A new town, a new noun!
On April 1st, Wildernessking released Levitate, consisting of two accompaniment pieces recorded live. I guess that means they were meant as sorts of interludes for when they played live. Anyways, the songs – “Light” and “Birth” – are slightly more tranquil than what we’re used to from the band, and are rather soft and melodic as well. Pretty good and succinct release.

Back in 2014, Atoms and Void released and Nothing Else. It is a post-rock album with a bunch of experimentation scattered therein. As with most post-rock bands, emotional conductance is the priority, and it’s well executed, with clean guitars, piano and other uncommon instruments contributing to the effort.

If it isn’t clear enough by looking at their name, Stengah is a band fascinated by Meshuggah. But even if titles like “Closed-eyes Ritual” might induce cringe in you, the band generally succeeds in making music that’s good on its own, and doesn’t ripoff too much. There is indeed a few riffs reminiscent of songs from their namesake, but a few creative spontaneities like the saxophone on “Inner Space” make the whole EP worthwhile. I just hope they keep digging into more experimental soil in the future.

Allure is Eleanora‘s debut album, and it’s a slab of angry and dissonant progressive post-hardcore not unlike No Omega or Amia Venera Landscapes at times. Their songwriting feels pretty smooth, and they definitely make their 10+ minute songs interesting. This album releases on May 7th.

Tabula Rasa – fourth of the name -, released their latest album, Crimson, on April 27th. I knew them since their self-titled debut album, and I think it’s an interestingly pop progressive rock album. Singer Mica definitely knows how to craft melodic hooks, while the musicians keep the compositions interesting and varied. There’s even a 21-minute track to close it all in beauty. It’s great!

Chaoh Reiccuk returns once again with new material, this time under the name of Spring through My Mind. Sticking to his style of computer-generated contemporary music, I can’t help but feel the inspiration train running out of steam. It seems like there is hardly any change between now and, say, EP 2016, which is two releases ago. Maybe a bit of forced writing outside their comfort zone would give way to something new and really interesting. This is not to say that the EP is bad, far from it!, it just feels stagnant compared to the others.

Avant-garde hip-hop artists Death Grips soon release their sixth (or seventh depending on how you count them) album, Bottomless Pit. This time drawing more inspiration than ever from the realm of metal music, even including some blast beats! Their personal style of overly aggressive, repulsive rap yet again steps up.

Increate‘s Interstellar Displacement is the band’s first single, and it’s very promising. They’re allying new-wave-like metal (Being, later Cynic) and technical djent à la Animals as Leaders. It’s pretty good, and I can only say that I’m interested to listen to what they put out next!