Ty Segall: Three Bells (2024)

Going to take a brief break from the grouping of albums by the same artist/band/label to focus on another theme: some of my favorite new records. It can’t all be about music from 40 and 50 years ago, not when some of my favorite current artists have released some of their strongest work to date. And there’s no better way to kick that off than with Ty Segall, who after some interesting experiments with limitations on previous records (no guitar, acoustic, film soundtracks) has returned to his progressive garage roots with the fantastic double album Three Bells. It’s Segall operating in my favorite sonic space, and sounds like a culmination of a lot of the experimentation he’s engaged in the past few years.

ChrisApril 28, 2024April 22, 2024Leave a comment

Vinyl

Witch Vomit: Funeral Sanctum (2024)

Yes, I joke about the relative “sameness” of death meal, but it’s crazy how small touches or changes to a band’s attack will yield large results. Take a look (or a listen, I guess) at Funeral Sanctum, the latest and first album in five years from Portland, Oregon’s Witch Vomit. They’re a band I’ve always appreciated but never went out of my way to listen to. over the course of their career they’ve gotten down pat the obligatory tenets of death metal, all perfectly executed if not earth shattering in its uniqueness. Then I heard the first single “Blood Abomination” and my ears perked up: hints of dare I say melody were peeking through the murk of death metal guitars and thrashy breakdowns that opened up the dynamics of the songwriting. Witch Vomit, you had my curiosity…now you have my attention.

ChrisApril 26, 2024April 25, 2024Leave a comment

Cassette, Vinyl

Slimelord: Chytridiomycosis Relinquished (2024)

Oh look! Another frenzied, left-of-center 20 Buck Spin release! I kid (or gently chide, as noted in the Civerous review) because, as much as the label may have a “type” (and a “look”) when it comes to their death metal releases, you and I can’t deny that – more often than not – the results are pretty dang spectacular. Case in point: this debut full-length by the wonderfully named Slimelord. Taking the sludgy modern death metal currently in vogue as their foundation, they slather on a whole lot of weirdness throughout Chytridiomycosis Relinquished, and if you thought that title was a mouthful, wait until you get inside the music. This has fast risen up for me as one of the best death metal releases this year, so let’s get into it.

ChrisApril 25, 2024April 25, 2024Leave a comment

Vinyl

Civerous: Maze Envy (2024)

I was going to kick off the next series of reviews with some of my favorite non-metal albums of 2024, but the other day I got a big box of new vinyl from a label I love (and love to gently chide): 20 Buck Spin. They are deservedly one of the darlings of the independent metal scene, and consistently have some of the best death metal (and now black metal with the latest from Hulder) released in any given year. But man do they have a type when it comes to their death metal, and over time I’ve suffered more than a little fatigue from the similarities both in sound and visual presentation. Despite that, I’ve heard a lot of great things from their recent releases which were all covered over at Nine Circles¹, so I broke down and picked up their latest three big 2024 releases. We’re starting with the one I’m least familiar with: Los Angeles’s Civerous and their rotted sophomore record, and debut for 20 Buck Spin, Maze Envy.

ChrisApril 24, 2024April 24, 2024Leave a comment

Vinyl

Uriah Heep: Chaos & Colour (2023)

Is there a shelf life for bands putting out new music? Once you hit 40, 50…even 60 years I get the drive to keep putting out fresh music, but to my ears it overwhelmingly results in bands I love releasing bland, toothless music assembled via committee. Recent output by bands like Deep Purple and the Rolling Stones have left me underwhelmed, the tunes lacking any bite. So when I heard Uriah Heep were not only still kicking but releasing new music I was intrigued but honestly not hopeful. And yet here we are with Chaos & Colour, the best Deep Purple album Deep Purple never released, and a fantastic modern version of what the band was doing in their prime. It’s heavy, it rocks hard, and best of all the band still sounds hungry 50 years on.

ChrisApril 19, 2024April 22, 2024Leave a comment

Vinyl

K’mono: Mind out of Mind (2023)

Sometimes a connection is made in the most random of ways. I was out walking, enjoying the sprint air and maybe, just maybe the effects of some jazz candy when I decided to listen to Marillion. Within 30 seconds of Misplaced Childhood I stopped and realized THIS is what I was thinking of when I was trying to identify the 80s prog influence I was hearing on Mind out of Mind, the second album from Minneapolis prog trio K’mono. There’s a lot more, obviously: everything I enjoyed on debut Return to the “E” is here expanded, refined, and further removed from their prog fathers. Not to mention that stellar album art; it just might the best cover I’ve seen this year…even though the album came out last year.

ChrisApril 16, 2024April 15, 2024Leave a comment

Consuming the Tangible

We are what we consume

Tag: 2020s

Ty Segall: Three Bells (2024)

Witch Vomit: Funeral Sanctum (2024)

Slimelord: Chytridiomycosis Relinquished (2024)

Civerous: Maze Envy (2024)

Uriah Heep: Chaos & Colour (2023)

K’mono: Mind out of Mind (2023)