thrill jockey

Album Review: BIG|BRAVE — “nature morte”

IanLeave a comment
Big Brave - nature morte

It should be no secret here that we have all been eagerly awaiting nature morte.  BIG|BRAVE is a band that fits into the nebulous space between metal and experimental, between crushingly heavy and ethereally light in a way that few of their peers manage to navigate successfully.  There seems to be no stopping their wild and creative tear they’ve been on, especially 2021’s double whammy of Vital and their collaboration with fellow game-changers The Body, it’s been a long time coming for their follow-up, but a lot has also happened, personally and globally, that has shaped nature morte into being.

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Initial Descent: February 19 – 25, 2023

JoshLeave a comment
Bodyfarm
Bodyfarm – image courtesy of Stefan Schipper

Just like the redneck uncle that always crashes every family get together drunk and full of piss and venom (we all love this uncle, and you know it), we’re back with another rowdy bunch of new metal albums. This week we’ve got death metal debauchery from Bodyfarm, entrancing melodic death from Insomnium, goreific death from FesterDecay, and some experimental heavy from Big|Brave. As usual though, there’s way more in the list below that will tickle nearly every fancy out there so get to digging and we’ll see you here throughout the week.

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CANTO: Enemy Eyes, Megadeth, Ofdrykkja, and More

CoreyLeave a comment

Feeling better, tomorrow is Friday, and there are horror movies in my future. I’ll take it!

“Ein Bier… bitte.”
– cmb

CANTO: Ingested, The Offering, At The Gates, and More

CoreyLeave a comment

I’m drafting this in the middle of the afternoon, while contemplating a beer. Not great.

  • We’ll lead off with The Offering, who dropped a new track titled “Flower Children”. The lyric video for that one is available here. Their sophomore album, titled Seeing the Elephant, is set for a November 4th release through Century Media.
  • Liturgy has announced a new album as well, but we’ll have to wait until March 23rd for that one. 93696 will be out through Thrill Jockey, and you can listen to the title-track right here. They’ve also got some upcoming tour dates if that interests you.
  • At The Gates have announced the return of founding member and guitarist Anders Björler. This announcement falls about a month ahead of their upcoming European tour with In Flames, Imminence, and Orbit Culture.
  • From there, we’ve got a new video from Anti-Flag for “Modern Meta Medicine”, which features Jesse Leach (Killswitch Engage). Lies They Tell Our Children is out on January 6th via Spinefarm.
  • Let’s close out the day with a new video from Ingested. The clip below is for “From Hollow Words”, which features Sven de Caluwé of Aborted. That’s taken from Ashes Lie Still, set for a November 4th release through Metal Blade.

“Ein Bier… bitte.”
– cmb

Initial Descent: September 26 – October 2, 2021

JoshLeave a comment
Bummer

Did you find a ton of metal from last week that still has you reeling? I, for one, certainly did and between all the new release lists out there, Bandcamp, unknown, and surprise releases, if you didn’t find something I’d be shocked. And here we are with another new week and another new list of releases to sink your teeth into, as we do. This week we’ve got Bummer who continue to harsh your mellow with grueling sounds, Full of Hell return with another deathgrind beast, Xenosis successfully tick off all the tech death boxes, Enslaved are back with an EP that dives deeper and deeper into their progressive black metal, and, as always, there’s a ton more lying in wait below. So, another stacked week here on Initial Descent that’ll have everyone walking away with something. Enjoy.

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