post punk

(8/10) Finnish rock outfit Grave Pleasure delivers their soundtrack for the dark season like autumn and winter right in time. The third album of the band this Helsinki-based band is an important one, having an impact on the future direction of this rock outfit. Fortunately things look pretty good since “Motherblood” became a big one.

Basically Grave Pleasure continues their journey through dark rock that’s rooted in punk rock. The best references for Grave Pleasure’s sound are Joy Division, Killing Joke and partly The Cure. The quintet doesn’t interpret ‘dark’ and ‘gloomy’ as something that needs to be slo-mo. The tracks on this album are of a higher pace, including a post-punk approach. The darkness comes more from well-done undertones that are weaved into each of the tracks and it’s the lyrics too that are a kind of danse macabre. The guys dig into the deepest fears of mankind. Demise and the apocalypse are main sources, acting as inspiration for lyrics like in “Laughing Abyss”. Even a certain Fields Of The Nephilim vibe is included in songs like “Atomic Christ”.

What comes with each of the songs is a great melody. It’s hard to get fascinated by these tunes since the hooks do their job in a perfect manner. In that sense the album has almost a pop appeal. But I don’t want to be misunderstood, none of the ten songs is even close to pop music. It’s more that the songs are, based on their melodies, danceable ones that would work perfectly for an alternative club night.

The predecessor was already a good album and “Motherblood” prolongs this positive expression. Grave Pleasure can look forward to a bright future in darkness.

(8/10)

Tracklist:

1. Infatuation Overkill
2. Doomsday Rainbows
3. Be My Hiroshima
4. Joy through Death
5. Mind Intruder
6. Laughing Abyss
7. Falling For an Atom Bomb
8. Atomic Christ
9. Deadenders
10. Haunted Afterline

Label: Century Media

Genre: Post-Punk

Release Date EU: September 29^th, 2017

Grave Pleasures from Finland will release a new 7" called "Funeral Party" on November 18th,

Singer Mat McNerney states:

"We’re surfing the apocalypse again and this time with the reverb button back on. Back to the new old sound and back to a Finnish lineup. Now we’ve returned to the bunkers and are handling some radioactive new material for the next album. The new stuff is a nuclear fusion of our Beastmilk past with Climax and the beast(sic) parts of Grave Pleasures’ Dreamcrash album. This new 7” is a small detonation of that new material and released in an exclusive way, to reward our fans for sticking with us.

It’s great to be back making another short format release on 7” just like the early days with Beastmilk. To complete your end of the world celebratory package, we have put together a funeral party karaoke video so you can sing along to your doom. An underground uproar with a funeral party beat, we’re definitely dancing with the dead again."

(6/10) Heavy Metal and Japan is for me: Loudness. Those guys left more than a footprint in metal coming from the land of the rising sun. But that was decades ago and the next generation took over. If the result is what you like is something you have to decide for your own. 

However, One OK Rock is one of those current hyped bands that are pretty successful in Japan. The four piece, that started in 2005, is playing modern rock, in the broadest meaning of the word. On the one hand there are sugar sweet melodies next to some samples and on the other side there are hard guitars plus almost metalcore screams.

"35xxxv" got an excellent sound. The album is produced very well. It almost too clean and a few edges would have been very welcome.

Some metalcore screams doesn't make the album to a heavy one. Tracks like the cheesy "Heartache" really gives you one. Compared to this song even Poison sounds heavy. This album is pretty vanilla. Exchangable music that is catchy but without any soul, that's One OK Rock.

One OK Rock might sell a lot of this album that is made for the mainstream market. But what I miss is the own identity of the band's sound. It feels like a casting band was formed to earn money. 

...but the album inspired me to put my old Loudness records on the player. Just something good for the ears.

(6/10)

Tracklist:

1. 3xxxv5
2. Take me to the Top
3. Cry Out
4. Suddenly
5. Mighty Long Fall
6. Heartache
7. Memories
8. Decision (feat. Tyler Carter)
9. Paper Planes (feat. Kellin / Sleeping With Sirnes)
10. Good Goodbye
11. One by One
12. Stuck in the Middle

Label: Warner Records

Genre: Modern Rock

Release Date EU: September 25th, 2015

Killing Joke will release their new album called Pylon" on October 23rd, 2015 via Spinefarm. Here is the first lyric video for "I Am The Virus".