Today's recommendations only includes four new releases, but one of those new releases is damn near three hours long. Which one? There's a big clue above. Read on for a very eclectic group of recommendations. 

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. 

Happy April. My last couple New Music Friday posts have been a little on the sparse side. This week's entry definitely is not. That's because I found a few things I missed from week's past, and today's new release list is pretty stacked. There are a couple big albums I planned to listen to that I couldn't even get to today. To the picks!

Every Friday, I find my trusty new release lists and start checking out albums that strike me as interesting. That's the way the day started. I made it through one EP (which was fine) and one solid album, and then I was hit by a surprise album drop that ground everything else to a halt - and I do mean everything.

After 10 year away, my all-time favorite band dropped a new album and announced a single live performance. That's right, Neurosis is back. 

Yes, I used this same image the last Friday the 13th, but you know what? You're not the boss of me. I make the rules around these parts. Speaking of, the first album after the jump isn't a new release - it was released all the way back in August. But it slaps and it's new to me, so it makes the list. What will it be? What other albums will join it? Only one way to find out!

Back in November, I wrote about how close I was to hitting 100,000 songs tracked by Last.fm. I predicted that I would cross that mark in February. Turns out I was wrong, but not by much. I hit 100,000 songs today, a few minutes ago in fact. Of course, the band that brought me across the line was Neurosis, my favorite band of all time (problematic member aside). 

What will be the next completely pointless goal? 200,000 songs? Something else dumb? Actually writing another fitness-related post? Only time will tell, dear reader. 

Godflesh is probably my favorite band that I haven't seen live. Unfortunately,  it looks like I will never get the chance to change that, as Justin Broadrick announced today that he is permanently retiring the band as a touring entity. The reason, he explained in a recent Instagram post, is that he recently required a fairly serious abdominal surgery, and he doesn't believe that he can perform the band's intense vocal style any longer without the risk of serious damage to his abdominal wall. 

This past week, I was traveling for work, which kept me from writing up my last couple concerts. I saw Author & Punisher last Saturday, who focused on the new album Nocturnal Birding and performed at such a volume I could feel my bones rattling. And while I was traveling, I stopped into a small arcade/bar/venue in Savannah, Georgia and watched some regional death metal bands like Severed by Dawn, blurrily pictured above. ​There are some more shows coming up in the near future I hope to get to, and I don't see any reason I wouldn't be able to give them proper recaps. I also have some fitness content I plan to write up for the first time in a while. But until then, enjoy this week's picks!

It's a short one today because today has been a cluster. Enjoy! What does the image above have to do with the post? Absolutely nothing! What can I say? I was in a hurry.