Reverend Beat-Man and The New Wave - Blues Trash (2018)

Blues Trash is probably the best album from Reverend Beat-Man and in my opinion among the best garage rock albums of the XXIth century. Mastering totally the basics of garage rock with it's stipped to the bone blues based raw riffing drooling with honky tonk boogie, and having one of the best demented maniac psychobilly style vocalist with Reverend Beat Man, its also totally pushing further the boundaries of a style that is too often too standardised. They succeed as well with some accordion tango, organ and sax additions, noisy guitar playing bordering dark psychedelia. Now wave experimentation coupled with primitive roots garage rock, and with excellent songwriting and inspired playing it works awesome. Highly recommended.

The BC page.

Ancient Methods - The Jericho Records (2018)

Ancient Methods (from Berlin) is one of the most reliable dealer of industrial techno. The Jericho Records is their latest LP (released in 2018), and an immersive listening experience, the beat-driven hard-hitting element going hand in hand with the dark futuristic atmosphere. And featurings like producers Orphx, Regis and Prurient and vocalist King Dude cannot harm for sure. Excellent stuff, and a good entry point if you want to discover industrial techno.

 

The BC page. 

 

Horseshoes & Hand Grenades - The Ode (2018)

I'm far from being a bluegrass specialist and don't listen to it very often, but one thing I know is that I really enjoy this album called The Ode by Horseshoes & Hand Grenades and often go back to it when I listen to bluegrass. They excel at writing great songs and breathing emotions playing it, be it happy and inspiring or more melancholic. I suppose their more recent album "Miles in blue" is good as well.

The Bandcamp page.

 

 

Dr. Octagon - Moosebumps: An Exploration Into Modern Day Horripilation (2018)

Moosebumps: An Exploration Into Modern Day Horripilation released in 2018 is the real return of rapper Kool Keith as Dr. Octagon. The album called in 2006 "The Return of Dr. Octagon" was a good album but, not produced by Dan The Automator, less dark and more funky, it did not sound like a genuine Dr. Octagon album.  This time we can again listen to the unique mix of old school, abstract and horrorcore (but always keeping a twisted fun) hip hop. And Kool Keith as an MC is as talented and usual. It's arguably as good as the first album "Dr. Octagonecologyst" was. Cool stuff.

King Yosef - Guilty (EP 2018)

I discovered King Yosef with his collaboration with Youth Code (that I will soon review). He's producing hip-hop/trap music (and is also in a hardcore metal band) but, even if there's a trap element in this EP (called Guilty and released in 2018), I'd say it actually has most of the time a pure sound from the nineties, reminds the beginnings of Korn and Slipknot, "old-school nu-metal" if I dare say, even also a bit of Prodigy (the jungle/big beat loops). Kind of stuff I was listening too before moving on to death/black/grind. Maybe because of that I enjoy this EP. Like everything nu-metal related it's bordering "bad taste" but he's doing it right. Let's say it's a good "guilty pleasure". 

The BC page.

 

Nat Birchall - Sounds Almighty (2018)

Here's something a lot more relaxed that your usual Blasting Days music. Nat Birchall is a dub/spiritual jazz sax player from the UK and Sounds Almighty is an album released in 2018 of best quality instrumental analogic dub (with a more live sound than on the new album Nat Birchall did with Al Breadwinner, which is more digital dub with sax part over it, another very good dub album and I enjoy it, but prefer Sounds Almighty). Sounds Almighty is probably the best dub album I heard for the last few years. Great stuff.

The Bandcamp page.

Endless Swarm - Imprisoned in Skin (2018)

Imprisoned In Skin is the fourth album from the Scottish band Endless Swarm. I'll be as straight to the point as their music is : this is excellent powerviolence/fastcore/grind. If you're into this kind of stuff you will like it, because it's good.

The BC page.

Beton / Roxor - Split LP (2018)

This is a split (released lats year) from two bands from Slovakia, playing what could be called death'n'roll or dis-entombed. Beton (I reviewed their first album a few years ago HERE) are more on the old school Swedish death metal side whereas Roxor have a stronger Mororhead/Discharge feel but both bands sits where cruties and old school metalheads meets, and both speaks fluently that language. Cool stuff.

The Beton side

The Roxor side

Lovely Wife | Snakes Don't Belong in Alaska - split (2018)

Newcastle is maybe UK's capital of psychedelic heavy rock and this split between Lovely Wife and Snakes Don't Belong in Alaska is another proof. On their track LW are more on a drone/noise exploration whereas SDBIA on their two tracks are a bit more melodic (for the guitars and the vocals) and dynamic. Both are deep in the heavy psych stoner sound and takes you on a nice trip. Good stuff.

The Bandcamp page.

meth. - I Love You (2018)

I Love You is the second short release from this Chicago sextet called meth. They play some relentless, super intense and a bit chaotic hardcore, with a bit of noise added (many bands are doing that nowadays but that's not a bad thing). It sound like somewhere between Converge and Gaza.  It's good but only five short tracks, a longer release would be welcome now!

The BC page. 

Ulthar - Cosmovore (2018)

Cosmovore, released last yera by 20 Buck Spin is Ulthar's first album the band from California (featuring Vastum guitarist) delivers a death metal firmly rooted in the old school but with also a weirdness that remind sme Voivod, fitting well the lovecraftian inspiration. I you like OSDM but want something different this album will be a good pick. I would have liked a stronger dose of bizarre, but it's good like it is anyway.

The Bandcamp page.

Puce Mary - The Drought (2018

The Drought, released last year by Puce Mary (Frederikke Hoffmeier from Denmark) is an excellent industrial/power electronics album, with subtle melodies and spoken words to create a feel of unease and mystery. Really good stuff.

The Bandcamp page.

Bea$ters - Intrinsically Worthless (2018)

Bea$ters is a band from the US East coast, playing what we can call technical grind, Intrinsically Worthless, released last year is their second album (first one was good as well) and it's 10 minutes of high intensity technical grind but it's surpsisingly catchy. Really good stuff.

The BC page.

Putrefaction - Slavery Code (2018)

From the cover art of Slavery Code and the Russian nationality of he trio of musicians who form Putrefaction you'd expect some slamming death metal, there's a slight bit of that, but actually it sounds a lot more influenced by Dying Fetus. Slavery Code is a really good first album, filled with heavy and groovy catchy death metal songs, I enjoy it.

The Bandcamp page.

Alkaloid - Liquid Anatomy (2018)

I really should have paid more attention to this album because I now think it's one of the best metal albums released last year. The second album from Alkaloid (with guys that were in Obscura and many other bands), Liquid Anatomy is a masterpiece in progressive and technical death metal, with clean melodic vocals and more traditionnal death metal vocals, but often sounding really death metal, even often strongly reminding Morbid Angel. It can obviously appeal to afficionados of tech/prog death metal but also to anyone into extreme metal and open minded enough. There's virtuosity but it's more about excellent death metal songs.
Highly recommended stuff.

The Bandcamp page.

Fukpig - Bastards (2018)

Bastards is another album form Fukpig where they do their usual stuff and that's completely fine since they do it well (and were among the firsts to do it, before it became more common) : a relentless mix of D-beat hardcore punk and black metal. The song "Déteste" with french vocals is the innovation on the album (and it's good). Cool stuff.

The BC page.

Circle of Ouroborus - Vangin Laulu (2018)

Usually the Circle of Ouroborus have a classy cover art, I don't know what happened with this one for Vangin Laulu, released last year... Anyway, what matters is that the music is as good as usual in this album with the "classic" Circle of Ouroborus sound (not an album with many folk/acoustic parts) with the melancholic atmosphere and a mix of black metal, shoegaze and post-punk/new-wave (think The Cure at his gloomiest). As usual it is finely crafted and works very well. Another excellent album from Circle of Ouroborus.

The Body & Uniform - Mental Wounds Not Healing (2018)

The Body already took part in a few collaborative album, and Uniform is another band among the few best recent industrial metal band, so them doing a collaborative album, Mental Wounds Not Healing, released last year with Sacred Bones records, was no big surprise. The mix of the two bands really works well producing cohesive songs while the identity of both bands are kept. As could be expected this is an excellent industrial metal album. Actually it should have been in my list of best albums from 2018.

The BC page.

Mythic Sunship - Another Shape of Psychedelic Music (2018)

Another Shape of Psychedelic Music is the second album Danish psych rockers Mythic Sunship released in 2018 (with El Paraiso, a cool psych rock label) Even more than Upheaval it leaves the Black Sab' riffing inspired parts (we got more than enough of that so that's fine for me) for more psychedelic explorations and ventures into spiritual jazz territory (sax included), and to be more specific late Coltrane inspired stuff. And the trip is a good one. Their three previous albums are also worthy of your time, but maybe this one's the most interesting.

Meth Leppard / Deterioration - split 7'' (2018)

I knew the Australian grind band Meth Leppard since their demo in 2015 and I like their old school Napalm Death inspired grind, I'm discovering Deterioration thanks to this split, a grind band from the US, also on the old school spectrum of grind, and I like what they do as well. A very good split of pure grind done right. 

The Meth Leppard side on BC

The Deterioration side on BC