New Spins: 12th August 2020

As part of my goal to keep constant material going here, I'll be doing some regular short articles on new records I have been enjoying recently. Not necessarily stuff I will be reviewing in full, but music that has grabbed my attention in a good way.

Today I kick off with three of my favourite records of the past month or so...

Boris – NO

Oh I do love Boris (not that one!). They're just so unpredictable and yet so good at everything they do. Rarely have they made a bad album despite the frequency with which they produce them, nor the variable nature of their work. NO is no different – it's a completely anarchic track-listing which flips nonchalantly between thrash, hardcore, doom, sludge, post-hardcore, drone, and probably some others I'm forgetting. If there is one thing that is maybe setting this record apart a bit from prior Boris works is that the thick and dense sound the band produces in their more doom influenced music goes across this whole record. When the band speed things up to manic thrash levels such as on 'Non-Blood Lore', the filthy guitar tone gives it a completely unique feel. And every song on this this is so well put-together, it's catchy as hell and just full of hooks. It's hard to argue now that Boris' mission to create a new form of heavy music, one without boundaries, is well on it's way to completion.

Mortality Rate – Sleep Deprivation / You Were The Gasoline

You might expect a band called Mortality Rate to deliver some light-speed goregrind or groovy slam. But Calgary's Mortality Rate are actually an exhilarating hardcore band whose pure passion exudes out of every orifice of the band's sound. I don't need to describe it in detail, it's metallic hardcore in the vein of Terror, Knocked Loose or Bane, with a few Converge-esque moments here and there too. There's nothing new that they add to that sound per se, but the absolute ferocity with which they play definitely sets them apart in a sea of new hardcore bands. I discovered them after a binge session on Hate5Six, and was quite enamoured with this band. They have recently re-released their debut album Sleep Deprivation, and I've been heavily spinning this along with their 2019 EP You Were The Gasoline for the last couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to plenty more from these guys.

BlackLab – Abyss

Holy moly this thing is so fuzzy its verging on ridiculous, but I absolutely love it! BlackLab are a Japanese Doom duo whose fuzzy guitars and pounding drums combine with some grunge influenced vocal melodies and a really great song-writing craft. This record really stood out to me on repeated listens. Whilst the band is limited in the instrumentation they can bring, meaning the record does become slightly monotonous as it goes on, it's still got a whole heap of catchy riffs and engaging melodies. There is so much potential in this record, and this is one of my favourite releases of the year so far.