Sunday: In the Presence of Wolves - Storm in a Red Dress

     Let's all say a big "thank you" to Metalsucks for this one, because A) that's where I found it, and B) it's a fun song that I'm digging more with every play. Prepare yourself: you're about to be In the Presence of Wolves.

     Well, more in the presence of In the Presence of Wolves, but that doesn't roll quite the same now, does it? Either way, "Storm in a Red Dress", taken from the band's debut LP Thalassas, does roll along quite nicely. It's a proggy, jazzy, rocking little number, and it's got sweet solo-y midsection (corresponding with the protagonist's bad trip in the video) that's just begging for some live reinterpretation and expansion. Plus, that's just a good name for a song, straight up. So check it out.

Friday: My Project Ghost - Wrap Around Porch

     By now you should know that I likes me some post-hardcore, even if that is such a broad genre label that it can arguably shelter virtually anything under its prodigious umbrella. But today's band is decidedly post-hardcore (if that makes any sense) and I've got Metalsucks to thank for the heads up.

     Of course, they have one of the dudes from The Safety Fire to thank for the heads up in the first place, as apparently said dude is friends with the guitarist in British post-hardcore trio My Project Ghost. This haunting musical endeavour (see what I did there?) has only released one song so far, but it's that one song that I'm really digging on.

     "Wrap Around Porch" is big and laden with grooves, with equal helpings of melody and disharmony. Think Architects if they were less metal (which makes a little sense, since apparently said My Project Ghost guitarist Morgan Sinclaire used to be Architects live guitarist). I'll be interested to hear what My Project Ghost comes out with next.

Jolly - Firewell

     Maybe it's the academic in me, the guy who spent years writing papers rife with proper source citation (MLA style for the win!), but I always try to give credit where credit is due. So tonight I will send some love out to Metalsucks contributor Shanbomb, whose top fifteen albums of 2013 have provided me, and in turn you, with some quality listening material.

     Yesterday's RSJ track was drawn from Shanbomb's picks, and so is tonight's tune from New York's Jolly. "Firewell" is the song, from The Audio Guide to Happiness Part Two, and the sound is rocking and proggy. I'm tired, so I can't quite put my finger on the kind of comparison to make right now, but my sleepy brain keeps coming back to Between the Buried and Me if BTBAM were a rock/alternative type band instead of metal.

     Maybe that's way off the mark, but hey, it should at least make you want to check out "Firewell" to see just how full of shit I might be. Whatever gets you listening. A foot in the door is a foot in the door, so to speak, so just check out Jolly already.

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.

The Ocean - Bathyalpelagic II: The Wish in Dreams

     I don't usually directly recommend you go visit another music blog (although I try to give credit when it's due in terms of where I get ideas/material/whatever from) but you really should go over to Metalsucks and check out the piece written by The Ocean's Robin Staps about the ongoing stink surrounding tech death band Rings of Saturn and their apparent inability to play their songs without the aid of various technological enhancements.

     Regardless of which side of this debate you fall on, or whether or not you're a fan of either Rings of Saturn or the streets ahead work of The Ocean, it's a good read and a very eloquent existential discussion of what makes metal and where the fine line is drawn between skilled artist and talentless charlatan.

     But what does any of that have to do with your Song of the Day this evening? Simple! You should put on The Ocean's "Bathyalpelagic II: The Wish in Dreams" (from this year's phenomenal Pelagial) whilst you read, and marvel at what a band can do when their definition of "good" extends beyond mere speed and technicality. It's a short-but-sweet number that'll make you glad you did.

Song of the Day: Existem - Slay the Giant

     Regular readers might remember that I frequent a couple of other metal blogs (namely MetalSucks and Heavyblogisheavy) and that with their aid I sometimes come across some really cool stuff. You have Heavyblogisheavy and their pretty positive review of Existem's debut album to thank for today's song.

Song of the Day: Thank You Scientist - My famed disappearing act

     I read reviews on sites like Heavyblogisheavy and MetalSucks, and if somebody I don't know sounds particularly interesting I'll go and check them out. I'm sure you do much the same thing when you're looking for new stuff. That's how I discovered today's band.