Best Albums Releasing This Week (09/01/2023)
NOTE: Today is Bandcamp Friday. For 24 hours, bandcamp waives the percentage they normally charge on artists' sales. No matter when the albums release- today is the perfect day to buy some music and merch from artists you want to support. Consider even tossing a couple of bucks on any name-your-price downloads you might have been looking to buy. That's still far more money than they'll make from you on streaming services.
A bit of a light week for me, though this may be updated if I find more that I missed. Some good stuff though. Onto the music:
Everything Is Alive - Slowdive
bc / a.l
Longstanding UK synthy-shoegaze band's first record in six years. Dreamy as expected but with some synths to give a bit of edge to cut through the wash of guitars.
Imperial Crystalline Entombment - Ancient Glacial Resurgence
bc / a.l
Frigid black metal by I.C.E. - A bit of tongue-in-cheek cheesiness when it comes to the aesthetic and lyrical content, but in a way that's enjoyable IMO. Doesn't come across as strained or overdone- it's still an absolute blast (pun intended) of black metal goodness.
Weald & Woe - For The Good Of The Realm
bc / a.l
Great castle/medieval black metal. FFO Obsequiae. Lovely harmonized guitarwork. Huge aesthetic upgrade visually, though their bandcamp and merch still have plenty instances of their old logo, which left a lot to be desired. Don't let some aesthetic missteps in the past fool you. This is top quality stuff.
Gendo Ikari - Rokubungi
bc / a.l
Grindcore(?) from the UK. Some definite avant-garde influence. Plenty of other genres can be heard here. Extremely varied sounds on this. From typical grind vocals and tempos, to slower breakdown parts and some lower-register growls and even nearly-pig-squeal moments- but all in the proper amounts. Guitar sounds are all over the place too. Nothing stays in place for long at all! This isn't boring one-note grind- this will keep your attention.