East of Oceans - 121 Years

Not my usual cup of tea, but this is a good, chill album for the post-midnight hours. The internet tells me this belongs to the genre of "drum and bass," whatever that means. It's pretty cool, I like it.

Owen Hart - Earth Control

Is it metallic hardcore? Or hardcorelic metal? Now known as Earth Control since the Owen Hart Foundation made them change their name.

Code Orange Kids - Love Is Love // Return To Dust

Promising hardcore/sludge band finally puts out their first full length.

Leftöver Crack - Mediocre Generica

Wish they would put out another damn record already.

Iskra - Bureval

Blackened crust.

Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra - Paradise Blue

I love ska. This is ska/jazz excellence. Deal with it.

Saåad - Confluences

Last summer, the festival Toulouse d’Été commissioned Saåad to work on the St-Michel fountain, personification of the confluence of the river Ariège and Garonne. Romain Barbot & Greg Buffier took their recording material to this specific place and gave life to a 20 minutes trip divided in 4 movements. Confluences is lead by field recordings and chanting guitars, showing a new face of the french duo who found the balance point between immensity and intimacy.

Violent Action - Death

Grimy, crusty music for grimy, crusty dudes and dudettes.

Chest Pain - s/t 7"

Just some more killer powerviolence.

Jungbluth - s/t tape

Turns out the "hype," such as it is, is well founded on this one. Member(s?) of Alpinist I guess, kinda jangly, kinda epic, vaguely post but still heavy and aggressive punk and hardcore. Named after a German communist and antifascist.

Iron Lung - Sexless//No Sex

Aw yeah mmhmm.

Shining - Redefining Darkness

Primal, bestial black metal this is not. Clean vocals, extended quieter sections, horns, there's a definite gothic element to all this. These guys show off black metal's classier side.

Death Toll 80k - Harsh Realities

This band and record need more love always.

Crusades - The Sun is Down and The Night is Riding In

You might guess that pop punk is not in regular rotation for me, but this here is some catchy and energetic stuff without being too melodic or saccharine.

iamdisease - iamdisease

Crusty, metallic hardcore with a bit of sludge and d-beat for good measure.

Capitalist Casualties - 1996-1999 Years in Ruin

Listen to this instead of voting today.

Young And In The Way - Amen

Something you probably already have, and definitely should if you don't.

Look Back and Laugh - 2nd LP

Pretty much everything you could want from a thrashy punk band.