It’s amazing how things can change over a month. After last month’s metal fest, things are more eclectic this time, swinging from garage to prog, to goth, to psytrance and a few other genres. Grab a brew and let’s get stuck into another month of great music, as I try to finish my albums of the year list.
The Lynkify links will take you to the featured song on a list of streaming services. Click the link and then select the song on the streaming service of your choice.
Rupture//Rapture
Transcend
Future garage / prog house
The ever prolific Rupture//Rapture is back with another collection of smooth electronica. Having moved from melodic techno to a more garage leaning sound, R//R has chilled out but still has the lush production that always made him stand out from the crowd.
Here that production delivers some of the most lush bass I’ve heard in a long time. The opening track Obsidian, lives up to its title, dark, smooth and razor sharp. The song, Kinetic has Rob’s first vocal performance on any of his Rupture//Rapture releases, and makes for an interesting change in the mood, adding an extra texture to the album’s slick sheen
Transcend is another great example of how R//R’s pivot to garage has been a resounding success.
R//R has been covered on the Way of Exile for almost as long as this blog has been running, but, as we’ve said before, his unbelievable consistency does make it difficult to write about. Like pretty much every other release Rob has put out, this is a great, warm, effortless seeming piece of electronica. I still have no idea how he does it, but he’s done it again.
https://lynkify.in/song/obsidian/1y886CRo
Cold in Berlin
Wounds
Goth rock
I’m not sure what changed, but a band being called goth isn’t the kiss of death it used to be. Maybe it’s because the post punk revival got bored of ripping off the same 3 acts and moved on to Siouxsie and Bauhaus? I dunno. But there are bands out there now openly using the G word to describe themselves and it’s great to see. Cold in Berlin however, were never ashamed of what they are, and have been unapologetic from the first notes on their debut, so hopefully this more open minded world will see the band get more attention.
Wounds finds the band dialing back the metal sound they’ve been embracing on their last few releases, but that in no way means that they are dialing back the intensity. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t hit hard, there’s still big riffs here but they’re a bit further back in the song structure. Drama is the point here and it’s something the band has always had in abundance, with Maya’s voice still being the start of the show.
From the jump, the album goes hard. The Hangman’s Daughter lulls us in with burbling electronics and is full of that drama and riffs, but somehow the stakes are upped by 12 Crosses, which is just fire in song form. Messiah Crawling brings the heavier side of the band back and has a very satisfying goth rock swagger to it, while The Stranger’s electronics make a nice change pace. The closer, Wicked Wounds seems to be channeling The Doors with some serious Lizard Queen vibes going on. It’s an odd choice, but doesn’t feel out of place on the album.
15 years in Cold in Berlin aren’t showing any signs of running out of either creativity or energy with an album that stands with the best of their work. So embrace the winter nights and let Cold in Berlin draw you into the dark, it’s never been more inviting.
https://lynkify.in/song/12-crosses/LCYJhooy
Pebbledash
To Cast The Sea In Concrete
Shoegaze / Alternative
To Cast The Sea is Cork band Pebbledash’s second ep and is an interesting collection of styles.Their Bandcamp describes them as an alt rock, shoegaze band but they’re more than that. The band are obviously not interested in having just one sound and the ep jumps through several different genres in its short run time. Not in an ADHD math rock kind of way, just in that there are distinct styles on the ep. Mid 2000’s Canadian indie rock, shoegaze, and drone.
The first song proper, Tiles and Moss, is very Broken Social Scene, to the point that it would be the best BSS song in a very long time if it was actually written by them. Isn’t it Always sits somewhere between Galaxy 500 and Spaceman 3 with its barebones rawness, while demonstrating the band’s melodic touch. Whereas the album highlight, Cell, is a wonderful, reverb soaked shoegaze song.
To Cast The Sea is a really good EP from a very promising new band and an interesting indicator of where they are heading. Definitely a band to watch.
https://lynkify.in/song/cell/5M8HGBSK
The Algorithm
Recursive Infinity
Electronic / Stuff
We’re aware that the music featured on this blog can be rather po-faced. Be it metal or indie or dance music, it tends to be a bit over serious. There’s not a whole lot that’s going to change about this, but every now and then it’s nice to just talk about something that is unabashedly fun.
And Recursive Infinity is fun, but fun in a pretty intense way. This album is a pure melting pot of influences, psytrance, breaks, drum n’ bass, cinematic synthwave and metal. Sometimes all of this is going on at what seems like at the same time. Things really kick off from the second track, Advanced Evasion Technique, where the huge chugging guitars morph into psytrance without any obvious change. It’s impressive and something that isn’t easy to do.
And that’s the real selling point of this record. Most acts that dabble in this metal / psytrance / electronica tend to drag the arse out of an idea. Songs get stretched out to ten minutes long without the ideas to keep things interesting, That is not a problem The Algorithm has. He can flip through several styles in a song without ever jarring the listener, and effortlessly keeps things interesting.
I haven’t listened to anything like this in years, it’s such an entertaining meld of styles that just puts a huge smile on my face. Just play it as loudly as possible, strap yourself in and feel the G’s.
https://lynkify.in/song/advanced-evasion-technique/8e2ZujzY
Yard
Yard II
Electronic / Industrial
It seems mad that Yard are only releasing their second EP now. The band’s crowds live and numbers on Spotify seem way bigger than they should for such a new act, but it can’t be said that it’s unearned, the band have put in a huge amount of work to get to this stage.
Yard II feels like the band is getting control of their dynamics. Whereas the debut ep went hard II feels like it has more room to breathe. Not that you’d know that from the opener, Essential Tremor, which stomps in, all huge beats and bellowed vocals. The band hasn’t gone soft here, this still rips.
It’s Big Shoes where that change is noticeable, the pace drops and the track feels more like electro than industrial. Only on the verses though, the chorus still stomps. The closer, Auto Erotic, drops the tempo and intensity and stands out most from the rest of the EP. The light electronics and squall of guitar lower down in the mix build a great atmosphere that demonstrates that the band have more than one dimension.
There’s no instrumental dance bangers this time, but Yard II is showing the band’s continued growth and I can’t wait to see what they have for us next.
https://lynkify.in/song/auto-erotic/YXKyf8RF
Psychonaut
World Maker
Prog Metal
October was a good month for prog. Along with Dawnwalker, Belgium’s Psychonaut are here to fly the prog flag and prove just how vital the genre is.
Things start slowly with the title track World Maker, and you can feel the influence of the 70’s prog bands, but the second track, Endless Currents shows what the band have in store. Starting with proggy finger tapping and I assume weird time signatures, the song slowly winds up for the harsh vocals and facemelting guitar.
It’s the one, two of You are the Sky… and …Everything else is Just Weather where the album makes the jump from good to great. Described by the band as one long song in two parts it really is one of the great prog epics, taking in the full range of the band’s skill Technicality to great song writing, and most importantly big riffs.
This album does push my prog tolerance to the limit, but whenever it starts to get a bit much for my simple tastes, the band will always draw me back in with a catchy chorus or a big riff. There’s such a huge scope with the album, the band have made an incredibly ambitious album that stands proudly amongst their peers.
https://lynkify.in/song/and-you-came-with-searing-light/2Tni2A0Z
favesoul
Ashes Drifting Like Snow
Post rock
It’s a constant struggle to describe certain genres to make it sound fresh and interesting to the reader, and post rock is definitely one of those. favsoul are on the more traditional side of the post rock sound. Built on the foundations of bands like Explosions in the Sky and Mono, favsoul don’t break much in the way of new ground, musically. But what they do, they do very, very well.
The title track’s use of strings is really beautiful, but it’s the reverbed acoustic guitar that makes the song truly stand out. The brass on In Handwriting is an album high point, because nothing sounds better in post rock than a trumpet.
This is such a lush album. Its beautiful strings, piano and brass can feel at odds with the dark song titles, but as the album unfolds, you begin to notice that there is a dissonance in the album. There’s a high pitch to the guitars and violin that can be quite harsh, giving an edge that can catch the listener unaware.
This is a remarkable album that breathes emotion, reveling in its instrumentation, rather than hiding behind its pedal boards. I can’t recommend it enough.
https://lynkify.in/song/ashes-drifting-like-snow/eZqAvTbT
Fair play for getting tot he end. See you in a few weeks for the end of year round up.
The ways of exile 