Monday, October 8, 2018

Magus' Music of the Month - September 2018

Music released last month that I listened to and liked.
Title links are to Spotify, embeds are from Bandcamp (preferred) or YouTube.

Fit for a King - Dark Skies

I've always thought of Fit for a King as a middle-of-the-road metalcore band. However, they have stepped up their game for "Dark Skies," incorporating more diversity into their songwriting and sound than any of their previous albums. Clean vocals - often a hit or miss for FFAK due to lineup changes - have stabilized and are generally good and tastefully used across the album. Solid!

Wolfheart - Constellation of the Black Light

Wolfheart have been churning out "winter metal" (blackened melodic death metal, I say) at an impressive rate for years now. Quality has suffered somewhat for the sake of quantity, and Wolfheart hasn't really tweaked their formula since their inception, but "Constellations..." held my attention and left me feeling satisfied (but not blown away) by its darkly adventuresome atmosphere.

Petroglyphs - Ascension
Making a comeback with a largely fresh lineup, "Ascension" is Petroglyphs' most engaging and technical release yet. The new vocalist has delivered a heavy metalcore sound that suits the music well, and guitar leads are an excellent halfway-house between blazing and spacey.

This Will Destroy You - New Others Part One

Continuing in the vein of 2014's "Another Language," "New Others Part One" is fuzzy, experimental post-rock busting out ambient and post-metal as accents. I will personally always look backwards to This Will Destroy You's self-titled 2007 album, but "New Others..." has given me a helping of odd but soulful sounds to digest. I have excellent memories from seeing them live last year, and look forward to what "New Others Part Two" (?) might mean.

Monday, October 1, 2018

I Found Flame

This is a mix/playlist called "I Found Flame," and you can find it on Spotify, Mixcloud, and 8tracks.
Mostly melodic death metal. Art by Marat Ziyaev.