#chris slorach

[spilladabalia]

METZ - Superior Mirage

[nofatclips]

Acetate by METZ from the Live at Ramsgate Music Hall EP

[sinceileftyoublog]

METZ, Spiritual Cramp, & Stuck Live Show Review: 12/16, Metro, Chicago

BY JORDAN MAINZER

METZ’ self-titled debut album came at a time when guitars re-entered indie rock in full-force. 2012 saw breakout albums from bands like Cloud Nothings, The Men, and Parquet Courts, a paradigm shift from the baroque pop of the 2000s towards something like it was during the heyday of the 90s. But similar to Attack on Memory, METZ was bleak, what seemed at the time like a pummeling expression of desolation after the 2008 financial crisis, akin to the waning optimism from the early Obama years. Ten years and three METZ albums later, the world has gotten worse, and the Toronto-via-Ottawa punk band has retained its hard edge. What better time to celebrate their first and arguably still their finest statement?

At the Metro on Friday, like every other night of their tour, METZ played their first album front to back. As the band walked onto the stage, drummer Hayden Menzies played the abrasive opening notes of “Headache” with the lights still off, remaining dim as guitarist and vocalist Alex Edkins’ siren-like lines began. Only when bassist Chris Slorach entered the fray did we see the band, and they were off to the races, burning through “Get Off”, “Sad Pricks”, and “Rats” at a breakneck pace. From the off-kilter instrumental of “Nausea” to the build of “Wet Blanket” and noisy, dynamic breakdown of “Wasted”, the band showed themselves to be, to quote one of their 2012 contemporaries, masters of their craft.

Including the encore, METZ had time for 5 additional songs, including two from their most recent album Atlas Vending (Sub Pop): “Blind Youth Industrial Park” and the swirling, epic closer “A Boat to Drown In”. II’s “Spit You Out”, a live highlight since it came out, was especially disorienting in its chaos in conjunction with the light show. And, to my pleasant surprise, the band did the motorik “Demolition Row”, released earlier this year as part of a split 7′’ with Adulkt Life. The show served as a reminder that METZ are capable of effectively delving into different subgenres but are still at their best when bashing you over the head with noise.

Opening for METZ were two more punk bands, albeit with different aesthetics. San Francisco’s Spiritual Cramp combined screamy, political post-punk with self-aware, self-deprecating, self-hating dance jams on tracks like “I Feel Bad Bein’ Me” and “The Erasure”. Vocalist Michael Bingham was filled with banter contrasting the bitter cold lack of pretension in Chicago with California’s sadsack sunniness. “You can’t tell if I’m being sarcastic,” he said to the crowd, following up with, “I can’t tell if I’m being sarcastic.” The vagueness of tone is certainly a feature of the band, the type to artfully sample vocals at the same time as featuring a barely-audible-but-theatrically-played tambourine on stage. When Bingham declared, “Fuck the cops, fuck the president, and fuck you, too,” you could sense a sneering sincerity, one that made the band ironically even more likeable.

And taking a victory lap were local heroes Stuck, a year removed from their most recent EP Content That Makes You Feel Good (Exploding In Sound), two years from their debut album Change Is Bad (born yesterday). As such, they played four (!) new, unreleased songs, including jagged set opener “Punisher” and the disco beat-laden “Freak Frequency”. Live, lead vocalist Greg Obis’ yelped personal and sociopolitical litanies echo the urgency of someone like Squid’s Ollie Judge, backed by the band’s gnarly rhythms and burning tempo changes. The jangling tremolo and rusted edges of a song like “Invisible Wall” encapsulated what the band does best: reel you in, but not let you get too comfortable.

[chrisryanspeaks]

The Armed Announce New Song + Tour Dates

“Does anyone even know you? Does anyone even care?” Sing The Armed. A true question we have to ask ourselves in this day and age when all others see is the image we project. The Armed sing with passion and conviction on their new single “Sport of Form.” Iggy Pop takes the shape of GOD in this video (how apropos). Check out their new, dynamic single below: Read More… The Armed have announced a new album, Perfect Saviors, available August 25th, their first album since their breakout ULTRAPOP. Providing a full accounting of album contributors for the first time, Perfect Saviors was produced by the band’s Tony Wolski along with Ben Chisholm and Troy Van Leeuwen, with contributions from Julien Baker, Sarah Tudzin, Mark Guiliana, Patrick Shiroishi, Justin Meldal-Johnsen and many more (full contributors list below). The album was mixed by Alan Moulder. The news arrives with a first single, “Sport of Form,” which features Julien Baker on vocals and Iggy Pop playing God in the song’s visual. Vocalist Tony Wolski offered this statement on the album: “Too much information has made us dumb and confused. Too many ways to connect have inadvertently led to isolation. And too much expectation has forced everyone to become a celebrity. Predictable primal dangers have given way to newer social ones. And the result is a world that is confounding and terrifying—but ultimately still beautiful. We hope this record is exactly all of that, too. Perfect Saviors is our completely unironic, sincere effort to create the biggest, greatest rock album of the 21st century.” Of the first single, “Sport of Form, he continued: There are two types of sport—those of measure and those of form. A sport of measure like basketball, football, or soccer has a point system and a sort of binary path to victory. A sport of form is something like diving, figure skating, or bodybuilding—something with evolving standards and a layer of subjectivity and some sort of critical component. The world that surrounds us is complex, and our lives are truly more akin to a sport of form than one of measure. Yet, so many people see it as exactly the opposite. Lyrically, this song is about the human need to win a game that we’re not even actually playing. Sonically, it is a reflection of that cognitive dissonance through a constant whiplash between beauty and ugliness, severity and tenderness, obscenity and grace. The album concludes a trilogy of albums examining and dissecting what constitutes “pop culture” in a world of limitless information and access. Using “pop music” loosely as a format in which to express these ideas, each album used composition and presentation as a way to challenge these questions further. Perfect Saviors is the ultimate product of this evolution. Using one of the world’s most well-known mixing engineers to create a beautiful album fully immersed in the language and world of pop through the inherently unique, extreme, and perverse lens The Armed communicate their art. The album was written by The Armed and performed by Ken Szymanski, Randall Lee, Tony Wolski, Dan Greene, Ben Chisholm, Urian Hackney, Cara Drolshagen, Troy Van Leeuwen, Patrick Shiroishi, Sarah Tudzin, Justin Meldal-Johnsen, Mark Guiliana, Matt Sweeney, Bryan Aiken, Jacob Bannon, Julien Baker (courtesy of Matador Records), Eric Avery, Stephen Perkins, Josh Klinghoffer, Chris Slorach, Zach Weeks, Brian Wolski & Derek Coburn. The band, who will be joining Queens of the Stone Age on their The End Is Nero Tour in August, have announced headline shows of their own. With more to be announced in the coming months, tickets for the current dates will go on sale this Thursday, 6/29 at 10:00am local time HERE. Read the full article

[audiofuzz]

The Armed Announce New Song + Tour Dates

“Does anyone even know you? Does anyone even care?” Sing The Armed. A true question we have to ask ourselves in this day and age when all others see is the image we project. The Armed sing with passion and conviction on their new single “Sport of Form.” Iggy Pop takes the shape of GOD in this video (how apropos). Check out their new, dynamic single below: Read More… The Armed have announced a new album, Perfect Saviors, available August 25th, their first album since their breakout ULTRAPOP. Providing a full accounting of album contributors for the first time, Perfect Saviors was produced by the band’s Tony Wolski along with Ben Chisholm and Troy Van Leeuwen, with contributions from Julien Baker, Sarah Tudzin, Mark Guiliana, Patrick Shiroishi, Justin Meldal-Johnsen and many more (full contributors list below). The album was mixed by Alan Moulder. The news arrives with a first single, “Sport of Form,” which features Julien Baker on vocals and Iggy Pop playing God in the song’s visual. Vocalist Tony Wolski offered this statement on the album: “Too much information has made us dumb and confused. Too many ways to connect have inadvertently led to isolation. And too much expectation has forced everyone to become a celebrity. Predictable primal dangers have given way to newer social ones. And the result is a world that is confounding and terrifying—but ultimately still beautiful. We hope this record is exactly all of that, too. Perfect Saviors is our completely unironic, sincere effort to create the biggest, greatest rock album of the 21st century.” Of the first single, “Sport of Form, he continued: There are two types of sport—those of measure and those of form. A sport of measure like basketball, football, or soccer has a point system and a sort of binary path to victory. A sport of form is something like diving, figure skating, or bodybuilding—something with evolving standards and a layer of subjectivity and some sort of critical component. The world that surrounds us is complex, and our lives are truly more akin to a sport of form than one of measure. Yet, so many people see it as exactly the opposite. Lyrically, this song is about the human need to win a game that we’re not even actually playing. Sonically, it is a reflection of that cognitive dissonance through a constant whiplash between beauty and ugliness, severity and tenderness, obscenity and grace. The album concludes a trilogy of albums examining and dissecting what constitutes “pop culture” in a world of limitless information and access. Using “pop music” loosely as a format in which to express these ideas, each album used composition and presentation as a way to challenge these questions further. Perfect Saviors is the ultimate product of this evolution. Using one of the world’s most well-known mixing engineers to create a beautiful album fully immersed in the language and world of pop through the inherently unique, extreme, and perverse lens The Armed communicate their art. The album was written by The Armed and performed by Ken Szymanski, Randall Lee, Tony Wolski, Dan Greene, Ben Chisholm, Urian Hackney, Cara Drolshagen, Troy Van Leeuwen, Patrick Shiroishi, Sarah Tudzin, Justin Meldal-Johnsen, Mark Guiliana, Matt Sweeney, Bryan Aiken, Jacob Bannon, Julien Baker (courtesy of Matador Records), Eric Avery, Stephen Perkins, Josh Klinghoffer, Chris Slorach, Zach Weeks, Brian Wolski & Derek Coburn. The band, who will be joining Queens of the Stone Age on their The End Is Nero Tour in August, have announced headline shows of their own. With more to be announced in the coming months, tickets for the current dates will go on sale this Thursday, 6/29 at 10:00am local time HERE. Read the full article

[senorboombastic]

This One Song… METZ on Sugar Pill

This One Song… METZ on Sugar Pill

Tell you what – we love hearing from artists when things go right. We equally love hearing from artists when things go dreadfully wrong. A song that was a piece of piss, written in 20 minutes? Or years in the making and a bastard to write? Whether it’s a song that came together through great duress or one that was smashed out in a short amount of time, we’re getting the lowdown from some of our…

[recommendedlisten]

A couple years back, Recommended Listen introduced an appendex to its annual Best of albums list with a focus on all of the darker, heavier music it wanted to recommend from over the course of the year, because let's face it: Between the polarities of indie rock and poptimism, sometimes the loudest sounds don't get a fair shake on year-end coverage. It took last year off to focus on rounding up the decade's best albums instead, but it's back in 2020 to highlight the best albums in the realms of hardcore, punk, metal, experimental noise, even hip-hop, and beyond. Given the year it has been, the context of what constitutes a heavy listen has very much taken on a totally different meaning, but at the same time, has made these sounds all the more wild. Here's to the albums of Heavy '20...

Backxwash - God Has Nothing to Do With This Leave Him Out of It [Self-released]

God Has Nothing to Do With This Leave Him Out of It challenges the notion that hip-hop -- especially the kind that is executed as masterfully in its artform and intentionally as that created from the caverns of Backxwash’s lost soul -- can’t be heavy music, too. The breakthrough album from the self-made, self-produced Montreal-by-way-of-Zambia artist is raw in texture and a carnal mean-mugging in its energy just like the unapologetic eye of its creator. The listen does not repent on the brooding weight of Backxwash’s confessional rhymes and the beat soundscape -- a playground built from pieces of the goth, trap, and industrial underworlds -- she sets them along is a 22-minute thriller through damnation.

clearbody - One More Day [Smartpunk Records]

One More Day, the debut album from shoegazing emo-punks clearbody, bears down on you from above from its very opening moments. Much like scene luminaries Superheaven and Cloakroom, the Charlotte trio’s grizzled, reverb-soaked rock aspires to fill the whole sky, yet with its melodic density in tow, much of that is consumed into our own claustophobic insularity. Thus, brings the hearth from the trio’s vacuous sound into our own desolate realm of darkness wholly, and lets it burn within. It makes for a blurring firestorm of palatable gloom that at least offers you comfort in spite of each daily struggle.

Code Orange - UNDERNEATH [Roadrunner Records]

As most of the world remained stuck inside throughout 2020 and unsure of what it will look like when we actually do see that light at the end of the tunnel, the corrosion of the self through our addicted virtual identities has come back karmically to torture us on UNDERNEATH. Code Orange’s latest transformation is a series of shock therapy treatment and defiant self-immolation tailored for their largest stage to date as well. The Pittsburg band’s sound continues to thrive off pure hybrid chaos that reflects pitch black nihilism with frayed wired nü-metal connections, dramatic, brutalist metalcore maximalsm, and towering new power that shakes the fault lines. A collective machine built from not only their own individual might, UNDERNEATH hears the ills of humanity sink deep into Code Orange’s skin and again change their DNA.

Deftones - Ohms [Warner Records]

Ohms, the ninth studio effort from Deftones, is a masterful display of the sheer sonic velocity which the metal-gazing hydra-heads still have the power to conduct through the atmosphere, even 25 years after they broke new ground with their definitive album White Pony. It could be, in parts, due to the fact that Ohms reunites the Chino Moreno’s atmosphere-defying vocals and guitarist Stephen Carpenter’s monochromatic electricity with classic era producer Terry Date, but there’s a newfound wisdom on balance (”balance, balance, balance!…”) heard in their alternative rock innovations that turns Ohms into an infinite current every future heavy artist will be keen to draw from.

DRAIN - California Cursed [Revolution Records]

Santa Cruz thrashers DRAIN have been seething to make their official first move in the hardcore scene since amassing a cult following within its DIY circles and becoming fest highlights over the last few years. Their debut full-length for venerable hardcore label Revolution Records does no hold back on that feeding frenzy. Rattling influence of NYC hardcore as well as a high voltage metallic intensity, California Cursed is a filthy homage to their home state that chomps with disgust and reckoning for its polluted air and water. Frontperson Sam Ciaramitaro’s sneering performance ups the confrontation with a tidal wave of chaos backs up his audacity. Washed ashore at its end, you won’t know what hit you.

ENTRY - Detriment [Southern Lord]

It only takes 15-minutes of ENTRY’s Detriment to turn your body’s nervous system inside-out. Formed in Los Angeles between PA punk scene veteran Sara Gregory, Touché Amoré guitarist Clayton Stevens, Sean Sakamoto of the indie-pop band Sheer on bass, and drummer Chris Dwyer, the band’s arrival spills all of the very heaviest-hitting emotions being burdened within our bodies in a terrifying year into an onslaught of scathing screams and brutalist hardcore. Their exorcism might wreck everything, including you. Burn it down. Start over. ENTRY’s means justify its ends.

Gulch - Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress [Closed Casket Recordings]

You will experience instantaneous confrontation when pressing play on Gulch’s Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress. The Santa Crus five-piece’s debut full-length is a scourge of corrosive electricity and piston drums played at excess speed with an ugly, nihilist end destination. All this is placated with album art that projects Gulch’s binary of strange, carnal beauty and a grotesque allegory of life gnarled through reckless hardcore merrymaking, making the whole of the 15-minute listen resonate much deeper than its temporal intentions. Paired with the production of Jack Shirley (Deafheaven, Loma Prieta), Gulch are able to see their vision through the flames fanned on their 2018 EP Burning Desire to Draw Last Breath, and incinerate you from a stereo’s distance.

HEALTH - DISCO4 :: PART I [Loma Vista Recordings]

Normally, HEALTH’s DISCO series involve remixes of their own work, but its latest installment is a very, very different, more abrasive monster. Instead of reimagining existing work, the Los Angeles industrial trio set out to create new music with an esoteric cast of abrasive misfits and other sonic outliers, including the likes of Soccer Mommy, Xiu Xiu, 100gecs, FULL OF HELL, and Youth Code. The culmination of those efforts on DISCO4 :: PART I is a fascinating experiment in new possibilities, as each of the artists are able to explore new layers within existence’s darkness (and their own) by merging their creative identities into HEALTH’s futuristic noise.

Higher Power - 27 Miles Underwater [Roadrunner Records]

Built with just the right amount of progressive hardcore groove and big anthem gloss, Higher Power’s 27 Miles Underwater has the ability to command pits digging up the underground as well as those soaring above the masses. The super power distinguishing the UK bunch from the growl of their peers is the vocally amorphous presence of frontman Jimmy Wizard as it polarizes itself over sawing riffs and cosmic spaces with both raw and aerodynamic plasticity. His existential primal screams compliment the overarching soundscape guitarists Louis Hardy and Max Harper, drummer Alex Wizard and bassist Ethan Wilkinson create as it zig-zags from melodramatic hardcore into ambiguous psychedelic wavelengths being resonated through the depths of the universe.

Hum - Inlet [Earth Analog Records]

In the 22 years that Hum have gravitated away from our orbit, their mark on rock music has at least been apparent from down here on Earth. There is however, a greater reach from Hum’s orbit down to our terrain here on their return Inlet. No longer glossed with the major label studio sheen that gave them alternative FM dial hits, the Champaign space-rock quartet sound at home reconvening in a more ornate, dynamic form through their second life. For 55 minutes, it feels like every detail on Hum’s International Space Station is visible from the ground as it makes passage right outside your window, humanizing their future sound as something tangible with a touch of fragility.

METZ - Atlas Vending [Sub Pop]

METZ have never ceased to take artistry into account in the loud volume of their noisemaking, where as many of their peers have fallen by the wayside for relying too, er, heavily on their ability to make the room shake and bowl over listeners. Atlas Vending, the Toronto trio’s third full-length effort, is what noise-rock sounds like when all of its moving parts work in unison as one well-oiled machine. Guitarist and vocalist Alex Edkins, bassist Chris Slorach and drummer Hayden Menzies have not only refined their decibel-crushing sound by pushing it even further into the sky, but they do so by delivering their hookiest material yet without disregarding their innate ability to rattle through any surface, be it in the flesh or through the speakers.

Moor Mother - Circuit City [Don Giovanni Records]

Camea Awaya’s work as Moor Mother feels endless and interconnected, even when she veers off course into cosmic experimentalism or joins forces with creative forces outside her own body. The sounds which the avant-noise artist has already assembled especially move differently when she reconnects with them, as is the case Circuit City, a production originally staged in front of a festival audience and now given a proper recording which brings a different source of energy into the composition. Awaya fills every second with its own purpose, struck by calamity in an avant-jazz fusion of brass and percussive confusion mirroring her own. Her words and the fury of sound battle with the darkest of American injustices – All of the shattered wishes, dreams, and right. Constantly surrounded by a war for her own being, Circuit City connects the outside world’s noise with an anxiety that has becomes too daunting to ignore.

Narrow Head - 12th House Rock [Run for Cover Records]

The second 12th House Rock lifts off with “Yer’ Song”, Narrow Head have left our atmosphere. With the Houston rockers’ sophomore effort and first for Run for Cover Records, the five-piece take homage with the mightiest of the ‘90s alternative’s big riffed work heard in the currents of everything from Hum, the Deftones, My Bloody Valentine, and Brit pop fully amped. With a little rewiring of their electric diagrams, Narrow Head rips through huge hooks and dizzying spins of their own gravity. In these times, 12th House Rock’s energy is the kind of escapist album direly needed in 2020 when you need to put something on loud to drown out the rest of the world.

Nothing - The Great Dismal [Relapse Records]

There is probably never going to be a moment in time where Nothing change their tune on the inevitable collision between our lives and oblivion, and The Great Dismal is the period on that statement that makes it reverberatingly loud that won’t be happening any time soon, if ever at all. The Philly shoegazing punk band’s fourth full-length effort piles on heavier dark matter and churns up the velocity as they plummet into the big black hole sucking us all in more by the day. The songs on this album are also beautiful sinks into the void as well, containing the four-piece’s most accessible work to date. Their sound – muscled in hook-laden feedback, adorned by touches in oddity from Alex G and Mary Lattimore, and confident in boldness – can hold its own even in zero gravity.

Record Setter - I Owe You Nothing [Topshelf Records]

Despite having clashed with their sound in the past through grungy post-hardcore and atmospheric math-rock, Record Setter’s I Owe You Nothing is arguably the first obvious moment of clarity for the Denton, TX four-piece even if their sound veers off into varying gravities of screamo, post-hardcore, and cavernous emo rock. The emotional weight anchored behind each track is what grounds the listen onto the same landing space regardless. A catharsis in identity and by Judy Mitchell’s living truth, approaching their art with this intention has emancipated the band’s second-guessing. Be it the chaos in motion, melodic turnstiles, or vulnerabilities impressed close to the surface, Record Setter attach a heaviness to their sound created not by decibel or amplification (although, the use of added weight in their crushed guitars and crash cymbals adds the album’s turbulence…,) but by human forces bleeding themselves into it.

Shamir - Cataclysm [Self-released]

On Cataclysm, the darker side of two very different albums from Shamir this year, the genre ambiguous artist embraces death through distortion, and that it renders both an anomaly in his catalog by way of stylistic consistency as well as some of his most hook-driven rockers to date makes this turn toward sonic violence stick. In listening to tracks like the static-drenched menacing bop of “Hell”, the desolate post punk atmosphere of “Scream”, or a queer take on Nada Surf popularity in “Feminine Guy”, you can hear how these songs exist to hex listeners into Shamir’s heathenry as he channels an unconventional lightness in his vocals through beefed up muscularity in guitar electricity. If the butterfly must die, then it will never be in vain, for this incarnation of Shamir creates something remarkably outside this world when baring all of its weight.

SOUL GLO - Songs to Yeet At The Sun [Secret Voice]

Even in its rapid fire 12-minute length, Songs to Yeet At The Sun, the latest EP from SOUL GLO, is one of the most vital pieces of heavy music this year. Chomping from the fringe as artists mutating the look and sound of the modern punk community in both its vantage point and a forward-thinking clash of style, the Philly four-piece’s latest offering slams like a poetry of Pierce Jordan’s own Black American experience through a rapid scene-changing stream of conscious, as the five-track listen surges in with adrenaline junky hardcore before recoiling into noisy raptures, then back into bulldozing mode before. What’s left behind is a sludgy pile of bones and guts that will surely be used to reshape the scene from here on out.

Sparta - Trust the River [Dine Alone Records]

Between the band’s 2006 effort Threes and their return in Trust the River, Sparta’s Jim Ward has ventured off the beaten path with his songwriting by delving into folk and indie rock with his other projects under his own name and the band Sleepercar, respectively. Some of those homegrown hints have seeped into Sparta’s water on their first album in 14 years on what is a fitting return to ground-level after gravitating far above the horizon for so long in the band’s early catalog. Trust the River communicates with these times’ political landscape as well as the complexities of our own personal relationships in that way where Sparta’s roughened melancholia can feel like a faded picture. This time, it’s easier to see the faces from down here on Earth, and they’re wearing heavy emotion.

SPICE - SPICE [DAIS Records]

There are five members in the pan-Californian band SPICE who’ve contributions lay equally on the surface of their eponymous debut album’s crackling, rocky complexion. At its epicenter of those fault line is most notably that of vocalist, CEREMONY frontman Ross Farrar alongside fellow CEREMONY drummer Jake Casarotti, bassist Cody Sullivan (No Sir, Sabertooth Zombie), guitarist Ian Simpson (Creative Adult,) and violinist Victoria Skudlarek. The collective’s “deliberate isolation of pain” through a fascia of hardcore and indie rock channel themselves through in non-stop urgency that makes for one of the year’s most rewardingly thrill rides in anxiety-riddled head charges and whirring melodies. Pop-induced, billowing in the air, and heavy like a pile of bricks at once, and when all of these elements atomize onto one slab, we hear how pain even in isolated form comes in many forms.

Sprain - As Lost Through Collision [The Flenser]

Sprain’s As Lost Through Collision is an album that will test your patience. Across seven tracks in super-length spans, the listen lingers, reawakens, and stretches out time to defy the space is consumes. Alex Kent and April Gerloff, who early on the band’s catalog sought to realign elements of slowcore and post-hardcore in a meditative sense, now have piled on a heavier rig of louder influences pulling from the Flenser universe of black metal and post-rock, with the addition of second guitarist guitarist Alex Simmons and drummer Max Pretzer assisting in the moving of concrete walls and steel beams in their sound. Whatever they are building, they eventually redesign or break down, leaving your bereft in its glum.

Touché Amoré - Lament [Epitaph Records]

Touché Amoré’s fifth studio effort Lament is a duality in natural evolutions for the Los Angeles post-hardcore band. In one respect, it deals with the fallout of grief laid bare on the band’s 2016 album Stage Four and in learning to coexist with those emotions, for better or for worse. In another, the listen marks another seismic shift in pushing the boundaries of their progressive hardcore sound into bigger, more ambitious territories with the help of veteran rock producer Ross Robinson, who has guided genre classics by everyone from Korn and Slipknot to the Blood Brothers and At the Drive-In. In giving themselves a larger arena to shout into, there still is no ceiling too high in sight for how far Touché Amoré can climb out of life’s murk.

Thou & Emma Ruth Rundle - May Our Chambers Be Full [Sacred Bones Records]

Emma Ruth Rundle’s manifestation of doom unfurls naturally through knots of haunted folkwork and sludgy feedback, while the heavy experimental metallic atmosphere of Thou has proven to have a way of melding itself around whatever surroundings its thicker air seeks out. On May Our Chambers Be Full, a collaborative effort between the two forces in metal, the two build a monument for the human experience’s polarities in its joyous desperation and immense sorrow through a sound formed in grungy pits and sky-scaling alternative anthemry. If this one feels like it’s tearing every emotion straight from the chest, it’s only because Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou have a natural sense as to where they beat most heavily.

Truth Cult - Off Fire [Pop Wig Records]

Truth Cult is breaking out of the Baltimore hardcore scene with their debut full-length Off Fire, released fittingly on local scene label Pop Wig Records (the label ran by members of Turnstile and Angel Du$t.) Its membership is familiar with spaces that form pits, as it collects members of Give, Pure Disgust, and Red Death, and their sound touches on the gruff post-hardcore rumblings of its surrounding environment. For context, they’ve opened for Lifetime, and have a very Dan Yemin-like energy to their sound that deadlifts a weight similar to what Paint It Black and Open City are throwing down. Off Fire is similarly politicized and swings hard, but that takes nothing away from the melodic gravity of the LP in a way that hears Truth Cult’s sound living up to the elements of its title.

Uniform - Shame [Sacred Bones Records]

Shame, the third studio effort from combustible Brooklyn industry noise torchers Uniform, sets out to rid the self of that which destroys us from the inside out. What’s different about this beastial incantation from the trio’s past releases is how it much raw the internal wounds look on the surface, as the album unburdens itself of conditioned self-hate and constructs a effigy for all that pain to set into flames. It’s a self-immolation of the soul in which frontperson Michael Berdan screams through the smoke, his voice often engulfed and dissipated in a razor burn of guitars and fuel-doused drums. To free themselves it all, Uniform sees no other way out beyond setting themselves on fire -- and burn gloriously, at that.

War On Women - Wonderful Hell [Bridge Nine Records]

Wonderful Hell was released days ahead of this year’s critical presidential election, and War On Women had a concentrated reason as to why: The rallying cries and calls for action hurled into the masses by Shawna Potter made for one last push of resistance against these last four years. Now that we’ve overcome the first hurdle, the Baltimore punk band’s third album serves as a reminder as to how much more work there is to be done. Their agenda hasn’t changed all that much since 2017′s breakout Capture the Flag – defeat fascism, fight for equality for both women and the marginalized, make misogyny and any form hate extinct – and they’ve sharpened the edges of their razor-backed melodic punk anthems here to make their ultimate end-game clear.

[bubblesandgutz]

Every Record I Own - Day 646: METZ Atlas Vending

This is another album highlight of 2020.

I’d love to talk about METZ from a personal angle... crossing Western Canada with them while on what would wind up being the final tour for These Arms Are Snakes back in 2009, but I’m gonna save that for when I get around to talking about their debut album. So instead, I’m just gonna share the bio I wrote for their album Atlas Vending last year. 

“Change is inevitable if you’re lucky,” says guitarist/vocalist Alex Edkins while talking about Atlas Vending, the fourth full-length album by Toronto’s METZ. “Our goal is to remain in flux, to grow in a natural and gradual way. We’ve always been wary to not overthink or intellectualize the music we love but also not satisfied until we’ve accomplished something that pushes us forward.” The music made by Edkins and his compatriots Hayden Menzies (drums) and Chris Slorach (bass) has always been a little difficult to pin down. Their earliest recordings contained nods to the teeming energy of early ‘90s DIY hardcore, the aggravated angularities of This Heat, and the noisy riffing of AmRep’s quintessential guitar manglers, but there was never a moment where METZ sounded like they were paying tribute to the heroes of their youth. If anything, the sonic trajectory of their albums captured the journey of a band shedding influences and digging deeper into their fundamental core—steady propulsive drums, chest-thumping bass lines, bloody-fingered guitar riffs, the howling angst of our fading innocence. With Atlas Vending, METZ not only continues to push their music into new territories of dynamics, crooked melodies, and sweat-drenched rhythms, they explore the theme of growing up and maturing within a format typically suspended in youth.

Covering seemingly disparate themes such as paternity, crushing social anxiety, addiction, isolation, media-induced paranoia, and the restless urge to leave everything behind, each of Atlas Vending’s ten songs offer a snapshot of today's modern condition and together form a musical and narrative whole. Album opener “Pulse” is a completely unnerving exercise in reductionist tension, with verses providing little more than a lone discordant chord, a hammering kick drum, and the occasional punctuation of a diving bass note. From there METZ launches into “Blind Youth Industrial Park,” an absolute scorcher of paranoid dissonance and malicious force centered on a chromatic descending riff and a merciless four-to-the-floor drum battery.

The album hits its stride with “No Ceiling”—a minute-and-a-half rager that comes about as close to containing a pop hook as anything METZ has ever written. Though it’s still saturated with in-the-red distortion, this truncated anthem about discovering love and purpose provides the rare counterpoint to the band’s grievous compositions. But there’s no yielding to complacency on Atlas Vending, and the mercurial nature of love and romance is expertly captured in the alternately brutal verses and beguiling choruses of “Hail Taxi.” If METZ’s current mission is to mirror the inevitable struggles of adulthood, they’ve successfully managed to tap into the conflicted relationship between rebellion and revelry with the song’s tactics of offsetting their signature bombast with anthemic melodic resolutions.

The song sequencing follows a cradle-to-grave trajectory, spanning from primitive origins through increasingly nuanced and turbulent peaks and valleys all the way to the climactic closer, “A Boat to Drown In.” The lyrics speak to this arc as well, with the songs addressing life’s struggles all the way through to death, as Edkins snarls “crashed through the pearly gates and opened up my eyes, I can see it now” before the band launches into the album’s cascading outro.

While past METZ albums thrived on an abrasive relentlessness, the trio embarked on Atlas Vending with the goal to make a more patient and honest record—something that invited repeated listens rather than a few exhilarating bludgeonings. It’s as if the band realized they were in it for the long haul, and their music could serve as a constant as they navigated life’s trials and tribulations. The result is a record that sounds massive, articulate, and earnest. Bolstered by the co-production of Ben Greenberg (Uniform) and the engineering and mixing skills of Seth Manchester (Daughters, Lingua Ignota, The Body) at Machines with Magnets in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, METZ deliver the most dynamic, dimensional, and compelling work of their career.

[thejoyofviolentmovement]

Live Footage: METZ Performs "A Boat to Drown In" at Toronto's The Opera House

Live Footage: METZ Performs "A Boat to Drown In" at Toronto's The Opera House @metztheband @subpop @subpoplicity @OPERAHOUSETO

Over the course of this site’s almost 11 year history — it turns 11 next week — i’ve spilled copious amounts of virtual ink covering Toronto-based punk trio and JOVM mainstays METZ. With the release of their third album, 2017’s Strange Peace, the trio — Alex Eadkins (vocals, guitar), Chris Slorach (bass) and Hayden Menzies (drums) —  pushed their songwriting in a new direction, as they crafted…

[spilladabalia]

METZ - 99

[jungleindierock]

METZ - Dry Up

Dry Up is takenfrom METZ's new album, Automat, which will be released on the 12th July 12 2019, this video was directed by METZ guitarist and vocalist, Alex Edkins.

METZ are a Canadian punk rock band from Ontario, formed in Ottawa and based in Toronto. The band consists of guitarist and vocalist Alex Edkins, bassist Chris Slorach and drummer Hayden Menzies.

Links: Facebook | Twitter | Site

[iameverything]

Profile: @metz_theband - METZ is a Canadian punk rock band formed in 2008 in Ottawa and currently based in Toronto. The band consists of guitarist and vocalist Alex Edkins, bassist Chris Slorach and drummer Hayden Menzies. (at Ottawa, Ontario) https://www.instagram.com/p/CKUs3RqpNnz/?igshid=8e4y7em2i9yt

[wewerepromisedsomuch]

Album Review: METZ

Artist:  METZ

Title:  Strange Peace

Record Label: Sub Pop

Release Date: 22nd September 2017

Rating: 8.0/10

If you thought The Cribs being recorded by Steve Albini was a match made in heaven, then get ready for some next level shit; Toronto’s favourite noise-punk outfit, METZ enlisted the much-revered producer/engineer to help capture their blistering live persona for their forthcoming LP ‘Strange Peace’. The trio plus Albini committed fourteen tracks to tape, recorded live as a unit in four days and with the band’s raw urgency solidified, they took those recordings to long term collaborator Graham Walsh to assemble and turn into, what has become the Canadian’s third album.

Sonically and lyrically ‘Strange Peace’ is a claustrophobic listen, it’s an album that hits you hard and burrows deep. Thematically, vocalist/guitarist Alex Edkins describes the band’s new songs as “about uncertainty. They’re about recognising that we’re not always in control of our fate, and about admitting our mistakes and fears. They’re about finding some semblance of peace within the chaos”. ‘Cellophane’s mangled mesh of acerbic post-punk distils the feeling of unease and disorientation with Edkins sneering “where do we go from here” and “how will I know it’s real?” as his bandmates Hayden Menzies (drums) and Chris Slorach (bass) churn out a devastating dose of punk that sounds like metal scraping on metal. ‘Common Trash’s accelerated, rapid-fire punk immortalises METZ at their most urgent and unhinged as Edkins muses “there’s nothing left to love”.

As we’ve come to know and love with METZ, ‘Strange Peace’ is a twisted noise punk rock record – there’s the likes of ‘Drained Lake’s rampant melee, anchored by a rusted punk propulsion and a mechanical hiss, injected via Menzies’ piston-like drumming. The same can be said for the explosive and relentless opening track ‘Mess of Wires’. When the band dip under the three-minute mark, and in some cases the two-minute mark – the levels of intensity swell, as heard on the smash ‘n’ grab of ‘Escalator Teeth’ and ‘Dig A Hole’, and the discordant acidic, barrage at the heart of ‘Mt Plague’. As a dichotomy to the ‘blink and you’ll miss’em tracks’, album closer ‘Raw Materials’ finds the group elongating their wares by producing a six-minute maelstrom of dishevelled noise indebted punk. There is one odd moment of calm amongst METZ’s acerbic audio-mugging; ‘Sink’ pulses with a metronome tick tock, with occasional bouts of frazzled guitar, as the frantic nature of the album dips for a second. However, there’s still an eerie, unsettling feeling waiting for you – despite the volume levels being turned down a notch.

Intensity and noise have never been in short supply when it comes to METZ and with ‘Strange Peace’ the ear-wax loosening levels of cacophony are at an all-time high – although this isn’t to the detriment of actually producing songs – this isn’t noise for the sake of noise. The three-piece’s album rolls out with an immediacy that Albini helped ensnare – there’s an impulsiveness that’s impossible to ignore and with it, comes a stirring vitality to the way ‘Strange Peace’ carries its aural assault.

[thepermanentrainpress]

Gallery: METZ @ The Cobalt - Vancouver, BC Date: December 8th, 2017 Photographed by: Ray Maichin

[senorboombastic]

WATCH: METZ add another piece to the 'Atlas Vending' puzzle with new video for 'Pulse'

WATCH: METZ add another piece to the ‘Atlas Vending’ puzzle with new video for ‘Pulse’

Words: Andy Hughes (Photo Credit: Norman Wong

Still here – still hammering that new METZ record!

Off the back of their latest album ‘Atlas Vending‘ (one we described as “the sound of a band fully realised with another blistering statement of intent“), the trio have put out another piece of the puzzle with a stunning new music video!

Directed by Jeremy Gillespie, the engaging/mildly terrifying new…

[recommendedlisten]

Album Review: The Armed - ‘ULTRAPOP’

Let’s get one detail out of the way first: The world the Armed have created is fucking bullshit, and that’s because, to quote Fiona, the world is fucking bullshit. ULTRAPOP’s album cycle has been nothing but a facade featuring actors like a bodybuilding keyboardist by the name of “Clark Huge” and gaslighting listeners into thinking Adam Valely looks exactly like the rather ripped Tony Wolski in press photos and interviews. Googling vocalist/bassist/guitarist Cara Drolshagen reveals she spends most of her life leading reputable social media campaigns for a living, much like you’d find here. The band even got pro music writers in on the bit, so when you or your loved one dies of massive heart failure after taking Huge’s steak-heavy diet at face value, you know who you can sue for that giving you that awful piece of health advice.

Throw that noise to the side, and behind it is one of the year’s most enticing heavy albums that sounds as much of a fusion of our current culture’s excess and cross-genre pollination as it does communal experimental metal transcendence featuring members from varied spaces. Converge’s Ben Kohller, the aforementioned Wolski, now also of Genghis Tron, alongside Vallely, Drolshagen, Chris Slorach of noisemakers METZ, drummer Urian Hackney of Rough Francis, Mark Lanegan, Queens of the Stone Age's Troy Van Leeuwen, whoever actually is Clark Huge, and another dozen-plus musicians all had a hand in its makings, but to what extent, we’ll never know. It doesn’t matter really, as their efforts bleed into one singular current of thrashing electricity and artificial futurism that’s harsh and grotesquely beautiful at once.

That the Armed may have also sonically weaponized deception leading up to its release to the accentuate the “pop” in ULTRAPOP’s whelming intensity is what makes it burst. Early singles “ALL FUTURES”, “AVERAGE DEATH”, and “AN ITERATION” communicate existential discourse and nihilistic commentaries through wider transmissions more directly with blown out proportions of maximalist guitars and drumming as keys blare through the feedback, opening space for lucid vocals to come to the surface. Against a warped distortion of metal and hardcore frames, overheated synthesizers, and suffocated static screams that move cyclonically around them on tracks like “MASUNAGA VAPORS”, “A LIFE SO WONDERFUL” and “BIG SHELL", it makes you wonder whether the intention of the collective’s product as art is to effectively tap into listeners most immediate needs first, and then subconsciously plant a lust for substance deeper beyond the album’s visible muscle mass. If there’s one thing that makes sense in the bullshit, let it be the endless pursuit of that.

ULTRAPOP by The Armed

The Armed’s ULTRAPOP will be released April 16th on Sargent House. Physical | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify