I’m going to make this fairly quick because I’m working on some other things I want to post today, including a second installment of this round-up, before I have to turn to non-blog stuff for the day.

I collected these three new songs, one of which comes from an album that’s already out, partly for nostalgic reasons. Although my own tastes in metal have grown increasingly extreme over the years, melodic death metal and metalcore were my gateways into the heavier corners of metal. Their popularity seems to have waned, or maybe it’s only my taste for them that’s waned. But they’re not dead letters, and I thoroughly enjoyed all the music you’ll find here, for reasons that I think go beyond the rekindling of fond memories.

OSKU KINNUNEN

Finnish musician Osku Kinnunen was once in a UK-based band named Karhu, which no longer exists. He tells me that he had little time to invest in music for some period of time after that band’s dissolution, but eventually began writing and recording songs again. He released an EP in 2016 that I haven’t heard (you can find it here), and is planning to release an album later this year on which he’s doing everything except the drums — guitars, vocals, bass, mixing, etc. An e-mail from him led me to check out the first single from the album, “Beginning“. Continue reading »