Sacred Bones Us Vinyl & CDs

Review: Divinity made waves when it premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, leaning in on sci-fi dystopia directed in a hallucinatory style by Eddie Alcazar. The themes of immortality in an imagined future are ripe for all kinds of questionable behaviour and thrilling drama, and the soundtrack duties have been handed over to the more than capable partnership of DJ Muggs and Dean Hurley. You might not have immediately put the legendary Cypress Hill producer together with David Lynch's soundtrack collaborator of choice, but the pair have created the perfect cyberpunk setting which fuses Terminator-esque nostalgia with high-impact contemporary sequences, sounding like the future we all fear on this silver pressing for Sacred Bones.

Review: Molchat Doma are one of the global music phenomenons of our time. The Belarusian trio first started causing a small stir among the kind of circles that actively hunt out Belarusian synth bands. That grew into widespread rumblings throughout the underground, driven by online shares as much as play on independent radio stations. Skip forward again, and the outfit can claim true viral sensation status, having conquered tastemakers and social networks across the world. Monument is their third album, and was largely written during Covid-19 quarantine in their hometown, Minsk. Again, it's an evolutionary thing. Post-punk vies for your attention next to synth pop, cold wave, New Wave and romantic electronica. Calling to mind, at various points, The Cure, Depeche Mode and Joy Division, among others, nevertheless those comparisons don't feel fair - the work here is fresher feeling and, ultimately, removed from the North Atlantic hegemony, so it should be analysed in that context.

Review: Originally a digital-only release unveiled back in 2020 with little to no fanfare, Blessings Of The Highest Order served as a compilation of Nirvana covers from Louisiana sludge metal behemoths Thou. No strangers to collaborative projects or cover versions, the band's bevvy of Nirvana renditions stretched from album tribute compilations to lesser known recordings, with some cuts on the tracklist shocking even the most devout and studious of fans. This pressing marks the first time the collection has ever been made available to wax, complete with updated intimidating homo-erotic artwork, while the tracklist avoids the low hanging fruit of the most well known Nirvana singles, instead opting for deeper cuts such as 'Floyd The Barber', 'Milk It', and 'Territorial Pissings'. That isn't to say 'In Bloom' isn't a majorly popular track, but apart from that and perhaps the grinding slow-burn reimagining of 'Something In The Way', this is Nirvana worship for lifers and bruisers.

Review: Baton Rouge, Louisiana based doom-sludge auteurs Thou have become renowned for their uniquely punishing brand of psych-tinged, heaving, fuzzed-out metal, while their myriad collaborations with the likes of noise-sludge duo The Body has prevented the collective from ever resting on their laurels for long. While most recently working with Mizmor on 2022's Myopia EP, and the two preceding years spent on both the Emma Ruth Rundle full-length May Our Chambers Be Full and companion EP The Helm of Sorrow, it's now been almost six full years since the band released an LP of their sole design. 2018's Magus served as a monolithic, 75 minute statement of artistic despair whilst highlighting the catharsis found in the most crushing of sonics. Featured in the top metal releases of 2018 by Decibel, Noisey, BrooklynVegan and NPR, to name but a few, this limited tan vinyl 2xLP reissue is long overdue, and just might signal the coming signs of new Thou material out on the horizon. Whatever may come, revisit the gargantuan Magus in the meantime.