Death Grips - Year of the Snitch (Third World/Harvest, 2018)

Exmilitary and The Money Store are two A1 albums. Then No Love Deep Web came which was a little more hit and miss, and Government Plates followed which was okay but still more miss than hit. The first disc of The Powers That B, Niggas on the Moon, dropped and it was mostly blah. About that point I checked out for good. It's roughly the same time they went silent and worked on the second disc of TPTB, Jenny Death, for about a year. One day I saw they released a cut from that disc, "Inanimate Sensation", and it rocked my face off. I was back. DxG was back. Jenny Death was released and by far the best thing they'd done since the Exmilitary/Money Store days. Since then they've only gotten more erratic - a couple of instrumental EPs, a one-off with Les Claypool, a 20+ minute "megamix". The next album they released in and amongst those, Bottomless Pit, was fine, not terribly adventurous but not bad. Year of the Snitch falls into that category too and kind of feels like a sister album to Bottomless Pit in some ways. Musically it is quite similar to the "Steroids" megamix, very heavy on the electro and less concerned with hip hop or pop stylings from the past ("Hacker" seems a million years in the past now). There's some good tracks on here, most of them already released as singles - "Streaky", "Shitshow", "Black Paint", "Hahaha". There's a few gibberish tracks on here like "Death Grips is Online", "Little Richard" and "Dilemma". Again kinda like Bottomless Pit which was the same deal. Occasional brilliance, but not consistent on the level they used to deliver. I'll keep staying tuned to what comes next though.

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Nachtmystium/Leviathan - In the Valley of Death, Where Black Metal is King: An Homage to the Roots (Ascension Monuments Media, 2018)

What the fuck is that title. Okay I get the first part is a Judas Iscariot tribute, but did we really need "an homage to the roots" in there? Hey wouldn't it be funny if these were actually covers of the band The Roots? Anyway. This album was supposed to come out 10 years ago, but it was blocked by the bands' respective labels. Now I guess they've figured out a way, or Blake Judd needs money for drugs so he's figured out a way, to put this out. The Bandcamp version has 8 tracks, 5 from Nachtmystium and 3 from Leviathan, but I've seen a 10-track tracklisting elsewhere. On the version I have, we have Nachtmystium covering Judas Iscariot, Ildjarn (twice), Von and Burzum. Leviathan tackles Ildjarn (twice) and Von once. I seem to be missing Leviathan's Judas Iscariot cover ("Where the Winter Beats Incessant") and one of Nachtmystium's Von covers ("Von"). Weird. Wonder if there were some licensing issues or something. All four Ildjar...

Isserley - Cutest Girls Suicide Cult (Tigersquawk, 2018)

Again - no real recollection of how this one ended up in my wishlist. I keep tabs on some witchhouse stuff and I guess I heard of Isserley somewhere...then again maybe it's the rad album title and kool art that pulled me in. Isserley is the "self proclaimed saddest girl in Australia" and these are kind of witchy beats, although more distorted and noise-y than is typical...of which I approve...but overall the album (it's more like an EP) didn't do much for me. Apparently a lot of these trax are culled from previous Isserley projects and given makeovers. Good to know! But not my bag.

Corrupted - Felicific Algorithim (Cold Spring, 2018)

For whatever it means, this is the beginning of Corrupted's "Hollow" series. Maybe the clue is in the music? Unlike Corrupted's traditional ultra-slowed down, Spanish-sung, Japanese doom metal this is instrumental harsh noise. Still filthy and angry and depressive but sans vox and also more or less sans metal. Both untitled sides are meant to be played at either speed. The result? Meh. I miss Corrupted's brand of doom, this relatively anonymous harsh noise is fine and all but if I'm listening to Corrupted...well I know what I want. Skippable.

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