they're not my favorite of the new wave of UK post-punk weirdos (that would be Squid) but they're doing their part to make post-punk less gloomy and more theatrical, proggy, and weird and i can get down with that.
i'm sorry but "women don't actually want consent, they want alphas not vegan soyboys" and "the world is divided because of wokeness" are textbook redpill talking points, not just "opinions i don't like".
nah, joe rogan fans will send word vomit like this to women with absolutely no provocation needed. it's just how they communicate, and posting it online for everyone else to dunk on is not just fair game but evergreen content at this point.
i'm too lazy to think about it, just going off of what Spotify says are my most-listened to songs of this year:
1. Cassandra Jenkins- Hard Drive
2. Turnstile- Fly Again
3. Turnstile- Blackout
4. Turnstile- Mystery
5. Turnstile- Endless
6. Turnstile- New Heart Design
7. The World is a Beautiful Place and I Am No Longer Typing This Band Name- Invading the World of the Guilty as a Spirit of Vengeance
8. Enforced- The Doctrine
9. SZA- Good Days (came out Xmas 2020 but fuck it)
10. MJ Lenderman- Someone Get the Grill Out of the Rain
i mean, Plebeian Grandstand is avant-garde black metal, cacophonous and off-putting and challenging are part of the price of admission. i wouldn't recommend it to someone who isn't already into dissonant, chaotic music. that's not to sound gatekeepery, i know that comes off as "you wouldn't get it, man" but there are definitely things about extreme metal that require warming up to. it took me a long time just to come around on death metal in general. for me personally, i like when extreme metal gets weird but super dissonant stuff is not usually my favorite, although there are some bands like Esoctrilihum or Blut Aus Nord who throw enough melody into the chaotic stew that it grabs me. but yeah Plebeian Grandstand is by no means a populist pick for best metal of the year.
shout out to Yoth Iria, Miasmata, Demiser, Mare Cognitum, Crypts of Despair, Nazxul, Charnel Grounds, Vukari, Thy Catafalque, Darkthrone, Take Over and Destroy, Fluisteraars, Kaatayra, Dream Unending, and Knife as well
album: turnstiiiiiile
song: have you been seeing your therapist? you seem a little on edge, are you always this nervous? i said yessss.... and this is a hard drive.
my personal favorite is either "Blackout" or "Fly Again" (that opening riff makes me want to throw an air conditioner through a plate glass window) but "Holiday" is an all-time legend just for its ability to set the crowd off:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B7FUziUECY&t=2492s
(starts at 41:32)
01 turnstile- glow on (AOTY by a mile, i listened to this 10x more than anything else on this list. the sound of punk to come.)
(everything else is not really in any order)
02 cassandra jenkins- an overview on phenomenal nature
03 enforced- kill grid (metal album of the year, but big shout out to mare cognitum as well)
04 godspeed you black emperor- god's pee at state's end
05 pupil slicer- mirrors
06 parannoul- to see the next part of the dream
07 me rex- megabear (underrated sleeper pick of the year!)
08 laura stevenson- laura stevenson
09 the world is a beautiful place and the case of the missing fear of death- illusory walls
10 tyler the creator- call me if you get lost
biggest disappointment: the antlers - green to gold. familiars is possibly my favorite album of the previous decade so i was super excited for this comeback, but what a snooze. i appreciate that peter silberman seems to be in a better place in his life nowadays, but bucolic songs about taking a pleasant stroll around a suburban town is not what i listen to the antlers for.
i'll echo some of the other folks who thought this was an underwhelming year. i found myself going back to a lot of older music this year. but at least we had turnstile.
"Versace, Versace, Versace, Versace" is actually an anguished howl from the depths of consumer derealization, when Quavo gazed into the abyss and only the drip gazed back
if you're into lunkheaded black thrash a la Hellripper or Midnight, i've been into the album Knife, by the band Knife. as direct and to the point as it gets.
on the gloomy Swedish melodeath side of things, i've been enjoying the new In Mourning. excited to dig into Kaatayra and Vukari!
if you have a thing for redhead vocal coaches, check out Elizabeth Zharoff (AKA the Charismatic Voice) too. she has a Jinjer reaction video as well but i got into her through her reaction to Painkiller.
i absolutely love the Impossible Kid, Malibu Ken, and Spirit World Field Guide, so yeah. he still uses a lot of big words but he isn't tripping over them as much anymore.
it has been a decent year for metal overall (better year for hardcore imo) but i haven't heard a lot of amazing debuts to be honest. Demiser, Miasmata, and Yoth Iria were probably my favorites (though the dudes in YT are metal vets, it is a new band). if Pupil Slicer counts, that takes the cake, though i think it's more on the 'core side of grindcore.
i missed SUD and Month in Metal on Friday due to other stuff i had going on, so i'll just put this here:
my buddy worked on the animation for this video! it's an official mashup of the Ozzy and Motorhead versions of Hellraiser, released for the 30th anniversary of No More Tears. the song itself is better than either of the standalone versions, they should have released it as a duet in the first place. and the video is metal as fuck with lots of fun easter eggs. Lemmy would be proud!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw79RVnlCb0
i think it varies from attempt to attempt. sometimes you get some really nice segues and lock into a nice run, sometimes you get "i want a river to run through me" a few too many times in a row. as for pauses, if you're listening on Spotify the band recommended setting crossfade to 0 instead of "off", apparently that makes a difference? really cool project overall, i think they pulled it off about as well as anyone could have.
Mary is still my all-time favorite Big Thief song as well, but i'd say Cattails, Terminal Paradise, Shoulders, Not, Two Hands, and Little Things are all up there in the top tier. i think they've been remarkably consistent from album to album.
i'm getting married next friday!! i proposed 2 goddamn years ago but, well, you know. but here we finally fuckin gooooo! trying not to overthink the playlist and just let the dj do their job but if anyone has any last-minute wedding must-plays, i'd love to hear 'em. we're having a harpist at the ceremony and everything - i wonder if she'd be offended if i just sent her a bunch of mary lattimore and said "do it like this".
i dunno, i find bo burnham very hit or miss, but "a gift shop at the gun range, a mass shooting at the mall" is the most succinct encapsulation of american culture i've heard in a long time.
yeah it only "spoils" it if you genuinely believed that Inside was autobiographical. the whole thing is about being trapped inside alone, but in real life Bo Burnham is married and his wife is not mentioned in the special at all. because it's not about his actual life. it's a performance. he's playing a character. which is fine.
that Dayglo Abortions story is amazing. i got Here Today Guano Tomorrow in one of those "we'll send you 5 random records for 25 bucks" deals, had no idea there was so much history behind this dumb-ass sloppy dirtbag thrash album (said as a compliment).
had my bachelor party last weekend and made all of my friends listen to metal the whole time, plus my artist buddy made fucking killer t-shirts depicting a black mass knife fight with my name in drippy black metal font. and we explored some creepy abandoned ruins at a place called devil's hole. pretty sure i was running around the woods screaming "IT'S THE NIGHT OF THE VAMPIIIIIIRE" at one point. a great start to black metal season!
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