About a week ago, I was perusing Reddit at night when I came across a post by the band onlytime about their new EP. In the post description, the band mentioned that they're based in Minneapolis and dropped Isis and Blood Incantation as influences for the new music. That was more than enough to get me to check it out, and I was really impressed with the two epic tracks. I wanted to learn more, so I reached out for quick interview with the band. Read our conversation and listen to the embedded EP below. 

In many ways, I am an obsessive tracker and recorder, and as such I've been makings best of the year lists far longer than I've had this site (I will probably publish them here all at some point for historical context. In 2023, my number one heavy album of the year was from a band that I hadn't heard prior to that release. That album is called Objects Without Pain by Great Falls. I was blown away by that album's mix of post metal and noise rock and pained, confessional lyrics. A few years later and Great Falls are back with another dark explosion of chaotic, metallic-tinged noise rock: The Bite That Grows Up. 

It has been a big year for Rebecca Vernon. After the triumphant return of SubRosa earlier this year at Fire in the Mountains, she is back with the second album as The Keening, Devotion. Those familiar with either SubRosa or The Keening's first album know what to sonically expect here: a rich tapestry of sound that weaves together folk, gothic rock, and slow-building doom. That the sound of this record doesn't diverge much from Vernon's past work is definitely not a complaint - On Devotion, Vernon uses her considerable talents on seven beautiful and crushing tracks that wrenchingly explore the beauty and sadness of love and loss. 

Happy Friday, all! Tonight, I'll be attending a listening party for a new album from a Minneapolis local band and hopefully watching a scary movie or two. And listening to more music, of course! Below we've got some punk rock, noise rock, post metal, doom, and black metal - a real grab bag this week. And since it's October, I've got another horror movie recommendation for you as well. Into the pit!

By all of my own guidelines, I shouldn't be reviewing the new Swans album. Whenever possible, I'm trying to get to records before they're released, and I've never even considered reviewing a live album before now. While there are some truly fantastic live albums out there, my focus is on new material, something you don't typically see on live recordings.

And yet, Swans isn't a typical band. Newly Sentient Being isn't a typical live album. Not only is it a staggering recording in its own right, it may also wind up being remembered as one of the defining albums in the band's discography. 

Place of Rescission is the solo project of Philadelphia-based musician K. Schaaf. Schaaf's first album under the moniker, Collateral Gore, released in early September, and I discovered it when he posted about it on Reddit. I gave it a listen and was immediately captivated. Collateral Gore sounds nothing like most of the bands we cover here, but it undeniably dark and heavy. Cobbling together elements of post-punk, classic industrial music, free jazz, dub, and more, the sound of this album is sinister yet rich, unsettling yet warm and alive. It's unlike any album I've heard this year, in large part because Schaaf built custom "noise boxes" like the one above to create the soundscape of the album. 

I had to learn more, so Schaaf and I have been emailing back and forth about his music all week. Below you'll find an edited transcript of our conversation, along with a photo gallery of his creations and a fascinating video of them in action. 

Starting a review is like picking one of many doors into the world of an album. Sometimes, the door to choose is obvious. For a songwriter known for profound or incisive lyrics, you simply choose the door labeled "lyrics." For an artist known as a next-level guitar player, you take the door labeled "guitar." But what door do you take when there are many that all seem equally exciting? Take, for example, the new album Wasteland by Portugal's Travo. I initially saw this advertised as a heavy psychedelic rock album. There's a lot that fits under that umbrella, but I still have a basic expectation of what that sounds like. But diving into Wasteland, I hear many elements that don't fit neatly into that box. I always find music that colors outside the lines quite compelling - there's no neat comparison here, so there's no obvious place to start with the review. The only way to figure it out is to pick a door and try to find a way back out.  

One of the real joys of writing about heavy music is its expansiveness. I've written about this before, but there are so many ways to make heavy music, and that freedom allows for a much broader range of sounds than most music genres. With this review of Ohio's Valley of The Sun, I have now reviewed 12 albums, and none particularly sound like any of the others. Click through to that page and you'll see black metal, noise rock, heavy industrial, synthwave, and now, with the addition of The Blacklight Sessions, some good old-fashioned stoner rock.  

Having started a site about music and fitness, it's pretty easy to guess that those are two of my major interests. There's another topic that interests me almost as much, one that has popped up in my writing here from time to time: politics. I am an avid follower of politics. I read political news every single day, I have worked on a few political campaigns, and my day job is in the public sector. While I understand why many people find politics exhausting or disinteresting, I genuinely believe that the world would be a better place if people were more involved in the mechanics of how their communities operate. Given this interest, I was pretty excited to talk to a band with an unquestionably political album on the way. That album is People as Idiots & Idiots as Leaders, and from Austria's hardcore punk band Desolat. Head into the pit to read my conversation with Desolat's vocalist and guitarist, Alfred Satani. It has been lightly edited for grammar. 

Happy Friday, all! We have a really interesting New Music Friday lineup for you today. There's a lot of electronic-based music this week, some of which is fun and danceable, while other releases are about as much fun as a black hole. We've also got some black metal, some sludgy post hardcore, and a couple of very, VERY experimental releases. Into the pit!