Tag Diving: New
A new year… a fresh, clean start!
Salutations stinkers, and welcome back to Tag Diving! It’s the column where I, the oh-so-remarkable Reliquary Tower, dig around in the depths of Bandcamp as though it were a dumpster out behind a Chinese restaurant. But I’m not looking for gently-used rat carcasses or slightly stinky broccoli-less beef and broccoli, no no no, I’m looking for tunes. I figured that I’d ring in the New Year with “new” as our theme for today. Much like the beef in the aforementioned dumpster, none of these things are actually new, but beggars can’t be choosers!
FantasyQuest – DragonRide
When I was a young lad—around the age of 3, I think—my parents went to a yard sale and found a working NES and about a hundred games. The asking price? $40. So despite being something of a spring chicken, I grew up on that 8-bit ’80s goodness. This album is my first exposure to electronic power metal, and wow does it bring back memories of playing those sword & sorcery games on the old Nintendo (Solstice, anyone?). It’s a fun time, and what more could I ask for?
ASTORA – The First Flame
Lo and behold, I’m back with more Dark Souls-themed death metal. I’ll admit, I’m not crazy about these vocals, but if you can get past them, there are some pretty solid melodies on here. I get the sense that this project has a lot of potential, so I’ll probably end up checking out the album after this one to see how things improve.
LOWHILL – Sickness EP
I often forget that there is, in fact, a part of me that really digs some good metalcore. The first couple tracks on this EP have this sort of post-metal thing going on that I really dig, so if you listen to this and know something similar to it, drop it in the comments because I want to hear it! This is my favorite finding this week, so I’ll definitely be checking out more of these guys!
That’s all for this week! Thanks for sticking around and have a happy New Year!
