I think that more than anything, this album establishes Denzel Curry as a rapper. It shows the potential that he has, there are some tracks on here that are really great. Songs like "ULT" and "Pure Enough" show that Curry can take just about any beat and give it mainstream appeal. Even most of "Story: No Title" is great, though there are lines that kind of make you raise an eyebrow ("Who says Jesus can't be a black guy?/Even Luke Skywalker's dad was on the dark side", which is funny but random and kind of nonsensical.) Some of this needs improvement, and I think Curry can do it because he shows flashes of brilliance, but overall this is a fairly enjoyable album. _________________ Progressive Rock
This is a brutal, long album. It's not black metal, Cobalt has been known as a black metal band in the past and this isn't that, you can't really pigeonhole this album, it draws from all kinds of influences. From different extreme metal genres to Americana to psych rock. "Beast Whip" sounds like it could be a heavier Tool song, and "Siege" sounds like it could be a Neurosis song, it ranges everywhere, and that's what makes this so interesting. The production is excellent, even when Cobalt has gone full-on black metal vocals, you can not only hear them but understand them, and lyrically, this album is entirely nihilistic. Nothing matters, everything is terrible, "Broken hope in a burning dream" as they say in the album opener "Hunt The Buffalo". The album clocks in at just short of 90 minutes, and there are times when it can drag, but generally this album is engaging you, changing and morphing. The composition is excellent, the performances are excellent, and it makes for a really good metal album.
Definitely recommended to the metal lovers here, Gowi, dbz, etc _________________ Progressive Rock
Omara Moctar (aka Bombino) hails from Niger, and has made his way into the American music scene. With this album, he pairs up with Dirty Projector's Dave Longstreth to create a desert blues album that is fantastic. Longstreth does a good job with the production, the focus of this album is on Moctar, his guitar and his voice, little else. The instrumentation is fairly sparse, and that's good, because Moctar is a seriously good guitarist, and that definitely needs to be the focus here. There's little more than Moctar's guitar, double-tracked, and a drum kit. If you're a guitarist, like I am, you'll probably love this, because the skill that Moctar has is incredible. He's not a shredder in the traditional sense of the word, he's a picker, and he plays these intricate, complicated, and yet beautiful licks on guitar that will fascinate you and hypnotize you. Whether he's doing some fast finger-picking like on "Naqqim Dagh Timshar" or some 70s-style blues rock like on "Iyat Ninhay/Jaguar", he does it all with ease and incredible skill. _________________ Progressive Rock
White guy with a raspy voice doing southern-tinged bluesy Americana has been done a hundred times before. All you have to do is take a quick look around and you'll see a ton of artists doing that. Now, that doesn't mean that Parker Millsap can't make a good album within that genre, just because something's been done before doesn't mean you can't do it again well. There are some moments of brilliance on this album, Millsap is a pretty good songwriter. Perhaps his finest moment is on "Heaven Sent" where he writes a song from the perspective of a gay friend of his who was raised religious. Millsap is from the Bible Belt, he himself was raised Pentecostal, and writing a song from the perspective of a gay person coming out to their religious parents is tough, and Millsap handles it perfectly. Lines like "Torn apart, my spirits sent/I fell in love on accident/Wondered just what Jesus meant/When he said all love was Heaven sent" and "Tried my hardest not to be/But I locked the door and I broke the key/Jesus died upon that tree/Daddy do you think he'd covet me/Red and yellow black and white/We are precious in his sight/So why can't I sleep through the night?" are painfully beautiful looks at the internal conflicts this person is feeling, it's easily the best song on the album. There are some other good tunes, some fun, bluesy songs, but overall Millsap doesn't do much to set himself apart from the crowd of bluesy Americana, too many of the songs blend together and lack any sense of identity. There are some great moments though, so it's worth a listen. _________________ Progressive Rock
The first thing that stuck out to me about this album was the production. The beats on here are pretty great, very laid back and create a pretty cool atmosphere, especially on songs like "Highway Patrol" and "Hoover", but for whatever reason, I just am not a fan of Yung Lean as a rapper. Yung Lean is odd as it is, he's a 19-year-old Swedish kid, and he's garnered a bit of success. His rapping style is very slack, and it feels lazy. Slack rapping can be done well, I just don't think Yung Lean does it well. His lyrics are, at best, uninteresting, and at worst, devoid of any kind of real meaning. But hey, Yung Gud and Mike Dean can sure make some beats, but that's about the only positive on this album. _________________ Progressive Rock
When you think of Explosions In The Sky, you think of stereotypical post-rock. The loud then soft then loud again songs that are all about building to a huge climax. It's gotten to the point that bands like Explosions In The Sky have kind of stagnated, you know what their albums are going to sound like, they're getting redundant. And while that worked really well in 2003, it gets old after awhile. So imagine my surprise when I listen to this album and it's completely different. Explosions In The Sky have abandoned 10-minute-long epics for shorter, more introspective vignettes. This is one of the better albums they've released, and I give them a lot of credit for not just releasing the same album they've done just once more. They look inside themselves and with that, they've released a very rich, emotionally powerful work that's probably their best album since 2003. _________________ Progressive Rock
I think what I like most about this album is how unique it sounds. Céu takes influences from just about everywhere, over her whole career she's done that. From EDM to reggae to trip-hop to MPB and bossa, there's everything. She's acknowledged the influence of American jazz and hip-hop on her music as well, which you can definitely hear. On this album, she goes for more laid-back electronic bossa, which may sound strange, but is really enjoyable. Her voice is so smooth and relaxed, you can almost drift off with her music. There are dashes of Brazilian psychedelia here, as well as a little new wave pop. It's a well-crafted, relaxing and really enjoyable album. _________________ Progressive Rock
It's easy for ambient/drone-focused music to be either too slow or too heavy (heavy meaning thick and difficult to process). But then sometimes, it can be beautiful, and Singulacra is the latter. While the album starts off a bit submerged, once the pads and vocals come in along with the sub bass, you start to feel this haze settle in and envelop you. The album is like constantly being in that state between falling asleep and being awake, like you're constantly dozing off and everything around you is becoming dreamlike, until a quick hi-hat hits you like a hypnic jerk and brings you back before you doze off again. It's melancholic but doesn't wallow in it. Rather there is a blend of the bleak with the upbeat, tracks like "Artificial Infinite" act as a small break through the haze. I think the beauty of this album is in the feeling, tracks like "Glimpses of Death" and "Order of Elements" just pour out emotions. It's a beautiful album that will hypnotize you and completely surround you. _________________ Progressive Rock
If you're approaching this album expecting it to be a Crooked Fingers or Archers of Loaf-sounding album, then you may be disappointed. While Eric Bachmann doesn't stray completely away from the style he's used to ("Carolina" might as well be a Crooked Fingers song), this album is a lot more introspective and lyrically-focused than his other work. It's a deeply personal album, an album that comes from Bachmann's heart. Songs like "Mercy", which focuses on finding commonality among all people, deal with deeper subjects that require thought and reflection, and that's what this album is about: reflection. Bachmann's been doing this a long time, he's learned a lot, and this album is that reflection after it all. While there are some lulls in the album, it's still an interesting record and worth listening to. _________________ Progressive Rock
The best artists blend genres together to create their own sound. They don't pigeonhole themselves, they take influences from all over the musical spectrum and they create their own sound. That's what Heiress does. They take influences from all over the metal sub genres and make something great. Probably more than anything, they're a post-metal band, but that's not trying to label them too much. There's post-metal, doom metal, hardcore, even a little punk. It's everything and it's hard to describe. The balance between beauty and agony is perfect here, with the atmospheric music giving the beauty, while the vocals give the tragic agony. It is a full album, heavy and powerful. It's not a showy one, the instruments are each excellent in their own right, but none of them take a spotlight, rather they all blend together. It's a huge, powerful, emotionally jarring album and it certainly leaves an impact. _________________ Progressive Rock
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RockyRaccoon
