As America’s reopening progresses, yesterday my work place re-started the in-office, in-person Friday afternoon happy hour event that had been a weekly mainstay for decades… even though our workplace is still officially closed to the public and employees are not required to be there, but permitted to be there if they’re fully vaccinated. Some people have taken advantage of that permission, for various reasons. But even people who haven’t chosen to do that showed up for the happy hour party late yesterday. We miss each other, and we have missed this alcohol-fueled tradition.
I wasted no time in getting hammered, and didn’t make it back home until close to 11 p.m. I don’t feel terrible this morning, just a bit groggier than usual, but I did sleep in. So I’m late in getting to this roundup, with almost no time to do the usual searching around for new music to recommend. Fortunately, my NCS co-conspirator DGR did that for me. He recommended everything I’ve collected here, except for the first item, which I knew I wanted to feature anyway, and he knew I was already aware of it.
Because I’m so late getting this thing together, I’m again (mostly) dispensing with my usual commentary, links, and artwork. In a couple of instances I’ve included what DGR wrote in recommending the thing, and I did identify for you the record that’s the source of each song, plus the release info. As it happens, all of these selections arrived with videos.
BEYOND GRACE (UK)
“Hive Mind” is off the new album from Beyond Grace. Entitled Our Kingdom Undone, and featuring cover art by UK artist Shindy Reehal, it’s set for release by Prosthetic on September 3rd. As you probably know, the band’s vocalist/lyricist is our own Andy Synn.
CARCASS
The next song, “Kelly’s Meat Emporium“, comes from a new Carcass album named Torn Arteries, which Nuclear Blast will release on September 17th. The press release says each song on the album is different from the others. Jeff Walker calls this one “a real meat and potatoes track for the album”, whose original working title was “Stock Carcass”. 🙂
AT THE GATES
Staying with big names, here’s a new At the Gates track, which is from their new album The Nightmare of Being – set for a July 2 release by Century Media.
VOICES
“An Audience of Mannequins” is a new Voices single that’s being released on July 30 by Church Road Records, along with a pair of brand new B-sides, “Hostile Confrontations” and “A Comfortable Distance”. Voices are donating all profits to Dementia UK. They write: “We have had loved ones befallen to this tragic disease and know the power of its effect on the individual but also on those who surround them.”
DGR wrote: “Surprisingly different from what I’ve known them for prior – which is mostly the London and Frightened albums, less familiar with their debut”.
CARNIFEX
“Pray For Peace” is a new single out now via Nuclear Blast. DGR mentioned that, according to a report he had seen, “Mick Kenney helped with Production/Mix/Mastering on this, further showing how much that dude is like an ever-present shadow figure in the so-cal -core scene”.
WHITE STONES
Yesterday Nuclear Blast also announced a new album by White Stones, the death metal project of Opeth bassist Martin Mendez. Bearing the name Dancing Into Oblivion, it’s set for release on August 27th. The song below, “Chain Of Command“, was reportedly influenced by John Coltrane and Wilbur Harden.
DGR wrote me about the song: “White Stones actually doing a followup and the lead single comes off oddly more immediately approachable than the previous disc. Still full of the slithering rhythm/riffs that made up that first release, likely expect this thing to be as slippery and amorphous as the first disc. Listen to that bass go”.