap beer, the fans of shooting silly music videos that will make you smile (if you are not a monster), the heroes of the stoner scene of the early 2010s – Red Fang are here. And they do whatever they want on their new album. Of course, that stoner rock skeleton remained here, but it turned out to be a bit more interesting than their latest release. 

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Rise Against – Nowhere Generation

I wore out Rise Against's album "Siren Songs Of The Counterculture" in its time, and I still consider it the best in the band's discography, "Appeal To Reason" was probably the last Rise Against album that I really enjoyed. Then the vocalist Tim McIlrath started to struggle with his vocal performance, and the songs sounded more and more similar by the formula, so it became harder for me to engage with this music. I approached the album "Nowhere Generation" with the interest, the eponymous single did not convince me, but the rest sounded pretty bright. After listening to the album as a whole, I can say that this is probably their best release since "Appeal To Reason", but the band's sound has already become obsolete, the album sounds rather nostalgically than fresh.

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Seputus - Phantom Indigo

Seputus is a project by the multi-instrumentalist Stephen Schwegler (Pyrrhon, Weeping Sores), vocalist Doug Moore (Pyrrhon, Weeping Sores, Glorious Depravity) and bass guitarist Erik Malave (Pyrrhon), who, as you can guess if you've ever heard Pyrrhon, plays the type of music that is nearly impossible to describe in words and even harder to put in the framework of the genre. "Phantom Indigo" is another proof that there is still a room for experiments in extreme music and you can always get even more extreme! 

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Starlight Ritual - Sealed In Starlight

Canadians Starlight Ritual play classic heavy metal with the catchy riffs, dynamic delivery, and bright sound. But the real gem here is the vocals, from the very first "Look out!" – Starlight Ritual is Love. Vocalist Damian Ritual really knows how to sing. Few can flaunt such vocal parts that will resemble the legendary Ronnie James Dio, and Starlight Ritual can. 

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Van Canto – To The Power Of Eight

AAA! This a cappella band still exists and even releases albums on Napalm Records!!! This music is very unique, of course, it’s not easy to take it seriously, but damn, it's worth giving it a listen.

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Wolf Alice – Blue Weekend

Too rock for pop music and too pop for rockers, nevertheless the British band Wolf Alice has managed to find fans around the world thanks to its versatile sound. Here is a bit of shoegaze, grunge, psychedelia and punk… And what is more important, it's all very well wrapped in the right sound for the commercial success with some on-point lyrics. 

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