here's what i listened to today:
Festral Yong - Haunted Suites [dungeon punk]
Amiture - Mother Engine [trip hop]
Gate/Tomb Warden - split EP [grindcore]
Meadows of Melancholy/The Grand Myth/Morke - Alacrity [black metal/progressive death metal]
Curses - Another Heaven [new beat]
Festral Yong's Haunted Suites is bananas. energetic, lo-fi, abrasive, crunchy, catchy blackened pop punk with touches of dungeon synth. it offends my ears but also kinda slaps? Swampwater Chalice Draught is my fave off this.
Mother Engine goes down a lot easier, evocative industrial-tinged trip hop with beautiful bluesy guitar lines. especially loved Glory, Billy's Dream, & Porte Sosie. driving down a desert road at night kind of vibes.
i've gone off grind a little bit in the past couple years and the Gate side of the split doesn't change my feelings. the Tomb Warden side leans more into deathgrind territory, i might check out their other stuff but i'm not in a huge rush to do so.
the Alacrity split was ok. didn't dig The Grand Myth's tracks at all but the others balanced it out somewhat.
i enjoyed the new Curses album, it's catchy and danceable, bursting with dreamy new wave spangles. the title track is a real banger, Eternal Death and H2SG are great too. maybe everyone else is tired of Peter Hook's shadow but i'm still a sucker for it.
so a small mixed bag for a friday, and that's just fine.
<3