Not even a year on from his last full-length album, The Atheist and Jamie Lenman is back with yet more music. Acting as a companion EP to the aforementioned album, IKnowYouKnowIKnow (Big Scary Monsters) features some of the tracks that didn’t fit in with the theme and sound of The Atheist, allowing Lenman to truly showcase some of the varieties of influences that went into the sound of this phase of his career. What can this additional release add to the package that was his previous album?
After a seven-year wait, psychedelic rockers Blood Ceremony are back with their new album The Old Ways Remain (Rise Above Records). This is their fifth record and it sees the Canadian quartet successfully add Folk, Pop, and Jazz elements to their already multifaceted, woozy psychedelic rock.
The multicultural and multi-talented Adanowsky has turned his hands to many things – acting, directing, producing, and making music. Written during the pandemic and taking inspiration from tarot cards, is his latest album The Fool (Universal Music Mexico). This is the French-Chilean-Mexican polymath’s tenth album and it is a down-to-earth one; a soft and melodious melting pot of pop, indie, folk, funk, and his Latin American roots.
There is a rich tradition of Doom musicians releasing stripped-back acoustic affairs as the likes of Scott Weinrich, Tony Reed, and Mike Scheidt can attest to. Windhand‘s Dorthia Cottrell is no exception and Death Folk Country (Relapse Records) marks her second solo effort to date following a self-titled debut in 2015.
The black metal scene has often, and justifiably, been accused of being overly conservative and restrictive. Attempts to make progress within the style or to fuse it with other kinds of music have been met with resistance. Worse still, the stain of far-right politics that has marred certain bands and fans has never been truly rinsed out.
Like Status Quo did with their unexpectedly good Aquostic I and II albums in 2014 and 2016, British Folk Rock band The Levellers are remodelling hits from their back catalogue for their latest self-released album Together All The Way. This is a spiritual sequel to their 2018 album We The Collective, but instead of acoustic versions, they have stripped everything back to a more traditional folk sound.
A circle of discerning music lovers tasked with burying a time capsule to reveal to future generations the state and spirit of US rock in the mid-to-late 1970s would perhaps have included albums like The Last Waltz and Street-Legal, Born To Run, Grievous Angel, Street Survivors, Rust Never Sleeps and Tornillo – if, in fact, the latter had existed back then. Luckily, for us, right here, it exists right now. Continue reading
Colorado’s The Flight of Sleipnir has maintained a consistent but eclectic sound for nearly fifteen years, mixing Doom and Atmospheric Black Metal with elements of Folk and Prog Rock in a way that should sit well with fans of Agalloch. Their seventh album mostly adheres to this genre blend and boasts the fuller production that was last seen on 2017’s Skadi. However, Eventide (Eisenwald) manages to tweak the formula as those Blackened elements seem to be upfront than before.
Lingua Ignota’s music has always come with a certain duality as her first three albums cycled through the harshest Industrial textures and the most arresting Neoclassical Darkwave. However, that duality has seemingly been phased out with the release of her fourth full-length, Sinner Get Ready (Sargent House). The walls of noise are considerably subdued in comparison to past outings and the vocals are devoid of screams and distortion, leaving the songs to be primarily driven by sparse piano and organs with layers of melismatic cleans.
Long established as one of the greatest live acts on Earth, Amenra has also always had great, purposeful albums with heady concepts. Following their Mass titled albums I through VI, released over fourteen years, the band has rebirthed itself into a new final form. De Doorn begins their association with the mighty Relapse Records, continuously the arbiter of good taste for extreme music. From epic post-Metal, pastoral Folk motifs, moody post-Rock moments, to wicked eruptions of pain and grief stricken movements; Amenra’s music simultaneously feeds the brain and soul.