Top Ten Albums of 2019

CHIRP Radio has published my Top 10 Albums of the 2019 (as well as around 40 other honorable mentions). I like the excitement, exchange, and conversation that CHIRP's "Best of" list generates as an extension of a community radio station, so I'm running my year-end list on their blog. This was a pretty great year in music and if I had more time on my hands, this list would have been longer. I stand by my top 10 (and beyond) and encourage you to check them all out. Link below.

Best Albums of 2019

What were your top 10 albums of the year? What albums did I miss? Let me know.

Show Review: Lingua Ignota @ Thalia Hall 12/21/2019

Image courtesy of the artist

I was able to stop in on Lingua Ignota's set at Thalia Hall this past Saturday. Her album Caligula was one of the more arresting listening experiences in 2019 and her set on the ground level of this historic theater more than met my expectations. The Holidays aren't always a lot of fun for everyone. It was very cathartic to Caligula live this time of year. My review is over at Chicago Crowd Surfer. Link below.

Review of Lingua Ignota @ Thalia Hall

Don't let people treat you like sh*t. Ever.

Interview: The Arrivals

Image from The Arrivals

Chicago pop-punk institution The Arrivals are giving us the gift of music and mirth this Holiday Season. Climbing to the stage at Reggies to kick out some jams and beat back the Holiday Blues their show with Sass Dragons and Canadian Rifle will be an ideal final chapter to 2019. I was able to score a chat with Dave Marriman, guitarist of the Arrivals, ahead of their set this weekend and the interview is now up over at Chicago Crowd Surfer. We talked about the band's legacy, secrets hidden in their cover art, and the class struggles that inform the political slant of their music. This is easily one of my favorite interviews to date. Link below.

Interview with Dave Marriman of the Arrivals

Seasons greetings and solidarity, forever.

Album Review: Lord Mantis - Universal Death Church

Chicago metal monsignor Lord Mantis has clawed their way out of hell to give us the gift of inner ear damage in the form of their latest album, Universal Death Church. I was really blown away by this album and you can read my thoughts over at Chicago Crowd Surfer.

Review of Lord Mantis' Universal Death Church

Horns up for Bill Bumgardner. 

Album Review: Fucking Violence - Ingratidão

When I started writing regular album review I never thought I'd have a chance to cover anything related to São Paulo's Worst, but here we are, 2019 and it's freaking happening! Thiago Seirra's new project, Fucking Violence is a thorough ass-kicking and you can check out my write up of Ingratidão over at InEffect Hardcore. Link below.

Review of Fucking Violence's Ingratidão

Fucking Violence is exactly what it says on the package. RIYL: beatdown hardcore, international hardcore, inner ear damage.

Album Review: Red Death - Sickness Divine

Red Death are back with a sick new album. I really thought crossover thrash had peaked but then I heard Sickness Divine. The band continues to refine their sound, release after release, and become more fierce and deadly with each iteration. My thoughts on Red Death's new LP are up over at Post Trash. Direct link below.

Review of Red Death's Sickness Divine

Be sure to rest your neck between spins.

Interview: Surfer Blood

Image provided by artist

My conversation with the down right adorable John Paul & Co. of Surfer Blood is now on the airwaves thanks to CHIRP Radio! I was able to catch up with the band at Riot Fest 2019 and they were nice enough to answer my questions about past and upcoming albums, as well as the inspirations behind some of their most beloved songs. Thanks for Sarah Brooks and Amanda Mayo for scheduling the interview, and a very big high five to Robert Patterson for the spit and polish production work. You make me sound great man! Direct link to the interview below.

Interview with Surfer Blood for the CHIRP Radio Podcast

CHIRP and Surfer Blood.... there is a Trashmen pun in there somewhere

Show Review: Forever Deaf Fest 2019

Matianak

The second year of the all local death and doom metal fest. Forever Deaf Fest was this past weekend at the Cobra Lounge and Beat Kitchen, and I was there for Chicago Crowd Surfer to snag some pics and soak up the brutal majesty of it all. I can honestly say that I have a new appreciation for scene mainstays Broken Hope and the Sword, as well as up and beastly upstarts Matianak, Snow Burial, and Huntsmen. Check out my coverage at the link below and enjoy some additional images that didn't make it into the article.

Show Recap of  Forever Deaf Fest 2019

Everything Must Die

Inner Decay

Gloryhole Guillotine

Matianak

Broken Hope

The Skull

Huntsmen

Huntsmen

Huntsmen

Now if you excuse me I need to talk to a specialist about a cochlear implant.

All photos by me. 

Album Review: Child Bite - Blow Off the Omens

Detroit’s Child Bite have just released their fifth album, Blow Off the Omens on Housecore Records. It’s another brash dose of atonal guitar jabs, lurching percussion, and cryptic misanthropic themes. The record was produced by Steve Albini in Chicago. Usually this fact doesn’t impress me, and isn’t worth mentioning, but his recording style works well to accentuate Child Bite's idiosyncrasies. As a result, I think this is one of the better sounding releases he’s worked on in years. Lead singer Shawn Knight’s typical Jello Biafra recovering from throat surgery impress sounds suitably unhinged, while Jeremy Waun’s guitar work unnervingly slashes at the listener’s eardrum like a tiger’s paw made out of aluminum and acid; meanwhile Sean Clancy holds things down in the bass department, faithfully laying down sub-tonal backing for his bandmates, while quietly plotting his revenge upon the world. Despite forming in 2005, the band continue to have a pre-hardcore feel to them, invoking the weird, sorted psychotic rage of Fear, early Dead Kennedys, and The Flesh Eaters, with more than a hint of calculating, post-hardcore, jazz-punk animus ala NoMeansNo. Highlights worth mentioning include the desperate, churning peel of “Mock Ecstasy,” the explosive convulsions of “They All Look Away,” the bucking riffs and downward spiral of “Become An Animal,” the nettled, psycho-billy tinged wilt of “The Wrong Ones Breed,” and the fiery social meltdown of “Blow Off the Omens.” If you’re having a bad night, week, or year, then Blow Off the Omens should be in your rotation.

Grab a copy of Blow Off the Omens on vinyl here

Album Review: Marijannah - Istanah

Marijannah are a Singapore stoner metal band who wants to transport you to space, where they will roll you up and smoke you like fat pinch of ganja. Formed in 2016 as a collaboration between guitarist Rasyid Juraimi of gutter dwelling, grindcore filth mongers Wormrot, and guitarist Nicholas Wong, of the significantly less grimy, pop-punk band The Caulfield Cult (Wong plays drums in Marijannah, no word on whether this is his preferred instrument though). Their first album Till Marijannah impressed critics with its slow resin lined chords and dank wizzardy vibe. Istanah (which means palace) is a direct sequel to its predecessor, and not much has changed between the two. However, Marijannah don't need to progress much stylistically in order to stay engaging. Things kick off promisingly with the gargantuan grooves and crisscrossing meteor shower riffs of the foggy floating vampire castle “Bloodsucker.” The next track “1966” has a a grainy grindhouse theater texture and a big, nasty, thumping beat familiar to fans of Hire on Fire. For me though, the best cut on the album is the speedy and psychedelic “Spiderwalk With Me” with straining chords, rumbling double-time percussion, and space warping reverb.

Pick up a copy of Istanah from Cursed Tongue Records here

Album Review: Obsequiae - The Palms Of Sorrowed Kings

Looking to storm a keep or entertain a party of wood nymphs in the near future? Look no further than The Palms Of Sorrowed Kings, the third album from Minneapolis “castle” metal ensemble, Obsequiae. On this latest album, the band seems ready to ascend and take their rightful place on the thrown of folk metal. Sure, they sound like a renaissance fair gearing up to storm the county fair across the freeway and plunder all their funnel cake, but if anything is going to make your respect a crowd of LARPers, it’s sacking a place where White Snake is supposed to headline just after happy hour. Inspired? Sure. Nerdy? Oh hell yeah, in the most badass way possible. A little Dragonslayer and a little Fire and Ice with a dash of Solomon Cane (the comic books, not that god awful movie). You’d be tempted to frame it as medieval, especially with all of the classic instruments and balladry (see the instrumental opener “L'autrier m'en aloie” for a taste of that ye olde dark ages charm), but they venture into all manner of folklore throughout the western canon, and not just the stuff from the black plague years either. An example of this is “Ceres in Emerald Streams” which recounts the Greek goddess Ceres’ search for her kidnapped daughter Persephone after she had been dragged down to the underworld. To be more specific about Obsequiae's sound you’d have to acknowledge that at their core, this is a black metal band. A black metal band with heavy folk influences in the vein of Enslaved. However, not even those Norwegian trailblazers managed to integrate the modern elements of their sound with the classical to quite the degree that Obsequiae has here. It’s really hard to pin down just how epic this album can be in parts. You have to experience the lofty bright leads and ethereal harmonies of the title track “The Palms of Sorrowed Kings” and the tremolo anchored sure-footed tribute to the Celtic war-goddesses on “Morrígan” first hand to fully appreciate their grandeur. With so many grim and dark metal albums released each year, it’s stupendous to see an album in the black metal lane that aims to inspire more than just dread in the listener. 

Obsequiae's The Palms Of Sorrowed Kings is out now on 20 Buck Spin

Get your chain mail, we've got some castle crashing to do.

Album Review: Black Dahlia Murder - Nightbringers

Black Dahlia Murder really isn’t a band that needs an introduction. The Michigan based melodic death metal band is one of the most widely successful extreme metal bands in the United States, and their eighth LP Nightbringers peaked at 35 on Billboard’s top 200 making it the top-selling album in Metal Blade’s history upon release. Despite this, and my general love of death metal, I am just now discovering them. I'm starting with their latest release and going backwards (probably a bad idea, but it's something I decided to do and I'm nothing if not stubborn). The good news is even though I’m late to the game I can still read the score. Black Dahlia Murder are the reigning champs of this generation of melodic death. To clear any doubts, Nightbringers is a tornado of fire and fury, scorching expectations in its path with the band’s brutal combination of beastly melodic Swedish death metal and British grindcore delivered with transgressive punk attitude. The album begins promisingly with the eerie grooves and barreling charge of the appropriately named “Widowmaker” and progresses through the melodic death-grind furrow of “Matriarch,” culminating in the deathly hollow-eyed waltz of title track “Nightbringers.” Other highlights include the barbarous aural conflagration, of the medieval-meets-urban warfare “Kings of the Nightworld,” and the spry and nimble guitar work of the epic blackend death descent of “As Good as Dead.” I’m really feeling these guys and can’t wait to check out their later releases.

Grab a copy of Black Dahlia Murder's Nightbringers from Metal Blade Records.

Album Review: Sacred Reich - Awakening

It’s always annoying when people say that metal is apolitical. Almost like metal has nothing to say about the world, politics don't affect people's daily life in any meaningful way, or that you can just opt out of the decisions made for you by those in power. That’s one of the reasons why I appreciate Phoenix, AZ thrash icons Sacred Reich. They’re whole thing is being political. SR was is the product of lead singer and guitarist Phil Rind’s desire to start a socially conscious speed metal band back in 1985. However, by the time they released their first LP Ignorance in 1987, the group had transitioned to a full-on thrash band to keep pace with the more muscular sound of their contemporaries, namely Death Angel and Testament. Awakening is the band’s first album since 1996’s Heal. The band had previously been on hiatus, but reunited and started gigging again in 2007. Awakening is the band’s response to the contemporary state of affairs and sees them sounding pissed off, revved up, and ready to unleash mayhem in the name of change. The album opens with “Awakening” a straight banger with scorching leads and a concrete ripping biker-rock groove. Next up is “Salvation,” a dose of double-time doom and gloom with a cloud parting chorus. Later, “Killing Machine” puts a mean pit igniting groove to service in dismantling the logical of military adventurism, while “Death Valley” is a grungy, hard-liquor quenched, fist-pumping march through the desert heat. On Awakening, SR don’t sound like they’ve missed a beat since 1989. They sound every bit as determined and forceful today as they did during their ostensible heyday. It’s a great reminder of what a banging party an old school thrash album can sound like. I’m happy to recommend it to any headbanger looking to wax nostalgic about the second wave of American thrash or who is looking for some inspiration to make the Man choke on his tie as it's jammed down his throat (or both… or just the latter).

Grab a copy of Sacred Reich's Awakening. Out now on Metal Blade. 

Album Review: Knocked Loose - A Different Shade of Blue

I'm very excited to announce that my review of the phenomenal new record from Kentucky's Knocked Loose is up over at Post-Trash (link below). It's a beatifically harsh and powerfully refined album that pulls the best of late '90s punk into the forefront of today. I can't recommend it enough!

Knocked Loose - A Different Shade of Blue

Post-Trash is one of my favorite indie music blogs and I'm pleased like a dog with it's jaws around a t-bone stake to continue to have my work published there. Be sure to check out what else they have cooking after reading my review.

Interview: Nick Fury of Forever Deaf Fest 2019

Did a quick and painless interview with the lead organizer of Forever Deaf Fest, Nick Fury. FDF relatively new metal fest in Chicago, headed into its second year in 2019. My conversation with Mr. Fury is up over at Chicago Crowd Surfer (link below). I'm pretty stoked for this festival and you should be too! All midwest! All brutal! All dang weekend! Links to where you can buy tickets in the underground. See you in the pit!

Interview with Nick Fury of Forever Deaf Fest 

Spoiler alert, he doesn't tell why he received the nickname "Fury." You'll have to find him at the bar and buy him a drink in order to unlock that particular trade secret. 

Stay tuned for my forthcoming review of FDF '19! 

Album Review: disappear. - momentum.

Welcome to December bozos! How better to deal with this chilling turn in the season then some brutal and bleak metalcore from semi-locals disappear. and their incredible debut LP momentum. It's a kick in the head and a welcome one at that. You can read my review over at In Effect Hardcore now (link below). If coffee just isn't doing it for you today, this high octane beat just might do the trick.

disappear. by momentum. over at In Effect Hardcore