New Music Friday, Once More

I guess we're doing another one of these. (None from last week because it was all disappointment.)

Amulets - "Between Distant and Remote" (noise/experimental/ambient electronic)
Definitely the most gentle and resonant release I've heard from Amulets. A real treat. A few tracks end suddenly or lamely, but on the other hand, this album avoids the empty meandering that artists of the ambient genres can be prone to; the songs are concise, lasting no longer than needed. This one, of all releases today, made me feel the most.

Alcest - "Spiritual Instinct" (shoegaze/atmospheric black metal)
I mean, they have their act down by this point. Apparently their fans didn't like the no-screaming post-rock excursion of "Shelter" (2014) - my favorite Alcest release - so "Kodama" (2016) and today's "Spiritual Instinct" are just rehashes of "Les Voyages de L'Âme" (2012). That's not necessarily a bad thing. "Spiritual Instinct" has tight, airy production, and solid direction and progression in both its individual song structures and the structure of the album as a whole. It seems like they through in a couple bars of screaming on most of the songs because the fans wanted it, not because they wanted it, though, and it shows. It's such a small amount that it's easy to ignore, at least.

Thornhill - "The Dark Pool" (djent/post-hardcore)
Just found these folks today. I really love the atmosphere and riffs on the instrumental side of things. The clean singing is good and fitting, but the occasional scream/yelp does grate on my ears. Coarse vocals are entirely absent on some songs, which is fine by me. A great debut album, on the whole. New fan here!

Fit for an Autopsy - "The Sea of Tragic Beasts" (deathcore/post-metal)
Seems directionless compared to their previous "Absolute Hope Absolute Hell" (2015) or "The Great Collapse" (2017), which were both great releases. The only attempt to expand or improve upon those milestones is a prevalence of clean singing - on nearly every song - but it's poorly executed. C'mon, stick to your strengths. It's still an okay listen - I like a lot of the ideas, in concept - but poor execution and a reliance on over-production tarnish the sheen.

Cosmic Ground - "Cosmic Ground 5" (psybient)
It... is music? I listened to it, I guess. It's pretty blatant Tangerine Dream worship. I did enjoy the longest track, operation:echo, but not much else really stood out to me.