Editor's Pick: Alex's September 2020 Highlights

I’ll be honest, this was a hard one. September has been a phenomenal month for music and having to essentially relive Sophie’s Choice to make my ‘Top 5’ was fairly tormenting. Alas, the cull is complete and I present you with September’s surviving few…

#1 Mother’s Cake – Cyberfunk!

Not many artists can get away with reaching from the depths of psychedelic hard rock, blues rock, new-wave funk, all the way to punk rock and smashing them together in one incredibly persuasive package; Mother’s Cake just about got away with it on Cyberfunk! In an odyssey that traces the steps of The Beatles, The Arctic Monkeys and even King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Cyberfunk!’s polychromatic ensemble of psychedelia-fuelled hits simply shouldn’t work. However, armed with astonishing flexibility, Mother’s Cake’s fourth record makes for a perplexing but rewarding listen that places fun well above logic.

Rating: 8/10

#2 Cult of Lilith – Mara

I’m a little bit fussy when it comes to death metal (I mean, who isn’t?), the vocals have to really sit right with me, I’m not keen on the overuse of blast beats and I’d preferably not listen to mixing that’s been done on someone toaster. The debut LP from Icelandic proto-feminist cult members Cult of Lilith, Mara, ticks all the blood-stained boxes and goes further beyond to tick boxes I didn’t realise existed. Operating in a hellish landscape of experimental tech-death, Mara gores 30-minutes of eye-widening tempo changes and animalistic levels of abrasion – all within the contextual backdrop of the worshipping of women. One album and one meteroric rise later, Cult of Lilith are well on their way to becoming permanent residents of the scene’s good books.

Rating: 8.5/10

#3 All Them Witches – Nothing As the Ideal

My interest for All Them Witches (ATW) faltered upon the arrival of 2015’s Dying Surfer Meets His Maker, the songwriting had begun to waver and it seemed that the band had already made the most of their blend of deep south folk tales and ambient psychedelia. I came rather ill-prepared for Nothing As the Ideal – having missed two prior releases – but found a band entrenched in the age of reprisal through their own hands. Clawing through the grit of Saturnine & Iron Jaw and Enemy of My Enemy to the serene melancholy of See You Next Fall and the career-defining Rats In Ruin – ATW has regained my attention as well as my faith.

Rating: 8.5/10

#4 The Ocean – Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic

The Ocean is a progressive metal collective that uses the narrative of various geological eras to draw parallels between the dynamics of the forgone natural world to the current climate of human civilisation; are you confused yet? Nerdy as ever, metal never ceases to surprise me with its grand backdrops, used simply as the forwarding momentum of some big riffs and shouty vocals. Obviously, there’s more to The Ocean than that fairly regressive viewpoint, and their latest record Phanerozoic II has quickly evolved into one of 2020’s most astounding peaks. Masters of atmosphere, tension as well as eruption, these eight tracks capture the sonorous ebbs and flows of the genres’ brightest moments while equally poised to burst eardrums with a catalogue of intricate bursts of rage.

Rating: 9/10

#5 Svalbard – When I Die, Will It It Get Better?

In an exercise of extreme empathy, Svalbard’s third LP, When I Die, Will It Get Better?, might be one of the most emotionally demanding albums I’ve been through all year. Acerbic strikes at an unjust world full of victim-blaming, objectification, clickbait and manipulative relationships, WIDWIGB’s blackened tremolo riffs and blackgaze arena production plays the mere scenery for frontwoman Serena Cherry’s call-to-arms delivery. It is the sound of someone who has simply had enough and this – combined with consistent songwriting and a surprising earworm appeal – makes for one of the year’s most memorable releases.

Rating: 8.5/10