Author Peter Jones

2021 In Review: Music

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Best of 2021

  • Archspire – Bleed the Future
    • A tour de force of technical death metal. Yet still balances that with more quiet, calm moments. Understanding that, even at only 32 minutes, it would be too much if it was unrelenting. Also, songs. Not just display of technical ability, actual songs.
  • 1914 – Where Fear and Weapons Meet
    • WWI will always be a bleak subject, and here it is handled with aplomb. Blackened death metal, with the addition of some symphonic elements this go around. Interspersed with music and quotations from the time. The music is perfect for the subject matter: harsh, harrowing, yet with moments of emotion.
  • Mastodon – Hushed and Grim
    • Too long, yes. But honestly, every song wins me over at some point. Even the songs that start off in a style I despise (country anyone?) eventually grow into something that I appreciate. Packed with emotion, this one took a couple of listens, but definitely won me over.
  • AMENRA – De Doorn
    • Not Mass VII. And shame on us for wanting Mass VII. De Doorn is still classic AMENRA. Powerful, haunting, balancing being abrasive with being introspective. A shining example of what draws me to post-metal: quiet contemplation balanced with crushing brutality.
  • Black Sites – Untrue
    • Just damn good heavy metal in the classic sense of the term. Lead member’s previous band Trials was a much heavier act. Black Sites brings some of that edge, but couches it in a modern yet classic metal veneer. Catchy songs, excellent choruses, interesting compositions.
  • IOTUNN – Access All Worlds
    • Progressive death metal with a sci-if theme? Sign me up! And Jón Aldará on lead vocals? Oh hells yes. This is huge, grandiose progressive metal with death growls and soaring cleans, this just hits all the right spots for me.
  • LLNN – Unmaker
    • So. Heavy. LLNN deal in the heavier aspects of post-metal. This is crushing, brutal, truly heavy music. Yet it is still subtle. That seems impossible, but mixed in with the monolithic riffs and the tortured vocals are weaved synths as well as layered “field recordings” of sounds from the real world. Probably the best single word for this is devastating.
  • Spiritbox – Eternal Blue
    • On paper, I shouldn’t really like Spiritbox. While difficult to place in a genre, metalcore would be the best fit. And I don’t really love most metalcore. And while I appreciate and love the heavy (“Holy Roller”), what elevates Spiritbox and Eternal Blue for me are all the things that are distinctly NOT metalcore. The gorgeous cleans of Courtney Laplante, the electronic elements, the ambience, the effects and the ever present guitar skills of Mike Stringer. Spiritbox just strikes me as something special, and their first full length album confirms that.
  • Year of No Light – Consolamentum
    • I love almost all things post. It’s true. Add post-metal or post-rock tag to anything and I am immediately 5 times more likely to check it out. Then make it instrumental? Gaaaahh. Okay, I’m sold. And then the fact that the music is so good, moving, driving, atmospheric. Having never heard of Year of No Light before, I immediately became a huge fan.
  • Crescent – Carving the Fires of Akhet
    • Egyptian themed death metal. Yawn. Nile has been doing that for years. But Nile has also not really wowed me for years (though their most recent album is a winner). Enter Crescent. Combining the heaviness of death metal with middle eastern musical cues and styles, they have created a really powerful album of music. This was an easy one to keep coming back to this year.

Honorable mentions

  • Be’lakor – Coherence
    • I really like the melodeath of Be’lakor, and this album is no different. Could have been higher had I listened to it more.
  • Emma Ruth Rundle – Engine of Hell
    • “Return” might be my favorite song of the year. This album is raw, simple, ERR. And she excels and bringing the emotion she is so adept at conveying.
  • Evergrey – Escape of the Phoenix
    • I just love Evergrey. This is an excellent distillation of what makes this band who they are. And that is why it isn’t ranked higher. It is Evergrey, once again, doing what they do. Good thing they do it so well.
  • Exodus – Persona Non Grata
    • Exodus be Exodus. Don’t expect them to change. And here they don’t. This is reliable thrash with a brutal guitar tone and Zetro’s unhinged vocal delivery.
  • Frontierer – Oxidized
    • WTF. Literally every time I listen to Frontierer I just think WTF over and over. Pure chaos in musical form, cranked all the way to 11.
  • Impure Wilhelmina – Antidote
    • I really like this band and their blend of metal with smooth, Brit pop style crooning. And this might be the best example of that blending ever. Probably should be higher on my list, I just didn’t listen as much as I would have liked.
  • Khemmis – Deceiver
    • Late in the year, not enough time to really appreciate this. But a reliable Khemmis record. Not their best (don’t know if Hunted will be able to be topped), but another great release from this band and an album I have enjoyed quite a bit this year.
  • Swallow the Sun – Moonflowers
    • Where are the tissues? Why is it so dusty in here? Why won’t my eyes stop watering? Death doom designed to rip your heart out and leave it on the floor. The loss of Aleah Stanbridge continues to haunt Juha Raivio, and that radiates from this record.
  • Clouds – Despartire
    • Yeah, seconded. Minus the loss of Aleah. Do not, I repeat DO NOT listen unless you want to wrap yourself in sadness and despair. But if you do, this is the softest, fuzziest blanket of despair you’ll find.

Better Than it Should Be

  • Chevelle – Niriatas
    • Chevelle hasn’t really interested me in years. But somehow this one grabbed my attention enough I listened to it multiple times this year. That shocked me.
  • Between the Buried and Me – Colors II
    • Following up such a landmark album like Colors is a difficult task. And the fact that BtBaM do it as well as they do here is surprising. I still have to be in the correct mindset for BtBaM and their “kitchen sink” approach to music, but here it works better than expected.

Disappointments

  • Gojira – Fortitude
    • Too many moments or tracks that just halt the momentum of this album. Like it’s predecessor Magma, this album just doesn’t click for me. I know a lot of the metal community continue to slather praise on Gojira and treat them like the second coming of the Lord. But while I admit they have had some amazing albums in the past, Fortitude continues the trend of albums that I have little to no interest in coming back to.
  • Iron Maiden – Senjutsu
    • It’s Maiden. It’s reliable. It’s also getting slower, songs feel more bloated, and fewer and fewer moments really stand out. This isn’t a bad album, it just isn’t one I came back to after the first week or so. I love that these guys are still rocking into their late 60s, but maybe it is time to wind down? Maybe?
  • Leprous – Aphelion
    • It is fine, if you want proggy pop-rock. But if what you loved about Leprous all started to fade with 2015s The Congregation this album will do little to nothing to win you back over. It certainly didn’t win me over. At least it isn’t any worse than their last 2 albums.

Lamb of God – Sacrament

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Over the years my tastes in music have changed, something that I think happens to most, if not all, people. In some cases, I can pin moments of that changing musical tastes to specific albums. Sacrament is one such album.

I first stumbled across an instrumental version of Sacrament, which was probably good. At the time, I was (for better or worse) a much more tender flower, who would have rejected the album outright due to the aggressive nature of the lyrics. However, time (and years spent as a surgeon – trust me, we can curse with the best of them) desensitized me to the point I not only didn’t reject the lyrics, I found solace in them.

Immediately, Sacrament grabs you with the groove of “Walk With Me in Hell”, a driving, pummeling track. It can be off putting. It can seem dark, negative, hateful. And yet, as with so much in music, there is much more to that. Instead, it actually is an invitation that builds to an anthemic crescendo, inviting us all to walk through Hell together, to lean on each other to get through the bullshit that life throws at us.

I find that incredibly inspiring.

Not all tracks have that same type of inspiration. “More Time to Kill” spews vitriol like few other songs. Take the opening lines, for example:

I just got the news today you were dying

Hot damn, we’re already partying

But please, before you have to leave

Let me tell you a few last things

But you know what? Talk about catharsis. Get done with that and you just feel better. It purges something out of you. Hell, you can’t look me in the eye and tell me we haven’t all felt that way about someone in our lives. Because we totally have, and we’ve wished we could say that. And so, Randy Blythe spews it out with gravel to boot.

Sacrament doesn’t ever really let up. Songs have massive, mosh-worthy, breakdowns. The vocals are relatively one note, harsh growls, but there is variability here and there, more than on previous albums. But you didn’t come to a Lamb of God album for sweet crooning. If you did, you done messed up, bro. One thing that Randy has always excelled in is the clarity of his delivery. It is too easy for harsh vocals to become unintelligible. That is avoided here, the lyrics are almost shockingly understandable. And that works in the music’s favor. Lamb of God works best for me as a vehicle for rage, frustration, and the need to process. Understanding the biting lyrics makes that so much more effective.

This certainly isn’t my favorite Lamb of God album (that would be Ashes of the Wake). But it was the first LoG album I listened to, start to finish. And it was a powerful introduction to a band I was aware of, but hadn’t really listened to up to that point. Live, this band is phenomenal (see the above banner picture), and they do an excellent job of translating their live energy to the record. Lamb of God is one of those bands that are just incredibly reliable. There isn’t ever any wondering what you are going to get. You know: aggressive, groove heavy music that will get you going, help purge some of the ugly out of you, and leave you feeling just a little bit better, no matter how bad the day was.

Mastodon – Hushed and Grim

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I have a bit of a troubled relationship with Mastodon. I fell in love with their 2006 release Blood Mountain and thoroughly enjoyed the albums that preceded that one. Crack the Skye was a progressive opus that blew me away.

But follow up, The Hunter, left me cold. It just didn’t click with me. Nor did follow up Once More ‘Round the Sun, both of them just feeling less aggressive, somewhat more straightforward sound that just didn’t excite me. Emperor of Sand started to win me over a bit more, and I did listen to it a fair amount when it first came out. Yet I just didn’t find myself going back to any of these albums with any sort of regularity.

When I then stumbled across their soon to be released album Hushed and Grim I was intrigued, but can’t say I was excited. Taking full advantage of my streaming music subscription, I added the album to my library and briefly checked out part of one of the tracks that had been released. Again, I felt nonplussed. I wasn’t immediately turned off, but I certainly wasn’t excited. Add to that the fact it was a double album, reaching almost 90 minutes in length, I didn’t know what to expect.

So I suppose it was beneficial that I had an upcoming trip, with an unusual amount of time to listen to music. Because, make no mistake, this album requires a significant investment from the listener.

However, after a number of listens, I found that the investment was rewarded. Hushed and Grim is full (perhaps a little too full) of surprisingly emotional music. Written as a tribute to the band’s former manager who passed away a few years ago, the album is replete with the emotions that go with losing someone close to you: loss, anger, sadness, hope.

There is also a heaviness to the album that draws me back in when compared to the previous albums. The trademark Mastodon sound is present, heavy, a little sludgy, and a very nice use of the multiple vocalists. Hushed and Grim is a journey, and one that I have found rewarding over repeated listens. It isn’t an easy listen, not something you drop in and out of. But if you have 90 minutes to really sit back and listen, I find this the most engaging Mastodon release in a decade.

Spiritbox – Eternal Blue

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I blame Kmac2021. An excellent musician who disguises himself as a YouTube meme, I first stumbled on his videos blending songs from the likes of the Beatles with death metal. Hi. Lar. I. Ous. No, but seriously, they are funny and totally worth checking out. One day, a number of years ago, he linked to a track from the self-titled EP by a band call Spiritbox.

I checked that album out, found a sound I enjoyed, and added it to my library. Some additional singles were released over the next few years, and I would be aware enough to add them to my library, but not aware enough I found myself going back with sufficient frequency to really have the band click with me.

Enter “Holy Roller”. Reaction videos started popping up on YouTube very shortly after the release of the video in July 2020. This time I think it was Nik Nocturnal’s video that popped up and I decided to give it a watch.

W. T. F.

It was heavy. Really heavy. The video was appropriately creepy. It grabbed me. I was fascinated. I started gobbling up the band’s previous work, in particular the singles “Blessed Be” and “Rule of Nines”. Here was a band with a powerful, versatile vocalist, super clean and punchy production, wicked guitars, and just an overall accessible, while still interestingly complex package. Add on to that, in all their social media and interactions with their Patreon supporters, the band just seemed like chill, super cool people.

I started following them in earnest and they continued to release a number of additional singles. Anticipation for the full album built for me. And then Eternal Blue dropped.

I’ve been asked what genre Spiritbox would fall into. I guess I would say metalcore. But I feel like that label sells them very short. Lead singer Courtney Laplante has a beautiful clean voice with an often ethereal quality to it. Her screams are things of legend, and her growls, while not the most guttural of female vocalists out there, are very powerful and dynamic. Husband Mike Stringer is an excellent guitarist, combining simple playing with often deceptive complexity, creating layers that help to build the atmosphere in their music.

It really is this atmospheric nature of their music that I think sets them apart from most metalcore bands. Songs have very heavy moments, consistent with the genre. Yet these are often more than balanced by atmosphere, electronic elements, and clean guitar playing.

And Eternal Blue embraces and embodies that diversity. There are songs that are just complete bangers (see “Holy Roller”), while others are tranquil tracks that really lust allow the atmosphere and the emotion of the tracks to wash over you (“We Live In A Strange World”, “Constance”). There are also tracks that are relatively straight forward metal songs, while others are soaked in electronica and layers of effects.

The album also flows fantastically from track to track. In the era of singles (interestingly, many were released prior to the release of Eternal Blue as a whole), this is one of those albums that really was written and recorded in a way to encourage listening from start to finish.

In a genre that can, at times, become boring and predictable, Spiritbox do an exceptional job on Eternal Blue of keeping things interesting. While it rarely feels out of place (with the exception, for me, of the chorus of “Yellowjacket”), the zigging when a zag is expected is done class and skill. Spiritbox seems to really be hitting their stride at the moment, and Eternal Blue is an excellent demonstration as to why that is happening. It is a fascinating release, and makes me that much more interested in what the band will bring next.

Archspire – Bleed The Future

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I don’t even remember how it happened. It was most likely on angrymetalguy.com, since that is how I tend to find most of my new music. But I recall seeing the cover for Relentless Mutation by Archspire, and thinking “that is some freaking crazy album artwork!”

Little did I know, the artwork was just a shadow of what I would discover on the actual album itself. 

Firing that album up and hearing “Involuntary Doppelgänger” was one of those pivotal moments in my music life. No joke. I knew, going in, that Archspire was technical death metal. So I expected theatrics. My brain and ears were not ready for the level of theatrics. Insane drum fills, lightning fast guitar riffs, and harsh vocals that were so rapid fire and percussive, I still haven’t heard their like. 

But while it was immediate amazement, it wasn’t immediate love. The technical ability on display was untouchable. But so dense was the music that it took a bit to really get into it. However, once I did, I was secondarily amazed at how, despite the insanity of the music, there was still a focus on melody, on the musicality of the songs. It became one of my favorite albums of 2017.

Fast forward to 2021. The announcement of a new Archspire album was now met with immediate anticipation. Listening, over and over again, to the singles that were released prior to the full album dropping, my anticipation was only fed. And then the full album dropped.

Bleed the Future is an unapologetic, brutal, technical 32 minutes. It is also an absolute, unequivocal triumph.

On display is everything about Relentless Mutation that I loved, but better. More speed, more technicality, more vocal lines that are so fast you simply can’t follow them if you happen to watch the lyric video. No joke. But most impressive is this: these songs are catchy as hell. It is true. Despite the brutality, the speed, the insanity of the music, these songs are true earworms. Melodies get stuck in your head, passages embed themselves in a way that just won’t let go or let up.

Very welcome on this release is an improvement in the presence of the bass. Rush was my first love, the first band I went all in on, and I think that has had a huge influence on my lifelong love of bass in music. And so, it pains me when it is absent (And Justice For All I’m glaring in your direction). And while it wasn’t absent on previous releases, it just feels so much more present here. It rounds out each song, adding a depth that is so welcome.

Amongst the insanity there are also many moments to catch one’s breath. These moments of slow and peaceful brilliance are essential and so welcome. While just over 30 minutes long, Bleed The Future would be punishing to get through from start to finish, were it not for these well placed and thoughtful breaks. They are another example of just how tight and brilliant Archspire are. These guys know what they are doing, and understand music incredibly well.

Melodic guitar solos also act in a contrapuntal fashion to the brutal tech death riffing, giving moments of reprieve from the onslaught, injecting beauty in the overall all album. The efficiency of the album in communicating all of this is incredible.

If it wasn’t obvious yet, let me make this perfectly clear. Bleed the Future is a truly amazing album. It is rare that an album grabs me with such a choke hold, but this has done just that. Other very good albums have come out recently, and yet while I listen to them, all I can think is “but I could be listening to Bleed The Future instead!” If this isn’t my top album of 2021, it means something is coming out in the next two months that I am not aware of. I don’t see how any album tops this.

Archspire aren’t just bleeding the future, these guys are creating the future of tech death in a way no other band is. And this is a future I believe in and welcome.

30 Albums in 30 Days: Vol 2

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Two years ago, I decided to embark on a writing experiment where I did a write up for an album a day, over the course of the 30 days in November. It was a cheat way to participate in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I’m not writing a novel (though I want to), but I do want to push myself to write more often, again. I have let that fall off a fair bit over the last year or so, and want to reignite that. What better way than to try to repeat something I have already done?

Okay, so there are probably better ways. But I didn’t really want an answer, because this is what I am going to do.

Unlike two years ago, I’m not thinking about this too much before hand. Back then, I had compiled a list of the albums I wanted to write about. I thought about doing that, but decided that, in another effort to push myself a little bit, I wanted to have to come up with what I was going to write about the day I was writing. May it lead to worse articles? Less thought? Maybe.

But this is, at least in part, an exercise in pushing myself. So I am trying to find more ways to push myself. Also, I am considering making some brief videos about these albums as well, as video is something I have been wanting to get into. So there will likely be an accompanying video for some of these articles.

Welcome to 30 Albums in 30 Days: Volume 2.

Wacky Wednesday – Paradise Lost Host

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I have been listening a lot of Paradise Lost lately. One of the “Peaceville Three”, they were pioneers of the deat/doom subgenre of metal. But that death/doom style didn’t last. Within only a few albums they have really become a much more approachable, but extremely good, gothic metal band. Poised to become huge, suddenly they chose to change again. 

Enter Host their 7th album. There are barely any guitars. The cover could just as easily be the cover of a Backstreet Boys album, and the music is closer to Depeche Mode than anything resembling metal. What? 

But it’s true. It isn’t necessarily bad music. But coming off the highs that were Draconian Times and Icon, this is music that is almost beyond comprehension. I find it somewhat difficult to go back to, just because it is such and outlier in their catalog. It can be fascinating in its own way, because of that outlier status. But, all these years later, I almost don’t know what to make of it. 

The other members of the “Peaceville Three” also underwent significant transformations. Anathema became much more of a progressive, pop/rock (that I desparately love and lament while respecting their decision to call it quits). My Dying Bride had some weird years in their as well (34.788%… Complete anyone?). But while Anathema gradually morphed into something completely different, and My Dying Bride’s daliance was much shorter in nature, Paradise Lost takes the cake for just how different Host is from all their other work. 

It is truly wacky to listen to Host and then follow it up with Obsidian, their most recent album. It truly sounds like completely different bands, while the only member of band that has changed is the drummer. I am being reminded lately just how good of a band Paradise Lost is, their middle era notwithstanding. And in that light, I find it fun and fascinating to listen to Host and the other few albums that were released in that era. 

This Week in Music: Saturday July 17, 2021

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The most obvious thing to note from this past week is the distinct lack of metal. 

It isn’t often that this happens, but this last week I just really was more into the electronic stuff, predominantly Bassnectar. It just seemed to be more what I was looking for overall. There was still some metal in there, new album from Crescent and all. New live album from Paradise Lost had me going back to the originals. 

But mostly, it was all about the electronic music this week. Makes me wonder what this next week will bring. 

Wacky Wednesday – “Call to the Warrior” by Affiance

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Wacky Wednesday is a day to write about something that is just different. Could be truly wacky, weird or wild. Might be a little freaky. Could be funny, silly or really just unusual in some way. This might be an opportunity for me to explore some of the lighter aspects of my music.

When thinking about what I could write about on this inaugural Wacky Wednesday, one of the first things that came to mind was the song “Call to the Warrior” by Affiance. Sadly, this band has mostly disbanded, though we did get a surprise single from them in 2020. It’s a real shame too, as they really were an excellent, straightforward metal band. Melodic, exciting, with tons of energy, they are missed. 

“Call to the Warrior” was the first song I really remember hearing from Affiance. And it was really the video that caught my attention. The song is a real banger, very motivating, and a great “pump you up” type of song. 

But the video, it is hilarious and wacky and I love it. Just watch it. But, in short, it is the band performing their own song in Guitar Hero/Rock Band, and initially failing. There is great comedy for a great song. But the video definitely is wacky. 

Introducing Terrific Tuesday – Funeral Doom Edition

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When I first fired up this blog I had a couple of ideas about what I wanted to do. Initially I was mostly basing it off other music blogs I frequent. The idea was, thus, to mostly do reviews and such.

It didn’t take long to realize that, while I am a pretty avid consumer of new music, there just isn’t something new coming out on a regular enough basis that I want to consume and write about that it was going to be a productive writing avenue. So I started thinking about other things, and thus my 30 albums in 30 days was born, followed by some other ideas. 

Then I got lazy, took over a year off from writing. This time around I decided that I wanted to have some sort of plan to what I write, and so I came up with ideas for specific days. Enter Terrific Tuesday (and a few other ideas such as New Music Monday). On Tuesdays (not promising every Tuesday, mind) it will be a chance to write about something I think is just that, terrific. Maybe an entire album, maybe a song, maybe something else. All that needs to happen is I think it is terrific. Let’s get this party started.

That’s right, we are talking Funeral Doom today. Funeral Doom is freaking terrific. At the same time, I will be the first to admit it absolutely is not for everyone. Funeral Doom takes the slower, heavier elements of Doom and turns them up to 11. No, actually, it turns them up to like 19. 

First off, this is slow music. Like really, really slow. It is ponderous, with songs easily in the double digits in terms of length (some even up to 30, 60 or even 80 minutes long for a single song). There is a huge hurdle to overcome in that regard. This isn’t music that works on a casual listen. It demands time, attention, and a significant investment from the listener. 

It is also heavy, in the most literal sense of the word. Funeral Doom is akin to having more and more weight added to your back, weighing you down minute after minute. Harsh vocals abound, often addressing equally weighty topics. Again, not for the casual listener. This isn’t feel good music. 

But it is cathartic. So, so cathartic. 

Some people get that. Others don’t, and that’s okay. But for those of us who appreciate the power of music to take us on mental and emotional journeys, Funeral Doom fits that bill. Sure, it may be like being run through a meat grinder. But coming out the other side, there has been some sort of release. For me it is often a huge release of tension or anxiety I have been holding in. Through the weight of the music, these elements are pressed right out of me. 

And the relief that can come in that catharsis is beautiful and often so welcome. And terrific.