Shizune - 2015 - Le Voyageur Imprudent

Shizune is a five piece screamo band from Lonigo, Vicenza, Italy. La Voyageur Imprudent is their second LP. Shizune at this point has pretty much mastered the classic screamo sound. These songs are chaotic, the band summons the requisite explosive rage without neglecting moments of introspective calm while the desperate shouts propel the songs to even greater cathartic heights. There are no great barriers being broken here, no one here is reinventing the wheel but this is rock solid screamo and a very well sequenced LP. 



From start to finish with only one minor exception every song on this LP is hits hard and begs to be repeated. My favourite songs come in the middle, the combination of Sputnik! Nostalgia; Vespers & Immortel et Impérissable are excellent while the album closes strong with highlight Difficile Da Capire, Impossibile Da Spiegare followed by the beautiful fading away of Instructions For Inertia   If you're looking for some desperate, straight forward screamo Shizune's Le Voyageur Imprudent will serve well. 

Ephemera - 2015 - Ephemera

Ephemera is an international screamo band. Ephemera is their debut EP. This is a collaborative project started by Gabriel from Heart On My Sleeve, he wrote the guitar parts for these songs and then recruited people from various bands to add their own parts without ever hearing what the other musicians where contributing. This is basically the Swedish mafia of screamo with drums from Shawn of Coma Regalia on two tracks and the talent and ability of these bands is on full display.



 These three songs are diverse yet of a complete, powerful whole. It's impossible for me to pick a favourite song as all of these are excellent examples of Swedish screamo. Each of these three songs has different people playing on each, in total these bands are: Heart On My Sleeve, Suffocate For Fucks Sake, Vi som älskade varandra så mycket, Totem Skin, Sore Eyelids, Shirokuma, Anemone, Via Fondo, Trembling Hands, Rainmaker & Coma Regalia. Thanks to Miss The Stars for pointing this out. This is a high water music in terms of modern screamo. Highly recomended not to mention essential listening.

Sleep Routine - 2015 - Sleep Routine

Sleep Routine is a five piece punk rock band from Germany. Sleep Routine is their debut EP. Sleep Routine play a hard hitting brand of emo, The dual guitar attack makes the sound much bigger and more impactful, conjures a fully realized sound that has feet in emo, punk & melodic hardcore. If Make Do And Mend were an emo band and not focused on melodic hardcore it might come out like this. The singer has an excellent shout, emotive and coarse as needed. Generally with an debut EP like this there is only one or two songs that I really like and keep coming back to, this is a record that I can just put on repeat and leave for a long while. Thanks to Miss The Stars for pointing this out. If you're looking for some music that throws hardcore, emo and punk into a melodic, driving debut that leaves you wanting more, Sleep Routine's Sleep Routine will serve well.

Recycled Earth - 2015 - Act Of Devotion

On their second EP Recycled Earth come blazing out of the gate with the title track A.O.D., a killer slab of pissed the fuck off metallic hardcore. The next two songs, Enemy Threshold and Failure To Thrive are more of the same. They aren't bad, they simply continue to drive home the same point. This EP is stuffed full to overflowing with thrashy guitars and an intense, desperate shout creating songs that fall apart as quickly as they come together. The EP closes as quickly as it started with New York Reload, the multi tracked clean vocals giving the ending a real punch in the neck. My main complaint with this EP is that it is far too short, as soon as it is done I am compelled to restart it for more devastation. Recycled Earth have honed their sound to a sharpened edge which they put to great use. Turn this up and prepare to for the spontaneous creation of a pit in your living room. Highly recommended. 

New Music Tuesday: Torche - 2015 - Restarter

Torche is a four piece metal band from Miami, Florida, USA. Restarter is their fourth LP.  Members of Torche have also played in Floor, Shitstorm, Tyranny of Shaw, Riddle of Steel and Tilts. Torche play a melodic brand of sludge influenced metal that also borrows from stoner and alt rock. My favourite Torche release before this was Songs For Singles, UFO was so damn catchy it didn't leave my head for months. This album, their first for Relapse is a return to both that and their heavier beginnings. This record seems to consist of two competing parts



Songs like Bishop In Arms, Loose Men, Undone, Blasted and Restarter have an up tempo, rolling feel to them that kicks things into overdrive while songs like Minnions, No Servants and Barrier Hammer just sit there noisily grinding half a riff into the dust. Songs like Annhiliation Affair and Believe It,  are solidly in the middle, I like em but but they lack the spark to really take off. Torche's Restarter is quite good but very uneven. The good parts are really good and I will continue coming back to them but the bad parts just drag and drive me away.

New Music Tuesday: JØTNARR - 2015 - Burn And Bury

JØTNARR is a three piece black metal band from Colchester, UK. Burn And Bury is their second EP, released on vinyl by Superfi, React With Protest and Vetala and on CD and cassette tape by Prismatic. This is exactly how I like my black metal, stripped down to its fundamentals but still heavy and angry. While the basis of these songs is black metal, there is also some post-rock, hardcore punk and sludge in the mix. There are lots of tremolo guitars and shrieked vocals but also moments that reach towards beauty before being buried under a layer of sludge. 

Rise By Sin starts the album off fast and slows down about halfway for some sludge before some post-rock creeps in while Sunless starts with some melodic, almost beautiful post-rock before the vocals kick and things get sludgy and heavy. Hernswolf comes barreling out of the gates and doesn't let up, and Waldeinsamkeit closes things out with more post-rock beauty that builds into a sludgy, towering beast of a song. All four of these tracks play with the tropes of black metal while bringing in other influences to make sure the music doesn't stagnate.  JØTNARR is a band to watch and Burn and Bury has wet my appetite for more.

New Music Tuesday: Outshined - 2015 - Demo

Outshined is a five piece crossover hardcore band from Richmond, Virgina. Demo is their debut EP. Members have also played in Meth Lab and Barge. This demo has a lot going for it, the guitars are crunchy while the riffs are heavy, fast and groovy. It doesn't hurt that the recordings where mastered by Will Killingsworth at Dead Air Studios. This demo works well by putting the best parts of the band on display. The guitars are crunchy, heavy and riff focused without sacrificing catchiness and the singer has a good shout. But some of these songs don't come together the way they feel like they should. Highlights include Intro, On Your Time and Caught In Fear. If you're looking for some promising crossover hardcore Outshined's Demo will serve well.

New Music Tuesday: Knola - 2015 - The Black Beach

Knola is a four piece band from the Mid Western United States. The Black Beach is their debut EP released on a single sided 12” with an etching on the b-side by Skeletal Lightning. The Knola Collective features members of William Bonney, Midwest Pen Pals, The Exploration and Xerxes. Knola play a melancholy blend of indie rock and midwestern emo and the EP was recorded and mixed by Will Allard of Xerxes. It took me a moment to get used to Jack’s voice, initially it was a little high but after listening to the EP 10+ times now I wouldnt change a thing about this album in terms of the instrumentation or performance. 

Lyrically speaking this album seems focused on repetition, ending back where one started. Dust uses one of my favourite poetic device: it starts in what seems like the middle of a sentence “Speaking of the things I lost somewhere, I haven't wrote a song in years” and goes on to examine memories and wasted time before closing out with the same line it started with. The whole album starts and ends with a similar phrase, “Follow a trail of kicked up sand, that ends at the water and starts at the van”.  Here’s where I would normally list my favourite songs but this whole EP is really good. They are currently writing their LP and I look forward to more of this excellent music.