Written by: The Administrator
Each year, I inevitably spend a whole lot o' time with EPs. Is this due to my bafflingly short attention span? Yes. Is it also because EPs often feel like the perfect vehicle for a band to flaunt their strengths in a concise and well-trimmed manner? Also yes. Listening to a well-constructed EP is perhaps my favorite way to spend time with music, and so here I am, an eclectic collection of favorites gripped in outstretched grubby fingers. But first, some housekeeping! There are, assuming I counted correctly, 30 entries. I was planning on 20, but have no real interest in trimming a list of untrimmable favorites. In that spirit, hopefully you find something here that worms its way into your favorites as well. This list is not sorted by genre despite featuring a lot of different genres. I apologize for the whiplash, but sorting feels antithetical to the overall notion that listening habits should not be confined for the sake of convenient lists. And lastly, this is utterly unranked--if something appears here, please know that it comes highly, highly recommended! Anyways. Let's get into it.
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This year, in an attempt to cover more music that would all-too-oft slip through the very large cracks, we're trying something new and novel around these parts. Namely, we're gonna actually publish the little one-off reviews that were previously (and arbitrarily) deemed too short for publication. In that spirit, here's a mini-review of a single worth checking out.
Written by: The Administrator
For those of ye unfamiliar, Settle For Shadows makes music that feels distinctly weird. This is evidenced across a swath of quality projects over the past few years. Even those earliest releases, which feel a little easier to nail down, are nonetheless quite quirky in their willingness to throw unexpected passages into the fray with nary a backward glance. That said, Settle For Shadows makes a fairly substantial turn on this latest single "The Mourn," delivering a blistering blend of raw symphonic black metal with a healthy deathcore stomp and vigor. There's an underlying chug on display that isn't present in the jazzy avant-gardism of Settle For Shadow's (excellent) 2022 The Bleak Demo, alongside a potent sense of organic chaos that feels a far cry from the punkier early EPs. The Bleak also presents a marching momentum that feels almost industrial from a percussive point of view, yet the vocals and symphonic elements lend the whole affair a delightfully untethered quality. Balancing the ethereal with the more overt aggression is always going to be a difficult game, but here, Settle For Shadows walks that line pretty damn well. "The Mourn" is a very cool single. Moreover, it is an intriguing and enjoyable new direction for a band that has consistently delivered intriguing and enjoyable music. I'd be very excited to hear more music like this, but would also consider myself suffonsified should Settle For Shadows elect to switch up the formula on the next release. Unpredictability is an underrated characteristic. Bottom line? I recommend you snag it here. Settle For Shadows - The Mourn was released August 5th, 2022 |
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