New Music Friday

[meahtenoha]

Hey folks! This thread is a home for talking about new music releases you love  every Friday. 

If you'd like to take a look at what Indie Albums our Community Rock Star @Soundofus recommends each week, check out his blog here: New Indie Albums worth a listen. 

[user-removed]

Artist: Katatonia
Release: The Fall of Hearts
Year: May 20th, 2016
Labels: Peaceville Records ltd.

Style of Music: Dark progressive rock/metal
Origins: Stockholm, Sweden

Another rather moody and atmospheric release by the band members, a new lineup change is featured on this release, and I think a few very surprises here as far as the music direction. Has a kind of a Cure - dark New Wave feel, and I keep getting hints of A Perfect Circle here with this release for some reason, but it is done in a good way without copying or ripping off the style APC is known for. This new release is well worth a few listens.

Lineup for the release:

• Jonas Renkse – vocals, guitar, keyboards, production
• Anders Nyström – lead guitar, keyboards, backing vocals, production
• Roger Öjersson – guitar
• Niklas Sandin – bass guitar
• Daniel Moilanen – drums

[FunkishAudio]

Awesome new Brazilian music with a Jamaican Dub vibe...

https://open.spotify.com/album/4hiZpRL8gEET3jmjnaeBa8

[user-removed]

Artist: Death Angel
Release: The Evil Divide
Year: May 27th, 2016
Labels: Nuclear Blast
Style of Music: Thrash Metal
Origins: San Franciso Bay Area, CA, U.S.

This release is slighlty different from previous releases. This release has a much more polished sound, and fits right up with Anthrax, Megadeth, and Slayer's new releases. Has the necessary hard elements that the release needs, and also some nice power metal influences on some tracks. Looking to be a great Summer already with some of classic old Thrash Metal bands out on the road. This release is worth a few listens, there does not seem to be any lineup changes on this release, same band members as on the last two studio releases previously.

[user-removed]

Artist: Conan
Release: Revengence
Year: Jan 29th, 2016
Labels: Napalm Records Handels GmbH
Style of Music: Stone/Doom Metal, with a heavy influence of sludge metal.
Origins: Liverpool, North West England, U.K.

Well I am a bit late for this release as it was released very early in 2016, I just got around to this artist this past weekend, and noticed a new release for 2016. Some really nice stoner/doom/sludge metal here, very heavy sounding throughout the recording. Well worth a few listens to this release.

[user-removed]

Artist: SiXX:A.M.
Release: Prayers for the Damned - Vol.1
Year: April 29th, 2016
Labels: Eleven Seven Music
Style of Music: Hard rock, alternative metal
Origins: L.A. California, U.S.

This release has been highlighted by @Soundofus on the community blog. I only got to this release today, all the songs are top notch and the music is on form and well developed, and the sound is focused back to around the hard rock direction music listeners of the band have been most familiar with. Well worth some listening time. Nice to see Sixx into another music project after the collapsing of Brides of Destruction, and also the coming of the end of Crüe.

[user-removed]

Artist: Candlemass
Release: Death Thy Lover E.P.
Year: June 3rd, 2016
Labels: Napalm Records
Style of Music: Doom Metal
Origins: Stockholm, Sweden

Some really nice and heavy doom in these four tracks here. Not sure if content will be released like this in the future, as last word and information was that the band was not going to do any more full album releases.

Lineup for this release:

Leif Edling	Bass
Mats Levén	Vocals
Mats Björkman	Guitars (rhythm)
Jan Lindh	Drums
Lars Johansson	Guitars (lead)

[user-removed]

Artist: Dark Funeral
Release: Where Shadows Forever Reign
Year: June 3rd, 2016
Labels: Century Media Records
Style of Music: Black Metal
Origins: Stockholm, Sweden

Like other releases by Dark Funderal they have a kind of set recipe for what they do. And this release is rather good for the rigid line the band holds within the Black Metal music sphere that is. So if you like Black Metal this release is worth your time with a few listens.

[user-removed]

Artist: HELLYEAH
Release: UNDEN!ABLE
Year: June 3rd, 2016
Labels: Eleven Seven Music
Style of Music: Heavy metal, groove metal, hard rock
Origins: Dallas, Texas, U.S.

HELLYEAH has always been a band that mixes together a few styles of metal and hard rock music, and which tends for the band to get either such great praise or intense ridicule for ripping off Pantera as a bad rip off band. Get over it people Pantera is done and gone forever now. People carry music on their sleeves like some sort of badge of honor, and this makes it impossible to actually get beyond their own bias views towards the music to make an honest approach of new musical forms. I am through my third listen to this new release, and it rocks from beginning to end. The band does a very interesting cover of the famous classic Phil Collins song I Don't Care Anymore. The song Love Falls is an interesting twist on the bands angst driven direction, and has a rather interesting music sound and direction. If you are someone who has ever saw HELLYEAH live, knows this band kicks the A$$ of most trend setter "metal" bands any day of the week. This release is well worth a few listens. All that can be said now is HELLYEAH!.

Lineup for the release:

• Chad Gray – vocals
• Tom Maxwell – guitar
• Christian Brady - guitar
• Kyle Sanders – bass
• Vinnie Paul – drums

[user-removed]

Artist: Melvins
Release: Basses Loaded
Year: June 3rd, 2016
Labels: Ipecac Recordings
Style of Music: Stoner rock / alternative rock / experimental rock
Origins: Montesano, Washington, U.S.

Well the Melvins are here again, and the band always does something slightly different. This time around they enlisted all the bass players that have played in or with the band in the last decade, and each bass player is feature on at least one track. The band does a cover song version of Benny Bell's Shaving Cream in only the Melvins fashion possible. The basses loaded is of course Melvins word play to hint at multiple bass guitar players on this release, and also to hint at a Melvins cover version song of Take Me Out To The Ball Game. This release like all Melvins releases gets better with each listen, and then the release kind of melts into something familiar that one had always known the Melvins would do anyway. This release is well worth a few listens, some nice fuzzy laid back stoner rock built throughout the tracks.

Lineup and which bass players played on which tracks:

• King Buzzo – guitar & vocals
• Dale Crover – drums & vocals (1, 2, 4–6, 8–10), bass (3, 7, 11, 12)
• Steven McDonald – bass & vocals (1, 4, 6, 9)
• Jared Warren – bass & vocals (2)
• Coady Willis – drums & vocals (2)
• Mike Dillard – drums & vocals (3, 7, 11, 12)
• Jeff Pinkus – bass (5)
• Trevor Dunn – bass (8)
• Krist Novoselic – bass & accordion (10)

[user-removed]

Artist: Omen - U.S. band from the early 80's
Release: Hammer Damage
Year: May 31st, 2016
Labels: DSN Music
Style of Music: Technical Power Metal
Origins: L.A. California, U.S.

This is the U.S. power metal band Omen with two original members from an early 1980's incarnation of the band Savage Grace from the same music scene of L.A. Steve Wittig and Kenny Powell and now the only two original members of Omen currently. Anyway onto the release, this is not a commercial polished release, but it seems to feel as this is a home studio release effort. The music has plenty of technical guitar work with harmony, lead break offs and other guitar work within the style of power metal music that most power metal music listeners will be familiar of the music style. I think the lead guitar work is just a tab bit high in volume versus the overall mix of the other instrument work, and so naturally one needs to turn it up to get a good blend of the mix here of the release and get to the natural power metal riffing going on behind most of the lead guitar work. This is worth a few listens for music fans of power metal that is not to over the top but much more technical minded in the guitar work.

Lineup for this release:

Steve Wittig

Drums (1983-1987, 2012-present)

Kenny Powell

Guitars (1983-1988, 1996-present)

Andy Haas

Bass (1996-2005, 2009-present)

Kevin Goocher

Vocals (1998-2009, 2014-present)

[user-removed]

Artist: Volbeat
Release: Seal The Deal & Let's Boogie
Year: June 3rd, 2016
Labels: Vertigo/Capitol and Universal Music GmbH

Style of Music: Heavy/groove metal, and hard rock 
Origins: Copenhagen, Denmark

This release has been highlighted on the community blog by @Soundofus, but it is sooo good it is worth mentioning here too. 🙂 Very solid release here, and I did have my nervous reservations and feelings this new release might fall slightly short from previous work, but the band members pushed themselves a tab bit further here. Some really nice folky music blended together here with some tracks with the metal/hard rock sound the band is known for. Well worth several repeat listens and then some.

[user-removed]

Artist: The Rolling Stones
Release: Totally Stripped (Live)
Year: June 2rd, 2016
Labels: Promotone BV, and Eagle Rock Entertainment
Style of Music: Rock, blues rock
Origins: London, England

This release seems to be an expanded and revamped version of Stripped from 1995 under Virgin Records, not too many song repeats or at least songs taken from a different dates and venues on this release than the previous version from 1995.

[user-removed]

Artist: White Zombie
Release: It Came From N.Y.C. 3 CD Box Set
Year: June 3rd, 2016
Labels: Numero Group
Style of Music: Noise Rock, Garage rock
Origins: N.Y.C, New York, U.S.

This is a collection of early rare material from the Zombie active years "It collects all the material the group officially released between 1985 and 1989, including previously unreleased tracks from 1986." This is the very early experimental sound of White Zombie when the Noise music scene was heavily influenced by Hardcore punk, and which some punk early 80's punk bands migrated to when the punk music scene became to crowded with copy bands. Really interesting sound here and one can catch glimpses of punk, and the early influences here that would break out with the grunge and alternative rock/metal scenes as well. As one goes from the early released content and up to just before La Sexorcisto one can hear the more famous Zombie sound starting to bloom here.

Wiki page information about the release for those interested in detail https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Came_From_N.Y.C., just the old early collection of band photos and extensive biography included of the box set release is enough maybe to consider picking this up in physical form.

I went ahead and double checked Spotify listening region availability, as some Spotify users are upset the previous box set Let Sleeping Corpses Lie was limited to certain listening regions only. This box set release is available to these listenging regions currently: AR AU AT BE BO BR BG CA CL CO CR CY CZ DK DO DE EC EE SV FI FR GR GT HN HK HU IS IE IT LV LT LU MY MT MX NL NZ NI NO PA PY PE PH PL PT SG SK ES SE CH TW TR UY US GB AD LI MC ID

At least for those interested in the early days of White Zombie's beginnings that is. 🙂

[user-removed]

Artist: Otep
Release: Generation Doom (Deluxe Edition)
Year: April 15th, 2016
Labels: Napalm Records Handels GmbH
Style of Music: Alternative metal, gothic metal, and extreme metal
Origins: L.A. California, U.S.

A very solid release, a much more stronger metal feel here with some touches of alternative metal influences thrown in here and there, but overall a much more of an extreme metal release. I just got around to this release this week after some of the new tracks showing up in my Discover Weekly playlist, and of course I spent some time getting re-familiar with Otep's past work and releases this week as well. This release is worth a few solid listens. Two versions of this release are available the standard 15 track version that includes three bonus tracks, and also a Deluxe Edition version with 17 tracks with two extra additional bonus tracks. 

15 track version:

17 track Deluxe Edition version:

[ximenaavila]

Can never get it wrong with CHVRCHES ❤️ Sleigh Bells also slays 

[FunkishAudio]

It's Saturday now, but I just heard this new Aaron Neville song. I think it's his best ever. It's a fantastic mix of car chase Funk + his super soulful vocals.

I just got my Spotify notifications bell back, and was stoked to see/hear this at the top...

https://open.spotify.com/track/4qDg0AABs0g5ey2tr3VdUr

[TimothyNiland]

Volumes II, III & IV of Van Morrison's It's Too Late To Stop Now and The Atlantic Recordings in Mono by John Coltrane made this a superior Friday as far as historical new releases go. The original It's Too Late to Stop Now was a peerless cherry-picked double-live LP from 1973 and this adds three previously unreleased concerts from the same period with Van Morrison and a 13 piece band ripping through his tunes plus a bunch of R&B standards. The John Coltrane records are from 1959-60, peerless records like Giant Steps, My Favorite Things, etc. I'll have to listen more closely to really discern the difference between the mono versions and the stereo versions I'm familiar with. On first blush I can tell you that the bass is much more promient. Also the Beach Boys Pet Sounds 50th boxed set is avaialble, but I'm bot really mucha of a fan.

[user-removed]

Artist: October Tide
Release: Winged Waltz
Year: April 22nd, 2016
Labels: Agonia Records
Style of Music: Doom/melodic death metal
Origins: Stockholm, Sweden

I just got around to this band which contains now two x members from the more famous band Katatonia. The release was made available back in late April of this year, the music output on this release is just fantastic, although there is the typical death metal growl throughout the release, the music is some really interesting mixes of metal influences, doom, melodic metal, and even some slight hints of gothic metal as well. This release would sit well with music listeners who enjoy doom/melodic/gothic metal styles. This band basically started out as a side project from other Katatonia members in the beginning, but ended up in the early releases covering some of the same ground musically, when Katatonia moved into the gothic dark progressive music sound and away from the death metal influences, this band picked back up again to continue moving in the direction of where it has left off. This release is like early Katatonia in some ways but a much darker moodier direction in sound and lyrical content. This release is well worth repeat listens. Just wish the release A Thin Shell by the band was available too on the Spotify artist page, can only get to it from Youtube.

Line up for this release:

Alexander Högbom	Vocals
Fredrik "North" Norrman	Guitars
Emil Alstermark	Guitars
Mattias "Kryptan" Norrman	Bass
Jocke Wallgren	Drums

[user-removed]

Artist: The Wretched End
Release: In These Woods, From These Mountains
Year: April 22nd, 2016
Labels: Indie Recordings
Style of Music: Melodic black/folk metal
Origins: Notodden, Norway

I have just gotten around to this artist, after several of the band's tracks ended up in my Discover Weekly, and I decided to check out the rest of the band's content, I realized they had a new release for April, 2016.

This release has a much more Black Metal direction, the vocals are not the screechy kind, nor are they more common with Death Metal growl but a more rougher sounding extreme metal vocal direction. Very well done and crafted melodic black metal here, with hints of folk metal scattered throughout the tracks, the closing track Dewy Fields highlights the folk metal music direction so well. This release is worth repeat listens for folk metal/black metal listeners.

[Korovay]

Release Date June 10, 2016

Notes

Having already penned hits for superstars, Bellion takes a major solo turn. The Human Condition is an alternately beautiful and banging set of pure, modern pop that finds the Long Island singer/songwriter (and author of Eminem and Rihanna’s “Monster”) tackling heady subject matter in relatable terms. He channels the soothing bedside manner of Ben Gibbard on the velvety, hip-hop-informed soft-rock of “80’s Film,” and enlists the same choir that backed MJ on 1987’s “Man in the Mirror” for “Hand of God”—an ethereal, gospel-pop finale that detonates like fireworks in space.

https://open.spotify.com/album/2jJReDZqTuAxr4R0ItimZc