When times are rough - and times are indeed rough for me - music is more important than ever. Even when I'm at my lowest point, finding new music still excites me. Fortunately, there are a lot of interesting releases this week, as well as a few from rent weeks I'm only getting to now. Below we've got some heavy electronica, crushing doom, snarky punk, and fuzzy rock. Read on for more. 

Let's start off with a big one: Nine Inch Noize is the new collaboration between Nine Inch Nails and producer/DJ Boys Noize, who was both the opener and a collaborator on the NIN's recent Peel It Back tour. This release takes a bunch of classic NIN tracks and reimagines them as more clubby, electronic versions. The collaborators debuted many of these new versions throughout the tour - we got the version of "Closer" embedded above - so it's entirely unsurprising to see these released as a collected package. Some of the tracks work more for me than others, and there are a few NIN classics I'd love to see redone in this style that aren't included. Nevertheless, this is a pretty cool release. 

Keeping with the electronic-infused them is the new single from Genghis Tron. This track follows closely the sound of the previous album, Dream Weapon, pairing the clean vocals of The Armed's Tony Wolski with electronic-infused rock. Wolski also delivers some blackened vocals on the new single, "I Am All," which recall the band's earlier era. I was a big fan of Dream Weapon, so I'm excited to hear if the upcoming new album, Signal Fire, continues with this blend of the band's older and newer sounds. ​

Organ is an instrumental post-doom band from Italy. The new album, Immobilism, fittingly conjures feelings of paralyzing menace. Heavier than 10 cinderblocks chained around your ankles, pulling you to the bottom of a black lake that may or may not contain a portal to hell at the bottom. So yeah, I love it!​

Up next is Loon, the new album from Abrams. Abrams is known for their grunge-era hooks, and there are a few tracks on here that feel a bit too throwback-y for me. But when they lean into the heavy shoegaze vibe that makes up much of this album's runtime, things click into place. There's a lot of Soundgarden in Abrams' DNA, which is always a good thing. 

Today's award for "hardest band to Google" goes to Man Band, a noise-punk "genre fluid heavy music" group. That tag is apt - there's a Faith No More-ish energy to the way these guys weave between punk, grunge, prog, and even a little nu metal rap-rock. As you might expect from the name of the band, the title of the EP, Strong Man, and song titles like "Men Don't Cry" and "My Dad's Bigger Than Your Dad," there's a lot of focus on modern and traditional masculinity. There's a lot packed into Strong Man in only 30 minutes. 

Next up is Dogma, the new album by Atlanta-based sludge band Lungburner. What I like about this is how it blends sludge metal with industrial and some Middle Eastern textures. What I don't like about this is that after two bands in a row that were hard to find clean links to their new albums, I feel like I need to vent for a second about basic band promotion. If you're releasing a new album, have that new album available on Bandcamp that morning! Come on, guys. I'm trying to help promote your work here, don't make it a chore to do so. 

Finally, here's the first new music from Tom Waits in 15 years! He's teamed up with Massive Attack for a moody protest song addressing the state of the world right now. It sucks that it takes massive social upheaval to get new music from old Tom, but we'll take it.

​Have a good weekend, everyone.