Trending
Uh, and February, too, I guess.
This time of year is always super busy for me, so it's not the most surprising that I missed a month.
What is surprising, though, is that I have been able to open my windows already, which is awesome!
Here's some songs both for March and also a few that I listened to a bunch in February.
Black Soot and Red Blood
-- Panopticon
It feels disrespectful to put just a single song from this album, when this is really one of "those albums" that needs to be appreciated start to finish. The album -- entitled Kentucky -- is arguably what put Panopticon on the map and elevated them from the underground scene. It also marked an evolution in the fusion of bluegrass Appalachia and black metal, which a number of artists I enjoy today continue to work on -- Nechochwen, very notably. There's a lot of fascinating trivia about this album, including that it was allegedly composed over the course of about a week in what I can only assume was one of those creative fits that many of us seem to get from time to time.
If you can only stomach one black metal/bluegrass fusion, this song is my pick off the album. The music is great, the howling "hold on just one more day" lyric sections are great and the embedded sample from the "Harlan County USA" documentary, which recounts coal miners' Brookside Strike, is chilling and perfectly in line with the instrumentation.
But, that being said, this is an incredible album and should ideally be enjoyed as such.
Talamh Lom -- Domhain
Keeping with the atmospheric black metal trend, here's a track that I've been listening to a bunch that's brand-new this year. Domhain is an Irish band which blends post-metal, black metal, and haunting Gothic elements -- including a rich cello, one of my favorites -- into a layered experience. Each part works well with the others, but each also gets its own, individual time to shine as the centerpiece of a section of the song, which is something I think is really neat.
The black metal elements are a lot less in-your-face than Panopticon's, so if you like the idea but need it toned back a bit, this might be more your speed. Speaking of speed, the melody of the song is one of my favorite parts of it -- while it maintains aggressives riffs and blast beats, the actual melody of the song is slow and drawn out -- almost dirge-like. While that isn't inherently unusual for the genre, it works exceptionally well here.
Sons of Riddermark
-- Battlelore
I was reminded a few weeks ago of how amazing Gatekeeper's Shadow and Stone is, and spent a bunch more time with that track, which I have already advocated for in this column in the past.
That song, in turn, reminded me of this song's existence. A much older song, from 2003, this is another Lord of the Rings-inspired track. As you might expect from the title, this song focuses on the horse-lords of Rohan.
Battlelore tends to stay near heavy metal, with some symphony elements from time to time. They also sometimes do the layered male/female vocals thing that I enjoy, and I really like how this song uses the crunch of the guitars as almost like heralding horns -- their fundamentals are really strong and they use those skills with a lot of creativity.
Waiting for Tonight
-- Jennifer Lopez
Let's take a real hard right turn here and pivot away from metal and into Latin dance.
This is a reflecting of the juxtaposition of missing the summer, nostalgia for the radio songs of my youth, the pop music I was listening to in January and needing some up-tempo energy to help push through the workload that Progress season brings every year.
There isn't really much to say about this song. You've probably heard it, and if you haven't, I don't know that there's much I can say to sell you on it -- it might just be a weird nostalgia thing for me. But hey, it's something I've been listening to!
Rise Up, Tear Down -- The O'Reillys and the Paddyhats
How about some Irish punk with an incredibly punchy chorus? Another up-tempo song but with some serious chug to it, this would probably double as good workout music -- just watch out for a few profanities that are hiding in the chorus…but also, it's punk, so it's kinda what you are signing up for.
Unfortunately it seems like this band --which I had just found and never heard of before -- recently broke up, so I guess what we have is what we are getting. At least there will always be Dropkick Murphys for when the itch needs scratched!
Arthas, My Son --
World of Warcraft OST
Oh yea. This is the stuff.
I haven't played World of Warcraft for several years, but that doesn't mean that I'm entirely immune to its siren call, especially when they are releasing a new expansion and my social media gets flooded with advertisements and friends who are hopping back in.
My solution? As with many things: music.
I played from vanilla through Cataclysm, and then again from Warlords through the start of Shadowlands, so when I'm looking for music from the game, it's usually from those eras, with Wrath of the Lich King absolutely being my favorite soundtrack from the game.
The intro cinematic -- for which this is the song -- still gives me chills, and I hope it never stops even if I have hung up my DeadlyBossMods and threat meter.
Rip & Tear -- Mick Gordon (Doom OST)
Let's sum up this column with a bit of every other element coming together: the heavy metal-inspired, and absolutely outstanding, Doom 2016 soundtrack by Mick Gordon. Crunchy, punchy, blood-pumping and fist-throwing, this song is one of my favorites from the soundtrack. It has just the right amount of breaks and lulls to space out the action but never fully let you down. I highly recommend it for whenever you have too much work to do, you're working out or you need to let off some steam!
Arianna McKee is the Design and Editorial Editor at The Express