“Dead Feathers play a fuzzy psychedelic rock, emphasis on the rock, in the vein of Black Mountain or Dead Meadows. The obvious selling point is Marissa Belu’s fantastic Grace Slick-meets-Elin Larsson (Blues Pills) vocals. But the instrumental side is no slouch either.” Circle of dead feathers.
Huck N’ Roll and Eldritch Elitist will now hold court with their well-thought-out Top Ten(ish) lists. Appear or be held in eternal contempt.
“Sometimes a record takes a while to grow on you. Sometimes it takes a few listens to really get what a band is going for, or what makes them different from dozens of other bands. On the other hand, sometimes you press play and the band’s selling point imprints itself on your eardrums almost immediately. Dead Feathers sound like a better Dead Meadow fronted by Florence Welch (as in, the one with The Machine), and I don’t make that comparison lightly.” Dead Feathers and the Machine.
“Listen, by the time December rolls around we don’t want to review new albums. We’re too busy listening to our favorites of the year to bother with new releases. But I’m a sucker for female-fronted blues-rock and occult bands–I love Blues Pills and Sabbath Assembly, and last year I had Pristine’s album high on my list–so when Juniper Grave’s debut landed in our promo pit, I had to grab it.” Hellions, Harridans, Huckster.
![Pristine – Ninja [Things You Might Have Missed 2017]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Pristine-Ninja-01-768x768.jpg)
“It might not have been the best year for male vocalists, but the women in metal more than made up for it. Stellar performances from bands as varied as Royal Thunder, Sabbath Assembly, Chelsea Wolfe, Myrkur, and Diablo Swing Orchestra showed us that the women can bring it. But the best performance of the year came from a band whose album flew under our radar back in June, Pristine, and their fourth album, Ninja.” Women to the front!
“We’ve been seeing it since the dawn of time: when one band finds success, record company execs stumble over themselves trying to sign the next great version of that band. Rarely is the next great version actually found: instead, what we usually end up with are tepid versions of the original, competent yet missing that certain intangible (and more often than not also missing decent songwriting). Case in point: the critical success bands like Royal Thunder and Blues Pills have enjoyed in recent years. Record labels are wading through quagmires looking for the next great female-fronted retro blues/metal acts, and tossing half-baked ideas at us in the hopes that something sticks.” Sticky or icky?
“Eclectic is the name of the game when it comes to Dot Legacy. The French quartet has been around for seven years, playing a unique brand of fuzzed-out energy rock. How’s that for a genre? To be honest, Dot Legacy’s second offering, To the Others, kind of defies genre categorization. It’s a mish-mash of everything, and that was the intent going in.” Kitchen sink-core.
