Burning Ghosts, Yvette Young, My Wrist, MoE, Mastiff, RAIC, Somn, Potion & Car Made of Glass, and Wyxz

by Dæv Tremblay

Burning Ghosts – American Circus (Orenda Records)

Burning Ghosts are no newcomers to extreme improvisation music. However, their release of a surprise full-length on January first is a welcome addition to the beginning of the year! With an unabashed reference to the state of the United States’ politics, American Circus takes you through three long-form—the longest being the 33-minute “Drowning on the High Ground”, an homage to Ornette Coleman—improvisations mixing free jazz and heavy progressive metal music. The result is wild and liberating, cathartic above everything. It’s a fantastic album to start the year with!

Yvette Young – Piano

Yvette … Read more

Weekly Release Dump

by Dæv Tremblay

Saturday, 5 January

Fantastic Swimmers Concertography – Concerto grosso #14 [EP] (contemporary classical, free jazz)

Minsk, Belarus

Sunday, 6

Jose Carra – Diario de vuelo (jazz fusion)

Málaga, Spain
On Taghrid Records

Lantern – Lost Paragraphs [EP] (blackened death metal)

Finland
On Dark Descent Records

Yaldabaoth – That Which Wets the Saccharine Palate (blackened death metal)

Anchorage, Alaska
On Lycaean Triune

Monday, 7

Hum – Hum (free jazz)

Bern, Switzerland
On TVL Rec

… Read more

Best Metal of 2018

by Dæv Tremblay

There was a lot of good music in 2018. That is to be expected for any year; there are just so many artists and musicians out there that are creating, constantly… The absolute number of musical releases is utterly daunting and insignificant by its sheer size—it would be impossible to listen to everything released in a given year—but I’ve truly given it my best, listening to a total of 2,257 albums, EPs, and splits from this year alone (an average of over six releases every day). That is without mentioning older albums, or albums from 2019 that I had the … Read more

Weekly Release Dump

by Dæv Tremblay

Saturday, 29 December

Cosmic Collective – Cosmic Computer Music, Volume 1 [EP] (jazz-hop, experimental jazz)

Nashville, Tennessee

Jankomas – Le Poulet 16​.​12​.​2018 (avant-prog)

Montpellier, France
On Bermuda Cruise

Gnarwolf – Gnarvina [EP] (post-hardcore)

Austin, Texas

Sunday, 30

Bandit – Warsaw [EP] (grindcore)

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Blankfield – Untaled [EP] (djent, VGM)

Japan

… Read more

Matt’s Top 40 Albums of 2018

by Matt Matheson

Introduction

Here’s the generic opening sentence where I mention that 2018 was another fantastic year for music and that I listened to more new stuff than ever before.

That’s technically true.

Here’s a more honest opening: 2018 was both a little bit underwhelming for new music (2017 was a lot better) and a scattered year for my listening habits. My hierarchy of audio consumption over the past calendar year was something like: 1) sports podcasts; 2) old jazz, as two friends and I sought to explore the 52 [now 54] sub-genres listed on Wikipedia in 52 weeks; 3) extended loops … Read more