Sunday Sesh: Don’t Forget About November and December Releases
It’s that time of year. The metal world has locked itself into the white-knuckle masturbatory spiral known as the Album of the Year List Cycle. From now until mid-January, every chud with a Disqus, WordPress, Facebook, or Twitter account is going to be hellbent on proving how awesome their taste is by ensuring you read their top 40 of the year (because there’s no way you can put limits on your own exquisite taste to choose just 10, amirite?). Of all the faults of the year end listicle frenzy, though, perhaps the worst is the fact that bands are basically hosed if they release anything after mid-October. Oh, your album, which would have seriously appealed to readers of Decibel, came out November 21st? Sorry boutcha; they’ve already published. Now, before you accuse ToH of throwing bricks while inside a glass house, note that we are aware of our role in the crappiness of the AOTY cycle and try to account for that. This post is a step in that direction.
We here at Toilet ov Hell want to make the AOTY cycle less terrible as best we can. To that end, we publish our lists a lot later than others, waiting until mid-December in an attempt to catch as many late releases as possible. We ask the bands themselves what they liked. We champion overlooked and underground bands that genuinely deserve their chance in the spotlight. And we routinely run later posts in an attempt to catch and raise awareness for the excellent albums that slipped through the year-end cracks.
Yes, we’re culpable, but ToH has always been about doing things differently, and we’d like to once again use this crazy listicle season to give the stage to the bands that deserve it, whether in AOTY lists or in other articles later.
So, that’s where this Sunday Sesh comes into play. Since Decibel has already published their list online (spoiler: it’s definitely a Decibel list), most of the metal world’s discussion for the remainder of the year is pretty much going to comprise lists lists lists. But we know there are great albums coming out or just now released that deserve acclimation. Tell us about them.
In the comments below, share an album that dropped in November or will be dropping in the next few weeks. Tell us why it rules! Tell us we should buy it! Let the world know what it’s missing! Together, we can make this season suck less.
For my part, I’d like to toss Genevieve‘s newest album, Regressionism, into the ring. Released just two days ago, this little 6-track banger builds upon everything I loved about their previous record, Escapism. Like Escapism, Regressionism finds the band toying with pre-conceived genre notions, blending death metal, black metal, and hardcore together in a skronked up smoothie of unpredictable twists and turns. Regressionism, however, sees the band further evolving their sound.
There are little inflections of doom metal when the band actually takes a minute to slow down, belching out a nastily oppressive atmosphere. There are traces of esoteric, perhaps Phrygian note phrasing, and the whole album has a much more arcane and mysterious feel than Escapism. Perhaps most impressive, however, is the scale of the new music. “William Blake” is a massive, multi-hued affair that dwarfs anything on the previous record with its battering triplets, oddly emotive calm passages, maniacal singing, and monolithic, impossibly heavy riffs. It would be a shame for something so wonderful to be missed.
But don’t just take my word for it. Our man Hans loved it too.
“What have I gotten myself into?” – “This is kinda fun” – “Yeah, no, this really is gross” – so goeth the mental Genevieve rollercoaster, and that’s just the one available track. Deranged blasting takes turns with calmer parts that have the courtesy of giving you something to focus on… but then turn out to be no less deranged. Once that slithering bass line and those clean vocals come in around the four minute mark, all bets are truly off, and when the song takes off again 30 seconds later, the mania turns out to be infectious. These guys have something to get rid of, and they’re gonna do it on their terms. Keeping up with them is not really an option; holding on for dear life might be. 11/24/17 (Hans)
So there you have it. Amid the noise and fury of the AOTY cycle, Genevieve dropped an absolute scorcher that you need to hear.
Your turn. Tell me what I need to hear.
Genevieve: Facebook | Bandcamp
