F*ck the Algorithm - Issue 005
I started this blog because things have changed. My own taste has shifted. The way we find music has been turned inside out. It used to be easy to tell who was 'mainstream' and who was 'underground’, but those lines have blurred - and it’s made finding your tribe and participating in a scene a lot harder.
But some things don’t budge. For me, that’s an obsession with heavy music. As sure as eggs is eggs, that’s staying put. My appreciation for what ‘heavy’ means has matured beyond the simple application of a distortion pedal and a drummer with legs like Seabiscuit. Now it’s about heaviness through discord, abrasion, intensity or complexity. The music has evolved but the love remains the same.
Just ask many of my friends and family who have been subjected to drunken scream vocal appreciation TedTalks over the years.
And the best part is that despite the current arms race to name the next -gaze subgenre (I was just reading about memegaze…) there is still some excellent stuff coming out that - as Lemmy might put it - would kill your lawn if it moved in next door.
Here's a selection of tracks like that I've heard lately.
Eight tracks in just over 30 minutes. Play them loud in headphones but be careful not to run through any brick walls or flip any cars with your bare hands etc.
Track notes
1. Vended – Paint The Skin
I tumbled down a rabbit hole listening to this band coz nepotism but eventually decided the music speaks for itself and I’d still like it even if two members of Slipknot’s kids weren’t in the band. Griffin Taylor must be sick to death of people saying he sounds like his dad… but doesn’t he sound like his dad?! Slipknot’s genes run through this both literally and metaphorically but it feels fresh and exciting and avoids being a corny rip-off.
Bridge back: I mean, it’s not a tricky one is it?
2. Dvne – Summa Blasphemia
This ticks so many boxes right off the bat: quasi-religious artwork; huge guitar-scape; powerful vocals; complicated motif development given time to explore; drums that sound like they were recorded in a cave. This is the opposite of writing for the algorithm and I love it.
Bridge back: It’s got later Mastodon prog vibes but less of the trippy psychedelia and more of the heavy bits.
3. Agabas – KILL
Only in Norway could a group of guys blend death metal with jazz looking like they just raided James May’s wardrobe. The sax in this feels like such a natural part of the sound rather than something they forced in to be quirky. The half time drum switch-up just after two minutes is a thing to behold and comes as some needed relief after an anguished sax/scream duet.
Bridge back: I’m going down the unexpected instrumentation route and saying Yellowcard. That’s right, deal with it.
4. Better Lovers – A White Horse Covered In Blood
What do you get if you combine a former Dillinger Escape Plan vocalist with former members of Every Time I Die? Better Lovers. It’s a cleaner rock ‘n’ roll sound than either of those bands but still heavy as an eiderdown lifejacket. I love the heavy reverb used on the vocals here and there and the surprisingly melodic chorus.
Bridge back: The obvious place to look would be DEP or ETID but the rock ‘n’ roll with edge sound puts me in mind of The Bronx.
5. Omega Diatribe – My Sphere
Most of the tracks that make these playlists pull me straight in, but I almost passed on this. It took a few listens to click, and I’m glad I stuck with it because there’s more going on here than first impressions suggest. My Sphere felt instantly familiar — at first I put that down to the Slipknot-style vocals and pinch harmonics in the opening riff. But it’s actually a broader mix of influences, borrowed thoughtfully and stitched together into something that really works. Sounding a bit like Korn, Slipknot and Mudvayne would be a problem if done badly. This isn’t.
Bridge back: Korn, Slipknot and Mudvayne – unsurprisingly. There’s bit of Meshugga-style djent in there too.
6. Puke Wolf – Endless Nights
Whatever you think of this (and it’s not for everyone) you MUST concede that Puke Wolf is one hell of a band name. This achieves its heaviness through volume, aggression and a growing sense of tension that’s given plenty of space to develop and engulf you. Even when the relief of the cleaner guitar comes in, it carries a harmonic ambiguity that pairs with the desperate-sounding vocal performance beautifully. It makes me feel like I am in an endless night and I am afraid of the dark.
Bridge back: The time and space the tension is given to build and even the cleaner guitar tones in this make me think of Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
7. The Callous Daoboys – Tears on Lambo Leather
Another entry for best band name I’ve come across this year… This is heavy in more of an in-your-face and obvious way, as you may notice. If you were to drift a V8 pick-up truck filled with booze and stimulants into a chainsaw and firework factory, this would be playing on the stereo. That’s not to say it’s simple stuff, far from it in fact. Screeching dissonance, electronic elements, mastery of instruments and song structure. I love it.
Bridge back: I hear: DEP, The Blood Brothers, At The Drive-In and lots of other post hardcore in here but it’s delivered in a gloriously offensive manner.
8. Frontierer – Bunsen
Finishing off the playlist for this week, Frontierer describe their music as ‘unrelenting sonic punishment’ and I’m tempted to agree. This track is off a ten-year-old album but It’s completely new to me. It’s hard, fast, mathy, angry, awkward, intense and horrible. Listening to this lifts a weight off my shoulders. It’s all over in 2:08 but they pack a LOT in.
Bridge back: The tightness between the drums and guitars through those impossibly angular and time-bending rhythms conjures Meshugga or Gojira.
If you liked any of this, hated it, or just shrugged, why not drop me a comment or send me an email? I might comment myself just to check the system works...
Good music deserves conversation.
