Written by: Izzy Have any of you noticed this trend in recent years of more post-black bands mixing in elements of post-hardcore, and vice versa? Harakiri For The Sky, Asunojokei, Cara Neir, Unfurl, Oathbreaker, Glassing, King Apathy, John The Void, Møl, they all do it, and as both a hardcore nerd and someone who's often annoyed by the stagnation of black metal due to the attitude of trve kvlt worship many bands have, it's a trend I've loved to see popping up. I adore black metal, it's easily one of my favourite non-core genres, but post-black especially is where I get off, as you can likely tell by the Sunbather aesthetic plastered everywhere on my Instagram (@izzlesreviewvault yes I'm a self promoting shill.) I'm absolutely a sucker for any bands that know how to blend the heavy, melodic, emotional, and vicious aspects of the genre or experiment and mess with the genres aspects all together, and no one does that better than the post-black community. But despite my adoration for a good black metal album I'm not particularly active in the black metal community for, uhm... obvious reasons.
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Written by: Izzy What does anxiety feel like to you? When your chest tightens up and breathing becomes heavy? Sweat dripping down your neck and your heart beating like a kick drum? Being paralyzed with fear, unable to move, your back becoming heavy and the air around you turning into a thick sludge you can barely drag yourself through? For me, it’s all of the above, because anxiety feels to me like how Body Void sounds. This Californian drone-punk-sludge-metal-death-crust-doom-core trio creates some of the most viscerally disgusting and hideous sludge in existence, and I have loved them since the second I first heard them. I could go on for hours about my infatuation with their music. However, I would be remiss for not mentioning Keeper as well, despite my unfamiliarity with them. These Cali contemporaries provide the perfect companionship to Body Void here, and are one of the few bands with a comparable style, except with an extra blackened edge, partnering flawlessly with Body Void by adding their own flavour to the split. Written by: Izzy Despite often on first glance appearing as a metalhead, probably because I’m oft wearing my Slayer or Gojira tshirts, I actually consider myself much more of a hardcore kid at heart. I never cared for classic punk, and my dad raised me on Dio and Black Sabbath so it was natural I grew up mostly in the metal scene, but as I got older and learned about more genres adjacent and outside of metal, when I finally dove into hardcore something about the music and community just grabbed me and I’ve felt so at home there ever since. Don’t get me wrong, metalheads are great people (usually), but the hardcore community was so accepting, progressive minded, filled with activists looking for a change, it felt like where I belonged, much more than any metal community I had been a part of. So, in the span of a couple years I went from a diehard metalhead to a straight-edge core kid, I guess you could call me…Transgenre. Okay okay I just really wanted to make that joke. I’ll actually start the review now. Written by: Izzy Slipknot is a household name. - Love ‘em or hate ‘em, every metalhead can recognize Corey’s rough gravelly vocals in an instant, and for a lot of people, including myself, Slipknot was a gateway to the heavier side of metal. And I can say I’ve loved every album of theirs for one reason or another: S/T, Vol. 3 and The Gray Chapter mix in perfect amounts of aggression and catchiness, Iowa is still one of the most blistering and unrelenting albums I’ve ever heard, even All Hope Is Gone which is pretty much universally considered their worst album still stands out completely unique with the different direction they took in riff writing. Even though I agree it’s definitely their weakest project. So expectations are always high for Slipknot, especially with the singles for this album. Given "Unsainted" and it’s soaring chorus and emotionally charged breakdown, and "Solway Firth’s" near perfect return to classic Slipknot form, I was thinking this was gonna be an incredible album. But I’ve beat around the bush enough so I’ll just be honest, We Are Not Your Kind was a disappointing album. Not bad, but I expected better. |
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We provide thoughtful reviews of music that is heavy, gloomy...and loud enough to wake us from slumber. Written by a highfalutin peasantry!
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