“Back in 2017, I was introduced to Swiss post-metallers Impure Wilhelmina via their sixth album, Radiation, having had absolutely no prior knowledge or experience with their brand of gloomy post-metal. If Katatonia was the metal equivalent of The Cure, Impure Wilhelmina is basically The Smiths, with guitarist/vocalist/main man Michael Schindl offering up his best velvet-smooth Morrissey-level crooning. I ended up loving Radiation… a lot. Not only did it grab the top spot in my 2017 year-end list, it’s held up ridiculously well over the years, with me pulling it out to give a spin when the mood strikes, which has been a lot lately. So when word dropped that their seventh, Antidote, was on the horizon, I honestly just wanted to like the album about as much as Radiation, tempering my expectations that topping Radiation would be a herculean task.” Purity is overrated.
The Smiths
The Exploding Boy – Alarms! [Things You Might Have Missed 2018]
“As we approach the Days of Lists, you can expect to hear writers complain and/or praise the year in metal for what it gave us. I lean toward the camp that thinks 2018 wasn’t a banner year for the genre, and as partial proof of that, I spent more time spinning a non-metal album than almost anything else I came across. That album is Alarms! by the Swedish post-punk, Goth-rock act, The Exploding Boy.” Sound the Alarms!
Impure Wilhelmina – Radiation Review
“It doesn’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that musical, rhythmic, melodic swing, baby. So with that in mind, I grabbed Radiation, the sixth full-length from Swiss post-metallers Impure Wilhelmina on a blind whim, having never heard a note from them prior. Only bad things can happen, right?” Take the impurity test.
Elder – Reflections of a Floating World Review
“Every so often, an album comes out of nowhere and truck sticks you into next Tuesday. Elder’s 2015 opus Lore did that for me. Their complex brand of New England stoner metal featured the right amount of proggy psych stylings to land in my personal Top Ten. Lore has been a constant friend these last two years, and I expected that topping it would be tough, given its lofty heights and incredible riffcraft. Leave it to Reflections of a Floating World to prove me so incredibly wrong.” Respect your Elder.