Music

For new listeners and latecomers, there was no handier introduction to London’s vibrant, bustling jazz scene than Gilles Peterson’s 2018 compilation We Out Here. Curated by the scene’s own breakout star Shabaka Hutchings, the set showcased a new generation of artists melding jazz classicism to Afrobeat, neo-soul, electronic music, and ambient. And no one worked harder than tenor saxophonist Nubya Garcia, present on five of the comp’s nine pieces. Hailing from an immigrant family—her mother from Guyana, her father from Trinidad—she grew up in a musical family in the London borough of Camden, starting first on piano and violin before gravitating to a “broken as hell” old clarinet. She came up with other groups like Maisha and the septet Nérija, and she’s remained busy ever since, her presenc...

ALL THAT REMAINS vocalist Philip Labonte has confirmed to the FM99 WNOR radio station that the band has commenced the songwriting process for the follow-up to 2018’s “Victim Of The New Disease” album. Asked when fans can expect to see the disc released, he said (see video below): “We’re looking to have a record out, if not first quarter of next year, then early part second quarter, so springtime.” During the same chat, Labonte spoke about how ALL THAT REMAINS‘ new material may be different from its previous efforts. He said: “Our guitar player, Oli Herbert, passed away a couple of years back, so this will be the first record that we write without him. He was a big part of the writing process for so long, it’s gonna definitely have some ...

Michael Sweet of openly Christian rockers STRYPER says that he can’t understand why people “feel the need” to ridicule others for their political beliefs. Sweet made his comments shortly after the Republican National Convention kicked off Monday morning in Charlotte, North Carolina, with a roll call formally nominating Donald Trump to run in the November election. Sweet took to his social media to write: “Why do you think people feel the need to post political hate? I’m trying to figure it out. Constant disdain for people who don’t agree with them. Endless posts about why people should vote for the other party (regardless of what party your affiliated with) and if they don’t they’re embiciles, they’re idiots, they’re bad people. &...

RATING: 7.5/10 NONEXIST has always been a project that danced in the realm of comfort-food melodeath, whose main creative force has primarily been guitarist Johan Reinholdz — now also a member of DARK TRANQUILLITY. But a large portion of that comfort, from founding through to 2015’s “Throne of Scars”, was from original ARCH ENEMY frontperson Johan Liiva. Reinholdz‘s latest record sees him moving forward as a one-man project, juggling his usual instrumentation duties while also stepping behind the microphone, supplemented by a few guest appearances from a who’s who of the Swedish melodeath scene. There’s still plenty to revel in, though the weight of being a fully one-man project does appear here to be a bit heavy at times, and that weight is accentuated ...

RATING: 8/10 PIG DESTROYER rejoins us with a brief but belligerent EP, following 2018’s full-length “Head Cage”. With “The Octagonal Stairway”, the legendary American grindcore act divides 25 minutes of frantic, unsettling grind into six songs. The grind purists who bemoaned “Head Cage”‘s much more diverse stylings are offered enough cutthroat grind to make them bite their tongues until they bleed. “The Octagonal Stairway” is indeed an icepick to the eardrums, but it’s also reflective of the nuanced and impressively dynamic band they’ve grown into. The depth of sound has increased tremendously since the one-time trio has grown to include Blake Harrison (electronics) — who has been with the band for nearly 15 years at t...