Week 44 – Oct 31st
A Halloween special.
Everybody Scream
Florence + the Machine
Florence embraces feminine rage on darker side, Everybody Scream. The sixth studio album is a heightened intensity into the pores of womanhood – amongst a world forever on the tipping point of morality. The ugly sides of feminity, sexism in the music industry and Welch’s experience of a lost pregnancy that almost killed her are all colloquial trauma bonds in a charged record fitting for any primal scream into the void.
Going out of her way to make a deeply chilling record – not to mention specifically asking Island Records to release it on Halloween itself – is always on the cards for Florence Welch. An integral voice to alternative, the singular songstress always has a way of upping the ante.
Sanguivore II: Mistress of Death
Creeper
It wouldn’t quite be the spooky season without these guys popping up out of the woodwork. Holding a residency to goth punk and its escapism, Creeper emerge from the depths and sink their teeth into another gorge of good ol’ flamboyant rock ‘n’ roll. A sequel to 2023’s Sanguivore, the plot plays out as Creeper – a touring vampire rock band in 1980s peak being chased by the executioner of The Mistress of Death. It is as extra and ridiculous as it sounds, and you just know their die-hard cult will lap this up, warts and all. It’s a shy away from their usual stadium rock. More kofta than Meatloaf, but it’s so delightfully fun – you can’t help but just smile.
FEVEREATEN
Witch Fever
The Mancunian quartet are out here again making all the right kinds of noise. Peeling off the back of their debut, Congregation, their sophomore FEVEREATEN acts a colossal pressure release. A melting cauldron of goth metal and monochrome post-punk, Witch Fever are on the hunt for confrontation. A pioneer sound in LGTBQ+ punk, it comes at a time where heavy work is needed now more than ever.
a little death
claire rousay
Shaped around field recordings Rousay has captured at dusk, Claire’s boundaryless motion of a little death is possibly a project unlike any other. A ruminating soundscapes of eerie trills and patterns, the record plays like an homage to the gentle drifts and lurking disquiet of twilight. Major spook points here.
ICONOCLASTS
Anna von Hausswolff
Wow. I mean, if there’ one record to listen all the way throughout, it’s this one. A Swedish composer in her own lane, Anna is a stirring artist of sheer unpredictability. With a pipe organ as her instrument of choice, this breathless sound-piece is a mark of both marvellous iterations and anthemic ritualism into the journey of making art. Featuring appearances from Ethel Cain, Abul Mogard, Iggy Pop and Maria von Hausswolff, ICONOCLASTS is a breakthrough in what makes an album break the barrier in traditional tendencies.
manvmusic.com 
Leave a comment