Happy Friday, all. I'm about to peel back the curtain a share a little behind the scenes magic on how I put together these posts. I pull up some of my trusty new release lists and start listening to the albums that interest me early in the morning. If there aren't many, I'll usually listen to my picks a couple times through or more. As I listen, I start building out this post over the course of the day. I post once I've run out of new albums I'm excited to listen to - or once real life dictates that I'm not going to be able to spend anymore time on it. Today, it became clear that this post would drop later in the day, because it's an oddly stacked new release day - plus, I've got a couple other recent releases to mention as well. TO THE READ MORE LINK!!!!!!!

Yesterday, Raygun from Chat Pile gave the new album Hooligan by Minneapolis-based noise rockers In Lieu a nice shoutout on Reddit. I was incredibly excited to see them get this kind of exposure - In Lieu are my favorite local band at the moment, although I have yet to see them live. I discovered them when I was listening to all the bands announced for my beloved local festival Caterwaul, and although I ultimately didn't catch their set, I've been listening to them ever since. In Lieu are clearly influenced by noisy, punky female-fronted bands like Babes in Toyland and Made Out of Babies, so if you enjoy some righteous female rage, this album will be right up your alley. 

Up next is the new album from post-metal band Blackshape. Prismer I has more vocal tracks than their debut album, which was entirely instrumental save for one track. It's cool, it's spacey, it's a little short. I need to spend more time with this one. 

In 2021, experimental band Nadja put out a sinister, noisy album called Luminous Rot. That album got a lot of play from me, but I'd lost track of this prolific band in the years since. They have a new one out today entitled cut, which is a little more delicate and expansive than their heavy, grimy 2021 album. Still, cut has plenty of atmosphere and enough reverb-drenched darkness to recommend for Spooky Season. The final track especially delivers.

The new Conjurer album Unself is far and away the heaviest thing on my list today. It delivers heavy doses of both death and doom, hitting hard from the first song and not letting up. I saw these guys open for Khemmis a few years back and was very charmed by the fact that they delivered pummeling death metal while coming across as such nice young British lads. I liked their album they were touring for, but didn't quite love it. This one hit me pretty immediately and there's a good chance I'll keep listening to this one for the long run. 

​What exactly is shedfromthebody? I don't exactly know, but it's interesting. I believe this album, Everything Out There Has Teeth, dropped a week or two back. It's billed as a one-woman doomgaze band, but there's definitely elements of alternative rock and pop as well. Very strange, very good. Check it out. 

I'm closing today with Come On Everybody, Let's Do Nothing by IAN. This hard-to-Google band dropped their album in recent days and has been the topic of much discussion on my Metal Dudes text thread. I'd call it post-hardcore with a cello? This is another one that's somewhat hard to classify, although it's much more traditionally heavy than shedfromthebody. I definitely get Neurosis-influenced vibes from this album, so it's no surprise I love it.

That's all for now! If all goes to plan I'll have some concert recap action later this weekend. \m/