Gettin' Back on Track with The Atlas Moth + More

I’ve been slacking on reviewing things, and I know.  I’ve been slacking on listening to things, which bums me out because I’m always looking for the next album to get hooked on.  Lately The Atlas Moth’s The Old Believer made a believer out of me (cue a thousand groans).  I won’t bother going to in depth here, because there’s tons of great reviews already out there.  When I told drummer Dan Lasek that TOB feels like the album you lay under the stars and ponder your place in this universe to, he said I was spot on.  Spawned from personal turmoil, TOB is a soundscape of an extentensial crisis, of deep personal reflection and contemplation about our places in this confusing and often lonely world.  Regardless, haunting, creative and multi-facted, I’ll be happy to listen to The Old Believer over and over.  Catch The Atlas Moth this fall with Boris and SubRosa.






Michigan-based Mysophilia take their name from a pathological attraction to filth.  The music is certainly filthy, the soundtrack of slamming beers in a wood-paneled basement in the late 80s, so I get that part…but all I can think about now is people on Hoarders having sex in their own ocean of possessions.  Mysophilia takes on all the best parts of bands like Venom, Sepultura, Show No Mercy- Slayer (pretty sure there’s a riff off that album on ‘Amongst the Hordes of Belial!’) and Celtic Frost, this five song EP gives me hope for the continuation of raw music in the age of squeaky clean production.  In honor of throwback Thursday, I raise my glass to these dudes and can’t wait to see what new-old stuff they bring next.




Speaking of new-old stuff, Blood Farmers album “Headless Eyes” brings back Sabbath-worshiping doom in a big way.  In the biggest way.  In all the ways.  Headless Eyes offers a comforting slab of occult/horror inspired doom.  Headless Eyes is heavy, dark and twisted.  .  For me, the highlight is Eli’s vocals, a honeyed mix of Buzzo and John Garcia.  Despite their penchant for 70s influences, this isn’t another psychedelic-for-the-hell-of-it rehash album.  Actually, their cover of “The Road Leads to Nowhere” from The Last House on the Left is understandably the most ~*psychedelic*~ moment on the album, and one of the best.  “The Road” cover is stellar and a perfect ending for this six song album.  Let’s hope we don’t have to wait another decade for the follow up!

PA’s three-piece Secret Cutter unleashed “Self Titled” (I’m not the only one making dad jokes here) this year.  In order to eschew buzzwords, I’d say Self Titled could be the hardcore cousin of a band like Primitive Man. Like Mysophilia, the beer-slamming filth band, Secret Cutter sounds, to me, like an experience.  With catchy hooks and angry, intense vocals, Secret Cutter would fit in our local basement watering-hole-in-the-wall, Sidebar. "Self Titled" sounds like our tiny basement is packed, beer soaked and sweaty, with everyone screaming along and headbanging in unison.  If you close your eyes and listen, you’ll be drenched in sweat and cheap beer too, but you’ll be grinning ear to ear.