Tuesday May 11, 2010 New Music

As I Lay Dying "The Powerless Rise"

I love the first three As I Lay Dying albums, so I pre-ordered their fourth album, The Powerless Rise with no hesitation. Amazon has once again failed to get a release to me by street date, so I haven't had the pleasure of hearing it yet, but by all accounts I've heard it is a logical follow-up to their previous material....in other words, it is another excellent As I Lay Dying album.

The Dead Weather "Sea Of Cowards"

I didn't love The Dead Weather's debut album Horehound, but I didn't hate it either. Now that they've had some more time to gel as a band after a lot of touring since last year, I'm hoping maybe the new album will sound more realized and cohesive as opposed to sounding like a bunch of musicians from other bands who threw an album together. I'm a fan of Jack White, so I will give Sea Of Cowards a shot just out of curiosity.

Howl "Full Of Hell"

I became a Howl fan the instant I finished listening to their 2009 self-titled EP. I pre-ordered their debut album, Full Of Hell along with a t-shirt (so that I can wear it when I go see them play live) from their label, Relapse and got both in the mail last week well ahead of street date (are you reading this Amazon?). The album smokes. If you are into the whole Mastodon, Baroness, Neurosis, Eyehategod, etc. sound, then this will be right up your alley. Definitely a contender for metal debut of the year.

Japandroids "No Singles"

Japandroids are a hype band. I tend to be weary of hype bands because 75% of the time they don't live up to the hype. Especially when it is yet another post-The White Stripes, post-The Black Keys duo. A couple weeks ago I got a free track from Japandroids courtesy of Amie St. and was prepared to be underwhelmed. Turns out that I really enjoyed the song "Darkness On The Edge Of Gastown" and wound up buying their new album No Singles from Amie St. this morning. I haven't listened to it all the way through yet, but the snippets I heard were pretty entertaining. This is apparently a combination of two EPs that they had released in the past and isn't reflective of their current sound, so if I wind up really liking this, then I'll have to proceed with caution if and when checking out newer material.

The National "High Violet"

Yet another album I pre-ordered is The National's High Violet (it is on the way in the mail with the As I Lay Dying album). I LOVED their last album The Boxer and am hoping this record is at least on par with it.