Slay At Home favoritesÅrabrot are back with their latest noisy, post-rock, frankly hard to label opus. This one sees the prolific duo attempting to encompass their entire catalog in one release. Seems like a pretty successful attempt, and over all a successful album.
Horndal – Lake Drinker
Genre: Sludge/hardcore Origin: Stockholm, Sweden Label: Prosthetic
On their sophomore album Horndal all hitting hard with aggressive hardcore that swings with the weight of a sludge band. This reminds me of early Mastodon mixed with Red Rang riffage. Then the once cat-themed Metal Archives lists this band's sole lyrical theme as "Urban Decay," so you know you're in for a romp.
Kauan – Ice Fleet
Genre: Post-metal Origin: Tallinn, Estonia Label: Artoffact Records
It's been four years since this slow, epic collective released an album and Ice Fleet is certainly worth the wait. This one tells the story of a frozen fleet of ships found by geologists. Along with the album the band also produced a tabletop RPG that interacts with the story. So if an epic story about boats wasn't nerdy enough for you already, you also get to dust off the gaming table with this one. Ben has a full review here and the full stream here.
Kiberspassk – See Bear
Genre: Industrial/experimental Origin: Kalachinsk, Russia Label: Out Of Line Music
I don't think I've heard anything quite like Kiberspassk before. At their core they're an electronic band that includes some driving guitars like Ministry might. The band then tops their songs with throat singing, chants, Russian folklore, and dark atmosphere. You can dance to much of this, but you're sort of unnerved while doing so.
The Lion's Daughter – Skin Show
Genre: Progressive metal Origin: St Louis, Missouri Label: Season Of Mist
2018's Future Cult put these guys on my radar, and I was stoked to see them back with more synth-infused sludge/doom/whatever on Skin Show. What I've heard so far sounds like The Ocean if they tasked to collaborate with Harold Faltermeyer. This one is oddly catchy.
Wheel – Preserved In Time
Genre: Epic doom Origin: Dortmund, Germany Label: Cruz Del Sur
A couple weeks ago I wrote about the Finnish prog band Wheel (and some of you got on a whole thing about them sounding like Tool for some reason?), so I was a bit confused when I saw them back with another album already. Turns out there are a few bands out there called Wheel, and this week's is glorious doom one. If you're on a quest for slow riffs with epic vocals, then this is the one for you.
On their first album in half a decade The Crimson Coridor sees the band leaning into sludge more than before. There was a bit of this on 2016's The Well Informed Virus, but there is a spookier aura to this album overall. "Croatoan" is a straight up slow, beefy, headbanger. I welcome the beefiness.
Also dropping today…
Arion – Vultures Die Alone (AFM) – Power/symphonic metal
Blaze Bayley – War Within Me (Blaze Bayley Recordings) – Heavy metal
Devil Sold His Soul – Loss (Nuclear Blast) – Metalcore
