NEW MUSIC OUT TODAY: 5/06/2008

Executive Editor Brandon Geist’s quick takes on the new albums hitting record stores on this day of our lord, May 6, 2008:





B’S PICK: Spark Is a Diamond - Try This On for Size (Pluto)
This is some crazy shit from former members of the grrl-fronted hardcore/grind band Fall River—dancey electro garage rawk with female death-metal vox. Think Death From Above 1979 with Angela Gossow at the mic. So ridiculous, it’s kinda awesome.

Greeley Estates - Go West Young Man, Let the Evil Go East (Science)




Third full-length of post-hardcore/screamo/metal/whatever the hell you wanna call it from this hard-touring, hard-hitting Pheonix, Arizona–based quintet. I dig the Ralph Steadman–esque album art.

Hereafter an Odyssey - Human Is As Human Does (Tribunal)




Proggy death metal from Georgia. Not great, but not bad. A solid “eh.” Three-fifths of the band recently quit though, so if you like what you hear on their MySpace page and you play guitar, or bass, or, preferably, both at the same time, drop these guys a line.

I Shalt Become - Requiem (Moribund)



Super lo-fi, slow-mo, and miserable Burzumic black metal from Illinois, of all places. A blaze over the Midwestern sky perhaps?

Kayo Dot - Blue Lambency Downard (Hydra Head)




Cello, bells, violin, viola, clarinet—all these instruments and more appear in Kayo Dot’s weird, sprawling neo-classical/experimental-metal psychedeli-epics, and honestly, I find it all pretty much unlistenable. Maybe I need more electric Kool-Aid.

Scott Kelly - The Wake (Neurot)



I fucking love Neurosis. Probably my favorite band ever. Them, or Pantera. But I’ve never been able to get into the various solo albums from frontmen Steve Von Till and Scott Kelly. This, Kelly’s latest, features just him, his gravelly voice, and his acoustic guitar, and it’s just so slow, so minimalist, and so, well, boring, that I don’t see why I’d put myself through it when I could be blowing my mind all over again with Through Silver in Blood, Enemy of the Sun, Times of Grace, or Given to the Rising instead.

Nastrond - Muspellz Synir (Moribund)
According to good ol’ Wikipedia, “in Norse mythology, Náströnd (Corpse Shore) is a place in Hel where Níðhöggr lives and sucks corpses.” I don’t know who the fuck Níðhöggr is, but I know what I’m calling my one-man black-metal band whenever I move back into my parent’s house (the basement is mine!) and need to get out my overwhelming hatred for un-corpse-painted humanity. In the meantime, the latest from these Swedish wannabe-church-burners should do the trick.

Nine Inch Nails - The Slip (The Null Corporation)



Yeah, I know, this came out yesterday and it’s actually not in stores. But if it weren’t for those technicalities, this would probably be my pick today ’cause it kinda rules. The first real song on the album, “1,000,000,” in particular, is one of the most rockin’ NIN tunes in years. I’ve been listening to it over and over again. This all said, probably no need to make this my pick anyway, since you guys all have this thing already—since it’s fucking free!!! Thanks Trent, you rule.

Russian Circles - Station (Suicide Squeeze)
Sweet, slow-building instrumental metal for all you waiting for Pelican to put out a good album again after the last couple of snore-fests.