Last Wednesday: Every Time I Die - Goddamn Kids These Days

     Full disclosure: I'm 31 -- yes, only 31 -- but 2015 was a year in which me and many of the people I know started to feel old in one way or another. First world problems, right? Anyways, as bad as that was, I have a feeling 2016 is going to bring more things that make me feel like a curmudgeonly old man, which means that the sentiment expressed by the title of your song for last Wednesday speaks to that fist-shaking part of me.

     My favourite Every Time I Die album is 2009's New Junk Aesthetic, and one of the bonus tracks from the deluxe version of that record is the appropriately titled "Goddamn Kids These Days". Play it loud enough and you can practically hear me telling some whippersnappers to get off my fucking lawn. Sigh.

Sunday: Nasty Toaster - Plastic Hips

     This isn't this first time I've defended metalcore and all its subgenre brethren, and by Odin's beard it shan't be the last! Your Sunday slice of something approaching metalcore reminds me a little of the warped love child of Every Time I Die and older Architects. Want to hear what that sounds like?

     If you answered yes, have a listen to French flavour-blending metalcore band Nasty Toaster, who manage to cover a lot of tasty, tasty ground on their 2014 self-titled EP. Nasty Toaster is a weird and wild four tracks, and I could probably start you off anywhere on the disc, so let's do what comes naturally and start at the start with EP-opener "Plastic Hips", a perfect example of all the big, bombastic metalcore that Nasty Toaster has to offer. Go on and give it a shot -- you'll be glad you did.

Friday: Visions - Autophobia

     Work continues on the upcoming sophomore disc from mathy British tech-core outfit Visions, who (according to Facebook) are looking to hit the studio in September. So while we're waiting for a follow-up to 2011's Home, let's check out another of its tracks to hold us over.

     Your Friday rager from Visions is "Autophobia", one of those showcase songs that encapsulates what a band or album is putting down. In this case, it's mathy metalcore with an emphasis on nimble riffing, and it reminds me a little of a somewhat more metal-oriented Dillinger or Every Time I Die. It's anybody's guess whether it'll be at all representative of new material, but for the time being it's a sweet sampling of what Home has to offer, so check it out if you don't know Visions already. Then hold your breath for September and fresh album news.

Every Time I Die - Thirst

     The forthcoming disc from hardcore heroes Every Time I Die isn't due out until the first of July, and thus technically doesn't fit the theme I've been working with the last couple of days (ie: June releases). But you shouldn't let that stop you from checking out the first song off of From Parts Unknown.

     "Thirst" is less than two minutes long but that just makes its shotgun-blast intensity that much more immediate. There's no wasted space here, no time spent dicking around. I'm normally a guy who likes things on the longer, proggier end of the spectrum, but there's definitely something to be said for a no-nonsense blast of venom, and that's exactly what Every Time I Die have got on their hands with "Thirst". You might as well check it out; I'll be you don't have anything better planned for the next two minutes.

RSJ - Collectively We Are Tall

     Just in case you needed reminding, allow me to do the honours: it's that time of year again. No, not Christmas. Well, yes Christmas, but more pertinently (for our current purposes) it's also Best of 2013 time, when music websites join just about everybody else in looking back on the year that was by trotting out their lists of best albums of the year.

     I'm waiting until the year's actually done to post my Ten Best of 2013 (gives me more time to deliberate, y'dig?) but that doesn't mean I won't take advantage of the opportunity provided to me by the rest of the Internet's gun-jumpers to discover some new, quality stuff. Thus it is that venerable site Metalsucks has led me to today's song from grimy metalcore Brits RSJ.

     Leaving aside how metal an album title I find Higgs Boson to be, RSJ are packing the aggressive energy and riffage of a grindy Refused or Every Time I Die. And if the video for "Collectively We Are Tall" is any indication, these guys also have both a healthy sense of humour and a commendable lack of shame -- always a winning combination. So slip into something more comfortable and get ready for some pelvic thrusts and deep lunges. You can thank me after you've felt the burn.

Exotic Animal Petting Zoo - Through the Thicket... Across Endless Mountains

    I won't force you to conjure up the same unfortunate mental picture of bands fucking and impregnating one another as I did a few days ago with my lineage of Son of Aurelius, but I want to play a similar game this evening. So this I'm going with a cooking analogy.

     Start with the melodic sensibilities and mild experimental streak of Death Before Disco as your base, then add a healthy dose of the angularity and spastic chaos of The Dillinger Escape Plan. Now to temper that Dillinger mathcore insanity, thin the mixture out with a dash of the slightly more straight ahead hardcore/post-hardcore of Every Time I Die, and voila! You've got a little something called Exotic Animal Petting Zoo.

     I've posted about these guys a couple of times before, but my opinion of them has risen since I picked up a copy of sophomore disc Tree of Tongues, so I figured it's time to give them the spotlight again. I can't quite pin down exactly why, but this band feels like a spiritual successor to At the Drive-In. Maybe the "recipe" above doesn't accurately convey this, but the combination of chops and manic energy possessed by Exotic Animal Petting Zoo just keep reminding me of the now-defunct ATDI.

     Any way you slice it, however, they're a band you should know about. Check out "Through the Thicket... Across Endless Mountains" from the aforementioned Tree of Tongues and start getting familiar with Exotic Animal Petting Zoo post haste.

Song of the Day: Every Time I Die - Turtles All the Way Down

     No doubt as a fan of heavier music, you're familiar with the term "metalcore", and the witches' brew of metal and hardcore it was coined to encapsulate. Were I pressed to dissect my musical taste, I would say I prefer my metalcore heavier on the metal and lighter on the hardcore, but I certainly acknowledge that there's good bands at the other, more hardcore, end of the spectrum too. Again, were I pressed, I would put today's band at that hardcore end, and I would further note the generous helping of southern-fried swagger and grungy, sleazy rock mixed into their metalcore sound.