We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Notes!
Actually, yes we do. Well, at least Brian needs notes. Regardless, we have some good recommendations this week, some from familiar territory, and others new to us!
And remember – Stay safe. Stay healthy. Stay Metal.
Reviews:
Lamb of God – Lamb of God (Epic)
End – Splinters from an Ever-Changing Face (Closed Casket)
16 – Dream Squasher (Relapse)
Lamb of God – Lamb of God
End – Splinters from an Ever-Changing Face
16 – Dream Squasher
BLACK LABEL:
InsideOut Music
The Sideshow Podcast 
Lots of thoughts this week, so I’ll give you the TL;DR first:
-I’m fairly unenthusiastic about the new LOG album even though I loved their last album.
-Is End metalcore or powerviolence?
-I love progressive music of both rock and metal and Inside Out has an incredible roster of bands.
-The new album from math rock band Covet is quite good.
-Regarding Lamb of God, I feel the same about their new album as I did their last album: that being I am unenthusiastic about it upon release. However, after VII: Sturm und Drang was released it got lots of good reviews so I gave it a shot and I really liked the album (it was my number 4 album of 2015). But what I liked about their previous album was that it was a little different – or at least different enough to make it interesting. Their new self titled release isn’t quite getting as many positive reviews, nor does it seem that LOG are stretching their boundaries and instead seem to be regressing in terms of their style. And though you spent time discussing the drumming, let’s face it: drummers are almost always the most replaceable members of any band.
-I’m not familiar with the band End. After looking them up I found it interesting that the sources I found list them as metalcore. But you mentioned powerviolence a couple of times in your review of them, and the song you played certainly sounded more like powerviolence than metalcore to me.
-My goodness, I hadn’t realized how many great bands are on the label Inside Out! Earlier this year I got into the bands Spock’s Beard, Riverside, and Pain of Salvation and had no idea that they were all on Inside Out. You probably won’t be surprised that I do consider myself a “prog nerd” (nerds tend to embrace the fact that they are nerds – that’s one of the things that makes them nerds). It is interesting how you described viewing music as metal and rock separately and prog metal and prog rock being sub-genres. Whereas Inside Out (and the magazine called simply “Prog”), views Progressive as the higher level genre and then breaks prog down into metal and rock as the sub-genres. There are numerous bands on Inside Out that could be debated if they are rock or metal. But there would be no debate on whether any of those bands would be prog. If I had to pick one genre of music that is my favorite, I’d have to say prog. And I love that song you played by Leprous, “The Price”.
-I’m enjoying the new album called “technicolor” by the band Covet. It’s not metal. It’s considered math rock. I had no idea what math rock even was until this album. It sounds absolutely nothing like mathcore. It’s mellow-ish guitar-led mostly instrumentals (2 songs have vocals).