checkin out dem new stuff
algiers: this feels like it leans more towards the rock and industrial elements of their sound rather than the gospel sounds, but it doesn't abandon them entirely either. as a result i feel like it maybe has a bit less "personality" but feels more up my alley and i'm definitely gonna revisit it
bent knee: definitely feels like they figured out how to write songs again, though i don't find this style as emotionally compelling as shiny eyed babies. on first listen though definitely feels like a huge step up from say so at least
posting up them haul comments
blut aus nord: there's something viscerally raw about this album, which i find appeals to me quite a bit even if i can't say a ton of the tracks are really that memorable? except the ending of antithesis of the flesh that's some friggin' intense and memorable stuff. but no this is good. i definitely want to keep listening to it and picking apart all the little details, it's just well-crafted black metal that manages to be both beautiful and intense. i'm definitely interested in checking out the more industrial side of blut aus nord too, gonna get another thing from them in my next batch of albums for sure
electro quarterstaff: this was a mistake. there's just no finesse or tact to this music like el drugstore or even most keelhaul. nothing is really that memorable, they don't use dissonance in any interesting fashion, just to create discordant, shapeless noise. i can remember the first track and i can remember one single passage from the third and fourth tracks each, and the rest of this after close to a dozen listens is just. nothing. i guess i'll have to give up on finding anything at all than can compare to el drugstore because it probably doesn't exist unfortunately
leprous: i do feel this is inferior to the other leprous albums i have, but damned if some of these songs aren't still great. i've definitely listened to the valley more than any other leprous song, and i feel confident in saying it's my favorite that they've done, even above stuff like forced entry and the flood. chronic and echo are both great tunes too, and foe and the cloak are also pretty solid tracks. contaminate me spends its first half being great too but the back half is just... not for me. salt is just forgettable. and then there's. the title track,easily one of the band's worst songs, it's just an ugly mess of ideas that never comes together and isn't really ever that interesting except maybe the vocal line at the end. why is this the song they named the album after lol. but yeah no in general i do like this though it's less cohesive than bilateral or the congregation. might get tall poppy syndrome someday if they rerelease it ever