The Traditional- "My Brother is the Sea"

Local band here in Buffalo that I caught over the weekend.  A little off from my usual stuff, but I dug their live sound (very loud and very heavy). Grabbed their disc for 5 bucks; this is my favorite track from the show and the CD.  Ton of early Fall Out Boy influence, though with a little less knack for writing hooks. Worth a quick listen now if you're into it, and definitely one to keep an eye on.

Dunbarrow- Dunbarrow

Early Pentagram worship, and with better guitar work to boot.  Stoner metal feels like a super oversaturated genre right now, but a few stand outs like High on Fire, and a ton of mid-tier, untimately forgettable stuff in the middle.  Thick bluesy riffs, a great sense for pacing, and a solid occult-ish vocal performance sets this album apart. Norway strikes again.

Mineral- The Power of Failing

One of the acknowledged classics of golden era Emo for a reason. Old hat for the big emo fans I'm sure, but for the more causal fan, this can fly under the radar of bigger acts like Brand New and the like.  A one album wonder, featuring impossible dated album art too. Perhaps the most infamous use of Comic Sans until Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert went off like a jilted date on prom night. Aesthetics notwithstanding, this is grade A late-90's angst at its finest.

Snow Warning

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming due to the SNOWSTORM we are getting in the middle of April. In light of this, here's three picks, one black, one doom and one non-metal, for when the frost sets in.

Immortal- At the Heart of Winter
No way I wasn't looking to Norway for this one. Immortal is one of the top names for a reason, and that reputation was built on the back of albums like this one.

Colosseum- Chapter III: Parasomnia

This is how extreme doom should be done. Slow, purposeful, and with an acceptance of the underlying futility of it all.

Failure- The Heart Is a Monster

This album is the full-length version of the song that plays over the opening shot of the film as it pans over the body lying in the snow.

Oy, it's been far too long, real life gets in the way again.  Here's two quick hits to tide us over until I can get a couple fuller posts out.  Seeing as there's snow falling out my window, it looks like we'll get a last chance at some winter music before the temperatures rise. Onto the two for today:

Daytrader- Silver Graves

Hard to dig up too much information on this band, though it appears they are broken up now.  This full-length came out in 2012 on Rise Records, and from what I can tell nothing followed it.  It's a fantastic emo-tinged rock record though, and deserved a chance at a follow-up.  But I guess there's a pretty good history of one off emo classics (seriously, go listen to Texas is the Reason if you haven't).  There isn't much that stands out as particularly noteworthy or unusual on the album, but its a sharply written and consistent album that finds its way onto repeat more times than you'd expect.

Pinegrove- Cardinal

I'm pretty far removed from the Twitter/blog hypemachine, so I can't always tell how much buzz current bands have. This is a 2016 release, and though I don't really keep up much with new stuff anymore, I'm glad I tracked this one down.  You'd be forgiven if you said "Hey, I've had enough of these nasally emo singers going on about life as a pointless 20something over standard emo-math rock." I get it, there's a number of them these days and I can't even make it all the way through a Modern Baseball album.  Pinegrove feature a particularly compelling singer, even if I'm not sold on him actually having a good voice.  I also appreciate the variety of tempos employed by the band, and not just in the obligatory single acoustic track sense.  The faint tinge of heartland folk give it a warm, comfortable feeling that makes it sound familiar on the first listen.