Anyway, the past few weeks, my rotation has been all over the place, as always. Outlined below are six that I’m really digging/feel like talking about.*
Malokarpatan – Nordkarpatenland (2017)
A friend turned me onto this last year, and it’s hung out heavily in my rotation since. The originality of this band is what grabbed me. This might not grab you if you’re a purist black metal fan. They honor a lot of traditional soundscapes but throw in abrupt breaks and instrumentation that is not the character of orthodox black metal… And I’m here for it. I am a big fan of abrupt stops and unconventional transitions, and Malokarpatan delivers it masterfully.
Cathedral – The Guessing Game
“Funeral of Dreams” and “Painting in the Dark” get stuck in my head at random. After my gig, I wanted to hear it. I consider it one of their weird albums; a deviation from the original doom sound that shaped an entire genre. They didn’t return to that early sound until their final album, The Last Spire, but nonetheless, I am not typically one of those listeners who require a band to stick to a specific genre to dig it. The Guessing Game is probably my favorite of this era of Cathedral.
Pestilence – Consuming Impulse (1989)
I spent a good portion of the week with the Pestilence catalog. Perhaps it is a bit cliché, but Consuming Impvlse, is the one I dig most of the releases. From there, I think Testimony of the Ancients (1991) would be next, followed by Malleus Maleficarum (1988). I also gave Exitivm (2021) some more attention a couple weeks ago as parts grabbed me a little more than when I first listened to it… However, it still kinda falls flat. Not to sound like a complete oldhead here, but 90’s Pestilence is going to be what I grab more than others.
Lana Del Rey – Norman Fucking Rockwell (2019)
This is my absolute favorite album by Lana Del Rey. From the first track to the last, it’s a ride. I especially love the last song on the album, “hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have.” Since 2019, this has been in my rotation. My one girlfriend harped on me to listen to it. She kept sending me relatable lyric quotes and was like, “you’re going to love this.” But you know how it is at first, if you’re in the mood for a certain genre or on some kind of kick, it might take a minute to gravitate to the recommendation. Well, ever since its release, it’s shown up in my rotation periodically. I have yet to get a physical copy though!
Puscifer – Conditions of My Parole
My boyfriend got me into the show Yellowstone, and I heard “Tumbleweed” and nearly forgot how much I enjoyed this band. He ended up going through the catalog as he had never really listened to Puscifer much and I found myself revisiting a lot of it, but spending some extra time with Conditions of My Parole.
I recently saw that A Perfect Circle, Puscifer, and Primus were doing a split with new tracks and Maynard is writing for all of them. That should be pretty sick!
Tool – Lateralus
This was a favorite album of mine for a long time, as were several other Tool albums. It had been a while since I gave this a listen and it is still a rather perfect album. While my favorite Tool album has been a rotation over the years, I would probably say Undertow today, Lateralus will always hold a special place because of my age and the influence it had on my listening habits. I feel off the Tool train around 10,000 Days, though there were a few songs I dug on the album. Fear Innoculum I couldn’t really get into, but I’ll throw it on here and there to see if anything has changed because Tool were such a big part of my childhood.
I think Tool are basically the Pink Floyd of my generation. While I’m not fond of all the incels that have taken to them, when a band is at a certain level you can’t help it if some of the fans get douchey. Danny Carrey is still one of, if not the best drummers in my opinion. Adam Jones makes excellent use of dropped tunings, and his SG collection is a thing of envy. The bass work on this album by Justin Chancelor inspired me to pick up a bass. And of course, Maynard James Keenan is one of the best vocalists melodically and his screams are powerful as well.