Immersive Squad
Bender
In a city overflowing with voices clamoring to be heard, the greatest challenge can be seizing the moment and leaving your mark. On his brash new record Bender, DavidTheTragic proves he understands the necessity of power and momentum when making an impact. With eight songs clocking in at just under 19 minutes, Bender doesn’t seek to fly by in whirr; instead, it wants to bowl listeners over with its ingenuity, confidence, and broad range of styles. With his gruff voice and acidic flow, DavidTheTragic shows himself to be a malleable talent that can turn out hook-heavy bops, jazzy conscious raps, and weirdo bars in equal measure. – Avery Shepherd
The Path to Fast Oblivion
There’s a precedent for thoughtful, old-school power-pop in the region, but on The Path to Fast Oblivion Deep State’s appreciation for the fizzy jams of the late ’70s is buried beneath a wall of searing guitars that are rich and surprisingly decadent for such a skeletal album. The driving grooves that characterized the band’s 2017 effort Thought Garden remain, but the singalong pop-punk hooks have gracefully been retired in favor of more ragged aesthetic. You could argue the sweaty intimacy that made their early work so charming has been repackaged into a more mature form, although the edges haven’t been polished any more than necessary. – Russell Rockwell
Read the full review of The Path to Fast Oblivion.
Atlanta Millionaires Club
This year, I spammed all my friends and anyone else who would listen about Atlanta Millionaires Club. On her third album, Faye Webster blends Nashville with Hitsville and throws in the kind of honest songwriting that made Jenny Lewis’ career. On songs like “Right Side of My Neck,” Webster describes an ambiguous relationship that vibes hard on the concept of new love and how the smell of someone can make you a little gaga. Meanwhile, tracks like “Kingston” conjure the dreamy pop of Kacey Musgraves laced with a lingering sadness that lodges itself firmly in the space between your heart and gut. A wistful, spellbinding listen from beginning to end. – Ethan Fogus
Eat the Shadow
You can hear calamity and dysfunction lingering throughout Eat the Shadow. There’s a brooding tension that infiltrates almost every moment of the LP, injecting each coiled riff and wiry post-punk groove with a moody, ruminative intensity. From the opening notes of the nervy lead cut “Disjecta,” it’s clear Grand Vapids are intent on stretching themselves, working to craft an album that is both beautifully austere and remarkably expansive. Whether it’s the strangled crawl of “Shallow,” the taut tension and release dynamics of “Glassing Out,” or the angular lurch of “Radiant Black,” the band consistently finds compelling ways to unpack their bad memories and emotional unrest. The result is a sophomore effort that is gripping and thrillingly cathartic. – GC
Read the full review.
The Scourge
Some aspects of The Scourge—especially tracks like “Venom,” where Gregorio Franco builds on a circuitous synth riff—recall FPS games of the ’90s. But for most of the album, Franco displays a creativity that pushes the limits of traditional synthwave, even working a sludgy trap beat into “Unmaker.” His main influences include not only John Carpenter but also the work of Italian composers Goblin and Fabio Frizzi. This embrace of innovative auteurs explains much of his willingness to challenge conventional norms. The most dramatic example of this is a gorgeous symphonic opus (“Awakening”) featuring L.A. producer GlitBiter on vocals. The spacious track owes as much to gothic metal as it does to synthwave, but it still pulses with the same power underlying the rest of the record. – RR
Read the full review of The Scourge.
Ego Deaf
Despite its low-key release, it’s hard to believe we almost overlooked Ego Deaf this year. It’s a bruising, abrasive record that improves on its predecessor in every conceivable way. The band is tighter, the riffs are punchier, the songwriting sharper and more imaginative. More than a mere collection of songs, Harmacy use the EP as a platform to unload their blistering manifestos on everything from self-hating white males to modern anxiety and the scourge of capitalist culture. The seething title track alone is worth the price of admission, but don’t worry—the rest of Ego Deaf boils over with similar ferocity. Fucking killer. – AS
Azúcar
The dreamy haze that hovers over Kibi James’ debut is warm and inviting. This is, after all, the same group that opens their EP with a languid, conversational bop called “Hi, How Are You?” It’s the sort of record that makes you want to kick off your shoes, pour a glass of wine, and float away into the ether. But don’t get too swept up in the balmy currents or else you might miss all the wondrous activity happening below. Whatever you do, don’t miss the Fugazi-like tangle of guitars on the aforementioned opener or the laid-back Latin grooves that shuffle through “Cada Día.” Even the romantic glaze of “Baby’s Gone” wouldn’t shimmer so without the jumble of pulsing rhythms radiating beneath. Azúcar may envelop you in a sweet caress, but it’s the details that are worth lingering over. – GC
Satis Factory
When we interviewed Mattiel Brown two years back, she told us that the scene in Atlanta felt “too cool for rock and roll.” With Satis Factory, though, our renegade rocker belts out her vintage style to prove a point: the middle-class American dream is pretty dated, too. From the sleazy sloganeering of “Food For Thought” to the wistful ennui of “Millionaire,” our protagonist peels away the gold leaf standards of happiness and exposes both the game and the players underneath. But while Mattiel might intend to poke holes at the big wigs in charge, Satis Factory never comes off as a diatribe; instead, these brisk jangly romps simply prove that, no matter how much the economy tanks, rock and roll never loses its value. – LA
Networker
If there’s any complaint to be made against Omni’s Sub Pop debut, it’s that it feels like more of the same: twitchy post=punk set in the classic vein of Wire and Television. Networker wasn’t so much an expansion of Phillip Frobos and Frankie Broyles’ nervy template as it was a refinement. But sometimes it’s the small changes that are most effective. By dialing back some of the complexity and stripping down portions of their sound, there’s more room for their ample hooks to breathe. Yes, the band’s calculated cohesion remains, but their jagged grooves feel more limber, allowing Frobos’ deadpan meditations on modern relationships and 9 to 5 ennui to leap to the forefront. There are definitely hints of a new, more expansive Omni lurking within Networker (check out the breezy synths work on the title track), but, for now, their dexterous jams still manage to pack a pleasing punch. – AS
Ascension
How do you make old-school power metal exciting in 2019? If you’re Paladin, you double down on speed and virtuosity and inject the whole thing with a hyper shot of thrashy adrenaline. From the opening melodic blast of “Awakening,” the band never take their foot off the gas as they unleash one face-melting riff after another. It’s easy to be captivated by Paladin’s technical excellence, but what really makes this record for me is the visceral air guitar thrill it provides. Giddy isn’t a word I would often use to describe the experience of listening to a metal record, but Ascension is just so much damn fun I can’t help but surrender to its dizzying assault. A pummeling, thrilling, headbanging triumph. – GC