HYLI Vol. LX - First Quarter Metal Roundup
Q1 is in the books. Here is your recap of metal music.
Patrick is still gone. He’s still being peed on by a new baby. He deserves more piss in his life in general so I think this is good for him. The fun thing about Patrick being gone is I can do literally whatever I want. Nobody can stop me. This week we’re just gonna talk about the best stuff from 2023 (so far). I’m bringing in Patrick’s and my good friend, Spencer, who constantly tells Pat that, “Andy picks the better albums on the newsletter,” so you know his taste is good. Welcome, bud. I know the readership of this newsletter is probably like 90% non-metal to 10% metal but if you would be so inclined as to press play and listen to 30 seconds of one of these songs, I hope you can find something that speaks to you in some sort of way. Enjoy… or don't… I’m not your dad.
EYES - Congratulations!
Does everyone else still feel a little weird about the Every Time I Die breakup? EYES are no ETID but they do scratch that itch a bit. Aggressive vocals (I’m not even going to try and compare lyrics…that is rude), solid riffs - just great overall noise rock / metalcore stuff from the guys in Denmark. Highly recommend it.
Turbid North - The Decline
How many bands do you know from Alaska? Well, you know one now. Turbid North dropped one of the heaviest, sludgiest, doomiest albums of the year so far. Just suffocating stuff. Similar to Gojira when they get going on one of their repetitive riffs with complex drum patterns underneath.
Tactosa - Exit Wounds
I’m not sorry. I love Myspace-era deathcore. As Blood Runs Black, From The Shallows, etc, etc, etc, all find their way into rotation throughout the year. Part of the attachment is from being deeply involved in the early days of the genre through music blogging. Tactosa has that “old school” (can it really be that old school if it was like…12 years ago?) deathcore sound that was so prevalent in the genre’s infancy. These central Florida boys get it.
Hello! My name is Spencer. I’m a longtime reader of HYLI and longtime hater of Pat’s picks. Andy asked me to fill in this week to talk about my favorite metal releases of 2023 thus far. Metal is great, I really love it. I’m listening to metal as I write this! I feel that I missed a really good chunk of great releases in 2022, so I’ve spent this year devoting myself to listening and dissecting as much metal as a single human can. At the time of writing this, I have listened to 160 new metal releases at least once for 2023. The sheer volume is a lot to process, but here are four of my favorites:
Ahab - The Coral Tombs
Ahab are a Germany-based outfit and are considered to be one of the progenitors of Funeral Doom, but they have taken that label a step further by creating what they call “Nautik Doom '' or as I call it “Ocean Doom”. These guys REALLY love the ocean, and they really love creating absolutely crushing music that makes you feel like you are being murdered by a giant squid. The dynamic range on this record is incredible both instrumentally and vocally. The album length initially scared the hell out of me, but it’s so easy to get lost in the ebb and flow of this record. Also, the album art is fantastic which as a reader of this newsletter you know is very important in determining the overall quality of the record (Andy: who can tell us we are wrong).
Dryad - The Abyssal Plain
Keeping with the nautical theme of Ahab, we have a fantastic record released early in the year by Iowa’s Dryad. The first genre description I saw for this band was “party black metal” and that honestly sums it up pretty well. The album is full of caustic and crushing black metal riffage backed by a distinct crust influence. They even threw in some bonus dungeon synth and I gotta tell ya, it fucking rules. The dual vocal performance is really a standout with one vocalist delivering your classic black metal shrieks while the other punishes the listener with demonic guttural growls.
Mithridatum - Harrowing
I hate defining subgenres but my smooth, wrinkleless brain requires me to do so. Mithridatum are technically a dissonant death metal band but also maybe a blackened death metal band. It doesn’t really matter because their debut record Harrowing is incredible. The drumming performance on this record is spectacular and probably my favorite of all the metal releases I’ve heard this year. Angular and intricate riffs meld so well with the rest of the composition and don’t detract from the rest of the performance.
Ulthar - Anthronomicon / Helionomicon
Ulthar is another subgenre fusion clusterfuck but it doesn’t matter how you define them because they put out not one but TWO of the best metal records you will hear all year (perhaps of all time?). Everything about these records is pretty perfect to me. The riffs are dynamic and catchy, the vocal performance is excellent, there are so many blast beats, and the production is crisp and clean but still exhibits an organic sound that I think a lot of bands are incapable of reproducing. This is unequivocally my AOTY at this moment and I think it will be difficult to upend. You probably won’t see album art better than this as well.
Thank you to Andy and Pat for letting me blather about riffs and blast beats this week. Hope you like it!