2016 is officially one twelfth of the way in, and we’ve been graced with many outstanding releases during that first month. Let’s see what are the best ones, the ones you should definitely not sleep on!

First is the dissonant technical death metal Demo 2016, from Sunless.
“A big heap of harsh noise, with dissonant chords, metallic bass, aggressive drums, screams of pain and anger, a ton of odd time signatures, a handful of tempo alterations, and jagged song structures, is – one would assume, at this point – a winning recipe! Sunless has merely about eight minutes and a half of music, and they’re some of the best of 2016 yet!”
Read or listen to the full review here.

Then comes Lost Salt Blood Purges with Only the Youngest Grave, an experimental ambient double-album with moments that have the potential to make your tear ducts working again. There’s a good variety of atmospheres and soundscapes, and even though I’m not usually known as a fan of ambient music, I really like that one!

Greg Puciato’s darkwave side-project, The Black Queen, just released the astonishing and cathartic Fever Daydream. A complete album of sometimes funky, sometimes more contemplative moody electronic music with that gifted voice we all know from The Dillinger Escape Plan and, later on, the disappointing supergroup Killer Be Killed. This album is near perfect, and eerily pop sensible for such a dark release. It’s a delicacy in all the meanings of the term, and I recommend it to every living being on the Earth.

Lastly, here’s a colourful collaborative EP from Blumen and With a Smile; eating bananas and throwing poop has never sounded so great.
“Upon pressing play, you’re right away launched into the depths of crazy rhythmic patterns and jazzy chords with interesting progressions from one to the next. Then, the main theme for Alalia is played on genuine strings, a viola would be my guess, but I might be wrong. After that, we’re thrown left and right with various themes and sections. I like that part very much as it lets you have a preview of what’s to come while preparing you for the next part: a very heavy section with double bass drums and we can really feel the metal in there.”
Read or listen to the full review here.