THE DEVIL'S MONTH: March 2024
Rounding up some of the finest releases of the previous month - now including Andy's picks too!
2024 rumbles on mercilessly, the world is a chaotic fucking mess, but like it always happens in “interesting times”, art is there to help us get through it the best we can. This year’s first trimester of music has been an embarrassment of riches, with so much different great stuff to choose from – a great number of which are available to you a click away over at Mondo Negro, just sayin’ –, so it’s lucky that we acquired the best help possible to help us wade through the mountains of sounds and come out on the other side with a carefully curated selection. That’s right, Andy Cairns of the mighty Therapy? returns once again this month with a few more March picks to further enrich our own selections, and we’re sure you’ll find his suggestions to be absolutely spot on as we have.
In total, that’s nine records for you guys to get your heads around. Which one was your favourite this month? Let us know in the comments, and don’t forget to keep making Andy feel welcome – we can’t imagine The Devil’s Month without him anymore.
Onwards!
Deaf Club (Feat. HIRS Collective) / Fuck Money
Split EP
(Three One G)
Three bands involved, and even so it’s all over under eight minutes. You will, however, be hard pressed to find a more intense, unhinged, in-your-face eight minutes of music anywhere else right now. Deaf Club, a savage hardcore punk kind of supergroup composed by Justin Pearson (The Locust, Dead Cross, Planet B), Brian Amalfitano (ACxDC), Scott Osment (Weak Flesh), and Jason Klein (Run With The Hunted), sounds exactly like you would imagine that explosive concoction of bands to sound and then some, while Fuck Money, who seem destined for huge things, are an insane “space punk” band whose unstoppable fuzzy assault is as bruising as it is strangely psychedelic. Thrown in the incredibly prolific queer punks The HIRS Collective (a collective that “exists to fight for, defend, and celebrate the survival of trans, queer, poc, black, women and any and all other folks who have to constantly face violence, marginalization, and oppression”, as they are described on Three One G’s website) as an extra element of chaos as they appear as special guests on Deaf Club’s songs (one of them a crazy cover of Nirvana’s ‘Tourette’s’, mind you), and you have one of the most truly chaotic pieces of music of the year. Try to catch Deaf Club and Fuck Money on their upcoming European - which includes shows at Roadburn! - or American tours, whatever’s closest to you, it’s worth it!
Grieving
Everything Goes Right, All At Once
(By The Time It Gets Dark)
I figured that an album that starts with a song called ‘Brian Emo’ must have something interesting going on, and I’m glad I gave Grieving’s debut album a chance just because of that silly reason. From the guitar tone, shouty but still very melodic vocals, post-punk vibes and overall thoughtful, morose lyrics, you can quickly place them more or less in the old Dischord or SST kind territory, with Fugazi and Hüsker Dü coming across as clear inspirations, but never to the point of uncomfortable collage. On the contrary, despite the straightforward, pleasingly immediate nature of the songwriting, Grieving never come across as shallow or derivative and they are able to maintain a perfect balance between melody/hooks and a certain feeling of tension and angst, coming across as a less punk Samiam in some of their best moments.
Midnight
Hellish Expectations
(Metal Blade Records)
Between the album title and the first song, this little blurb just writes itself, doesn’t it? No longer the best kept secret of the underground, Midnight have broken big in the past few years, so some kind of… Hellish Expectations, yes, now come with every release. However, they have shown absolutely zero compromise in their material, still unleashing kickass black/speed/thrash moshpit-inducing anthems that you can nevertheless somehow also hum in the shower without risk of permanent injury (or as main man Athenar once put it on an interview I had with him, published by Zero Tolerance magazine back in 2019, “you want to get that balance of Hellhammer and Beach Boys, you know?”). So you can Expect, yeah, you know where this is going, Total Hell. Jokes aside, yeah, this is as awesome as any other Midnight record. Business as usual, and business is good. Bring on a bunch more of great shows and the next one in 2026.
Pissed Jeans
Half Divorced
(Sub Pop)
As I’ve said a few times, doing the podcast is also a great way to keep in touch with music that might pass me by sometimes. I shamefully wasn’t even aware there was a new Pissed Jeans album out until the great William Elliott Whitmore picked its first single ‘Moving On’ as one of the songs on the episode where he featured as a guest, and I was instantly blown away. It was the first new music published by the band in seven years, as they had been quiet in discographic terms since 2017’s ‘Why Love Now’. They’re not showing any rust whatsoever though - that track is an instant body-shaker, and the eleven ones that come before it (as it is the album’s closer) are almost all equally great firestarters. Unafraid of being poppy or of not taking themselves incredibly seriously, all that only makes their fury and intensity more genuine, and you’ll find yourself equally dancing away and throwing yourself against the walls while listening to them.
Udåd
Udåd
(Peaceville Records)
Because doing the incredible Mork apparently isn’t enough grimness for Thomas Eriksen, he started a new project which makes records like ‘Katedralen’ or ‘Dypet’ sound like overproduced blockbusters. As if to ward off any normal person who might wander in by mistake, opener ‘Den Evindelige Ende’ is three minutes of bleak guitar loops that sound rawer than a still-mooing steak dripping blood on a Vlad Tepes demo tape. What follows is proper lo-fi black metal, yes, but as would be expected of Eriksen, he still manages to make it sound unconventional and fresh. Hypnotic, desperately gloomy but also surprisingly rich (given the rawness of it all) songwriting, Udåd can actually serve as an example to counter the general idea that lo-fi, rough-sounding music has to be rudimentary in approach and creativity too. Unafraid to explore feeling and subtlety through melody, to throw actual riffs - instead of “atmospheres”, ie, ten-minute tremolo-picking feasts - at you or to shake things up rhythmically (the first blastbeat shows up about 24 minutes into the album, on ‘Den Virkelige Apokryf’), it’s a varied and dynamic listen, and one that sounds like a long-lost classic from the golden era of black metal.
Brux - Fills De La Nit (La Vida Es Un Mus)
Sisters Of Mercy meets Blitz in a blast of boot boy death rock excitement served up with a rush of blood to the head and armed with wiry, flexing guitars and boisterous vocals. ‘Alienados’ is a particular stomping highlight.
Haunch - Let’s Get the Surgery (Long & Short / Bandcamp)
Full disclosure, this heavy slice of alternative rocking features Michael McKeegan on bass who I play alongside in my day job. Joining him here are fellow County Antrim musicians from the much missed Throat (not the Norwegian band) and Dutch Schultz. Robust guitars serve as a foundation for great melodies bolstered by left of centre harmonies and propulsive rhythms. Gorgeous songs like ‘Stick Together’ deserve to be heard loud blasting from a festival stage.
[check out TDM’s Band Of The Week feature on Haunch too]
Public Acid - Deadly Struggle (Beach Impediment Records)
Modern, raw punk in the style of Stingray or Warthog, incorporating D-Beats, blackened riffage and feedback squalls suggesting firing synapses all fly by in a face-blasting chaotic fury. Having a bad day at work? Then this is for you. ‘Ignorance’ is a fine example of how to do punk right in 2024 and the gallop of the title track is absolutely fantastic.
Girls In Synthesis - Lights Out (Own It Records)
This is a single from their forthcoming album ‘Sublimation’, available on 3rd May 2024. Been a fan of GiS for a while now but this is a bold step forward from their recent releases and is jaw dropping in its execution. Killing Joke by way of some Syd era Floyd in the dark psychedelic melodic touches on the vocals which then musically collapses into a sonic meltdown of Fire Music proportions before rebuilding itself into a different truculent shape. Dark sonic flourishes and strange modulations weave in and out of the mix as it builds to a nerve-shredding crescendo. One of my tracks of 2024 so far. Can’t wait to hear the album.