(Denver-based NCS writer Gonzo helps us kick off the New Year with reviews and recommendations of four albums released this month.)
Beyond being miserably cold and generally lacking in the “stuff to do” department, January is customarily the month of pure crap. Big-screen movie releases are usually garbage. Music releases tend to be few and far between, and bands tend to (wisely) avoid touring due to the weather. Nobody wants a broken-down trailer in rural Nebraska at 4 a.m. in subzero temperatures with all your gear stuck in it.
So given all that, I was fully prepared to scrape from the bottom of the barrel for this month’s column. Evidently, this January is built differently.
Not only do I already have almost 60 songs on my best-of-year Spotify playlist, but I had to narrow this column down to just a few bands I wanted to include. Separate reviews of other unexpectedly awesome shit may follow – granted, if my fellow NCS scribes don’t beat me to it. (Which is likely.)
STICK TO YOUR GUNS, KEEP PLANTING FLOWERS
Kicking things off this year is California’s longtime hardcore mainstays. The beloved Stick to Your Guns have been consistently churning out quality albums for almost 20 years, and I’ve got good news for you: Keep Planting Flowers continues the streak.
Clocking in at a hair under 25 minutes with 10 tracks, Keep Planting Flowers wastes exactly zero time fucking around. “Spineless” whips up a frenzy with a bone-crunching riff and instantly memorable (and clearly decipherable) lyrics that practically beg to be sung while waving a fist in the air. “Permanent Death” follows suit and turns up the tempo for a moment before blasting into a vicious wall of sound. Album highlight “Severed Forever” features the occasional soaring chorus that’s downright infectious, and the moody title track is packed with the kind of raw emotion that defines so much of what characterizes hardcore.
If there’s any complaints here, it’s that the album simply whizzes by at warp speed, but that’s all the more reason to give it another spin.
https://sharptonerecords.bandcamp.com/album/keep-planting-flowers
https://www.facebook.com/STYGoc/
ONIROPHAGUS, REVELATIONS FROM THE VOID
Spain’s Onirophagus bring back the glory days of Peaceville, when death-doom was king and everyone else was slightly less sad in comparison.
There’s undoubtedly a heavy dose of early Paradise Lost, Amorphis, and My Dying Bride in the textures that define Onirophagus’ sonic fabric, but they’re not just here for the sake of nostalgia. Revelations from the Void has plenty of moments that dabble in modern-day dissonant death. This is clear at about halfway through the hulking 10-minute opening track “Hollow Valley,” which features plenty of motif changes throughout.
Album highlight “Landsickness” reminds us that this album’s title is a very apt descriptor of the rumbling, bowel-shaking heaviness found within. The song milks one hell of a meaty riff, with vocalist Paingrinder sounding somewhere between a garbage disposal and a sleep paralysis demon. Somehow, that song picks up the tempo to a gallop, and when music this heavy suddenly picks up the pace, the results are gloriously terrifying.
https://onirophagus.bandcamp.com/album/revelations-from-the-void-3
https://www.facebook.com/Onirophagus
GORED EMBRACE, IN THE PRESENCE OF A MALEVOLENT SOUL
I think we’re starting to see the influence of new-school death metal like Undeath more and more. Enter the debut album from Windy City death dealers Gored Embrace as exhibit A.
Filled to the brim with nasty riffage, gut-wrenching vocals, and a mix that’s polished without trying too hard, In the Presence of a Malevolent Soul has all the ingredients to be one of the best death metal records of the month. Tracks like “Cold is the River” will have your head nodding involuntarily to their syncopated brutality. Meanwhile, the aptly named “Organic Severance” chugs along like a gore-splattered battering ram.
The overall sound of Gored Embrace reminds me of Skinless without the tampon lollipops. (Translation, less grind, more death.) It’ll be intriguing to watch this band over the course of the year. In the Presence of a Malevolent Soul is good enough to get the attention of underground knuckle-draggers looking for a new obsession.
https://goredembrace.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-presence-of-a-malevolent-soul
https://www.facebook.com/goredembracedm
MEMBRANE, DEATHLY SILENCE
When it’s done right, the chaotic smattering of sludge and post-hardcore can make one hell of a formidable sound. To France’s Membrane, this is stating the very fucking obvious.
All but unknown on this side of the Atlantic, Membrane have been quietly churning out tough-as-nails sludge since 2003 (!!). Deathly Silence, their seventh full-length, is the kind of album that hits that sweet spot between the same genres that bands like Generation of Vipers and Pillar of Light do so well. Call it post-hardcore, call it atmospheric sludge, call it whatever – it’s slow, menacing, and heavier than a cinder block falling from a high-rise directly onto your head. “Fire and Fear” even pokes at the occasional Cult of Luna influence (but then again, it’s hard to make music like this and not sound like that band every so often), while “The Soft Whispers” is as infectious as it is unsettling.
https://membraneband.bandcamp.com/album/deathly-silence
http://www.facebook.com/pages/membrane/108153705889976
Like what you’ve heard? Follow my best-of-2025 playlist for selections from everything you’ve just read, and a whole helluva lot more.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7zWqE685GVpuB5M3qRDvog?si=08d80939b43e4d89