New Spins: 26th October 2020

Duma - Duma

The guys at Cave Dweller Music (who I also write reviews for) put me on to this experimental release from Kenya. For a really great run down of the album check out their review, but in essence this is really like nothing I've heard before. Duma incorporate elements from grindcore and noisecore with disparate electronic particles that dance throughout the music, all the while bringing in afrobeat sounds and atmospheric field recordings to the mix too. This is definitely a record I urge people to check out if you want to open your mind and be inspired by some new heavy sounds

Find it on Bandcamp here

Falcifer - Falcifer

Hailing from Switzerland, Falcifer do share their name with a particularly good Australian hardcore band, but that's all they share with them. Falcifer's atmospheric blackened doom is a thing of disgusting beauty, and on their first album they have combined some really interesting elements together to make something quite special. The riffs are slow and doomy and there is a few really nice hooks throughout, but the vocals are really what make this record standout. They are performed with an organic feeling that reminds me a lot of Polish black metal experimentalists Furia. Even though the lyrics evade me due to the language barrier, I can still feel the gut wrenching emotion that is being purveyed, and there is a raw blackness to the aural areas that the whole sound fills. Blackened doom is not the easiest genre mix to achieve, but I really think that Falcifer have done a superb job with their first album.

Find it on Bandcamp here

Svalbard - When I Die Will I Get Better?

Unpopular opinion coming here, but for someone who adores post-hardcore, and particularly the distinct UK brand of it, I wasn't that big a fan of Svalbard's last album, 2018's It's Hard To Have Hope. For all the praise it received, and considering how incredible the lyrics were, it just felt a little formulaic in sound to me. I liked that sound for sure, but I definitely thought this band could go on to do better things with that sound... and that's exactly what they've now done.

By fully incorporating the blackgaze elements which they had dabbled with previously, they have really elevated their music to another level, much like Rolo Tomassi and Birds In Row have done before them. They haven't lost any of the vicious and emotive aggression though, if anything they've turned that up too (the screams towards the end of The Currency Of Beauty quite literally gave me goosebumps) and with this all blended together they've created an absolutely marvellous modern post-hardcore record.

Considering many of the topics that the band continue to address around misogyny and the horrendous things that recently came to light regarding the founder of their previous label, this record feels absolutely vital and their message of ending this horrific behaviour, no matter how close to home it is, has never been more important. 

Find it on Bandcamp here