Sort of like a response to this article from earlier in the week where we covered an album entitled A Way Back, today we’re featuring You Can’t Go Back — the latest from Canadian post-metal group Sarin, named for the chemical compound that has historically been used (and sometimes rumored to have been used) as a nerve gas weapon due to its extreme toxicity.
Good afternoon! Presented for your listening enjoyment is this album, released earlier this year, which is the first official output of Comatose. This is an assemblage of musicians who have all worked together in some capacity in various other Minnesotan bands such as Chrome Waves and Fail to Decay, among others; a little over a year ago they decided to come together in this new project. They soon found themselves writing and recording a bunch of material representative of how empty they’ve felt over the past year without the ability to tour or perform anywhere — and by extension, how empty we’ve all felt over the past year about everything.
For its first ten years (during which it released two albums were released), Saxony (Germany)’s Coldun existed as a solo project for its founding member, also named Coldun. But then, about five years ago, Coldun (the band) expanded with the addition of a drummer and two guitarists, while Coldun (the musician) maintained responsibility for vocals as well as the bass and organ parts. In January the project’s third album overall, and the first with this new full-band lineup, finally emerged — and here it is for your enjoyment!
Happy Friday! For your enjoyment: this monster of a debut from Portugal’s Sepulcros, released today by Transcending Obscurity.
Just look at that gorgeous Mariusz Lewandowski cover art. And then search for the band’s name on Google Translate (“sepulcros” is the plural form of “sepulcro” which means “tomb or sepulchre”). Feel free to look up the album’s title while you’re there (“vazio” means “empty or devoid,” from the same Latin root as “vacant” or “vacuous”).
You probably already have a fairly good idea of what to expect now, don’t you? And you’re probably right!
Good afternoon! Got two to pass along to you today, so how about we don’t waste too much time with introductory nonsense. Ok?
As soon as you find out something is being released by Throatruiner Records you probably already have a pretty good idea what to expect: harsh hardcore or vicious post-hardcore, either way living up to the label’s name with shrieks or screams likely to tear someone’s vocal cords to shreds.
Well surprise! Here we have a pair of albums that came from Throatruiner just last month, which each have far more in common with Depeche Mode than with Converge. So that’s different and unexpected. But in a GOOD way. Let’s check them out…
Good afternoon! Time for another installment of Valley of Steel Presents: Noises for You to Shove in Your Ears. Gonna try to keep this short and sweet: still working on that whole brevity thing. After all, if I really wanted people to care about the words I’m saying, I could just go write a book or something, right? The whole point here is for you to discover new stuff to listen to. So I’ll tell you a little bit about it, then you work your way down the page and hit that PLAY button. Fair enough?
So okay, here we are. Exactly fifty-one weeks into mandated quarantine working from home, and truly starting to lose my mind from cabin fever. Looking forward to my wife coming home from work each day with stories of interaction with other human beings, since I’ve all but forgotten what that feels like.
2020 was — well, probably better to not even bring that up at all. You get it. So as a result, I found myself taking nearly two full months into 2021 just catching up on stuff I hadn’t gotten around to listening to, just to get my Top 20 list finalized. Managed to get that online about a week ago. So naturally, now I’ve begun the daunting task of working my way through 2021 releases that I’ve missed so far.
Which brings us back to the original purpose of me writing these words and you reading them: letting you know about something you may wish to cram into your ear-holes. In particular, today I’ve got a split release for you, fresh off the presses of Sleeping Village Records, the relatively new label run by the fine folks who brought you Sleeping Village Reviews.
Don’t forget that this is supposed to be a two-way street: I write words about music that I’ve enjoyed listening to, you folks read those words and listen to that music, and then you can leave a comment about how much you also enjoyed listening to it! For the sake of my sanity! Thanks for stopping by!
Valley of Steel 