Shopping Building
May 19th, 2024
I feel like I owe people who got into the Tab before I was obsessed with metal an apology sometimes. Like, oh cool a newsletter about indie / pop etc. and then oops, it’s 80% metal/thrash/etc. now! Anyway, for those of you who are not into the more extreme genres, I promise you that I’m making sure to include as much non-aggressive music that I’ve been listening to as possible.
Also, a rare weekend post… testing the waters out there. Are you into the idea of these dropping on a weekend or would you rather I stick to week days? Let me know.
Would welcome feedback on my use of the emoji-based rating system as well. I toyed with having another “recommendation if you like the genre” emoji but then almost everything ends up with a marking. Too much? Do you like rating system overkill? Leave it as is? Tell me!
Icon legend:
⛏️ denotes picks of the week.
🌱 seedling denotes albums I liked, but may grow on me.
As always, please reach out on the hellsite if you’d like or better yet join the Rosy Overdrive Discord server where I can be found now and again. You can also find me in the corners of Rate Your Music scrounging for obscure emo, hardcore, indie-rock and pop-punk.
Don’t forget: if you’re reading this in your email it will be cut off. Read on the web for the full list of reviews!
⛏️ Carb on Carb - Take Time (2024)
Genre: Indie Rock, Midwest Emo
Very satisfying emo/indie/noise-pop kind of stuff from this NZ act (new to me, first I've heard of them.) Released by Salinas Records so you know we're talking consistency here. Reminds me a little bit of bands like Doe, Martha, Oso Oso or a more subdued Woahnows. Driving indie-rock rhythms with emo hooks and buzzy guitars. The kind of thing that I appreciate on first listen but then find myself returning to its comforts over and over.
⛏️ youbet - Way to Be (2024)
Genre: Neo-Psychedelia, Indie Rock
Compare & Despair landed on my year-end list in 2020, so this was on my radar but I didn't have exactly huge expectations or high anticipation, I was just looking forward to it.
There's something about youbet that is able to exceed expectations of this kind of music anyway. There's a lot of that bric-à-brac indie-pop-psych-rock-etc. stuff out there and most of it doesn't usually interest me all that much any more. But youbet seem able to crack through the noise with their melodies for me. Yeah, there's a lot of neat instrumentation and little quirky textures to this album but I just really like these songs when it comes down to it. These songs feel like they could be stripped back or layered forever and the strength of what's going on foundationally would still remain.
Really not sure how to explain it, but even when I can point at sounds you may have heard done by other acts in here, youbet has something really special that makes it all work for me. You can hear stuff like Duster in the textures of "Deserve" but it never feels like a photocopy.
Much like Compare & Despair, this feels like something that will be an easy one to return to a bunch this year.
⛏️ Group Listening - Walks (2024)
Genre: Modern Classical, Chamber Music
Very nice modern classical that has some library music vibes to my ears. Cool vintage electronic textures (like the sparse skittery drum machines) and ambient elements but still feels like a modern electronic take on classical music to me throughout. Some jazzy moments with horns on songs like "Shopping Building" over top of a kinda post punk textured bass. A lot of "distant music" vibes here with some instruments creating a really rich, deep sound without being overly dense or cluttered. You really feel like you can disappear into the depths of these arrangements.
Probably not for everyone but it does strike an accessible balance between ambient and active music.
Zero Point Energy - Tilted Planet (2024)
Genre: Indie Rock
I often abuse the word "cromulent" but I'm sure as hell not going to stop when a cromulent album like this one floats between my ears. It's indie rock from some of the people who brought you Warehouse. Can't say that either of the Warehouse albums stuck in my memory much, and I can't tell you that this is some wildly different thing that will also stick in my memory, but it was nice enough. It sounds a little less post-punky reverby jangly than that band, and a little more indie-poppy but it also doesn't NOT sound like Warehouse, sooo... not bad but yeah not going to stick around in my brain for long unfortunately.
Strychnos - Armageddon Patronage (2024)
Genre: Black Metal, Death Metal, Death Doom Metal
I probably shouldn't know what to do with this album, since it's a mix of death and black metal which are two areas of metal where I'm hardest to please (or have the least amount of experience, dealer's choice.)
This is good though, very heavy and evil and gloomy sounding (screams of children on a song called "Choking Salvation", check). My complaint about this kind of music always that there's some element of it that feels dangerously close to being repetitive to a fault - whether it's drums or the tremolo riffing or the vocals etc. - but everyone here is doing interesting stuff quite often and it doesn't seem to fall into that trap for me.
Some really good mid-tempo chugging on songs like "Endless Void Dimension" too, alongside more epic metal undertones (YMMV, there.) Really well-rounded stuff for the genre and above-average to my admittedly untrained ears.
🌱 So Totally - Double Your Relaxation (2024)
Genre: Shoegaze, Dream Pop, Neo-Psychedelia
Absolutely loved In the Shape of... in 2019 as I felt like they were doing the shoegaze thing without falling into the trap of vibe over songs. They weren't quite indie pop but they had hooks and melodies that supported their textural diversions. I still think they're a really strong band but the five year wait for new music may have given me unattainable expectations.
This is still remarkably well composed and produced shoegaze music with fairly strong pop melodies, but it doesn't hit me as hard as their last record did. I'm hoping that comes with time spent in these songs or closer lyrical inspection, but as usual when an album doesn't land on first listen or two, I'll have to see about that.
Gatecreeper - Dark Superstition (2024)
Genre: Melodic Death Metal, Death Metal
They really had me for a bit but "The Black Curtain" loses me, for sure. Not even because of the melodic nature of it but more because it kind of goes nowhere for two thirds of its running time (and doesn't have a strong enough melody to support it) then they just kind of give up on the song and end it. Slower, heavier stuff like the opening stretch of "Masterpiece of Chaos" or something like "Caught in the Treads" work more for me, personally, because they balance the death with crushing, memorable riffs of varying tempos.
I am not super familiar with Gatecreeper on the whole, so I dunno how this holds up to their other material but I do know that they are a band people seem to love to hate. It feels to me like an album by a band that isn't sure how far to take their melodies, or where to incorporate more slick moments like the opening of "Superstitious Vision." Like we're getting into power metal territory here with that riff, I feel like, but I'm not sure the band wants to fully go there. Weird thing to say but maybe I sense some kind of hesitation or something in the music on this record.
When it works, I like it well enough but it feels a bit like a pretty big mixed bag to me?
⛏️ Shellac - To All Trains (2024)
Genre: Post-Hardcore, Noise Rock, Math Rock
A comfortable chair of a Shellac album. Continues doing what they do best - as Drpibisback says in the comment box on Rate Your Music: "art rock songs played with hard rock swagger." It's short, it's very good, it sounds great, and it's making me sad about Albini being gone all over again.
Hemotoxin - When Time Becomes Loss (2024)
Genre: Technical Death Metal, Technical Thrash Metal
First off, huge improvement over the album art from Restructure the Molded Mind, lol. Moved from something you'd be embarrassed to be seen listening to, to just a dope rainbow horror sci-fi ass painting, hell yeah brother.
Anyway, this feels like they are focusing in on their strengths; way shorter run time, no cruft like a cover song smacked on at the end, and just oodles of crazy as shit riffs. Particularly like when they mix some more obvious melodic elements into their riffing like they do about a minute into "Abstract Commands." They almost remind me of Old Nick or something when they do that? Probably a stretch, but...
Overall it could be too densely packed for some (and the solos lean back into that nerdy tech vibe) or even too one-note, but this is kind of what I come to technical thrash/death for, so I'm happy.
Dead Head - Shadow Soul (2024)
Genres: Groove Metal, Thrash Metal
Hell yeah. Just when I was starting to get into the mood for something a bit slower and riff heavy, this came along in the Thrash chart for 2024. Mixes thrash with a mid tempo groove element that really hits my caveman brain in the right spot. They also pepper some near-breakdown moments in here too.
I am not familiar with Dead Head but I guess they've been around since the 90s huh? Doesn't feel like a "long running act releases their 8th album" kinda thing, which is good. Maybe I just needed a hit of something like this after so much death thrash but hey, it worked.
Nuclear Tomb - Terror Labyrinthian (2024)
Genre: Death Metal, Thrash Metal
Pretty nasty death thrash that also will slow down for moments of pure heaviness or segue into thrashy atmospheric stretches. Of all the metal genres, death is one that I find hard to parse what works and doesn't work for me. I know I've said that in the past about a lot of generally heavy music - hardcore, etc. - but really all I have working for me is my intuition. This just shreds, that's all there is to it I guess. "Dominance & Persecution" particularly slammed me back a bit when I was listening through for the first time, I love its inability to sit still and how it jumps through all different elements of thrash/death in one go. Just a good time all around, and 32 minutes? Nuclear Tomb knows what's up.
✨Stress Angel - Punished by Nemesis (2024)
Genre: Death Metal, Thrash Metal
This has a main genre tag of Death and sub tag of Thrash on Rate Your Music, but there's a lot going on here I feel like that doesn't fit snugly into those two buckets. Lots of cool vintage capital M "metal" dueling-leads and rolling drums on "Ritual Debt" that really diverge from both those genres.
Honestly, it's sick because then when they jump back into tremolo-pummeling death riffs it's effective as hell. "Ancient Weakness" blasts along effectively for 3 minutes and then I thought it was over, but they slow things down and stretch out the atmosphere effectively. It's not rocket science, but it allows them to be diverse without getting into outright "oh this is tech metal now" or "oh they're doing prog now" territories.
Part of my brain wishes they would dip into straight up chugging metallic riffs or doomier, sludgier moments once in a while for some heavier headbanging but you can't win 'em all.
I also think the name Stress Angel is a sick name for a metal band. This rips!
Sovereign - Altered Realities (2024)
Genre: Death Metal, Thrash Metal, Technical Thrash Metal
This hit the spot for me today. Definitely death thrash with hints of technical thrash but I feel like that might be a little overstated in the sub-genre tag. There's a gut-level heaviness going on here as opposed to that brainy technical vibe tech stuff usually has. People seem to be arguing about a Vektor comparison and I'd have to say I definitely don't hear that level of thing going on here (though I've only heard Terminal Redux.) I really enjoyed this though, and will likely return to it.
Les Savy Fav - OUI, LSF (2024)
Genre: Post-Punk Revival, Indie Rock
I enjoyed Root for Ruin quite a bit at the time, even if it is maybe their most straightforward and dang-near slick album. to some degree they've never been an album band for me outside of Let's Stay Friends and Root for Ruin. Even Inches, which as expected for a compilation, is bumpy and overlong despite containing some of their best work. Regardless, Let's Stay Friends had good hooks, and that's what mattered. A decade plus gap between records doesn't inspire confidence though.
Maybe it's just my mood today, but not much of this grabbed me. Songs like "Mischief Night" or "World Got Great" almost get there, but the melodies just don't hit the bullseye tbh. Many songs here feel like an attempt to make something with the same paint as their older albums, only the results feel weak to me. I can't see myself returning to "Oi! Division" over even the lesser material from Root for Ruin. It's one of those albums that sounds nice, like a familiar band returning for another round, but nothing hits like I wanted it to.
🌱 Blockhead - Luminous Rubble (2024)
Genre: Instrumental Hip Hop
This is perfectly fine stuff from Blockhead but man, the concept of letting an artist have free reign in the KPM library is so good that it's kind of underwhelming that this just sounds like any other Blockhead album.
Maybe that's the point, but I think I was hoping for something a little more weird or off kilter. This is exactly what you expect from Blockhead - instrumental hip hop with horns, trumpets, strings, piano or plucked guitars over skittering organic beat samples. If you didn't tell me this was exclusively pulled from KPM library samples I would have no idea there was anything different in the creation of this record than any of their other instrumental records like Downtown Science, The Music Scene or Funeral Balloons.
I'm usually all for Blockhead's "you know what you're getting into" thing, but this felt a bit in one ear out the other unfortunately. Maybe I'll keep reaching for it through the second half of the year, maybe not. We'll see.
Elliott Smith - Elliott Smith (1995)
Genre: Singer-Songwriter, Indie Folk
Does this need an introduction? A feel bad masterpiece that is also wildly catchy. Had a really messed up dream last week and even though it had been a few years since I listened to this, somehow "St. Ides Heaven" appeared in my dream with accurate lyrics and melodies. Brains are fucked up, but it did inspire me to revisit this for the first time in a little while, so hey thanks, weird nightmare!
I didn’t make this a pick of the week because I’m assuming most people have heard it, but if you haven’t… you should.
⛏️ Heatmiser - Cop and Speeder (1994)
Genre: Alternative Rock, Indie Rock, Post-Hardcore, Emo, Indie Rock, Noise Rock
There's a few lesser tracks here but honestly the run from "Disappearing Ink" through "Antonio Carlos Jobim" is a damn impressive feat of muscular, riffy indie rock. I understand that Elliot Smith's solo career casts a pretty intense shadow over this, and Neil Gust is less of a "known quantity" for most people I guess, but I don't get why this gets overlooked / plenty of mid-level scores over on Rate Your Music.
I like it a lot more than the subdued, more standard "mature follow-up" jangly sound of Mic City Sons (even if I like that album a lot too.)
And now…. more metal/thrash/etc. reviews, of course.
Terminalist - The Crisis as Condition (2023)
Genre: Technical Thrash Metal, Progressive Metal, Black Metal
Fast as hell, nervy, and full throated technical thrash metal. Geeky as hell without being all friggin' poindexter about it. This remains very, very heavy - the gravelly vocals help - while still jumping from riff to riff and tossing in super technical tempo changes with plenty of fret gymnastics. It's fun to hear them go from something really melodic like the intro of "Last Remains" to something near-blackened and back again.
Generally, this smokes, no other way to say it. So good.
Dementia - Recuperate From Reality (1991)
Genre: Thrash Metal, Groove Metal
Pretty sick mix of thrash metal with some groove and slower, mid-tempo heaviness. I spent a lot of time jumping between the original production on YouTube and the remastered version on Bandcamp trying to figure out if I liked the muddy, hazy production on the original release. I ended up choosing clarity over vibe and listened to this using the remaster, which has a huge improvement on the overall crunch of the guitars. Some of these songs are long in the tooth in a way that can drain you but in general I dug this stuff.
People complain about the singer here - who sounds a bit like your standard long haired thrash singer by way of speed metal high notes - but I didn't really care. Have y'all heard Wrath's Nothing to Fear? They sound like the jock from Daria lol. These vocals are fine.
That’s it, that’s all. Be excellent to one other.