Cobalt – Slow Forever

★★★★☆

Released March 25th, 2016 on Profound Lore Records

It has to be hard for a band when an integral member – an icon of the band itself – melts down in public and turns out to be a massive asshole.  Scott Stapp falling asleep in the middle of a show, Wes Scantlin accusing an audience member of stealing his house, Phil Anselmo drunkenly bellowing “white power” and give the Hitler salute:  embarrassing moments that neatly divide a band in decline from a defunct band.  Cobalt knows that pain all too well.

The band made a name for themselves with their own take on the scaffolding of black metal, and singer Phil McSorley’s rugged military-inspired lyrics.  Then McSorley decided to go on a misogynist, homophobic rant on the Facebook page of another band, and  band lynchpin Eric Wunder tossed him by the wayside.  Seven years after their last album, the genre classic Gin, the band announced a return with Charlie Fell of Chicago’s Lord Mantis on the mic.  The result is utterly galvanizing, one of the finest metal releases I’ve heard in years.  Listening to it for me was akin to the first time I heard “Blood & Thunder” kick off Leviathan – a burning need to bang my head, and a sense that this was something altogether more special than another collection of burly riffs.  “Hunt The Buffalo” is as effective an opener as “Blood & Thunder”, but “Elephant Graveyard” is heavier than anything Mastodon ever came out with, and “Ruiner” might just be cleverer.  Charlie Fell brings a range that even his time in Lord Mantis didn’t prepare anyone for; his work on “Cold Breaker” seems to constantly shift, sharply yowling and then bellowing like a mammoth.

It was F. Scott Fitzgerald who once opined that there were no second acts in American life. Wunder and Cobalt, though, have managed exactly that, rising from the toxic ashes of their past and making a new name for themselves as a solid, well-rounded All-American Metal Band.  This new second act Cobalt is better than McSorley’s military black metal Cobalt ever was:  grimy, bluesy, and crushingly heavy in all the right places.  Even better:  no soaring sing-along choruses.  See, Killswitch?  This is how you make metal.

And The Rest…

Underworld

Barbara Barbara We Face A Shining Future

★★★☆

03/18/2016 on Astralwerks Records

As far as latter-day albums from Nineties electronic heroes go, it’s not Random Access Memories, but neither is it The Day Is My Enemy.  Drum n bass superstar High Contrast adds just the right touch of modernity to Underworld’s familiarity.

Damien Jurado

Visions Of Us On The Land

★★★★

03/18/2016 on Secretly Canadian

Visions is a journey record, both inward and outward, and it’s arid psychedelic vistas will bring you into the mystic and keep you there, contemplating your own inner desire.

Richmond Fontaine

You Can’t Go Back If There’s Nothing To Go Back To

★★★☆

03/18/2016 on Fluff & Gravy Records

While it’s not Fontaine’s finest alt-country moment (you have to go back seven years to find that), it does make for an enjoyable, wistful, somewhat overlong record.  Solid Americana that doesn’t overstep it’s own ambitions.

Young Thug

I’m Up

★★★☆

02/05/2016 on 300 Entertainment Records

In between all the off-the-wall, smoked-out singalongs there’s a strange sadness lurking, as though being the most prolific nutjob in hip hop that isn’t a Based God isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Young Thug

Slime Season 3

★★★★

03/25/2016 on 300 Entertainment Records

For someone who hasn’t even put out a proper debut yet, there sure is a lot of Young Thug on the market, and it keeps getting better, too.  Slime Season 3 is a perfect example of the progression of an artist who is learning to take their gift for crafting bangers with oddly affecting choruses and turn them to a more wide-screen audience.

The Body

One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache

★★★★

03/25/2016 on Neurot Records

A collaboration with Full Of Hell that will leave you shuddering, weeping, and likely deaf.  This is what dancefloors sound like in the Abyss.

Amon Amarth

Jomsviking

★★★★

03/25/2016 on Metal Blade Records

You’d think that after ten albums of muscular Viking metal that the luster would fade, but here we are.  The titan’s latest album is a concept about a warrior looking to get the girl, after he gutted the girl’s fiance.  Just bang your head.