Grand Sunraven

As we get ready to move into December and start closing in on the end of the year, I wanted to get up one more post for a new release before moving into a bunch of posts for older records that I've recently picked up. Get ready, because we are going back in time for next month.

Ten years ago, or so, Grand Magus were kind of a big deal for me. My friend, Sandwell, introduced me to the band and at the time they took over my life. I could not get enough of that band. I followed them closely over the next six years or so, and rushed to pick up their new records and back catalog. As we moved through the Covid years, I kind of lost interest in them... don't get it twisted, I still loved the band, but they weren't releasing anything new and I started paying attention to other things... and I forgot about them for a bit. Earlier this year, when I heard that they had a new album on the way, it ignited that fire again, and I rushed to preoreder the record. I was so excited that I ordered from the Nuclear Blast European store to make sure that I got my hands on the best vinyl option. The yellow/orange sunburst was limited to 500, and looks as good as I'd hoped.

Man, Sunraven hits exactly as I'd hoped it would. New records from Fu Manchu and The Obsessed have helped reignite my interest in this style of music this year, so when the new Grand Magus album dropped, I was primed and ready. This thing had me hooked from the start. Great traditional metal, and is sure to be one of my favorites of the year.

The Pearls You Clutch

One of the newer bands that tops my list anytime they release a record is Bent Blue. That band just delivers every time, so when I saw that Indecision Records was releasing the bands newest album, you know that I jumped to get my order in.

Dude, this record. Damn. Bent Blue have always played around with that Revolution Summer hardcore sound, and they continue to do that here, but for some reason So Much Seething feels like a more urgent and angry record. I mean, when The Pearls You Clutch kicks in, I just want to rage... dancing and taking down everyone that has the misfortune of being in the kitchen while I'm preparing dinner and listening to this record. That's right, I own the dance floor in this house. This record is so good, and I'm glad that Bent Blue still keep that spark going a few records in.

I don't tend to buy multiple copies of records these days, but when I was in the Indecision store and saw that they only had two colored vinyl options available with the release of So Much Seething, it confused me to see a label being reasonable... and I bought both of them. I don't know what came over me, but it was nice to not see 5 or 6 different options and I was like "oh two? yeah, I can collect two." 150 pressed on purple and 350 pressed on green.

Killing A Camera

As I've mentioned on this blog before, I spent a lot of time earlier this year obsessing over Modest Mouse. There were a few of their albums that I rediscovered and they all hooked me much deeper than they did in the early 2000's. Since Modest Mouse were seeing so much action on my Spotify account, the algorithm started making recommendations for bands that fell into that similar style of music. Cue another discovery of an older band that I didn't truly appreciate the first time around.

Braid were another indie/emo band from the mid to late 90's that I had checked out at the time, but never really connected with. I bought a couple of 7 inches and CDs from the band, so I obviously gave them plenty of chances, however, nothing really hit me the way that I wanted... and after their Niagara 7 inch in 1997, I stopped trying. When Spotify put the Braid song Killing A Camera on my radar over the summer, I was amazed at just how good that song was. I was surprised that I hadn't been into this song back in the day, and when I looked into it, I found that it came from their album Frame & Canvas, which was released in 1998... after I'd given up on the band. Killing A Camera was such a great song, that I quickly checked out the full album it came from... and when I started listening to that entire record daily, I knew that I was going to need to buy the vinyl.

I've had a few problems buying stuff off of Discogs lately. Each one has easily been resolved with the seller, but it is disappointing to buy something that you are excited for, only to have it arrived damaged or for the seller to send a different pressing than the one that you'd ordered. I guess that I still assume that people know what they are doing, but after being burned a couple of times, it makes me wish that the Discogs marketplace would at least force sellers to list photos of the actual item. With this Braid record, I wanted the blue vinyl pressing from 2003. It looked better than any of the recent represses on various colors, so that's what I was holding out for. Months went by before Discogs showed a seller with a copy for a good price, and when I saw it, I jumped on it. Only what the seller sent was the 2020 reissue on silver and blue swirl. Not what I'd ordered. The seller was easy to work with and ended up giving me a refund so that at the end of the day the record only cost me $6, and that was enough for me to keep it.

Songs Of A Lost World

It's funny how some things change and evolve over time. A couple of years ago, if you'd asked me about The Cure, I would have responded with a resounding "no thanks". Last year I would have said, "oh yeah, I've found that there are a couple of songs that I enjoy". Earlier this year, I would have told you that Wish and Disintegration are actually really good records. Then here I am today, rushing out to buy the new album from The Cure.

Look, I don't know anything about the history for The Cure. This is all still new to me. Apparently it had been 16 years since the last Cure record, so it seemed to be a big deal for some people. I figured that I'd check it out, but I didn't really expect much from Songs Of A Lost World. I mean, 16 years is a long time to not release anything, so I felt the chances were high that this was going to be mid at best.

By the time I heard the second single, A Fragile Thing, it certainly had my attention. That song is so sad and so good... it felt like those earlier songs that I've obsessed over this year... so I was suddenly looking forward to the full album.

On release day, I assumed it would be easy enough to grab a copy of the record at the local store. I checked online, and could see that they had a few copies of the retail exclusive colored vinyl, and then a day or so later they were all gone. I did not expect them to sell out so quickly. Not wanting to settle on the black vinyl, I hit Discogs and grabbed one for a few dollars more. The grey vinyl looks good with the cover, so it was worth the extra money for me.

One of the things that attracted me to The Cure last year was the refreshing change that style of music was for me. I'd spent the entire Trump presidency and insurrection angry as fuck. Emotionally, they were hard times, and once Biden was in office and things settled down a bit, discovering music like The Cure felt really fucking good. It was refreshing and soothed those jagged parts of my brain. My jaw finally unclenched and muscles released some tension. It felt good to just wallow in sad and reflective emotions for a bit. Then last week, the US voted the fascist back into power. I don't know if I can face that again right now. Leave me the fuck alone... I'm just gonna hide inside this Cure record.

Karate Fires

There have been a few older indie bands that I've really connected with this year. I've been on a steady diet of stuff like The Cure, Modest Mouse and The Smiths.... but the biggest surprise this year has been my rediscovery of Karate. When I first heard this band in the late 90's/early 2000's, I thought that I might enjoy them, and proceeded to download three of their albums through Napster (or one of the many file sharing services that I was using at the time)... and even though I would give those albums a listen once every year or so, Karate never quite clicked with me and ultimately were forgettable.

20 years later, and looking back on where I was musically, I'm impressed that I even made the attempt back then because this is far outside of what I was listening to on a regular basis. Nice try, younger self.

When I decided to try Karate again this year, and started listening to The Bed Is In The Ocean, I was surprised with just how much I loved it. It was ridiculous just how much I listened to that record over the summer, and as we moved into the Fall, I figured that maybe it was time to try another album from the band. I jumped into Spotify and queued up their record from 2000, Unsolved, to see how it sat with me.

To be honest, I really wasn't expecting much with Unsolved. When I started listening, my 2000-brain kicked back in and I figured this record would be slow and boring. I was fully prepared to accept The Bed Is In The Ocean as the exception rather than the rule, and that it would probably be the only Karate that I liked. I love being proven wrong... because while Unsolved is more laid back, jazzy and chill, I still can't get enough of it.

Because I had picked up a colored vinyl reissue for The Bed Is In The Ocean, I wanted the same deal for Unsolved. After debating for a couple of weeks which version to get the "small fires" color which was on sale at the label's webstore for only $22.

Guided Tour

Me and High Vis have a complicated history. When I first checked out Blending from 2022, I immediately loved those first few songs on the record, but felt very underwhelmed with the rest of it. When I went back last year and checked out the band's first album, No Sense No Feeling, I felt that same kind of initial disappointment. There was something there that kept me kind of interested, but I didn't see what everyone was loving about the band. The lesson learned here is that sometimes I just need time, because sitting here a year or two later from first hearing those records, I can tell you that I fucking love them now.

When I first heard that High Vis had a new record coming out this year, again I was hesitant. I mean, I grew to really like those first two albums, but had they pushed themselves too far for me with this latest one? I'm not gonna lie, when I first heard Mind's A Lie, yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. The electronic drum sound that starts the song, plus the female vocals, had me thinking that me and High Vis were done. Thankfully I didn't let my closed mind completely shut me down, and when the band released Drop Me Out as an advanced single, I fooking loved it. I loved it so much that it had me scrambling to check what options were still available for preorder, and grabbed this "orange crush" version that was exclusive to Going Underground Records (which I've never heard of before).

Man, this record is so rad. Is it my favorite new album this year? I don't know. I can't trust my opinions right now, because this is just hitting me so hard at the moment. Time will tell.

Satan In Crimson

Just when I have hopes that I'll be back to posting every couple of days, the US has an election that shows just how fucking dumb and short sighted people can be, and it immediately crushes any momentum that I had. What the actual fuck? PTSD of Trump's first presidency was triggered and I'm not sure how the fuck I'm going to deal with another four years of hateful bullshit from him and his fanbase. Fuck fuck fuck you.

I'm going to be avoiding a lot of social media and general news for a while, so maybe now that I've shaken off that initial shock, this is the perfect time to focus on records and churn out a bunch of posts.

Satan have been one of those rare New Wave Of British Heavy Metal bands that were able to come back after years of inactivity and just blow my mind with how good they still are. Their 5th album since reuniting in 2011, and Songs In Crimson does not disappoint. I've struggled to stay interested with a few new metal albums this year... like the Saxon and Judas Priest records are good, but I don't find myself wanting to return to them very often... and I worried that might be the case with the new Satan as well. I assumed that I might play it and forget it... but that was not how it went. I started playing the songs as I was working, and quickly lost focus on what I was doing because these songs screamed for my attention. This record is so good, and it is actually quite shocking how great the band continue to be this many years down the line.

700 pressed on "transparent pigeon blue marbled" color vinyl.

Rebirth Of Hardcore Pride

It feels that records from straight forward hardcore bands have been a bit of a rarity this year... or maybe it's just me and I'm that out of touch. Either way, when records like the new Statement of Pride come along, I'm gonna jump on it.

Statement Of Pride play that style of straight edge hardcore that I cannot ignore. Release that shit on Youngblood Records, I'll be there ordering multiple copies. I really liked what I'd heard from the band a couple of years ago, so I'm very happy to see that they had more to give. This 12 inch features four new songs, plus the four songs from the Out Of The Ashes EP from 2022 that never saw a vinyl release. I don't think that Youngblood carries the weight that it once did, but I hope that it is enough to put this band on kids radar because this record is so good.

100 pressed on clear vinyl, and 300 on green. I'd also like to get my hands on the two limited covers that are floating around for this record. Nothing makes me want to collect records like good straight edge bands.