What’s up, dingleberries? It’s Wednesday already again, and that can mean only one thing: Tom’s got his Wednesday underwear on! Also, three new music reviews. Persefone from Andorra. SASAMI from the USA. Guerilla Toss also from the USA. I guess those last two weren’t noteworthy at all. I just wanted to mention Andorra.

Also “Persefone” and “SASAMI” together remind me of pepperoni and salami, and “Guerilla Toss”, well, that’s the chef throwing the pizza dough around, ain’t it? Who wants lunch?

Persefone – Metanoia
(February 4, 2022)

How many artists and bands can you name from Andorra? Besides, of course, the Beatles, AC/DC, Rush, Grateful Dead, Lorde, Die Antwoord, BTS, Rammstein, Björk, U2, ABBA, Children of Bodom, and Fela Kuti? Hmm, I can’t think of anymore except Persefone! Persefone is the only other one!

I like Persefone. Over the years, they’ve transformed their Opeth-worship into a sound they can call their own, mixing all the flavors of progressive metal that you could happen to run into. The stale, epic Dream Theater kind. The moody, electronic Porcupine Tree kind. The emotionally cathartic Wilderun kind. The technical death Gorguts kind. The vast, atmospheric The Ocean kind. All emulsified into a homogenous suspension of satisfying songwriting. Almost as satisfying as that previous sentence!

I think Metanoia is a good “general progressive metal fan” album. It’s for people who don’t go deep into any particular flavor of progressive metal, or delve too deeply into a single band, but enjoy skimming the surfaces before continuing forward onto something else. Immediately accessible, complex but it doesn’t require 10 listens for everything to coalesce, a spirited mix of light and heavy, harsh and clean, and plenty of dynamic suite-like sections throughout most of these songs. Memorable immediately; sticks in your brain. I particularly enjoy the suspenseful, larger-than-life soundtrack ambience of “Leap of Faith”, and the smorgasbord of chaotic, tightly-arranged sections of “Consciousness (Pt. 3)”. Both of these are instrumentals, but they are so packed to the gills with character and color that you’ll barely even notice that no one is singing.

Good stuff! I’m happy. Check out the rest of Persefone’s back catalog while you’re at it. It’s fun seeing how the group has progressed over the last 20 years.

Early Verdict:

SASAMI – Squeeze
(February 25, 2022)

I haven’t heard Sasami Ashworth’s first album yet, but reviews suggest a melancholy indie shoegaze angle. I can imagine that listening to Squeeze with that context would be jarring to anyone who expected more of the same. This is an industrial nu-metal / country pop record! Sometimes it’s entirely one, sometimes it’s entirely the other, and sometimes the twain meet in a gloriously odd way. You should by know that I freely toss in the bonus points for unusual musical decisions, whether they work well or not. I appreciate the courage. Luckily, it works very well in this case.

The weirdness becomes apparent when you’re halfway through the second track “The Greatest”, which displays SASAMI’s unaltered vocal abilities in an anachronistic alt-rock tune. Juxtaposed with the opening track, “Skin a Rat”, which blares a sugary electro-industrial metal riff with distorted vocals, you get uneasy with where exactly the album is going. “Say It” feels like Grimes at her most caustic, or even Poppy without the uncanny valley representations, but the music is loaded with sharp and slippery riffs. And then, later, you get to “Try to Understand”, which is the most straightly-played indie country anthem Squeeze has to offer. It sounds like Shania Twain collaborating with Japanese Breakfast. What the hell is going on here?

While I do admit that this grab-bag approach removes some of a the immediacy that one craves from a new release, I can’t get enough of this album right now. The singing is fantastic, the melodies are catchy, and the production is engaging. I like the little drum fills throughout the hipster-grungy Pavement-like “Make It Right”. I like the breathtaking, inexplicable string quarter interlude of “Feminine Water Turmoil”. I like not knowing what this woman is doing and what she’s going to do next. It’s exciting!

Can’t you feel the excitement?!

Early Verdict:

Guerilla Toss – Famously Alive
(March 25, 2022)

I know this album only dropped five days ago, but I already have Opinions™! That’s usually not a good sign.

I’m disappointed! Guerilla Toss has travelled along one of the more interesting trajectories, starting out as a bizarre, lo-fi, electronic, no wave, hyperpunk outfit and continuously evolving into a colorful, artsy, sugary experimental pop band. Like a Deerhoof for the new generation. Every new album was so much better than the album that preceded it. 2018’s Twisted Crystal was my obsession for a bit of time, with anti-funk “Hacking Machine” and the 16-bit space alien Sega Genesis soundtrack “Retreat” on constant repeat. I heard the news of their fifth album about two months ago and I couldn’t fucking wait to hear what was in store next.

And…we’ve evolved a tad too far, it seems. Kassie Carlson’s successful life-threatening battle with a crippling drug addiction is far enough in the past that her gradually increasing, overwhelming positivity has completely taken over the songwriting. These songs are like a rave party in a vat of strawberry ice cream, hitting occasional pockets of sweetness that rival even the most syrupy of J-pop hits. Production is way too glossy and overdone. I was pleased with the hypnotic, buzzy, bleepy-bloopy opener “Cannibal Capital”, but after that there’s a wealth of cloying autotune, molasses-thick synthpop semi-balladry, and uninspired melodies. “Mermaid Airplane” reuses the uncreative “Ring Around the Rosie” musical figure that they already used in the chorus of Twisted Crystal‘s “Jesus Rabbit”. “Wild Fantasy”, similarly, feels like melody recycling. By this point, the album is about half over, and I’m disillusioned.

The weirdness is still there, but they’re starting to get less weird now. Pretty soon, the band will all grow up without me, leaving me all alone to bask sadly in my Boredoms and OOIOO record collection.

Early Verdict: