It has all the makings of something I would like, Romeo+theme album+a theme i already know well but listening to a few songs on youtube reminds me he’s running out of new riffs and sounds. You could insert bits of “Constellations” into any of SX’s last few albums and you wouldn’t know where you’d put it.
puts on headphones
I’m mentally racing a neon Delorean through the rain soaked streets of my crime ridden city while I listen to this.
Pretty much the entire purpose of synthwave as a genre, I think :)
This is my “peacefully driving a neon Delorean through the rain-soaked streets of my crime-ridden futurecity” soundtrack, for instance:
Aww man, Korpiklaani and Arkona have a TBD date between Phoenix and Dallas. Hopefully that will be Denver, but likely New Mexico. After Soda Jerks sold out to Live Nation, a lot of the metal shows are spread out to a dozen smaller venues and feels like we are missing out on more.
It took Unleash the Archers a month to confirm the date here… And it’s at a venue half a mile from my house!
Youtube’s algorithm just dropped this into my playlist. Thanks Youtube!
Video NSFW (boobs) but I love this. It’s very 80s Creepshow/Demonic Motley Crue.
These are the guys that covered the Ghost song posted a few days ago!
Shit, I had actually forgotten CB had a new album out this year. Not in my big Word doc or anything.
Yessssss
I went on a New Retrowave binge a couple years ago on Youtube. There’s some real good stuff out there, maybe it deserves its own thread.
That’s not metal, but neither is this.
Bands starting to finally be announced for 70,000 Tons. As I zoned out on Wacken tickets, I was waiting until this weekend to pull trigger on Summer Breeze to see if there were any boat announcements. So conflicted now, but it is gift for S/O and her decision. Ensiferum or unannounced bands in Germany?
While we wait for @Thraeg’s albums of the month for August (assuming it’s not just the Nioh soundtrack on loop…), I’ll proffer my two favorites from recent weeks:
Rebel Wizard - Voluptuous Worship of Rapture and Response
The Spirit - Sounds from the Vortex
Also thanks to @ArmandoPenblade for this one, love it:
Gaerea - Unsettling Whispers
Yeah, I also liked Rebel Wizard this month. Solid picks :-D
I’ve still got about 15 major releases to pick through before I can do any significant declarations for the month. . . when last I left off, I was at 217 for the year. Now?
Carpenter Brut’s neither metal nor recent; I just forgot to add it back in February >.>
I’m going to need another day or so to finish processing the great stuff that came out on the 31st. And sadly, the Nioh soundtrack is fairly unremarkable. But here’s what they should have licensed for it:
Good picks! I had also liked Rebel Wizard, but had completely missed The Spirit.
Aw, hell with it, I’m still going to be digesting last Friday’s releases for a while, but August is already overflowing with goodness. If anything else really stands out, I’ll just throw it in with September.
August 2018 Albums of the Month
I mentioned a while back that we seemed to be in a dry spell for power metal. Powerwolf broke that streak last month, and the floodgates have been thrown open this month, with a half-dozen good-to-great releases. Surprisingly, my biggest standouts (Manticora and Lords of the Trident) were bands I had never heard of before, and the two I was most looking forward to (Helion Prime and Beyond the Black) both seem like disappointing steps down from their excellent previous work, though I’ll still give them a couple more spins.
Unlike my other two highly anticipated 8/31 releases, Omnium Gatherum lived up to all of my expectations and then some, carrying on their perfected blend of the soaring, the melancholic, and the crushing.
Besides that, there’s not much of a pattern, just a lot of good music scattered across a dozen disparate subgenres. Hope you find something good in there!
Steel
Omnium Gatherum - The Burning Cold
Manticora - Kill to Live to Kill
Lords of the Trident - Shadows from the Past
Iron
Lord of the Lost - Thornstar
Southern Empire - Civilisation
Bonjour Tristesse - Your Ultimate Urban Nightmare
Exocrine - Molten Giant
Bronze
Sear Bliss - Letters From the Edge
Primal Fear - Apocalypse
Mob Rules - Beast Reborn
Devious Mine - Exilium
Ex Libris - Ann - Chapter 1: Anne Boleyn
Mongrel’s Cross - Psalter of the Royal Dragon Court
Sacrificed Alliance - Withdrawn
Dol Ammad - Cosmic Gods: Episode II (Astroatlas)
Rebel Wizard - Voluptuous Worship of Rapture and Resonance
Carnation - Chapel of Abhorrence
Mantar - The Modern Art of Setting Ablaze
Great Leap Skyward - Map of Broken Dreams
Wow, I missed this back in February. Hellenic Black Metal (probably my favorite style).
Primal Cult - Perennial Fire
Fuck fuck fuck fuck @Thraeg’s list includes tons of stuff I haven’t listened to, and I am still about 10 albums away from completing what I had hoped to jam to before the end of the month.
In no particular order, stuff I really dug in August (some of which repeats, so I’ll just do videos for the ones that I think @Profanicus and Thraeg haven’t done already):
- Lord of the Lost - Thornstar (Gothic Rock)
- Erra - Neon (Progressive Metalcore)
- Primal Fear - Apocalypse (Power Metal)
- Dance with the Dead - Loved to Death (Darksynth)
- Opus of a Machine - Stray Fire (Progressive Alt-Metal/Rock Thing)
- Time, the Valuator - How Fleeting, How Fragile (Djenty Proggy Metalcore)
- Sylff - Inner Devastation / Outer Serenity (Progressive Post-Black Metal)
- Finnr’s Cane - Elegy (Atmospheric Black Metal)
- Decline of the I - Escape (Post-Black Metal)
- Mongrel’s Cross - Pslater of the Royal Dragon Court (Blackened Thrash Metal)
- Stormland - Songs of Future Wars (Gundam Death Metal)
- Void Ritual - Death is Peace (Black Metal)
- Doro - Forever Warriors / Forever United (Heavy Metal)
- Zevious - Lowlands (Jazzy Prog Metal)
- A Dying Planet - Facing the Incurable (Progressive Metal of the @CraigM -interesting variety)
- Annisokay - Arms (Post-Hardcore)
- Exocrine - Molten Giant
- The Five Hundred - Bleed Red (Djenty Groovy Metal)
- Parasite Inc. - Dead and Alive (Melodic Death Metal)
- Spacetrucker - Smooth Orbit (Stoner Metal)
- Tragedy of Mine - Tenebris (Melodic Death Metal)
- Omnium Gatherum - The Burning Cold (Death Metal)
- Helion Prime - Terror of the Cybernetic Space Monster (Power Metal Absurdity)
- Thou - Magus_ (Sludgy Doom Metal)
- Alice in Chains - Rainier Fog (Grungy Heavy Metal)
- Ancestors - Suspended in Reflections (Proggy Doom Metal)
- Mantar - The Modern Art of Setting Ablaze) (Sludge Metal)
- Netherlands - Black Gaia (I Genuinely Don’t Fucking Know This Album Is Super Weird)
- Fear of Domination - Metanoia (Industrial Death Metal)
- Lords of the Trident - Shadows from the Past (Heavy Metal)
- Circles - The Last One (Djenty Prog Metal)
- KEN mode - Loved (Hardcore / Noise Rock)
- Beyond the Black - Heart of the Hurricane (Symphonic Metal)
FUCK SO MUCH MUSIC
I am very much looking forward to trying yours out as well, man. It was an absolutely insane month :-D
And now that I have tried yours out, I’ll add my voice to the chorus for Southern Empire, Bonjour Tristesse, Mob Rules, Devious Mine, Sacrificed Alliance, and Great Leap Skyward as all being absolutely excellent.
Edit: especially the vocals on the last of those; shit I am in love. It’s scratching a similar itch to Bjorn’s clean vox from Soilwork, almost, at some points.