I guess it's time for one of these again! Actually I could already write about five new tapes in my collection today, but since I've already shot the picture the fifth will have to wait for part XXIV... Let's start with a regular guest of the series!
ANGEL OLSEN - Big Time (2022)
Is Angel Olsen too schmaltzy? Yes, sometimes she is! Is she too Country on this album? Hell yes, most definitely! Is she too Pop? Does that really matter?
The thing is that the US singer/songwriter appearantly likes to release those singles which make me doubt if the album isn't too something for me, but ultimately I come around loving it. With "Big Time" I'm probably still in the midths of that process, because at least during the first half the Country Kitsch is really front and center here and makes it quite a challenge. However, even though Angel Olsen really milks this cow to exhaustion, she still finds ways to change course just enough and just in time to keep it interesting. My favorite parts are of course those, where she jums from the intimate to the noisy and orchestral like in the chorus of "Go Home".
While I doubt that I will love "Big Time" as a whole as much as "All Mirrors", "Whole New Mess" or even the "Aisles" EP, I applaud the artist on the dedication to find a new specific sound for each of her releases. Also especially the B side actually features a couple of extraordinarily strong songs.
The thing is that the US singer/songwriter appearantly likes to release those singles which make me doubt if the album isn't too something for me, but ultimately I come around loving it. With "Big Time" I'm probably still in the midths of that process, because at least during the first half the Country Kitsch is really front and center here and makes it quite a challenge. However, even though Angel Olsen really milks this cow to exhaustion, she still finds ways to change course just enough and just in time to keep it interesting. My favorite parts are of course those, where she jums from the intimate to the noisy and orchestral like in the chorus of "Go Home".
While I doubt that I will love "Big Time" as a whole as much as "All Mirrors", "Whole New Mess" or even the "Aisles" EP, I applaud the artist on the dedication to find a new specific sound for each of her releases. Also especially the B side actually features a couple of extraordinarily strong songs.
CHAT PILE - God's Country (2022)
While we're already at Americana, let's get on with this harsh and real description of "God's Country"! Ok, Chat Pile may push the limits of that term, since they are actually playing a brutal bastard of Noise Rock, Crust and Sludge Metal with a very discernably shouting and speaking vocalist, who channels a lot of palpable anger.
I haven't done the math to find out whether the band deserves the exact amount of hype it receives right now, but I know that already the second track "Why" had me completely sold on the album, just with the simple truth and honest delivery of its message alone: "Why? Why? Why do people have to live outside? I couldn't survive out on the streets Why? Why do people have to live outside? I couldn't survive out on the streets I've never had to push All my shit around In a shopping cart Have you?" You seldom hear a cry for social justice delivered so on point.
Combined with Chat Pile's unfiltered raw energy and their surprisingly fresh take on brutal noise music "God's Country" couldn't be a heavier crushing hammer of anxiety - or a more desperate document of our time.
I haven't done the math to find out whether the band deserves the exact amount of hype it receives right now, but I know that already the second track "Why" had me completely sold on the album, just with the simple truth and honest delivery of its message alone: "Why? Why? Why do people have to live outside? I couldn't survive out on the streets Why? Why do people have to live outside? I couldn't survive out on the streets I've never had to push All my shit around In a shopping cart Have you?" You seldom hear a cry for social justice delivered so on point.
Combined with Chat Pile's unfiltered raw energy and their surprisingly fresh take on brutal noise music "God's Country" couldn't be a heavier crushing hammer of anxiety - or a more desperate document of our time.
EXALTATION - Under Blind Reasoning (2022)
[MY REVIEW ON VEIL OF SOUND.COM ]
Every musical wave which has receded eventually makes its comeback. And if there's one of those I can fully get behind it's the recent rise of Death Metal in all its glorious forms. Not that I am immersing myself deeply in it or would buy a signifant number of albums... but it's just a comfortable feeling to know that the real deal is out there alive and kicking - and spitting out albums like "Under Blind Reasoning", which in its core is probably eighty percent pure Morbid Angel "Gateways To Annihilation" worship. And since this filthy New Zealand Death Metal horde just absolutely excels at the emulation of the old school masters, adds some sick modern dissonant touches and fills the remaining twenty percent with great original ideas, this short but sweet onslaught simply is nothing but fun. Just what I want my good old classic Death metal to be!
CRYPTAE - Capsule (2022)
Same label as Exaltation (Sentient Ruin Laboratories), but a a totally different take on the Death Metal revival. It's not the first time that Kees Peerdeman and René Aquarius smashed the idea of Death Metal to pieces and rebuild it as something sicker, crunchier and somehow even more menacing. Their middle finger to genre expectations however has grown longer in the two years since "Nightmare Traversal".
The duo incorporates more unlikely influences, even going as far as pairing the best recent Metal revival (Death Metal, duh!) with the one noone in the whole wide world ever wanted... yes I'm talking about the deservedly despised return of urgh... I don't even want to type it... Nu Metal.
And because these guys are the musical extremist sickos they are, it's of course brainmeltingly awesome anyway. More than ever Cryptae's over the top cranked to twelve sound really doesn't have any blueprint. My best comparison wouldn't even be one which I think sounds very similar. But all in all the furor, madness and variety of "Capsule" gives me an overall feeling which is quite close to listening to Wormrot's "Hiss". Plus that special Dead Neanderthals fuck everything avantgarde note of course.
Cryptae are just a very special kind of bleurgh. And I love it! Definitely one of the most unique and very best extreme metal albums of 2022.
The duo incorporates more unlikely influences, even going as far as pairing the best recent Metal revival (Death Metal, duh!) with the one noone in the whole wide world ever wanted... yes I'm talking about the deservedly despised return of urgh... I don't even want to type it... Nu Metal.
And because these guys are the musical extremist sickos they are, it's of course brainmeltingly awesome anyway. More than ever Cryptae's over the top cranked to twelve sound really doesn't have any blueprint. My best comparison wouldn't even be one which I think sounds very similar. But all in all the furor, madness and variety of "Capsule" gives me an overall feeling which is quite close to listening to Wormrot's "Hiss". Plus that special Dead Neanderthals fuck everything avantgarde note of course.
Cryptae are just a very special kind of bleurgh. And I love it! Definitely one of the most unique and very best extreme metal albums of 2022.
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