This week features 20 minute metal tracks, woke credit cards and coffin masturbators. Artists featured include Blood Incantation, Men I Trust, Thank, Elita, Infinitefreefall, ION, FLEECE and The Weeknd (ft. Playboi Carti).
THE BEST:
‘The
Stargate’ – Blood Incantation
Brat summer
is over. It’s now time for BLOOD INCANTATION AUTUMN. The Canadian prog metal
band have dropped a new song, and it’s a nice radio-friendly length – just over
20 minutes long. It spends its runtime transitioning between chaotic death
metal sections and psychedelic Pink Floyd-y passages. There are too many time
signature changes to count, several nasty riffs and some surprisingly beautiful
moments too. Oh, and it’s accompanied by an epic 20 minute music video
featuring sword fights, mystical artefacts and aliens. It’s a certified club
banger.
‘Husk’ – Men
I Trust
I keep
hearing good things about Montreal band Men I Trust and I must say this song
lives up to the hype. The instrumental sounds like a dreampop version of Nirvana,
and I like how the vocals are soothing and yet the lyrics are kinda brutal: ‘shark
bitten man, alone and raw’.
‘Woke
Frasier’ – Thank
‘Woke
Frasier’ is a mockery of people who accuse everything of being woke. It’s sang
from the perspective of a fictional right wing podcaster and features some
hilariously absurd lyrics: ‘bad news, your credit card details are now woke/
and you should send them to me for safe disposal’. According to a press
quote from singer Freddy Vinehill-Cliffe: ‘when we played this in Bedford, someone
got mad at me because they thought it was about Joe Rogan. It isn’t about Joe
Rogan, but also fuck Joe Rogan’. The Leeds band, who are rapidly becoming
one of my favourite new UK rock acts, have a new album out in November titled I Have A Physical Body That Can Be Harmed.
‘Masturbating
In A Coffin’ – Elita
With a track
title like that, how could I not check this song out? This is the work of
Canadian Instagram model and singer Elita Harkov (lots of Canadians this week),
and it’s a genre-defying mix of stomping ominous guitars that sound like
something from a gory horror b-movie and glitchy unintelligible kawaii-style
vocals. Fun stuff! Just be careful when searching for this song on Google.
‘Desecrated Landscape’
– Infinitefreefall
Shoegazey
guitars and detuned synths make up the captivatingly atmospheric sound of this
new single from Charleston band Infinitefreefall. Despite being quite buried in
the mix, the ‘I thought it could be easy’ vocal hook has also stuck. The
single comes off of the group’s latest album Belief Systems.
‘Homesick’ –
ION
‘Homesick’ is
the second single I’ve featured from London-based artist Ion, and it’s just as fascinatingly
unusual. The song opens up with tribal drums, which slowly amass extra layers
of percussion. We then get some synths entering the mix and eventually various
layers of chanted vocals. It’s a deliberate attempt to transport dance music
back to its tribal ritualistic roots while still incorporating some modern
electronica. The entrancing song comes off his upcoming EP Like A Sickness.
‘Where’s My
Beach Hat?’ – FLEECE
‘Where’s My
Beach Hat?’ would have been an excellent song to feature back in sunny August
were I not so chronically behind in keeping up with submissions. Oh well,
here’s a bit of summery indie pop to brighten up these grim October days. A
song about summerwear by a winterwear-named band.
THE WORST:
‘Timeless’ –
The Weeknd ft. Playboi Carti
This is the
most comprehensible Carti verse we’ve heard in a hot minute, and I still
misheard the opening line as ‘ever since I was a kid, I was a shit’ –
which I haven’t been able to unhear. Although I still don't think I get the Carti hype (did you see how ludicrously high Pitchfork ranked Whole Lotta Red on their albums of the decade so far list??), the rapper's ability to morph his voice here is kinda cool. But otherwise, this is a completely directionless track with not a
single memorable moment from The Weeknd.