It’s the first Notable Releases of fall 2024, and it’s looking like we’ll have no lack of great fall music this year. (Next week might be the most stacked release week of the year. Stay tuned.) Maybe it’s a coincidence, but it feels like there’s an uptick in heavy music as October approaches, and this is a very metal-friendly edition of Notable Releases. But as always, you’ll find plenty of other corners of the music world represented here too.
Over in Bill’s Indie Basement, you can find reviews of The Wolfgang Press, Naima Bock, Hayden Thorpe (Wild Beasts), Kate Bollinger, Dean Spunt (No Age), and more. And on top of all that, this week’s honorable mentions include SOPHIE, William Basinski, Rahim Redcar (Christine & the Queens), Xiu Xiu, Ezra Collective, Fat Tony/Fatboi Sharif/Steel Tipped Dove, Neva Dinova, Billy Strings, Efterklang, Trace Mountains, Six Organs of Admittance & Twig Harper, John Davis (Superdrag), Mustafa, Jake Blount & Mali Obomsawin, JD McPherson, Being Dead, Mickey Guyton, Whitney Johnson, Tommy Richman, Holly Macve, Cardo Got Wings, Consequence, Fashawn, Gallant, Bilal, Maximo Park, Doodie Lo, MICHELLE, Kimbra, Eli & Fur, Adorior, Nina Nesbitt, Ben Böhmer, Adeline Hotel, Jerry Paper, Leif Vollebekk, Sløtface, Creed Bratton, Liam Benzvi (Strange Names), Luke Bryan, the Serj Tankian (System Of A Down) EP, the duendita EP, the RiTchie & FearDorian EP, the Monaleo EP, the Plague Mind (Betrayed, With Honor, Love Is Red, Sinking Ships, Trial) EP, the Sunflower Bean EP, the Brackish EP, the Office Dog EP, the Googly Eyes EP, the PremRock & Willie Green EP, the guest-filled Show Me The Body EP (ft. High Vis, Regional Justice Center, SPELLLING, Special Interest’s Alli Logout & more), Smoking Popes’ Born To Quit live-in-studio version for its 30th anniversary, the Tropical Fuck Storm live album, the deluxe edition of Glasser’s crux, the Dream Theater box, the anthology of Lou Reed’s Pickwick Records era (1964-1965), Lady Gaga’s “companion album” to the new movie she stars in Joker: Folie à Deux, and Runnner’s surprise ambient album.
Read on for my picks. What’s your favorite release of the week?
Heriot – Devoured by the Mouth of Hell (Century Media)
The UK experimental metalcore band’s first full-length takes a leap forward from their early material in multiple directions. It’s catchier, heavier, and even less compromising.
Rarely does a band arrive as fully formed as Heriot. Right from their first few singles, the UK experimental metalcore band had a unique vision and a sense of professionalism that most bands spend years working towards, and their debut EP Profound Morality was such a hefty release that it felt more like a short debut album. Now they’ve inked a deal with heavy metal powerhouse Century Media, and their actual debut album is yet another leap forward. Co-vocalist/guitarist Debbie Gough says the band were “more ambitious vocally” when making this album, and it shows. She and bassist Jake Packer trade piercing screams throughout the LP, and Debbie’s clean singing–delivered in a haunting, ethereal way that brings to mind the likes of Chelsea Wolfe and Emma Ruth Rundle–has a more prominent role on these songs than on any prior Heriot material. Without toning down an ounce of their bone-crushing, futuristic metalcore fury, they incorporate bold, melodic passages that transcend the metal underground entirely. Devoured by the Mouth of Hell is an album that balks at the idea that you ever have to choose between getting more melodic and staying brutal. Even their catchiest parts are eerie and unsettling, and even their heaviest parts have a sense of tuneful songcraft.
Devoured by the Mouth of Hell (24-bit HD audio) by HERIOT
The Black Dahlia Murder – Servitude (Metal Blade)
Faced with the tragic loss of original vocalist Trevor Strnad, the melodic death metal veterans pushed forward and delivered a fresh, powerful album that Trevor himself would likely be proud of.
Replacing a lead singer after they’ve passed away is always like walking a tightrope, and it’s something that the heavy music world has had to reckon with a lot this year. Navigating what the band feels is right, what the fans feel is right, and what the deceased’s family feels is right is a nearly-impossible task, and you’ll never please everybody. But, at least as far as I can tell, The Black Dahlia Murder have come pretty damn close. After original vocalist Trevor Strnad took his own life in 2022, the band made the decision to continue with co-founding guitarist Brian Eschbach taking over lead vocals, and they brought back former guitarist Ryan Knight so Brian could stick to vocals. As they discussed in an interview with Decibel at the time, they felt like bringing in an outsider as their new vocalist would never work because of their “close-knit, almost familial ethic.” As Brian himself put it, “I’ve heard Trevor perform more than anyone else alive.”
With Servitude, the band’s first album since Trevor’s death, The Black Dahlia Murder deliver an album that I think even Trevor Strnad himself would be proud of. Their melodic death metal attack is as crisp, distinct, and hard-hitting as ever. Brian doesn’t try to sound like Trevor, but his screaming style–which was already present on TBDM albums as backing vocals–fits the band seamlessly. Nothing can make up for losing Trevor, but bringing back a member who played on multiple beloved TBDM albums strengthens the band’s bond even further, and the onslaught of riffage from Ryan Knight and Brandon Ellis is as razor-sharp as this band has ever been. At least as far as I can tell, the band sounds so locked-in because they kept their heads down and kept moving forward. “We were so involved in [the making of the record] that there wasn’t really time to think about [Strnad’s] absence’s influence on it,” Brian said in an interview with Revolver. “We were just doing it.” Right now, it’s impossible to hear Servitude without feeling the shadow cast by Trevor’s death, but it also feels like the beginning of an exciting new chapter for this band. It isn’t an album defined by what or who it’s missing; it’s an album defined by a band buckling down and persevering.
Servitude by The Black Dahlia Murder
Kill Lincoln – No Normal (Bad Time Records)
The ’90s ska-punk devotees channel the vigor of the recent ska resurgence into an album that’s even faster, tighter, and more energized than where they left off.
When Kill Lincoln released their last album Can’t Complain at the height of COVID lockdown, nobody could’ve predicted that the band and vocalist Mike Sosinski’s label Bad Time Records would soon find themselves at the forefront of a widespread renewed interest in ska, but that’s exactly what happened. As shows started opening back up, the Bad Time family hit the ground running, with one instant-classic album after the next and increasingly well-attended shows. Most of Mike’s focus has been on the label these past four years, but now Kill Lincoln are back with a new album and they sound even faster, tighter, and more energized than they did when they left off. Kill Lincoln unabashedly worship at the altar of their ’90s ska-punk faves like The Suicide Machines, Catch 22, and Less Than Jake, and at this point, they’re as worthy of being in the ska-punk canon as those bands are. I have a big place in my heart for the fast-paced, sugar-rush ska-punk that those types of bands made in the ’90s, and I’d put No Normal up against just about any of my favorite records in that realm. It’s too personal to be idol worship, too fresh to be retro, and too fucking fun to even be thinking about this kind of stuff when you’re listening to it.
Read my recent interview with Kill Lincoln for more.
Origami Angel – Feeling Not Found (Counter Intuitive)
The DC duo toe the line between badass riffage and sunny power pop on their most streamlined album since their beloved 2019 debut
Origami Angel have a “more is more” approach that would seem maximalist and ambitious from any band, let alone a two-piece emo band, and throughout the past few years, they’ve released a throw-shit-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks double album, a multi-genre mixtape, and a pair of EPs that also functioned as drastically different genre experiments. And to follow all that up, they’ve delivered Feeling Not Found, their most focused album since their instant-classic 2019 debut LP Somewhere City. It’s Origami Angel, so it still covers a lot of musical ground, but it feels streamlined in a way that Gami Gang and The Brightest Days intentionally did not. On this album, Gami are generally caught between grungy, metallic post-hardcore and almost-cloyingly sunny power pop, and they swerve between those two extremes in a way that only Gami can do. Produced by Will Yip, it’s the biggest and best-sounding Gami record yet, and the heightened production is matched by some of Gami’s catchiest choruses and most muscular riffs to date. What started out as scrappy, noodly “emo revival revival” has turned into one of the hardest-hitting rock bands around. And also one of the weirdest. Even when the individual ingredients of this album are familiar, Origami Angel combine them in a way that sounds like no other band.
Feeling Not Found by Origami Angel
Ripped To Shreds – Sanshi (Relapse)
The San Jose death metal band continue to kick ass and push forward on their anticipated new LP
With their 2022 Relapse debut Jubian, Andrew Lee turned Ripped To Shreds from a one-man death metal project into a full band, and the album deservedly became a breakthrough. That made the anticipation a little higher for Sanshi, and Ripped To Shreds are meeting the moment by just continuing to kick ass and push forward. The big difference with Sanshi is that this one was written with second guitarist/vocalist Michael Chavez (who joined RTS after Jubian was recorded), and that allowed for Andrew and Mike to bring a dual-vocal approach to this record. “Our delivery on those parts are inspired by Razor or Demolition Hammer, meant to be punky and high energy,” he said in an interview with Invisible Oranges. “Punky and high energy” is also just a great way to describe Sanshi in general; RTS make old school-style death metal that feels punk without really falling into the “hardcore-adjacent death metal” wave, and Sanshi is a great example of that. Sanshi also stands out from other death metal bands in the way that it thematically deals with death. “Christian conceptions of God, Satan, and demons have been beaten to death in death metal, but more importantly, I feel like Christian mythology lacks personality with a very black and white idea of morality, and a mostly unchanging central deity,” Andrew said in that same IO interview. He instead looked to the way death and the afterlife are discussed within traditional Chinese folklore, which opened the album up to stories that are undertold not just in death metal but in Western music in general. Ripped To Shreds aren’t entirely reinventing the form or anything, but they’re making a version of death metal that you’d never mistake for any other band, in more ways than one.
Christian Lee Hutson – Paradise Pop. 10 (ANTI-)
Quietly devastating stories from a key Phoebe Bridgers collaborator
For many people, their first introduction to Christian Lee Hutson was likely through his collaborations with Phoebe Bridgers, who he met in 2018, but he released his first solo EP in 2012, and played in The Driftwood Singers starting in 2010. Since then, he’s worked with Phoebe on Punisher, as well as the boygenius EP and Better Oblivion Community Center album, and she produced his three most recent albums, 2020’s Beginners, 2022’s Quitters, and the new Paradise Pop. 10. Each of those has been a step forward from the last, and Paradise Pop. 10 may be his strongest, most quietly devastating release yet. He approaches lyrics with the depth and insight of a fiction writer, populating his songs with well-sketched characters and observations. After setting Beginners and Quitters in Los Angeles, his home at the time, he moved to NYC, and on Paradise Pop. 10 he’s untethered by a single location. He’s also broadened his sound, adding, at points, haunting flute passages and some Americana twang (and vocals from Phoebe, Katy Kirby, and another recent collaborator, Maya Hawke) to his folky indie rock, and delivering perhaps his most instantly-infectious song yet with “Carousel Horses.” Comparisons to artists like Elliott Smith and Bright Eyes are apt, and Paradise Pop. 10 genuinely brings something new to that table. [Amanda Hatfield]
Paradise Pop. 10 by Christian Lee Hutson
Merce Lemon – Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild (Darling)
The Pittsburgh singer/songwriter channels the natural world and Lucinda Williams on this pastoral indie folk album
Merce Lemon took a break from music amid Covid lockdown and after the release of her 2020 album Moonth, immersing herself in the natural world. That world, in turn, left its marks on her new album, Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild, where birds, their nests and feathers, woods, leaves, and water loom large; it’s also haunted by the death of her best friend friend when she was 15, who recurs in the lyrics. Merce cites Lucinda Williams among her influences, and she and her bandmates flesh out these songs with pedal steel, fiddle, and harmonica to sweeten their stirring, vulnerable indie folk. Standout track “Crow” gets roughened up further with squalling guitar riffs, as does “Backyard Lover,” which builds to a refrain of “you fucking liar,” one of the album’s emotional peaks. Having made more indie pop-styled music in the past, Merce also worked with a new backing band on Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild, and it feels like both a step forward and a signpost to where she might go next. [A.H.]
Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild by Merce Lemon
fantasy of a broken heart – Feats of Engineering (Dots Per Inch)
Grandiose gestures from a pair of indie pop maximalists
Feats of Engineering is Bailey Wollowitz and Al Nardo’s first album as fantasy of a broken heart, but the NYC-based musicians have been collaborating since 2017; they moved into the McKibbin Lofts and into the orbit of artists like Water From Your Eyes, Sloppy Jane, and Godcaster, all the while working on their maximalist indie-pop opus. They introduce themselves on the second track, “AFV,” with Wollowitz intoning, “welcome to the fantasy of a broken heart;” later on “Catharsis,” they shout “grandiose gestures!,” which serves as a statement of intent. Whether they’re striking epic postures on “Tapdance 1” or delivering dreamy harmonies on “Ur Heart Stops,” fantasy of a broken heart wear their hearts entirely on their sleeves on these songs. They’re unafraid to get a little over the top, but their sincerity and keen sense of infectious melody makes it all work, and their zany, technicolor world is only too appealing to get lost in. [A.H.]
Feats of Engineering by fantasy of a broken heart
Alan Sparhawk – White Roses, My God (Sub Pop)
Alan Sparhawk put Low to rest after his wife and bandmate Mimi Parker’s death in 2022, and now he returns with his first new album since then, a solo album called White Roses, My God. He leans into his love of experimental electronic music, and employs vocal effects and manipulation that render his voice unrecognizable. It’s an interesting, unexpected record, and Bill writes more about it in Bill’s Indie Basement.
White Roses, My God by Alan Sparhawk
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Read Indie Basement for more new album reviews, including The Wolfgang Press, Naima Bock, Hayden Thorpe (Wild Beasts), Kate Bollinger, Dean Spunt (No Age), and more
Looking for more recent releases? Browse the Notable Releases archive.
Looking for a podcast to listen to? Check out our new episode with Cursive’s Tim Kasher.
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