*** EXCRUCIS exclusive song premiere ***

EXCRUCIS

"One Must Make A Living"
exclusive song premiere

For fans of: Blind Girls, Dianacrawls, I Hate Sex, These Arms Are Snakes, and Oathbreaker

Bandcamp

orders open June 30th, 2023 at 9am PST

     Born from the ashes of Chicago bands such as Nouveau and Not For You, EXCRUCIS sent me their demo recordings a few months back and I was stoked. After hearing the masters and gettin' these tapes ordered for Tomb Tree I became ecstatic. Ecstatic for Excucis? Yep. This four-piece plays simultaneously destructive and dancey hardcore/screamo (not unlike Dianacrawls) with a lot of variety and jarring transitions (not unlike These Arms Are Snakes). Their 9-song, self-titled album comes out on June 30th via Tomb Tree and it's fucking great. You can jam the opener below...and what an opener!!!

(2023) EXCRUCIS "One Must Make A Living" (from 'Excrucis')

https://youtu.be/TmNpE9e_xd8

     Clocking in at 1:28, "One Must Make A Living" wastes little-to-no time in capturing the listener's attention in the way jarring thunder is both terrifying and wonderful. Feedback leads into a bass wallop and Linda's incredible shrieking. So, after seeing Linda in Not For You I knew they'd be a sick screamo vocalist...but holy shit did they seriously exceed my expectations! The wild, torn cries flip between ear-shattering screams and sassy spoken word with some slight crooning. There's also very cool guitar progressions and the drums are fucking commanding, and that doesn't just go for this track, the entire EP sounds like this. June 30th, baby!!!

ADDITIONAL LINKS & WHATNOT

Not For You playing in Hamilton 2016

https://youtu.be/PKXVtG_lhII

Nouveau playing in Hamilton 2016

https://youtu.be/qZ1JlzjQync

*** PODCAST #115 Olth ***

     As soon as I heard the upcoming OLTH album 'Every Day is Someone's Special Day' I knew it was something special. And with repeat listens came an even further appreciation for the absolute chaos and visceral bombshell that is their sound. After jumping at the chance to release their debut on cassette, I asked Danny (guitar) and Sean (vocals/lyrics) to have a chat with me. We discussed their upcoming release on June 1st, 2023 via Zegema Beach Records as well as: the best and worst of The Grateful Dead, getting into screamo, the Loma Prieta legacy, the poppiest of screamy bands, lyrical themes for 'Every Day is Someone's Special Day', the band's favourite OLTH songs, hearing Elliot Smith for the first time, better than Alexisonfire, new OLTH, collaborative music and breaking out of habits,  etc. Bands played in this podcast: Elliot Smith, In Reverent Fear, Infester, Loma Prieta, Senses Fail, and Stuntman. Listen to podcast #115 which is available to stream and/or download for free via this link.

OLTH

music video for "screamO sucks"

1 Birthing Screamo at the Grateful Dead Show

INFESTER "Darkness Unveiled" (Sean)

STUNTMAN "The Scourge" (Dave)

2 Olth Chisels a Statue

LOMA PRIETA "David Fung" (Danny)

SENSES FAIL "Bite to Break Skin" (Sean)

3 What the Hell are Those Vocals?

ELLIOT SMITH "Tomorrow Tomorrow" (Danny)

IN REVERENT FEAR "Bright Eyes Under the Blue Night Skies" (Dave)

4 Nolth Lights Everyone On Fire

~ no music

~Dave

live video

____________________________________________________________________

PODCAST #115 linked here

_____________________________________________________________________

*** SICKLE EATER exclusive premiere ***

SICKLE EATER

"When Words Skew A Shattered Frame"
exclusive song premiere

For fans of: Blue Noise, Deafheaven and Life

Bandcamp
Facebook

orders open May 29th, 2023

     I'd never heard of SICKLE EATER until I was sent this 'Coldworld' 3-Way split to release on cassette via Tomb Tree. Regular player My Hair Is A Rat's Nest was the catalyst for this split, and Outside Observer closes out the b-side with a 15+ minute journey. Today's premiere is for the shortest of the songs and clocks in at six-and-change of most excellent screamo/black-metal gold, titled "When Words Skew A Shattered Frame" and performed by the incredible SICKLE EATER, who I am now enamored with and eagerly anticipating more material from. The full release comes out May 29th on 34 cassettes.

(2023) SICKLE EATER "When Words Skew A Shattered Frame" (from 'Coldworld' 3-way split)

https://youtu.be/UxqvyqlU-30

     Following a brief/spooky introduction the songs shifts into blown-out screamo with searing vocals and wonderful guitar leads. At the one-minute mark the song shifts into early Alexisonfire territory with a chuggy, atmospheric, and jarring section is the precursor to more Blue Noise/early Deafheaven black metal/screamo. There's a near-silent break around the four-minute that is not the ending! The song swings back into epic clarity about 20 seconds later and takes on a bit of a post-rock feel that even include some clean vocals. The swirling beauty present in the chaos is absolutely wonderful, and although this is slightly lo-fi it in no way diminishes how awesome it is, as there is lo-fi and shit-fi, and this is the former.