Maybe in 2030 we’ll stop doing these lists featuring a number corresponding to the given year and make it a little easier for us but for now we’re still finding it hard to whittle down the artists and albums that kicked ass for us so if it ain’t broke then don’t fix it, y’know? And 2022 delivered yet again!
[Read more…]PSYCHONAUT Combines It All For Epic Prog-Dirge On Violate Consensus Reality
If you’re looking for the hip place to indulge in your most favorite sounds of the Doom, DIrge, Sludge, and Prog variety then look no further than PSYCHONAUT’s Violate Consensus Reality which has all those elements and more and combines the might of contemporaries like Irist and Hippotraktor (Who also feature PSYCHONAUT vocalist/guitarist Stefan de Graef actually) to form their own majestic brand of those sounds refined into a beautifully bodacious full-length collection of your new favorite songs.
[Read more…]Druids Put Their Mighty Metal Magic On Display With Magnificent Shadow Work
Shadow Work, the upcoming fourth album from Iowa’s own Druids, is big grooves entangled with a pointed heaviness entwined with a mystic kind of primal tribalism to make this one of the most unique records to drop in quite some time. Got all that? No? Well, you better put your helmet on, buckle up, and wrap your head around it soon because you’re about to take one helluva ride!
[Read more…]SOM Start 2022 With Haunting Post-Rawk Odyssey On The Shape of Everything
Kicking off the new year with the continuation of an artist who, with only two new songs, still managed to leave a massive sonic impact in the previous year is always an inspiring thing. We’re talking about SOM who followed up the release of the monumental Awake EP in 2021 (Check out our review here) with the tease of The Shape Of Everything later in the year and first single “Animals” which barely scrapes the surface of what this monumental and majestic new record holds within.
[Read more…]21 For ’21 Because Why Not?!? (RNRF Best Of 2021)
I always do like 50 different drafts for just the opening alone then end up with one stripped down thing like this at the end of it all because I just wanna get this ish out there to the masses. 2021 has been up’s and down’s in the world but a pretty solid year overall for music. So much so that I almost considered not ranking my massive list of 21 releases that did it for me in 2021. Almost. As always, thanks for liking and following and most importantly, thanks for reading!
[Read more…]HIPPOTRAKTOR Deliver A Nascent Necessity Of Heavy On Album Of The Year Contender Meridian
I need a court stenographer-type person to go back through older posts to see if I already declared something else as our favorite Metal record of the year because I don’t wanna stick my foot in my mouth when I declare that HIPPOTRAKTOR is that fresh kind of Metal that we constantly yearn for that’s heady, heavy, underivative, and, yep, kind of our current favorite record in that aforementioned genre starting with a capital “M”.
[Read more…]SOM Get Hauntingly Heavy With Awake
“I quarantined my ass off during a global pandemic and all I got was a SOM EP!”
[Read more…]LizZard Add More Cerebral Soliloquies To Sonic Palette On Fantastic Fourth Full-Length Eroded
It’s rare in this day and age that you get excited each and every time an artist you dig puts out something new. I mean, everyone goes through ups and downs, peaks and valleys but sometimes, just sometimes, you find an artist that just hits that mark every single time so that when nary a note is heard from an impending new opus you can’t help but feel giddy.
[Read more…]Lesser Glow Bring The New Gloom On Crushing Nullity
If fellow Bostonian outfit Old Man Gloom ever decide to call it a day, feel comforted with the knowledge that Lesser Glow will ably carry that torch. You’ll especially agree with that statement upon hearing Nullity, their latest sonic slab of songs that can simply be summed up with one word: Crushing.
[Read more…]Bison Deliver Solid Riffs, Songwriting On Epic You Are Not The Ocean You Are The Patient
Like a mix of that sweet spot Houdini/Stoner Witch-era melvins blended with Unsane and a little Goes Cube, Bison lay a solid foundation that takes noise rawk to new heights on You Are Not The Ocean You Are The Patient. [Read more…]