Revisionist Western

Man, that first month of 2020 went quick. Back to the grind. So here's The River, a UK based doomish band with their new full length, Vessels Into White Tides. This is some laid back  doom, which is a genre I tend to be down with. You know what I'm talking about- sparse riffs, not much in the way of leads, real slow, kinda dreamy and atmospheric, that sort of thing. The kind of doom that you could drink tea to. In fact, let's call it "tea and a book on a rainy day" doom. That genre. Vessels do that sound quite well, in part because their singer has a voice that pulls you in while she drops melodies that play well against the landscape of the music. Even as the guitars have a sludgy, churning quality to them, her gentle singing keeps the music from ever feeling unfocused. Definitely a solid release. Vessels Into White Tides by The River

This is a thing you do. So why not. Flesh of the Stars- Mercy The 18 minute opening song on this album is one of the prettiest songs I've ever heard, and it just keeps going after that. Ostensibly, Flesh of the Stars are a doom band, but that's a fairly limiting description. The vocal melodies on this album are so intricate as to defy belief. Probably my favorite record of the year and a real genre defying masterpiece. Mercy by Flesh of the Stars Body Void- You Will Know the Fear You Forced on Us This album is two songs: "Die Off" and "Fascist Cancer." That's most of what you need to know about it. Some of the ugliest doom I've ever heard, with amazing cover art and song title/album title synergy that can't be beat. You Will Know The Fear You Forced Upon Us by Body Void Lume and REZN- Live at Electrical Audio Two Chicago bands coming together to make a beast of a doom/drone record. I got to see them play it live and it w...

I’ve spent a not insignificant part of my life wonder what makes a song sad. Is it... Wait, hold on. Real quick, before I go wandering down this "sad song" rabbit hole: this record is one of the best things I’ve heard all year.  Okay, back to the sad song question.  The obvious answer is that lyrics set the emotional tone for a song. Writing about something sad makes a song sad. But Sammy Hagar has written songs about breakups and when I hear them I don’t think “hey, this breakup song makes me sad,” I think “oh good, whoever this song is about doesn’t have to be around Sammy Hagar anymore.” Most sad lyrics don’t feel like they’re about a specific person or incident or experience. They feel like generic platitudes that could be written by anyone about anything. Put more bluntly, Sammy Hagar lyrics aren’t sad because even when Sammy Hagar writes about something sad, his lyrics lack any sort of specifics or details that would suggest the vulnerability necessary t...

First thing's first. That album title is amazing. "Satan is Our Liberator, We Deserve Freedom Without Shame?" Come on. Poetry. Now that we've got that out of the way, Coward Punch are a relatively new doom band from Sydney, Australia. Like (DOLCH) , Coward Punch straddle industrial and doom, but where (DOLCH) took the formula of driving drum machine beats and heavy riffs in the direction of something pretty and ethereal, Coward Punch move in a grimier, uglier direction. While there are truly gorgeous ambient passages in these songs, the bulk of the album is thick sludge riffs with throat ripping vocals layered over them. An obvious comparison would be something like Godflesh, but the band they actually most remind me of is Hyatari , the underrated drone/doom band from the early-2000s, albeit with some screaming vox in the mix. I'm not always a fan of the mixture of industrial and sludge (the aforementioned Godflesh doesn't really do much for me), but the ...

Dumange is a Spanish neocrust band and this appears to be their first release. Dropping a single, 40 minute song as your first release when you're a crust band is a gutsy move, but Dumange pull it off with this release. Writing long songs when you're a hardcore band always means that you have to use every trick you have to keep things interesting in a genre whose tools are designed to give you minute long bursts of energy. Dumange combine a variety of sounds and textures in this song, ranging from driving, post-rocky parts, to gentle passages with whispered vocals over them, to full on raging d-beat. The end result is something that, to me, sounds like melodic crust like Remains of the Day or Deszcz mixed with Envy or City of Caterpillar. If any of that is your jam, this is PWYW over at Bandcamp. I'd recommend it.   Entre ratas by Dumange

Okay, kids. History time. There was a point, back in the 90s, when a genre called "screamo" didn't exist and most bands that played what now gets called screamo actively rejected the label (because, let's be honest, it's an embarrassing term). Those bands (including bands I was in that sounded like that) typically thought of what they were doing as good old hardcore, albeit slightly outside the box hardcore. Then, somehow, the "screamo" label started to stick, and then later generations needed a whole new word (skramz) to differentiate original pretty good screamo from later much worse screamo. Which I get. If I were 22 I wouldn't want to admit I listen to a lot of "screamo" from the the last ten years, either. Anyway, where I'm going with this is that Lagrimas is a band from Los Angeles that sits right at this intersection in a way I really appreciate. What I think people responded to about the 90s hardcore that gets called sk...

Heather Brown is, by her own words, a mom who makes boutique pedals. I'm not sure what else she's done besides this, but this is a ridiculously smooth overdrive pedal.  So first, let me start by pointing out that the lights on this thing make a halo and a heart, which is brilliant.  Second, what you're basically getting here is a pretty solid overdrive boost that ranges from just a little bit of extra push to some real crunch, with a nicely responsive treble/bass EQ. That knob to the bottom left is called the "immaculator" and it essentially makes the pedal more or less transparent, so you can dial in roughly the amount you want it to be shaping your tone, from having it just do a tiny bit to letting it take over. I find it most useful when stacked with a fuzz pedal, to give it a little extra warmth. Here's a short demo I made of the pedal so you can see the various knobs in action: Check out Heather Brown Electronicals here .