On this follow up to their ferocious ‘Self-Loathing’ EP of 2022, Massachusetts brutalists Wasp Mother challenge the idea of disposable media on their 2024 release ‘Digital Pollution’. In the band’s own words, “artists [have become] content creators with each successive work being left behind as new content fills the void of malaise.” They mourn the fact that “our appetites and attention span for media has become insatiable in a way where the meaning of the art we’re viewing is being lost in a sea of likes, comments, the all-knowing algorithm.” In short, there’s no longer time to stop and digest the wonders we’ve been given. We watch the YouTube clips; we then seek out new quick thrills. More importantly, we listen to an album; we then move on to another at the push of a button. We’ve somehow lost the ability to lose ourselves in a new set of songs, play them on a loop for weeks and actually feel the value of that art.
Category Archives: Album & EP Reviews
EXIT EDEN – Femmes Fatales
In 2017, Phantom Elite’s Marina La Torraca, League of Distortion’s Anna Brunner, Trillium’s Amanda Somerville and Clémentine Delauney pooled their collective vocal talents to create Exit Eden, a symphonic metal supergroup which aimed to bring a very theatrical slant to several rock and pop classics. Their ‘Rhapsodies In Black’ album – released that same year – showed how brilliantly 80s tunes like Visage’s ‘Fade To Grey’ and ‘Heaven’ by Bryan Adams would work when reworked in a Nightwish-esque mould. The project’s real magic came through, however, when the performers and their assembled session band put a heavier slant on (then) more contemporary pop material like Katy Perry’s brilliant ‘Firework’ and Lady Gaga’s ‘Paparazzi’.
ALCATRAZZ – Rock Justice: The Complete Recordings 1983-1986
When it comes to reissues, the first three Alcatrazz albums have been more than well served. 1983’s ‘No Parole For Rock N Roll’ was reissued in 2011 with a slew of live tracks, and again in 2015 with a bunch of unreleased instrumental demos; 1985’s ‘Disturbing The Peace’ was given the deluxe treatment in 2016 when it was reissued with bonus tracks and a full length live DVD, and that same year, even 1986’s lesser appreciated ‘Dangerous Games’ was appended with bootleg live recordings.
FORLESEN / LOTUS THIEF – Split EP
Extreme metal band Forlesen closed 2023 in a grand and uncompromising fashion by offering an abrasive cover of Type O Negative’s ‘Red Water (Christmas Mourning)’ as festive bait. Transforming the slow, heavy gothic tune into an abrasive black metal/doom metal tour de force, they not only gave the track their own twist, but also made it sound like an original cut – something that originated from somewhere deep within the American band’s blackened souls.
OUR SOULS – I Won’t Tell You The Same Lie EP
On this follow up to ‘I’m An Adult In A Punk Rock Band’, Leicester’s Our Souls condense all of their best traits into a five song, thirteen minute blast.‘I Won’t Tell You The Same Lie’ appears to value its ferocious guitar riffs above everything else, but scratch just beneath the surface noise, and you’ll find musicians who understand an importance of big choruses and tight basslines to help drive their unquestionably enjoyable noise – and in a couple of cases, aren’t afraid to throw everything at an arrangement to see what sticks. More often than not, their gutsy approach works brilliantly.