New Music Report – October 29, 2021
I’m not gonna lie, I’m still riding the high from Radical, but it’s really difficult to ignore the caliber of music coming out right now. I mean, new Mastodon? That’s not exactly something to sleep on. I always love this time of year cause it’s just chock full of new releases, and man are there some good ones this year.
Mastodon – The other day, I was talking about the lengthy Mastodon discography with a friend of mine, and he asked me what their best album was, and of course, the answer was Leviathan and there was zero debate. It’s been more than 17 years since that album, so expecting them to put out carbon copies of that masterpiece is a bit of a reach, but this newest album certainly came as a surprise either way. It’s still aligning with their more mainstream sound from their past few albums, which I expected, but it’s a bit slower, a bit more ballady, a bit more sludgey in place, it’s just overall a very different experience, but one that I thoroughly enjoyed. And one that I think pretty much everyone else can enjoy too as long as they aren’t holding it to their previous high-water marks.
Archspire – This is fucking wild. There are a bunch of bands out there that have just ascended beyond my understanding as a musician and they’re playing on levels that I just can’t comprehend. Bands like Animals as Leaders, Frontierer, etc, but good god, I don’t know what it is these guys are doing but it’s insane. They’re playing on a level that’s just beyond comprehension, if you didn’t know better, you’d swear it was just concentrated noise. It’s so fast, it’s so chaotic, but with a bit of understanding it’s easy to see that it all feels incredibly deliberate, they know exactly where each note should fall, and they nail it every single time. I just don’t know how when there are so many notes happening at once. It’s just absolutely insane technical death metal and just the biggest flex a musician can make. It’s nearly exhausting to listen to but boy, is it worth it.
Singles/Albums – Bodysnatcher (Deathcore), Whitechapel (LP, Metalcore), Ghost Bath (LP, Black Metal), Marissa Nadler (LP, Dark Folk), Minus the Bear (Live Farewell Album, Indie), Comeback Kid (Hardcore), Being as an Ocean (Post-Hardcore), Underoath/Ghostmane (Metalcore), Impending Doom (EP, Deathcore), Monolord (LP, Doom Metal), Fit For an Autopsy (Deathcore), Volumes (Djent)