#minireview

Not Your Idol (vol 1) by Aoi Makino

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Bestial death metal from The City of Brotherly Love.

Philadelphia's Pissgrave, known for savage death metal as well as repugnant album covers, do not disappoint in their debut album. Chainsaw riffs, hellish and sometimes pitch adjusted (ala Revenge) vocals meet death metal riffage and (shocker of shockers for a war metal album) groove, see track Impaled Vibration.

Available via Pissgrave's Bandcamp page, Profound Lore Records, and your freindly Discogs seller.

It was a dreadful week without a new episode, but the wait is over! 

I did not expect to see High Voltage in this episode, but it was a pleasant surprise even if the mother-daughter duo was feuding the majority of the time. Both were on a separate hunt to retrieve their energy orb and fought through dance and music. Ultimately, they talked things out and made up in the end, accepting the fact that they’d be in jail together. Don’t you just love happy endings? 

There happened to be two feuds in this episode, and while Barb and Juniper patched things up, things are still tense between Fred and Richardson. It’s the eleven-year-old’s personal belief and obvious lies about being close with Big Hero 6 that leads Fred to accidentally slipping the secret. Richardson blackmails the whole team, gets his own super suit and even goes on a mission with them. Turns out, he had custody of High Voltage’s energy orb the entire time for his superhero museum. 

Fred and Richardson temporarily see eye to eye and it looks like they’re working things out until Richardson gets zapped by the orb which results in amnesia. Luckily, he doesn’t remember that Fred and the others are Big Hero 6,but him and Fred are remaining rivals. 

SHYTALK

‘FAILURE TRIAL’

SELF-RELEASED

SHYTALK have quietly dropped a new EP titled ‘FAILURE TRIAL.’

Shytalk is Cooper Leardi, the Boston based artist who spends the majority of his time as one-half of the darkwave duo House of Harm. Whereas his main project goes to great lengths to create a clear & precise sound, Shytalk affords Leardi the ability to cut loose in a way that creates a genuine warmth, albeit one still wrapped in gothic hues.

But don’t take the fewer demands accredited to Shytalk as a sign of aloofness or un-eagerness, because what you get with the five tracks that make up the ‘Failure Trial’ EP is an intimate and unfiltered reluctance for passion. Shytalk revel in a “press play and see what happens” type of impulse that makes for a truly genuine and dare I say “punk” modus operandi.

That’s where Shytalk stems from, a place of pure heart & manic pace, shrouded in different bits of post-punk past, from New Romantic bangers, to propulsive Goth rock, and new wave sheen. Cooper Leardi works his black magic with a lo-fi and minimal aesthetic, one that isn’t beholden to just ONE sound, but takes stock in the micro-genres that fall under the mighty post-punk umbrella. Two things that have become increasingly apparent in our modern times is the ability to present your art in a matter of one’s choosing and the people behind said art being astute historians of whatever they delve into, Shytalk is no exception.

“Failure Trial” kicks off the EP proper and is a first rate gothic waltz, with its measured beat, new romantic synths, and fog-induced chants. Mining the same waters as Lust for Youth, “Failure Trial” is an aesthetic groover that lulls you in before the harder charging “Thoughts Like Snow” takes over. There’s a bit of that ragged early Cure/Joy Division in “Thoughts Like Snow” with its chugging rhythm, while the throbbing “No” is all dancefloor darkwave.

The first thing I thought of upon hearing the few first few bars of “A New Light” is “holy shit, this sounds like The Church,” which is NEVER a bad thing. Acoustic strums lead the way, as “A New Light” is pure romance Goth with minimal yet thunderous percussion and choice basslines making for a deliciously dizzying listen. Closing out the album in strong fashion is the bouncy “Celebrate the Night,” with its slinky & revved up post-punk that’s equal part new wave rager and bedroom bound bummer. “I’ll be whatever you want me to be” is the running tag line throughout the track and is the perfect encapsulation regarding Shytalk as a whole.

So let Shytalk, while small in scale, make a decent size dent in your gothic ass heart with his latest trial tested and failure approved batch of songs.