It's Friday the 13th, Valentine's Day is tomorrow, and ICE is supposedly leaving Minnesota? What a weekend! We here in MN will believe it when we see it, of course. Here's this week's promoted fundraiser. Please help if you can. 

Times are tough, and music helps keeps us sane. I have fewer picks than last week, but they're all really solid stuff. Check them out below.

Up first is a new single, "The Burning Need," by Restless Spirit. Recommended by some of my music pals, this song is the lead single of their upcoming self-titled album. This song was my introduction to Restless Spirit, and grabbed me immediately because it reminds me so much of Crack the Skye-era Mastodon. That album is my unquestioned pick for Mastodon's best work (So brave! So controversial!), so anything that gives me that vibe I'll immediately be checking out further. 

Here's another new single, this one by Michigan's Prostitute. I didn't catch until this one that whatever they're working in is actually reworking songs from their debut album, Attempted Martyr. A complete remix album? Whatever it is, I am super interested. I'm loving the blend of Middle Eastern sounds and modern noise rock. 

I've covered the first singles off the new Converge album, Love is Not Enough. Not surprisingly, this album sounds massive and furious. This one starts off hard and doesn't let up. It's wild think that it's been nine years since their last album but they sound as enraged as ever. This is one that feels completely appropriate for this moment in time. 

Now, let's slow things down a bit with the new album by Hoaxed. I'm a big fan of their previous album, Two Shadows. Death Knocks doesn't reinvent their formula much, but that's fine by me. Hoaxed is definitely on the lighter side of the doom world, but they still deliver some fuzzy, moody rock with strong female vocals. They're a great pick for fans Ragana, Chelsea Wolfe, Frayle, etc. 

There are a shocking number of bands going by the name Human Error. One of them has a new EP out today called Sour Chalk Water, which is a three-song collection of noisy, post-punk. It's really good stuff, despite being pretty hard to find online. A little bit shoegaze, a little bit hardcore, all fun stuff. 

Finally, I'm ending with a Minneapolis band: Ashbringer is a local black-metal band who dropped a new album today, Subglacial. This one embraces the lo-fi roots of black metal a bit more than some of the recent black metal albums than I've enjoyed - it has a somewhat submerged sound overall, but the vocals are actually pretty crisp and understandable. There's some post-metal and hardcore influences at work here as well, and it's a pretty solid combo. They're playing an album release show at the end of the month to benefit MIRAC, which I'll try to make it to if my schedule allows.

Happy Friday the 13th, all. Stay strong, stay salty. They will not win.