Kim Kelly's Riff Wrecks, Vol. II

by Kim Kelly

Hails and hellos to you all, dear readers. I’ve realized that I owe you all a sincere apology. Last month, in the inaugural edition of this here column, I wrote about a bunch of records that have not actually been released yet. This is standard practice within the music journalism world, in which writers are sent digital (and, once upon a time, physical) copies of various albums well in advance of their release dates so that said writers can file their reviews or conduct artist interviews before their own publication goes to print. If they timed it all out properly, the albums they’d written about would then be available for purchase by the time their publication appeared on newsstands or on subscribers’ doorsteps. That’s how it used to work, anyway. 

There’s much to be written about the impact that streaming and surprise album drops and the ongoing decimation of the music press have impacted the way music journalism functions, but I do not really want to write about all that right now. I want to write about metal—and because I realize how irritating it is to read a glowing review of new music that you cannot then actually listen to for yourself, everything in the following roundup is out, has been out for awhile, and is conveniently streaming (and available for purchase!) I’ve got a nice little bundle of treats for you below, from IRA black/death metal to proggy German melodeath to anti-fascist Rust Belt black metal to esoteric Canadian melodeath. Go on, dig in. You deserve it.