New Music Roundup: Refused, Cloud Rat, Paradise Lost, Sigh, Vallenfyre, Leprous, Chelsea Wolfe and Arcturus
A lot of new music this week
Let it be known that on the title of my last roundup I spelled De Lirium’s Order as Oder. I wish I could say I was drunk but the truth is I have absolutely no recollection about that day. Needless to say I take these things seriously (unlike some others) and as these news reach you I will already have committed a sudoku. Goodbye. As a token of my regret have Natalie Imbruglia’s new single – the aptly titled – “Instant Crush“. Or if you enjoyed our post-punk-post not long ago, you might want to stab herewards.
Refused refuses to believe time has passed them by. Even breaking-up not too long after their first reunion couldn’t convince them to call it a day. Instead they made their – and I paraphrase – “musically most radical” album Freedom on June 30th. Here’s a new song that has a slightly stoner-y and especially rocking feel to it. As expected Freedom will hardly sound like anything akin to The Shape of Punk To Come, the album Refused is best known for. But that’s not really an album as good as its reputation so who cares. “Elektra” already sounds better than anything on TSoPTC. [Editor’s Note: Opinions!]
Speaking of bands who refuse to believe they’re done, Paradise Lost has a new album coming out. The Plague Within will come out on June 1st (2nd, if you’re a yank yee-haw) on Century Media. When the album was announced the band members promised a heavier approach, more akin to their earlier material. What this means in practice is that we all get to wonder why Gregor Mackintosh isn’t doing the growling as Nick Holmes still isn’t very good at it. The sound is a little messier and not really any more death metal-ly, which probably will disappoint someone, or really even any riff-ier than they have been for quite a number of years now. You can stream “No Hope In Sight” here or listen to “Punishment Through Time” below. The songs are not mind-bending but are some of the better PL in years, I guess.
I heard you like grind and that’s why I recommend you get on this new Cloud Rat record, Qlipoth, out on the 29th of May (on Halo of Flies), but streaming in full below. Cloud Rat’s ferocious take on grind has produced some of the finest abrasion of recent years, and Qlipoth sure as hell isn’t bent on changing that. Qlipoth as a word stands for “Peels” or “Shells”, the representation of evil and impure forces (residing in Sitra Achra) in Jewish Mysticism. S.O. knows the dictionary, and she’s one of the three persons I trust on this mortal plane of existence.
Why did PL decide to become heavier again? Probably because now that Nick Holmes joined the OSDM-throwback-fun-project Bloodbath, 3/5ths of the members are featured in death metal bands. The most notable of these, Vallenfyre, released a new song in March, though everyone seems to have missed it. You can listen to it below and wonder why you did not pay attention and why Edward/Poserdamus is a hack. I mean, come on, you actually wrote about this tour (this was a single released in support of the Decibel tour) but did not include this song. Get a grip, mang.
You can stream Graveward, Sigh’s new album below in full. This shit is exactly as good as you’d expect it to be (provided you expected it to be ploughing marvelous). Sigh’s avant-black-whatever hasn’t lost its charm one bit. Note for Masterlard: Sigh is not weird, never were really, still aren’t truly. They are completely controlled and even at times predictable but thoroughly enjoyable, wildly mixing genres within moments.
https://soundcloud.com/candlelightrecordsusa/sets/sigh-graveward/s-L0sTF
In case you still aren’t satisfied by these masses of new music you may want to check out these songs I was too lazy to write about didn’t have time to write about much.
Chelsea Wolfe debuted a new song from her fourth album, Abyss, to be released on August 4th. Supposedly her most personal and heaviest album yet, which is easy to believe listening to “Iron Moon”, the first single, streaming over here, at Rolling Stone of all places.
Remember to prog out with thine cock out to this new Leprous song called “Rewind“, and pick up their album The Congregation when it is released on May 25th via InsideOut Music.
I avoided including this last time ’cause I was pretty sure somebody was writing something about something, but then something (else) happened so here it is.
I hope you don’t mind the few super-short write-ups today. I’m totally spent, but I reckon it won’t matter much as all you ever want is the music, you don’t care about me or my needs. *breaks into tears*
