There is a lot of great new music being released these days, and not enough time in the world for one person to write about it all at length. Instead of falling into the trappings of messy playlists or content drops with no storytelling narratives or cohesion behind them, +rcmndedlisten is taking the time to curate a selection of recently released albums and EPs you should listen to that have been on regular rotation on this end over the past days, weeks, or even months for that matter.
The latest edition burns furiously across hardcore and metal with the latest by Deafheaven, INITIATE, New World Man, and Quicksand.
Deafheaven – At Work In The Fields Of The Bomb [Roadrunner Records]
The latest offering from Deafheaven takes its name from a book of photography by Robert Del Tredici documented the creation of the nuclear bomb. Those visuals in mind, hearing the blackened metal band heavily engulfed in flame and roaring through the subsequent mass destruction mankind has left in its wake on a track like its third and concluding part, the 10-minute behemoth “Sorry Laid The Hearth”, the listen loudly drums itself up as their sonic parallel to the epic origin story of the bomb rendered through the lens of David Lynch during the eighth episode of Twin Peaks: The Return.
This is to say that the Bay Area band are not only operating in a higher conceptual design of theatrical political storytelling at the epicenter of their art, but they’re doing so arguably in their heaviest form since their own arrival in the scene. With blastbeats of violence, towering blisters of guitars scorching as much earth as the real life terror of weaponry which the listen attempts to dismantle, and elegiac synths bellowing Deafheaven’s atypical dark beauty throughout, black metal has never felt as pure in the ash of their creation.
Highlights: “Hunter”, “Three Princes”, “Sorry Laid The Hearth”
Buy | Stream
INITIATE – With Love // With Rage [Blue Grape Music]
Ever since they broke through in 2022 with their promising Lavender EP and exceeded that potential in their 2023 debut full-length, Cerebral Circus, INITIATE have been on fire and haven’t stopped burning. With Love // With Rage, the SoCal melodic hardcore band’s newest EP and first since joining the ranks of Blue Grape Music, doesn’t see that fire lessening in its intensity by any means. If anything, the flames are growing even higher and the heat is turned up several degrees, with the five-piece getting heavier at every turn throughout the five-track listen.
You’ll rarely, if at all, hear frontwoman Crystal Pak tempering her voice into anything beyond a shred on this one as a means to contend with every deep dimension of the human experience, be it turning inward on her own personal grief (“Burn After Reading”), wishing hell on the world’s worst (“Delusions”), doing her most to prevent the weight of the world from crushing her once and for all (“Shadowboxing, “Numb the Pain”,) and doing her damnedest to embrace her own kind of radical self-love (“Future Saving Grace”.) In the end, we learn through she and INITIATE’s eyes that the latter and rage aren’t mutual exclusive, and can easily fuel each other’s fires.
Highlights: “Burn After Reading”, “Delusions”, “Numb The Pain”
New World Man – I Am The Machine [Closed Casket Activities]
“For the preferred listening experience play front to back in order and stoned to oblivion. I am the devil, I am a cannibal, I am the machine!”, advises New World Man to its listeners upon hitting play on their debut album, I Am The Machine. As much as there is a need for seriousness subjected to be addressed right now in the hardcore and metal scene, the occasional bit of camp and vintage horror tropes done right like those heard within the New York band’s concept album about a man / machine sent by the Devil and God to destroy mankind works perfectly when paired with all of the above.
Fronted by Pain of Truth guitarist Ridge Rhine and featuring Mindforce guitarist Mike Shaw as well as Pain of Truth, Life’s Question, Invoke as well as former No Pressure / Regulate guy Mike Botti alongside members of Life’s Question and Invoke, the collective take this shit to a serious next level with their atomic thrash and groove, with tracks like “Devil Time”, “Down On The Farm (P.I.G.) and “Demonic Managerie” breaking off from the hellrazor intensity of early highlights like its title track and “Sound The Alarm! (Invasion Determinent)” with weird math-rock, city pop, and ’80s metal tangents that tell their fictional tale with the kind of ostentatious delivery that demands you hear it more so as a warning of our reality.
Highlights: “I Am The Machine”, “Sound The Alarm! (Invasion Determinent)”, “Devil Time”
Quicksand – Bring On The Psychics [Equal Vision Records]
Let’s start off by reminding everyone how Quicksand have been one of the blueprints for a heavier weight of post-hardcore for over three decades now. That they show no signs of fatigue all these years later in their post-reunion form is right up there with Dinosaur Jr. in being something every artist following in their footsteps would be blessed to happen to them.
Bring On The Psychics, the fifth studio album from the New York City trio led by indelible scene legend in vocalist and guitarist Walter Schreifels alongside O.G. bassist Sergio Vega and drummer Alan Cage is every bit as vital to their legacy as their early era classics, and comes barreling through the vortex of this fucked up timeline with an understanding of where the genre has progressed in its modern current, made all the more bold in its production by Jon Markson of recent Drug Church and One Step Closer credits.
It’s a dark place from all angles no matter which you’re peering into — be it the voids of the political, the state of art and the scene, or our own roles in it all. The trio are more than capable of inhabiting it and being a mirror, even if that mirror is covered in a grungy sludge (“Get To It”, “Regenerate”), shatters itself by way of channeling the youth movement’s fiery hunger in their energy (“Crystallize”, “Moving Forward”,) or completely reshapes their own image through a spectrum of post-punk and shoegaze hues (“Full Color”, “Day You Run To”.) The Quicksand of 1990 would be pretty fucking excited to know that their past selves made it into this present reality sounding better than ever.
Highlights: “Get To It”, “Crystallize”, “In Full Color”
Leave a Reply