“Baratro is a side project of Dave Curran of Unsane. If that shouldn’t clue you in on the level of sonic abuse that awaits you on The Sweet Smell of Unrest, then get outta my face. Noise rock is already a caustic breed of music, a nasty chocolate coating, but when you fuse it with the megaton weight of sludge, the heavy peanut butter, you’ve got yourself a sonic peanut butter cup of bludgeoning pain.” Two great pains that hurt even more together.
Listurnalia continues the plowing towards the year’s inevitable end with two more excellent lists from people who have surprisingly not been fired!
“Here we are again strung upon KEN mode’s newest, fresh-faced outing, VOID—well, as fresh a face as these Canucks can muster. NULL’s intense and twisted Red Demon has fractured into a split visage of terrified sadness and caved-in confidence. Though KEN mode has little to fret over in the performance realm, the returning four-piece lineup boasting some of the most diverse and rich talents of the band’s career, a troubled mind, this demon state, does not find solace through notes of proficiency and creativity.” Face of things to come.
“Just look at that cover! I didn’t quite care what it ended up being when I saw that brazenly bright, composite-faced figure with its many mouths open in… anguish? Excitement? Both? Of course, I knew it had to foreshadow noise to some degree—something so frighteningly stitched could only be the result of frequencies scraping the boundary between pique and pleasure.” Horse show.
“No, this album has nothing to do with our favorite sponge friend. Yes, this album has everything to do with FOUR angry Canadians now that KEN mode has promoted Kathryn Kerr, a one-woman wrecking ball of saxophone, synth, and piano prowess, previously guest-credited on 2018’s Loved. Did you think that KEN mode would go full saxcore after that experimental sludgeball? Well, I bet your 2022 bingo card is all kinds of fucked up at this point, so let’s make this one easy: KEN mode—or more accurately, primary bleeding heart Jesse Matthewson—hated the past couple years and it shows.” No dream house for you!
“Now my questions are more pointed, such as what specific right is protected by what’s often called the Lumley v Gye tort. When I was in my first year, I couldn’t envision asking such a question. Two and one-half academic years later, I’ve got more questions than answers. Adding to this litany of questions is one that has nothing to do with law, philosophy, hamburgers, Live in Leipzig, beer, or any of those things I frequently write about. This question is as follows: what would happen if The Haunted circa Unseen wanted to make something like newer Thrice and Saliva?” Socratic disaster.
“Metal ebbs and flows. Genres get popular, fall out of favor, and then go through extended periods of dormancy before once again experiencing sudden and violent upheavals in popularity. Perhaps the most notable recent example was the metallic hardcore boom of the early 2010s. Back then “Entombedcore” bands like Black Breath and metallized powerviolence groups like Weekend Nachos were the cool kids on the block that every blog was posting about. Yet today, while some of these bands are still going strong (Full of Hell and Nails), many have either disbanded (Enabler and Trap Them) or become largely inactive (Black Breath). For a while, Colorado’s Call of the Void fell into this last category.” Out of the void, into your ears.
“What the fuck is that? A demented shadow person? A medieval executioner? The nightmarish specter of your father asking you why you haven’t eaten your Brussels sprouts? These are the questions you’ll ask yourself as you try in vain to fall asleep tonight, knowing full well that leering figure is definitely not standing right at the foot of your bed. In a way it’s fitting, because KEN mode’s music is equally likely to leave an impression.” Sludge monsters.
“The hallowed Angry Metal Spreadsheet Ov Promos was the first time I’d heard of Unborn, and thus I decided to leave my reservations at the door, enter the Vøid, and find out just what these Finns were all about. Does this sixth full-length grind n’ roll, bump n’ grind, or just stand around looking ominous in a hooded sweatshirt?” Roll out the grinder!
“Ah, Polish death metal. The riffing quivers with imperial might, the drumming carpet-bombs soundscapes like F-22s over Syrian ISIS outposts, the band names evoke titanic sacrilegious deities or bear primal aggression with their blunt simplicity: Behemoth, Hate, Azarath, Decapitated, and – Calm Hatchery. Uh – the fuck? Yes, forming in 2002 with a moniker that calls to mind cuddly newborn dinosaurs instead of ragged bleeding neck stumps, Calm Hatchery already stacked the cards against themselves….” Worst band name ever? We report, you decide.
