Content Breakdown
Stick To Your Guns – Keep Planting Flowers
Lambrini Girls – Who Let The Dogs Out
What is out on this #NewMusicFriday?
Take me to the Playlist
After a slight festive (and prolonged) break, Already Heard‘s routine roundup of weekly album and EP releases has returned. While last week’s #NewMusicFriday saw the year kick off with a smattering of releases, today is notably busier.
Metallic hardcore mob Stick To Your Guns‘ influence continues to grow as they return with ‘Keep Planting Flowers’. While Brighton punk twosome, Lambrini Girls, leave a strong, forthright impression on ‘Who Let The Dogs Out’. Both albums have been reviewed in detail below.
My personal recommendations come from introspective Louisiana math-rock-tinged indie rockers Inside Voices and their second record – ‘If It Matters’. While French post-rock instrumentalist Hanry teases something special. ‘Disruption’ sees the Rennes-based sextet deliver a pensive and dynamic take on the genre, with an impressive atmospheric ebb and flow. Likewise, studio-based Missouri duo Sisters Of… deliver a two-track offering of instrumental post-rock and post-metal. ‘Marie / Michel’ fuses the sound of Russian Circles and Cult of Luna, utilising a remotely produced, layered approach leading to a acrobatic and compelling short outing.
Elsewhere, Alter Bridge and Creed guitarist, Mark Tremonti, returns with a sixth solo album in the form of ‘The End Will Show Us How’. With an expected barrage of riffs, it sees renowned axeman maintain of consistent level of reliable hard rock with plenty of soaring choruses and fiery solos. In contrast, ‘Perverts‘ by Ethel Cain (aka Hayden Anhedönia) is a bleak 90-minute venture into goth-pop ambience with haunting results.
The Halo Effect extend Sweden’s melodic death metal legacy with ‘March Of The Unheard’. Whereas closer to home, Northern metalcore crew Waterlines serve up a pulverising series of riffs and brutal breakdowns with ‘WDGAF Vol. 1’. TesseracT expand 2023’s acclaimed ‘War Of Being’ record with a ‘Tour Edition’ that includes live cuts from their headline set at last year’s Radar Festival. There are also releases from Cave In (‘Jupiter (25th Anniversary Reissue)’), Franz Ferdinand, Zeta, Vampires Everywhere!, Alchemy, and more.
Stick To Your Guns – Keep Planting Flowers
Orange County outfit Stick To Your Guns has represented the Californian hardcore for over two decades, yet as they return for their eighth full-length it considerably sees them in their purest form. You kinda know what to expect from STYG and ‘Keep Planting Flowers’ quickly meets expectations with the machine gun rumbling of ‘We All Die Anyway’ giving way to ‘Spineless’‘ siren guitars and Jesse Barnett’s explosive chorus.
Unsurprisingly, there is a relentless intensity yet when metallic blasts such as ‘Permanent Dark’ you can’t find fault in their steely execution. Influenced by Barnett’s persevering lyrical mindset, it brilliantly captures the positive fighting spirit that appears throughout. A quote by Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti bridges ‘Permanent Dark’ with the roaring ‘Invisible Rain‘. It serves as a stomping onslaught with ferocity, comfortably embracing a melodic dynamic in the process. Likewise, ‘Severed Forever’ thrives in its melodic hardcore skin albeit slightly routine.
Lambrini Girls – Who Let The Dogs Out
Brighton-based duo Lambrini Girls aren’t ones to hold back. Rooted in riot grrl punk, the debut outing from Phoebe Lunny and Lilly Macieira, ‘Who Let The Dogs Out’, takes no prisoners. Sexual harassment in workplace, male entitlement, body confidence and eating disorders, and housing gentrification are just some of the topics the pair aim at.
Their fearless list of social ills is complemented by a brash, often rigid, brand of post-punk that echoes former tour pals, Idles. The snappy ‘Bad Apple’ sets out the confrontational tone from the outset. It’s rapid tempo swirls like a tornado of pure angst with jagged bursts of “Officer what seems to be the problem, Or can we only know post mortem” screams guitarist and vocalist Lunny. The ruthless pairing of ‘Company Culture’ and ‘Big Dick Energy’ sharply follow. They burst with frustration against misogynist and toxic male-dominated workplaces. The latter fizzes with choppy guitars and cowbell-led tempo as Lunny delivers a verbal onslaught on male scumbags who think they know better.
What is out on #NewMusicFriday?
Stick To Your Guns – Keep Planting Flowers
Lambrini Girls – Who Let The Dogs Out
Tremonti – The End Will Show Us How
Ethel Cain – Perverts
TesseracT – War of Being (Tour Edition)
Franz Ferdinand – The Human Fear
Cave In – Jupiter (Deluxe Edition)
Inside Voices – If It Matters
Waterlines – WDGAF Vol 1
The Halo Effect – March Of The Unheard
Hanry – Disruption
Zeta – Was It Medicine To You?
Vampires Everywhere! – The Devil Made Me Do It
Alchemy – Could It Be Any Worse?
Sisters Of… – Marie / Michel
Slaughtersun – Black Marrow
cohen_noise – Some Things Aren’t Forever, But For A Reason
Haunted Horses – Dweller
If you think I’ve missed something or have a new album/EP/song to tell us about, tell us about it here.
If you’re looking for the latest tracks focusing on rock, punk, hardcore, metal, emo, and everything in between, then check out our ‘Newish Music’ playlist on Spotify or Apple Music.
