New Loud Rock Adds: This is Nowhere, Druid, Tool
This Is Nowhere - Music to Relapse: Much less riff-oriented than my usual fuzzy goodness, Music to Relapse does some really awesome noise-rock stuff with a metal-ass attitude. The Facebook page of This Is Nowhere, who hail from Greece, describes their area of operation to be “somewhere among psychedelia, blues, and noise.” Think extremely fuzzy metal/blues progressions being hammered on repeatedly while phasered-out leads and vocals create trippy sounds. I can’t say that this album is by any means “atmospheric,” because these psychedelic soundscapes are pretty aggressive and sort of demand your direct attention, as opposed to drifting off into lala land. I feel like this is one of my favorite noise-oriented acts. It sounds like a more metal/blues A Place to Bury Strangers. Get yourself in whatever mindset you need to be in to appreciate noise, this goes for sure. CHRISTIAN
RIYL: A Place to Bury Strangers, Queens of the Stone Age, Sonic Youth
Recommended Tracks: Thiefall (3), Everything (5)
Druid - Odysseus: What gets me off musically can be described in terms of genres, usually using words like psychedelic, blues, or stoner. But what I am beginning to realize is that to get to my g-spot, all you really need is to loosen me up with very melodic, trippy guitar picking and then provide some kind of climactic descent into heavily distorted metal riffs. I think my favorite band to do this was Weedpecker but Druid, a band I’ve only recently discovered, seems to f*** me almost as good. Odysseus, the group’s second full-length album, solidifies Druid as (one of) the heaviest disciples of cannabis in the game. I’m telling you right now you want to try to attack this album. I think the simplest approach is to just listen through the first song on the record, titled “Odysseus.” Clocking in at just under 19 minutes, this song alone will take you on a journey. Parts of it, you’ll be like “ehhhhh” but then you stick it out another minute and it goes back in and you’re like “OHHHHHHH!” CHRISTIAN
RIYL: Tool, Mastodon, Metallica
Recommended Tracks: Odysseus (1)
Tool - Undertow: Released in 1993, Undertow marked Tool’s first real debut to the larger music community, and with it, the beginning of an era. Endless bands have cited Tool’s influence, even artists like Metallica who got going long before Undertow. While it is notoriously difficult to categorize Tool’s albums into a single genre,Undertow in particular remains perfectly cohesive the whole way through. Cohesive “what” though? I wish I could say it is a pure and flawless hard rock, or alternative metal album, but this album isn’t defined by those sorts of terms. Undertow is defined by how much raw emotion - both positive and negative - this record delivers to an audience using a drum set, bass, guitar, and vocals. Sure, any record will have emotions attached to it if you listen to it a few times. But Undertow, before anyone had listened to it, already had more pure unadulterated feels packed into its 10 tracks than any rock album recorded prior. Vocalist Maynard James Keenan doesn’t just “sing” his lyrics. The vocals alone are a full theatrical performance in and of themselves. You will laugh, scream, and cry along with MJK. In order to sing passionately, however, you have to be singing about stuff that matters - in this case, topics like drug addiction, child abuse, and other sensitive material. I don’t want to bore you by giving the same level of specific praise to each of the other instruments, but they follow the same calling. They do not simply play their instruments, they add layers style and depth to even the more basic licks. Style and depth. Yes. This is Tool. CHRISTIAN
RIYL: Pantera, Mastodon, Rage Against the Machine
Recommended Tracks: Prison Sex (2), Sober (3), Bottom (4)