I didn't realize this until fairly recently, BUT... Megadeth is one of the best Trad Metal Bands of all time. Yup! Right up there with Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. I didnโt realize this myself until just last year when Youthanasia (1994) and Cryptic Warnings (1997) became two of my most played albums of 2025. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that Megadeth may have just been the best Trad Metal Band of the entire '90s. I mean whose better?!
I have to admit something here. When Megadeth switched from Thrash to Trad in the early '90s, I sort of gave up on them. I thought they had gone soft. So, Dave (Mustaine). If you're listening. I'm sorry it took me until the eve of supposedly your very LAST album for me to understand. Forgive me. ๐
Ha! Like Dave could give 2 shits. Dave's (supposedly) final album is dropping tomorrow and, like Dihansse, I've been neck-snapping & a head-jerking to their latest single "Tipping Point" for the past couple of weeks. ๐
What? You scoff at commercial, mainstream metal?! Well then try this ...
... on for size. Call it First Wave of Black Metal. Call it Crust Punk. Call it Stenchcore. Call it whatever you will. I call it Punk-Metal. And if you love bands like Hellhammer & Venom, you should totally check it out! ๐
What January 23rd, 2026 release do YOU have your ears & heart set on?! ๐ญ๐
I know the new Megadeth album is a Big Deal and I'm happy for all the metalheads out there, but I'm just not a "metal guy" โย aside from some of the "classic" stuff I'm a straight-up fully carbon-based lifeform, dammit. I got mildly interested when I saw on Ailbhe Reddy's Bandcamp that her new LP was supposed to come out today, but it turns out that's a lie, it's next week. I'm not that big a fan of hers anyway, I just decided I liked her when I learned that her name is actually pronounced "Alva," like in "Thomas Alva Edison," except I was never a big fan of his either, though he did invent the phonograph I guess.
Mid-January is always slow for new releases, but as far as stuff I personally like is concerned, I haven't seen a week this slow in years.The Damned released a new covers album, apparently as a tribute to the late Brian James (it's supposed to be a selection of his favorite songs), but it's nothing to write home about. ๐ค
The only thing that did impress me from today was this new Tessa Rose Jackson album, and not because I really like it, but more because it's just so darn pretty. Very, very nice slow acoustic folk-rock, and she has a really beautiful voice. Almost like a collection of relaxing lullabies... She used to record as Someone, but I guess she decided to start using her real name instead because it's a really nice name, and "Someone" is probably the most impractical name for a recording artist imaginable. It's amazing she sold any records at all, honestly. "Hey, check it out, it's Someone's new album." "Oh yeah, whose album is it?" That sort of thing must have happened constantly.
as far as stuff I personally like is concerned, I haven't seen a week this slow in years.
A lot of what I posted is weird shit but you might want to check out the Greg Weeks album, they still haven't pushed the button on bandcamp but its on the other streamers.
A lot of what I posted is weird shit but you might want to check out the Greg Weeks album, they still haven't pushed the button on bandcamp but its on the other streamers.
Ok. For this week I'm putting all my chips in on Tap's sublime rec ...
You remember all those English eccentric oddballs from da '70s that were just adjacent to the Canterbury Prog Scene? Freaks like Kevin Ayers and Robert Wyatt? Or have a thing for Outsider Freak Folk? Artists like Michael Hurley?
That's also a good record and another very good female vocalist โย sounds just like Marissa Nadler in fact, so I'll definitely give it another listen (it could easily make my year chart, at least). I guess I'm just saying this is the sort of thing I only listen to when I'm "in a certain mood" โ it's not really my thing on a near-daily basis or whatever. Just call me Mister Limited!
Next week should be better from my perspective, since the Softcult debut LP is coming out, along with a new Whitelands album.
No word on a physical release yet, and it's not really the best LP they've ever done or anything like that, but that doesn't matter! It's awesome!
(For those of you not familiar, SPC ECO is Curve's Dean Garcia and his daughter, Rose Berlin, whose vocals sound enough like Curve's Toni Halliday that you can still sort of close your eyes and imagine that Curve never broke up. )
No word on a physical release yet, and it's not really the best LP they've ever done or anything like that, but that doesn't matter! It's awesome!
(For those of you not familiar, SPC ECO is Curve's Dean Garcia and his daughter, Rose Berlin, whose vocals sound enough like Curve's Toni Halliday that you can still sort of close your eyes and imagine that Curve never broke up. )
I always felt there was so much potential in Curve's sound, and back in 1992 when Doppelganger came out I kind of assumed that THAT - shoegaze + EDM/Baggy - was the direction '90s music would take. I was wrong. Brit-Pop & Oasis happened instead, BUT you got to wonder if my alternative multiverse would have been a whole lot better and maybe, just maybe would have save us! Damn you, Oasis! ๐
Sometimes someone else expresses EXACTLY what you want to say so well that you just yield the floor. When doing a bit of research for the New Release that I'm most geeked to queue up at the stroke of midnight this week, I discovered this perfect soundbite....
"Joyce Manor (construct) short, noisy blasts of emo pop that has none of the glitzy trappings of capital 'P' emo pop, but instead sounds a bit like how Weezer might have turned out if they had a recording budget of about ten dollars and never left their parents' basement. Or if Guided by Voices never discovered beer and instead sat around deconstructing Hรผsker Dรผ and Jawbreaker albums all night long. The songs are intensely hooky with tons of emoting packed into a tiny space; Barry Johnson's quavering voice bleeds around the sharp edges and slashing guitars like fat drops of blood". - Tim Sendra
Joyce Manor are probably my favorite Emo/Pop Punk band of the 2010s. Part of that is because they sounds a lot more like those first albums by And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead than most of the Emo & Pop Punk that comes to mind. Another part is that they really love to inject their songs with flashes of outright affection for '80s College Rock, especially The Smiths & The Cure. They even did a fantastic cover of O.M.D. on their last album - 40 oz. To Fresno.
Their first single off of I Used to Go To This Bar is one of the best Smiths-sounding Jangle Rock numbers I've heard in ages...
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