Ka - Honor Killed The Samurai

Hip-hop is usually defined with its swift hi-hat runs and speedy deliveries. Ka changes it up a bit. His new record Honor Killed The Samurai is a slow-moving, dramatic, and reprimanding record. It's not in your face but its message is all the same.

Ka's production style is what defines him as an artist. Percussion takes a backseat with his style, an instead the rest of the instrumental fills the space that begs for a drive to thrust the lyrics forward. There's a lot of great instrumental moments on the record that show that percussion doesn't necessarily need to be the backbone of hip-hop; the quiet yet strong 'Just' is led by a beautiful arpeggiated synth that accentuates the "politeness" of the track - the way Ka delivers his lines shows a respect for the listener (just like the ways of a samurai, eh?). The album also has a general moodiness that surrounds it in a mysterious shadow - listen to 'The Cold and Lonely', and the ad-lib tambourines and constantly in-and-out strings. It's like you're listening to this song in black and white. This dark theme repeats itself in 'Mourn At Night', but features a more tight instrumental with paired guitar and keyboard arpeggios.

The message of each track is as strong in the lyrics as the instrumentals. 'Mourn At Night' seems to be a comment on America's shooting crises over the last years: "he gone, we mourn at night" is what takes the song to a somber end. '$' comments on the nature of struggling in the ghetto on top of a dramatic piano and bass. 'Finer Things / Tamahagene' is the most polished track on the record, a beautiful pairing of acoustic guitar and piano with some electronics quietly play under the dramatic and tense lyrics, which sound like a life story, almost. 'Destined' is the oddest track on the record - it's a bit more out going than other tracks, and just feels out of place. The vocals are as moody as the song tries to be, and it just doesn't sound as cohesive as other tracks. Ka has a very moody delivery, and it definitely pairs well with the plethora of moody tracks on the album. 'Ours' is another song with definitive lyrics; "these seconds, these minutes are ours" is a nice play on words when you hear it upon the bellowing layers of vocals and synths that build into a haunting end.

Honor Killed The Samurai is on big metaphor. It's about life in the ghetto; more specifically, the struggles of it. A samurai is cunning and passionate. They'll die for their honor. Ka comments on what "honor" has become, and how its definition can become blurred. It's unique in its sound, and definitely a memorable record. If it had a more engaging from an emotive stance, it could've been a real classic, but it's a good record nonetheless.

Favorite Tracks: Finer Things / Tamahagene, Just

Least Favorite Track: Destined

Rating: 67 / 100

Savoir Adore - The Love That Remains

Savoir Adore has carved out quite the niche for itself with its self-proclaimed "fantasy-rock". The Brooklyn duo is back with their third full-length album, The Love That Remains. The album shows the stretches of their own genre aren't quite that extensive, but does offer a fun listen full of sweet synths and bright chords.

The music scene of Brooklyn requires originality for a band to stick out. Savoir Adore definitely has their own flair; it's a blend of things you've heard before that accumulate into a new fresh sound. Listening to the dreamy synths in 'Savages' give you a sweet vibe while the bright acoustic guitar that hide behind the electronics in the verses of many tracks give this album a fresh, feel-good vibe. 'Giants' brings the anthemic side of the album in, with huge choruses with the sound of a thousand vocal lines and huge bass to bring the chorus that much more punch. The second verse brings some slap bass into the mix too, which is always a nice touch. 'Paradise Gold' is the heart of the album, with groovy verses with layers of sound leading into choruses of pure bliss, where guitar and electronics become one in arpeggiated greatness. It's like if Purity Ring had guitars.

Despite the great feel of the album, there isn't much that stands out. 'Paradise Gold' is such an amazing track, but there's nothing else quite like it on the album. Nothing feels quite as immense or, perhaps, as pure as that song. There are shining moments throughout the album - the guitar in the intro of 'Crowded Streets', for example - but nothing is as spot-on in its entirety as 'Paradise'. It's a very safe sounding record, as if the band didn't want to stray from the formula of their brand. There's a lot of sweet percussion that finds its way into certain tracks, but those don't save the songs as a whole. The last track feels downright uninspired, forget following the formula. 'Night Song' literally chants "This is our last song, this is the last one..." Where did it all go wrong? They played it too safe with this record.

Savoir Adore made an enjoyable record, but nothing provocative. It's disappointing, really - I wish there were more song with replay value than just one star track. It's by no means a bad record, but it's safe. Too safe. "Fantasy rock" is something not a lot of artists can claim they dabble in - Savoir Adore can take it anywhere they want. The question is, will they?

Favorite Track: Paradise Gold

Least Favorite Tracks: Night Song, Beautiful Worlds

Rating: 68 / 100

Racing Glaciers - Caught In The Strange

English rockers Racing Glaciers have burst powerfully into music with their debut LP, Caught In The Strange. It's a boggling record, beginning with subtly building tracks before massive rockers come into play later on.

Theirs two flavors on this record: the quiet, resonating guitar rock that start the record and the layered walls of sound that find their way into the end of some tracks. There's a quiet brilliance that can be found within tracks such as the eponymous 'Caught In The Strange' and its preceding instrumental interlude, the introspective 'Nag Champa'. A peaceful abode dominates much of the album - a flow of easygoing tracks build near the end of the record before it returns to its rockier side, beginning with 'Patient Man' and ending at the first chorus of 'Samadhi (So Far Away)', which bursts with energy.

The other half of the record is massive. It's less of a half and more isolated moments found in tracks, but they're much more memorable and really bring the album together. It begins with the first epic moment on the record, the huge jamming ending of 'Naked We Rise', building up brilliantly through its length. It starts with a chord that has just enough dissonance to sound correct, and you know something is coming. Even earlier in the record is 'Seems Like A Good Time', where the rhythm guitar's crunchiness gives the song a new level of drive. 'Carry It On' has a gentle guitar line that's fantastically simple, yet beautiful all the same before building into a giant jam at the end. 'Samadhi' is wholly a jam, the energy resonating right after the chorus begins. The final track 'Young and Unsure' is a lengthy acoustic build that introduces a brass section as it builds into an epic conclusion.

As far as debuts go, this one is huge. Racing Glaciers have carved a solid career out for themselves with this first record. Their sounds pillar up into harrowing jams and each track is definitively their own. It sparks originality and a bright future for this band. Caught In The Strange is a flying success.

Favorite Tracks: Naked We Rise, Samadhi, Young & Unsure

Least Favorite Track: Patient Man

Rating: 75 / 100

Moose Blood - Blush

High school is or was the time of our lives. The music of the mid-2000s really defined the teenage scene - no one can forget the infectious pop punk / alternative rock anthems from that era; Fall Out Boy's 'Dance, Dance' and 'Sugar, We're Going Down', We The Kings' 'Check Yes Juliet', and Paramore's 'Misery Business' were only some of the big gems from that time, and even today they define us in that time of our lives.

Some may say pop punk is dead. Moose Blood challenges that statement. Their sound is a combination of today's punk scene and that mid-2000s rock. They're a fresh new blend of two beloved genres, but at the same time, it's just what you expect - and want.

As refreshing a return to this style may be, it's not exactly groundbreaking. It's certainly nostalgic, but by no means anything new. 'Pastel' starts the album and brings the memories flooding back, but once you get past that it's really just an average track. 'Honey' is slightly better, being that relatable love song about a match made in heaven. Much of the album, specifically 'Knuckles' has the sound of Biffy Clyro if they played pop punk. The middle section in a bit boring with how familiar everything sounds...

The problem with this album is that it's something we've heard before. It's nothing new, just a nostalgia trip. It's not a bad album, per se, but once you get past the fact it's a throwback to an important part of your life, it loses its flair. And that's if that era of music was important to you. If you're just listening to a pop punk record, it does get boring towards the center. The last taste or interest is in 'Shimmer', which is a very personal track with a fantastic ending. But other than that, it's a pretty dull, "heard it all before" album.

Moose Blood brings a new hope to this style of pop punk, though. Their sound may not be anything new, but its a gateway for others to follow suit. The doors of pop punk are opening again, and Moose Blood were the ones who dared to push through them. Is a new wave of pop punk coming? The dead has just been brought back alive.

Favorite Tracks: Shimmer, Honey

Least Favorite Track: Cheek

Rating: 70 / 100

Young The Giant - Home Of The Strange

If you're looking for a classic indie experience, Young The Giant has you covered. Their newest record Home Of The Strange is the band's third full-length effort, and sees them continuing to polish their sound into a more refined, indie rock specialty.

The good thing about this album is that there isn't a low point of it. There are periods where things mellow out and aren't as interesting, but there's no definitively bad part of the record. It has lots of groove within, found within signature tracks like 'Something To Believe In' - which has something untangibly funky going on with the chorus (which may either be the guitar or the backing vocals; I can't tell) on top of an almost hip-hop beat - and the energetic 'Silvertongue'. If nothing else, this album is definitely fun. Lots of songs will just get you vibing and moving about, dancing around to them; see the fun guitar licks in 'Mr. Know-It-All' and the grooviness of 'Jungle Youth'. 'Jungle' is a big track, distorted guitars and effected vocals adding color to it before it explodes in a big indie rock flavor during its jam ending. The eponymous 'Home Of The Strange' takes the album out on a feel-good, energetic note. A big note to end on.

There's another, calmer side to this record. It starts off this way, the tragically relatable love song 'Amerika' calmly beginning the record as it builds to a sweet ending. 'Elsewhere' is a quieter yet still funky song, sounding like something like Arctic Monkeys meets David Bowie (who is coincidentally namedropped in the following track). It's a nostalgic song, and the ending is almost chilling with how reflective the vocals are delivered by Sameer Gadhia. It's written in a very introspective way that feels very familiar. The lyrics on this album are often times simple in the best of ways: see the narrative in 'Amerika', the Greek references of 'Titus Was Born', and the silliness of 'Mr. Know-It-All'. 'Repeat' builds really nicely from its acoustic beginning to its creamy ending. Young The Giant channels their Sufjan Stevens influences in 'Art Exhibit', albeit with a more rock demeanor by the end of the track.

Indie rock never sounded so groovy. Young The Giant honed their indie sound and injected funk and soul into it, providing for a fun listen. Home Of The Strange is a great listen; by no means a masterpiece, but a great record all the same.

Favorite Tracks: Jungle Youth, Something To Believe In, Home Of The Strange

Least Favorite Tracks: Repeat, Nothing's Over

Rating: 70 / 100

Skillet - Unleashed

Christian rock's leading figures Skillet have just unleashed (pun intended) their next album. The band, known for their rigorous touring, is back with Unleashed, but it's not the big record you'd want from them.

For what it's worth, the record starts huge. 'Feel Invincible' starts epically with giant guitar paired with stinging synths, bringing the album in on a confident note. The chorus is absolutely massive, a big electronic banger with sweet duets by husband/wife duo John and Korey Cooper. 'Back From The Dead' follows through, the same big energy with a more pump-up vibe to it. The song is big and upfront, continuing the album on a strong note.

This is where the album starts falling apart. 'I Want To Live' is the last great track on the record, epic strings bringing the song in while duets serve as a highlight for the rest of the track, ending on a lovely note. The rest of the record just feels... uncertain. 'Stars' is what starts this trend, the song being clearly anthemic but wholly unfulfilling. This is a problem for nearly every other track on the album, especially the admittedly sweet 'Watching For Comets', as well as the constant internal struggle of trying to find a solid footing. 'Famous' has an odd dancey vibe amidst an album that was previously big and confronting, and 'Lions' follows this by sounding completely out of place, as if somewhere between these songs the album become a bad cross between 90s electronica and cheesy anthemic singing. 'Out Of Hell' has peppy vocals that absolutely don't fit the demanding instrumental.

Some songs seem to have lacked inspiration during their writing process, too. You can only listen to 'Undefeated' for so long before you say, "I get it." The chorus seems to be 75% of the song; you get sick of hearing "I know I can beat it... Fight for the love of the game, unstoppable / That's right, I'm unstoppable" by the time the song is reaching its end. 'Burn It Down' is one of the most boring tracks on the album; there's nothing remotely interesting about it. It's just an all around bad electronic rock song, which is unfortunate considering how well they were doing with the electronic influence early on with the record. 'Saviors Of The World' is almost preachy and completely cliché. 'The Resistance' is as off putting as the rest of the album, and the ending feels completely out of place. Even the band knew they needed something big to end the album, so they just stuck a random jam at the end of this track.

Skillet had an identity crisis with Unleashed. The album started off so promising, which is what makes this record so disappointing. Everything fell apart as the album got to its center, and nothing improved. There's no sense of identity in this album; it's disjointed and uninspired. There's still some hope, as evidenced by the first few tracks. Let's hope the next album isn't a flop, too.

Favorite Tracks: Feel Invincible, I Want To Live, Back From The Dead

Least Favorite Tracks: Lions, Famous, Burn It Down

Rating: 59 / 100

Russian Circles - Guidance

Post-Metal is an extensive genre. There's something intrinsically beautiful and provocative about it. It's expansive and huge, and takes its listeners somewhere new, like reading a highly engaging sci-fi book about new worlds. Russian Circles is a prime example of this. Their new record Guidance is the most realized their sound has ever been within their decade-long career. It's a masterful crafting of performances that builds such an awe-inspiring visual for its listener, it's hard to not be blown away.

This album is everything post-metal should be. It's entirely instrumental too, leaving the instruments to do the talking and give meaning to the music. The soul of each track is very evident, almost tangible. Opening track 'Asa' provides for an introspective introduction to the record, a very soothing beginning that lets you reflect - it's already great that the album can have this effect so early on. It transitions into 'Vorel', which comes rumbling in with fantastic drumming from Dave Turncrantz segueing into evil-sounding guitars. The song develops with a thick and crunchy bassline from Brian Cook, which paired with the pounding toms and distorted guitars sounds epic. Crunchy basslines are a major part of 'Afrika' as well, the complimenting drum rolls that pair with it before the massive guitars kick in during the bridge (which has a weird cutout moment that interrupts the pace a bit) making the track immense. The song progresses from being a dark monster to an uplifting and hopeful call-to-arms by the end, concluding with a sweet little guitar melody. 'Overboard' follows up with the same sweet spacious guitar that concluded 'Afrika' before 'Cella' returns to the big heavy riffs and hits that feel like punches to the face. 

There's almost a narrative going on within this album. Perhaps Guidance goes deeper than an entrancing listen. The album cover looks to be a shot of an unstable African society amidst a crisis... Which gives credit to the track title of 'Afrika'. The concluding track on the album is the sweet, giant buildup 'Lisboa', another location that has history of political unrest. Listening to the music, there is a sense of disorder within it. The narrative of war can be found through the album; 'Asa' is the calm before the storm, almost a reflection of a soldier or a time before a society was thrown into war. 'Vorel' follows through with the violence building up, growing in waves (as is with the rolling drums) before war becomes inevitable. 'Mota' has a hopeful sound with great guitar work, the hope of bystanders of the violence. The song becomes tense at the end, to portray that it is becoming evident that the conflict will not end easily. 'Afrika' perhaps plays to the violence of African conflicts, such as the Rwandan genocide. It's thick and unrelenting guitar plays a key role in setting the scene. It's soft reprise acts as an outlook for the future - a hopeful one.

The narrative isn't obvious, and perhaps unintended, but it does give Guidance some more dimension. Russian Circles created a truly immersive post-metal album. Guidance flows and ebbs with intensity and flows seamlessly from track to track, providing for a story to unfold as each note is hit. It's a masterful performance and a truly powerful album. Post-Metal at it's finest.

Favorite Tracks: Vorel, Lisboa, Afrika

Least Favorite Track: Overboard

Rating: 86 / 100

Noisia - Outer Edges

Dubstep often times goes two ways. It's big and upfront, or its subdued and moody. Noisia went for the upfront route with their new album Outer Edges, but to mixed results. This album has its moments of drum and bass jamming but often times sounds like a mish-mash of sounds clustered together very incoherently.

The pacing of this album is pretty odd to begin with. Opener 'The Approach' is a chill (albeit, somewhat boring) introduction to an album before 'Anomaly' kicks in with a speedy beat. 'Collider' starts with a more ominous sound and introduces a darker sound that carries through stays unique to the one track. "Weird" describes the next few tracks - 'Vigilantes' brings in the rave-dubstep vibes, but features some off-putting vocal samples that don't play well to the overall vibe of the track. The next track 'Tentacles' is weird in a different way - it's really unsettling. The "tentacles, tentacles, tentacles..." vocal build up makes you squirm before the underwhelming drop kicks in.

While the first half of the album will make you feel a variety of ways, the second half has many tracks that are just plain boring, and, at times, stupid. Songs like 'Surfaceless' and 'Exavolt' sound like a cluster of random noises that build up to nothing and have nothing climactic to carry them somewhere. Other tracks including 'Motion Blur' just don't go anywhere and fail to create an interesting experience. The album concludes on an absolutely dead note, the song 'Sinkhole' being one of the worst things I've heard in awhile and 'Get Deaded' just being plain stupid.

To its credit, this album has some solid drops in it. 'Voodoo' starts off sludgy but kicks into something actually worth getting into later on. 'Mantra' has some massive vibes going on with it, the first track on the album that is truly enjoyable and has a big dance demeanor - 'Into Dust' reprises this later on with a fantastic drop accompanying it. 'The Entangled' almost reproduces this but doesn't climax quite as well as it could have. Much of the song is a great build up to something that never comes. 'Stonewalled' is another track with a fat drop but the rest of the track feels like they just threw a bunch of sounds together into one progressive mess.

Dubstep isn't good if it's messy. Throwing in noises and sounds where they shouldn't be can kill the whole vibe of the song. Noisia struggled with that in this record. A lot of things feel unnecessary and often times don't climax as they could for something big. Perhaps its part of their drum and bass nature, but this album felt empty and anticlimactic for the most part. Maybe their next release will be more of a jam.

Favorite Tracks: Mantra, The Entangled

Least Favorite Tracks: Sinkhole, Get Deaded, Straight Hook, Tentacles

Rating: 59 / 100

DJ Khaled - Major Key

Have you ever wanted to listen to a meme? DJ Khaled has you covered. His new album, coincidentally titled Major Key is exactly that: one giant meme. So unless you're going into this album wanting that, you won't be happy.

You can tell an album is destined for failure when Future is featured on three tracks. That's three tracks too many. Opinions aside, Future isn't the worst part about this record. He's pretty good on it, honestly - he's finally improving. His bars actually have some emotion in them. The intro is a banger - 'I Got The Keys' features him, and while his chorus is nothing more than saying the title of the song over and over again, his voice sounds more (unnecessarily?) urgent than usual, which is nice and refreshing. Jay-Z features on the track as well - as the instrumental suggests - and brings the song a step further.

Other features are hit or miss. Drake doesn't shine here; his usual subtlety is gone and instead, he delivers a very, very blatant verse about sex in 'For Free' that kills the entire track (though all of the Khaled interjections of "ANOTHER ONE" didn't leave for much to be appreciated). Nicki Minaj is as annoying as typical, but when she come in on 'Do You Mind', it gives the album a fresh voice. The song itself, however, outstays its welcome by being far too long than it needs to be. Meghan Trainor is the other prominent female voice on the album in 'Forgive Me Father', though this doesn't mean much since you can barely understand what she is saying half of the time as she slurs her way through the verse. This song ends DJ Khaled's portion of his own album (you read that right), since a track by Mavado (which is in Spanish?) concludes it. 'Nas Album Done' featuring - you guessed it - Nas continues a repetitive album with another repetitive instrumental (while the verses themselves aren't as dull).

While a lot of the features aren't top notch, there are some good ones. The aforementioned features on the first track with Jay-Z and Future are pretty good. Future shows up on two other tracks - 'Fuck Up The Club', where he's just plain annoying, and 'Ima Be Alright', which is sweet and melodic. 'Holy Key' is a big track, Big Sean going big on his verse, and Kendrick Lamar of course being nothing short of legendary. J. Cole also has a good verse on 'Jermaine's Interlude', but the song itself is fairly boring.

Instrumentally, there's nothing special to find either in many tracks. Some standouts include 'I Got The Keys', 'Holy Key', and 'Don't Ever Play Yourself' - the latter of which isn't as meme-worthy as you'd expect. It can't be praised lyrically (then again, neither can a lot of this record; "She so weird I made her pussy fart" in 'Pick These Hoes Apart' is by far the worst thing I've heard this entire year), but it has some good sounds in it, including the piano.

The self-proclaimed Snapchat king has taken his memes and put it to music. Major Key isn't much to tackle. It almost feels like one big joke. There's little interesting development within in and too few great moments for its execution. Perhaps DJ Khaled needs to have a reality check before his next release.

Favorite Tracks: Holy Key, I Got The Keys, Ima Be Alright

Least Favorite Tracks: Pick These Hoes Apart, Tourist, Fuck Up The Club

Rating: 58 / 100

Harakiri For The Sky - III: Trauma

Most people will see black metal as something satanic or not of this world. This is only partially true of Harakiri From The Sky. They don't dabble with the sounds of Hell; rather, they choose to explore the mind and its emotions instead. III: Trauma is their newest release, and it goes further and bites harder than any of its predecessors.

Going into Trauma, you expect something dark and for something nasty to develop within your throat as it progresses. That's what black metal would typically do to you. But no, Harakiri For The Sky takes a different direction. There's something pure in their music; it's not the heaviness that speaks for it. Rather, the melodies seem to do that for them. III: Trauma is not an album meant to be jammed to (though, that is very much a thing you can do). It's an album that wants your understanding and focus - and trust me, you'll need it.

All expectations are lost straight from the start, replacing them with a morbid curiosity instead. The eleven-minute epic 'Calling The Rain' begins the sweltering album, piano chords and reverberating guitar being this albums entrance. Instead of dropping those elements in favor of a low-tuned chugging, powerchords kick in in order to expand upon the ideas developing from the start. The lead guitar soars above the thriving instrumental as if to search for something before tortured vocals enter the scene, the angered and lost disposition of the voice contrasting the hopeful instrumental. This song itself is a journey; by its end it feels like you've been hit by enough thought to have listened to an entire album already. It goes through cycles, heavy ones full of rage and others begging for hope. The vocals and instrumental are constantly fighting each other in some sort of dark, graceful dance that begs for an answer. It's gentle conclusion finds itself experiencing an aftermath, one final blast taking the song to its end.

After that's over, it's time for the second song. Every track on this record is a lengthy one, the shortest clocking in at eight and a half minutes ('The Traces We Leave'). Often times, bands who take these long roads lose themselves in complex turns and systems that ultimately makes the song lose its light. Everything on this record feels justified in its length, though. Each song is its own story, its own exploration of a concept that delves within your own psyche to bring out a very warming closeness. There are big riffs to give the listener moments to jam - see 'This Life As A Dagger' especially - but this album is much more than that.

This album feels almost like an alternative rock record in terms of its understanding of heaviness and structure. Take 'Funeral Dreams' as an example, though each song exhibits it. It isn't driven by a need for galloping riffs to make itself sound big; each song is cavernous with a clear respect to spaciousness. Every element of the song comes together to create massive atmosphere that builds and builds into one collective body. The riffs don't even feel as down-your-throat due to low tuning. The mixing compliments the high-end more so than the low-end (which also isn't tuned down to the depths of Hell). This album channels melody over thrill, and emotion over just rage. The instrumentals help inspire your mind as to what you should be feeling - 'Thanatos' begins with an ethereal intro that makes you feel like you're drowning, while the epic percussion and powerful feeling of 'Dry The River' gives you hope.

Harakiri From The Sky seems to understand what metal should be about. III: Trauma is not your every day black metal album. It is post-metal at its finest. It explores surreal and deep parts of the human emotions, and seeks to find closure within them through the music. It's a long record but a revealing one. It's an essential for any metal fan, and one that cannot be skipped for any fan of music. It's a brilliant emotional journey that has you think and feel - there's nothing more important that music can do for you.

Favorite Tracks: Calling The Rain, Funeral Dreams, Dry The River

Least Favorite Track: The Traces We Leave

Rating: 88 / 100