Flush It Friday: Do You Even Like Metal?
I promise I do! I’m not a brainless dork!
Clipse – Let God Sort Em Out
Roc Nation | July 11, 2025
There has been an exuberance to the long-awaited but never-promised return of Clipse. The joyous Tiny Desk set. All the Genius interviews. King Push is glad to have his brother back, and as the two trade compliments on who wrote the best line in what song, you can tell Malice feels back at home. Let God Sort Em Out isn’t perfect—we’re not in Hell Hath No Fury territory—but it’s better than Til the Casket Drops, and that’s an achievement after 16 years. Pharrell’s beats aren’t as audacious as in the past, but the whole package is EOTY material.
We Lost the Sea – A Single Flower
Bird’s Robe Records | July 4, 2025
I saw We Lost the Sea live in Purgatory two weeks ago on a balmy summer evening. Playing a set of new songs, standouts from Departure Songs, and one track from Triumph & Disaster, the band had a rapt audience. I was in and out, my focus often drifting to all the people wearing We Lost the Sea shirts. Why do I still let this bother me? Why am I such an asshole? I suppose when your favourite band is from Sydney and hasn’t had an album in 6 years, you gotta show out. Still, a sense of decorum, please.
hubris. – The One Above
New Noise | February 10, 2023
Speaking of that show, hubris. from Fribourg opened. The band, playing as a trio, generated an immense amount of energy—something ecstatic and jubilant in their set. I spent a lot of time staring obsessively at their guitarist who looked beguilingly like the child of Jesse Eisenberg and John Floreani from Trophy Eyes. I had just watched Louder than Bombs (2015), so Eisenberg was on my mind. There’s a lot of This Will Destroy You and early God is an Astronaut in The One Above, released way back in 2023. A great depth of feeling, a great range of feeling.
Hircine – A Crown of Wildflowers
Fiadh Productions | July 11, 2025
Ah, the project that cracked open dungeon synth for me. Back in 2023, Hircine’s Old Kings Fall made my Top Albums list, initiating me into a realm hitherto misunderstood and spurned. Not that the world of dungeon/fantasy/cozy synth needs a trespasser like me fumbling around, but it’s nice to tag along for some of the adventures. On A Crown of Wildflowers, the Saskatchewan-based project has conjured up something befitting the stony relics and ancient remains of the glowing album art. We could all use some “Duskfall Revelry” and “Sylvan Magick” in our lives. Traipse with me, arm in arm.
Runnin Hot – Demo 2025
Scheme Records | April 29, 2025
How many times do I have to tell you jive suckas that what Lockin Out was doing in the early 00s was a watershed moment for hardcore? I don’t have to tell Runnin Hot, a new act out of Long Island who play hardcore for hardcore’s sake. They’ve got the speedruns of Rampage. They’ve got the take-no-shit attitude of Rival Mob. They’ve got the Boston bounce of Righteous Jams. And, of course, they’ve got those Mental rumble-tumble-bumble-stumble riffs. No pit is safe from how low and slow this two-step is gettin’. I’ll be moshin’ through molasses, lookin’ sweet ‘n syrupy.
Let’s Flush!
Stick with a “No.” so bad he didn’t even wanna fool you into clicking on TMP. Roldy with a “Yes!” so good you’d be a fool not to click on TTT.
Ghoulson gets gruesome on an act I have never once listened to and never will. One half of one toilet for the new whatever this is.
Review: Daron Malakian and Scars On Broadway – Addicted To The Violence
Ozzy is gone. A poetically insufficient tribute from a whole gang of us. I can’t believe we didn’t talk about “Sweet Leaf” or “Into the Void”:
Toilet Radio 571 features Joe n Jordan goin’ abroad. Absolutely righteous tunes.
I got up in them guts with the new Stomach. Good music for bad times.
Our newest contributor KnifeDad hands out 4.5 of them things for the latest from Azure Emote. Welcome to the Bowl.
Falxifer is half-stoked on the latest from Igorrr. Them’s the break(beat)s!
Reliquary Tower hops back in the trash, thank goodness there weren’t any cyclopean horrors in there.
There it is! I hope you liked it. It was all for you. Slam those GBUs in the comments. Have a fabulous, crabulous weekend. I’m off to Athens! <3<3<3
