SOUND BITES

  You can never accuse ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead of chasing trends. Over their now quarter century-plus career the group, spearheaded from the start by childhood friends Conrad Keely and Jason Reece, have explored noise punk, art rock, post-hardcore, prog and a host of other genres, flitting between them on a whim and producing whatever kind of racket suits their insatiable appetites for creation. By times, their sound has lined up with the tastemakers, most famously as raucous acts like At the Drive-In and Alexisonfire were rising to prominence; Trail of Dead's commercial and critical peak coincided with this time period, and there's not much argument against 2002's Source Tags & Codes being their best loved, most popular release. The thing is, that was twenty years ago, and Trail of Dead have become a completely different band over that vast span of time; only Keely and Reece remain from the "classic" lineup, and the band has seen a dozen...

  If you're ready to feel old, it's been twenty years since the release of Turn On the Bright Lights , Interpol's dark and thrilling debut. I can also imagine just how aged the band feels as well, having spent most of the time since that record's arrival under duress from fickle fans and critics who clamor for more of that lightning in a bottle; they were closest to replicating it while it was fresh in their minds on 2004 follow-up Antics but, for better and for worse, the majority of Interpol's discography since have been exercises in slowly distancing themselves from their signature sound. On The Other Side of Make-Believe , their seventh LP, there are no blatant attempts at kowtowing to those hoping for the clock to turn back twenty years, nor any bold steps toward unforeseen territory; instead, we're given a batch of well-written, well-performed, well-produced tunes that fall somewhere in the middle. Longtime mixer Alan Moulder is back along with first-time ...

  If we're judging the impact of bands based on how often they're mentioned here at my blog, you'd be forgiven for assuming I don't pay much mind to black midi; sure, keen-eyed folks with good memories will recall a brief mention in 2019 as I was awarding the band's debut Schlagenheim my personal Album of the Year honours, but 2019 was kind of a spotty year here at the old SB. Worse still, their superb sophomore effort Cavalcade was released just last year, which just so happened to coincide with my year-long vacation from blogging (but, as a refresher, upon my return at year's end I gave that album my #3 spot). In fact, by the time I finish writing this sentence, I will have just about doubled my previous coverage of the band on this blog, and for that I am ashamed. The release of their third album allows me the opportunity to right the wrongs, as it were; for the unfamiliar, black midi burst onto the indie scene with the aforementioned debut which, in additio...

  Quickly following up last year's highly lauded effort Welfare Jazz , Viagra Boys' third album looks to build on the momentum of buzz received from that record while refining the best elements of their sprawling core sound. Cave World starts out with the snarling, groovy Baby Criminal , a thrilling and electric opener that finds Sebastian Murphy (the American born leader of the Swedish group) wrapping his typically unhinged vocal delivery around the story of a person's evolution from a beautiful baby to a dangerous man; this sinister tale plunges the listener deep into the cutting satire of Cave World , an album that sets out to reflect our dark modern times through the fictional exploits of characters who connive, murder, steal and commit all manner of wrongdoings. Troglodyte keeps the manic groove going, calling out the song's science denying gun owner as someone who wouldn't have been accepted by his fellow apes in pre-evolutionary times; it's a humorous ta...

  Metric have always had somewhat of an exploratory element to their music, even as it transitioned from their spiky dance-rock/punk roots into more easily digestible directions. Never exactly shy to stretch a song out or dabble in different sounds, the revered Canadian crew has built their career out of dependably pleasant records that keep fans guessing as to what surprises may be in store. On eighth record Formentera , Metric get their biggest surprise out of the way at the outset; Doomscroller , a thunderous and inventive salvo, is kind of a microcosm for all of what makes Metric great. A thumping, slightly sinister opening builds into a propulsive, noisy dance-rock peak before a sudden, shimmering break in the chaos; the song rebuilds, explodes, and crumbles into a beautiful ballad that turns up the guitars as it reaches its conclusion. This rich, satisfying statement piece takes up ten and a half minutes but doesn't feel overstuffed or misguided in its approach. There's n...

  When The Dillinger Escape Plan shut itself down about five years back, frontman Greg Puciato wasted no time continuing his sonic explorations; having already been a member of metal supergroup Killer Be Killed and electronic outfit The Black Queen, Puciato formed his own record label (Federal Prisoner) in 2018 to ensure an outlet for future material. The Black Queen's second album was released later in the year, followed by a book of poetry in 2019. The next year, Puciato's name would appear on two projects: Reluctant Hero , the excellent second record by Killer Be Killed, and Child Soldier: Creator of God , Puciato's official solo debut. That record was difficult for some to digest, sprawling out well over an hour and incorporating several styles both familiar and unfamiliar for fans; its palette was too wide and its presentation too wild, opening with a gentle, brief acoustic ballad before embarking on a journey that dabbles in electro-noise, Dillinger-like restless math...

  You kind of have to hand it to Shinedown; where most of the bands that would be considered their contemporaries have made embarrassing attempts to keep in step with the times and/or retreated back to the comfort of the post-grunge sameness that was in vogue during the genre's collective heyday, Shinedown have tried to achieve something more. Rather than rehashing those tried and true modern rock radio tropes time and time again, this is a band that's not afraid to push their sound into more ambitious directions without fully letting go of that money-making nostalgia. It's a delicate, near-surgical touch that's required to do this whilst maintaining a certain level of success, and that they've managed to do so for the better part of their career is why I still pay attention to their records (and why I haven't kept up with, say, Breaking Benjamin or Godsmack). However, with seventh album Planet Zero, their ambitions may have exceeded their abilities. On paper, ...