Apocryment
Apocryment is a crazy good '90s-styled melodic death metal trio out of Florida. This EP is packed with superb, high-energy riffing and a vibe that walks the line between what many of the Swedish bands were doing at the time and the slightly rawer angle of the early-2000s era when this sound started to prominently infiltrate metalcore. It's not too raw, though—solid tones and a great mix that lets the bass tone play a significant role. In fact, they really make use of being a trio and even let the rhythm section provide the sole backing during the guitar solos. Solid songwriting as well. Man, this is awesome, I wish it was more than an EP...
Crow's Nest Records has Inner-Vision cassettes and digital on Bandcamp. Mass Casualty Zine has CD pre-orders slated to ship next month. If you stream, hit Apple Music or Spotify, etc.
Butter Sugar Toast
A kind soul sent me a link to Butter Sugar Toast via Instagram and it took about a half-second for me to be completely blown away by this Tokyo, Japan act's take on angular and propulsive post-hardcore with screamo-esque leanings. The explanatory text on Bandcamp refers to their approach as "neither nostalgic nor imitative," but I can't say that I agree with that, because everything about this sounds almost 100% dead-on like something that would've come out of a few particular scenes during the '90s. If I had been told that this was some obscure band from outside of D.C. that recorded this album in 1996, I would've believed it without question. So, my disagreement with the aforementioned statement is in no way an insult: this album smokes, and should have any fan of this niche completely flipping out. Like, this is probably one of the best releases of the year, holy shit, I'm pretty stunned.
Long Play I is out now on CD (because Japan is the best) through LongLegsLongArms Records via Bandcamp, but the first pressing is gone, so what's there now is a pre-order estimated to ship in October. You can also hear it using Apple Music, Spotify, etc.
Following Seas
Last month, Following Seas (Birmingham, AL) dropped their debut EP. The band features lineup ties to Haste and Coliseum, but doesn't sound like either, of course. Their take is a relatively straightforward style of melodic hardcore that's creative enough to not fall into feeling like a retread of the typical "old school" sound, but it's also not so melodic that it feels at all "emo" or anything like that. There are a couple of little moments that have an airy Dag Nasty type of feel musically, and the EP closes with a cover of Samiam's "Speed," but... the sound here is somehow more rooted in traditional hardcore, so don't take either reference as an over-indicator of influence. The recording hits my ears as slightly "flat," but has grown on me, so I would imagine that with a bit more punch this material would land with more immediacy. This is a solid start, though, for sure!
First stop: Bandcamp. Otherwise, Apple Music, Spotify, or some other such service.
Out of Body
Anytime I'm shuffling tracks on my iPod and a song from Voiceless comes on, I find myself wondering, "Damn, why did Out of Body just kinda disappear!?" Well, apparently the project issued its first new music in like seven years back in June, and is still dishing out catchy post-hardcore meets alternative rock—this time with subtle undercurrents of those 'gazy types of textures. There are some little smatterings of keyboards that I could do without (personally, I'm just so picky about that stuff that they're often distracting to me), but thankfully such add-ons are not disruptive to the overall flow nor the quality of the songwriting. So much potential here, I always felt like this band was quite underrated (I did cite Voiceless as one of the best of 2017, after all).
The new self-titled EP is up on Bandcamp; as well as Apple Music, Spotify, and probably "the rest," too.
Producer
The latest EP from this rockin'-ass band from Richmond, VA showed up about a month back. Producer carries lineup ties to Alabama Thunderpussy amongst many others, and should very much appeal to ATP fans, though their interpretation of the genre is less sludgy and really just straight-ahead rock. They're certainly coming from that harder-hitting underground angle, they don't sound like Aerosmith or whatever, but there are some bluesier elements this time out ("The Climb"), and as a whole it feels like there's a bit more branching out and subtle experimentation (check that boogie-ish vibe in "The Upper East Side Sadists," for example). Strong songwriting and a unique vocal edge continue to separate 'em from the pack, so I remain somewhat mystified that these guys haven't been scooped up by a cool label that specializes within this niche, but I suppose those entities still care more about whether or not a band's gonna tour than just wanting to put out quality music that deserves attention. Sigh...
Three is digital-only and possibly just out there on Bandcamp, which suits me just fine since I hate streaming.
Totalis
I found out about Totalis way back in May, so I'm behind as usual here, but this 12-minute outing unleashes some blistering crust/grind with an utterly insane lineup. Spearheaded by guitarist Andy Lefton from War//Plague with Charlie Claesson from Anti-Cimex on drums, they brought in Kelly Halliburton (whose discography is wild) on bass. As if that wasn't enough, fuckin' Barney Greenway from Napalm Death handles vocals on the first three songs, and Fredrik Wallenberg from Skitsystem takes the final three. Do you really even need any other information to know that this completely rips!? And to think, this all started out of what were initially thought to be "throwaway" songs!? Far from it! Extremely cool project here.
Griefstate vinyl is already sold out, but CDs and tapes are still up through Organize and Arise (the CDs were released by Break the Records out of Japan). Digital's on Bandcamp. If you must stream, Apple Music, Spotify, and other renderers of 0s and 1s are out there...
