This is easily a record in terms of tardiness. I need to apologize for that, as it was definitely not my intention to ever let a RotM post get to six weeks late. I have managed to hand off the rest of the management of the blog to other people despite my powerful desire to not do that, but I really hate delegating the Record(s) o’ the Month. I feel like you should have a little context for what’s going on with Angry Metal Guy (the person) before I hand you a bunch of music you need to hear from April and May.
Roughly six months ago, I was drawn into a “political dust-up” at my work which involved me needing to fight for the basic resources necessary to finish my PhD. A couple months later, I was informed—extremely late—that my anticipated, but meager, income source would be denied me due to a policy change about which they failed to inform me, making it essentially impossible for me to find relevant work. I have, therefore, been expected to work full time on finishing my dissertation with no financial support,1 dealing with the union, dealing with the organizational and bureaucratic nightmare—and inaction—that these things can be when one gets caught up in institutions that want to make things difficult.2
Ultimately, this led to me relapsing into the kind of depression that is difficult to work through but with little recourse but to work full time, despite not having an income. The only way out of this is through it, but that is a kind of catch-22. Long-term stress looks a lot like Attention Deficit Disorder in that it undermines one’s ability to concentrate and self-regulate. Being so out of control and unable to affect my situation in any other way but to try to finish a dissertation that required more of me than I felt capable of giving resulted in me being pretty stuck. Fortunately, in the last few months my habit of getting the fuck out of bed and getting over to work—no matter how late—and pounding my way through stuff has paid off. In the next ten days I will have a copy ready to hand off to my supervisors who will, almost certainly, give me the go ahead to hand it off to the internal examiner, whose critiques I have been dealing with in my revision. Once that happens, I’ll be free to book a defense and get this motherfucker done with and I am looking forward to living a more normal life.
I anticipate that some people will respond to this by asking whether you can help. Yes, you probably can. But that is a topic for a different time. This post is meant to cover two months worth of music that we here at the blog think is pretty fucking rad and that we think you should buy. Yeah, that’s right, buy it from Bandcamp, because one purchase from Bandcamp supports a band better than three years worth of streaming.3 Hey also, I have an Instagram account for AngryMetalGuy.com that I would really like to have more followers for since I actually have worked quite hard at making the content there cool and interactive. You should follow it.
And now, without further ado… The Records(es) o’ the Month(s) from April and May of 2021. In mid-June. Ha!
On the other side, topping the month of May, Impure Wilhelmina could seem to not have so much in common with such a slab of classic doom. Yet, Antidote also wears its influences on its sleeve, sounding at times like The Cure but loaded for bear with riffs and moments of extremity. Impure Wilhelmina doesn’t feel retro or derivative so much as they feel like they exist in their own little universe. And that little universe is loaded with great melodies, cool riffs, and a universal constant—a vibe—that hums in the key of Katatonia. Yet unlike the aforementioned Swedes, Antidote has riffs and tension that push deeper into the very best that “post-metal” can offer us. It crests into the extreme before giving way to the dour and placid balancing the two with an elite touch. I don’t know if I agree with Grymm that Antidote is iconic, but it’s definitely “flooded with moments” that make me want to listen to it again and again.
Runner(s) Up:
VOLA // Witness [May 21, 2021 | Mascot Records] — VOLA falls comfortably into what I sometimes refer to as Late Prog, a musical movement made up of bands like Haken, Soen, and Leprous. They are making music in a post-djent world, decades removed from the time when Dream Theater or even Pain of Salvation was the standard for “progressive metal.” They’re figuring out how to hit the Rush Ratio™—that perfect balance of catchy:interesting that Rush did so well—in a world where you can set up your piano roll to a 23/7 time signature and just play around until you find something bizarre.4 And it’s a hard balance that VOLA manages with ease on Witness, while refusing to simply repeat themselves. El Cuervo explained that “VOLA is a highly unusual band. The way they blend the accessible with the inaccessible so successfully belies surprisingly clever writing.” Yet the band is legitimately heavy, pushes into challenging musical territory with ease, yet ties it altogether with “killer vocal melodies.” Witness is fun and palatable but it never feels easy.