Sissy Spacek – Crypto-Termination

Sissy Spacek is a noise-grind band with a rather extremely harsh output. Crypto-Termination is their latest release and, although it’s only about eight minutes long, it’s a powerful and cathartic experience. Get ready for abrasive textures, guttural vocals, noise, noise, and noise.

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The Silas Hedman Ensemble of Arts – Occam’s Razor

Percussionist Silas Hedman‘s work for eleven people ensemble is a project encompassing semi-improvised avant-garde jazz, noise, metal, and free improvisation. The range of genres and sounds that emanate from Occam’s Razor‘s recordings are vast and diversified, and often recontextualize the listener into a completely different setting. It’s an amazing album, brilliant and exploratory.

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Moana – In the Allure (Mysteria Maxima)

Perth-based Moana is a harsh, psychedelic art rock group with great riffs and an amazing singer to front it all. As you can hear all throughout the album, Moana uses a wide range of vocals to great effect, and they always exist in symbiosis with the rest of the music, so that it exacerbates the intent and emotions delivered. Truly a magnificent album.

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Tom’s Diner – Поток сторона Б (Potok storona B)

16 views. That’s how many this video had when I was looking for it. This is a good measure of how underappreciated this band is. Tom’s Diner is a post-rock band from Russia (I think), and it has a truly unique approach to the genre. While the provided track, “Юла” (Jula), is one example of this, it only shows one aspect of their creative mind. Indeed, this song is quite minimalist in essence, but it is the exception rather than the norm, on the album. The main composition, “Великая” (Velikaja), is a much more typical post-rock song, but the band’s approach is delicate and purposeful—and their use of cello is well noted!—which leads to incredible results. Definitely a top-tier post-rock album!

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A Formal Horse – Here Comes a Man from the Council with a Flamethrower

The new album from British progressive rock band A Formal Horse delivers. Here Comes a Man from the Council with a Flamethrower brings the band’s writing and execution to new heights and among the greats of modern pop-oriented prog. The album is filled with anthemic melodies and memorable lyrics, and is made up of many (16) absolute bangers. One of the best prog releases of the year!

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Politess – The Sound of Crowdfunding (No Funeral)

Montréal’s noisy mathcore band Politess is back at it again, this time with The Sound of Crowdfunding, their most recent odd-timed destructive EP. Angry and hopeless, it’s a masterpiece of aggression. Be sure to check it out!