Tracks of Note: 4/18/2025

Black Buttons, Genevieve Artadi, Softcult

Artwork by Caroline Harrison

Short one this week as, by the time you’re reading this, I’ll be on a quasi-spring break. Onward.

Weeping Sores - "Arctic Summer"

Possibly the heaviest metal track to have a cello on it. Weeping Sores continues to get weightier, taking the death/doom trudge of False Confession and getting even mightier and more miserable. Makes sense when you hear it. The Morbid Angelisms of the first album are still present, but The Convalescence Agonies feels grander in a lot of senses. Well, as grand as something can be with filthy, from-the-gut growls; true heaven-plus-hell stuff. More on this soon.

Black Buttons - "Kiss the Flies"

Shame on me for missing last year’s Internal Life, especially because 2023’s Rejoice never left the rotation. “Kiss the Flies” sounds more down and dirty, a real bashed-out-in-the-practice-space feel. Musically, this reminds of a snarlier and more dejectedly deliberate Black Cross, especially “Easy Mend,” which has that aggression-focused delivery of mysterious guy hardcore. Not the place to start: that’s still Rejoice. But an interesting place to finish your Black Button binge. A devolution, in a good way.

Helms Deep - "Flight of the Harpy"

Now that’s my kind of power metal. The first part of the song sounds like Riot, and then it hits the Savatage bridge. Hell yeah. I was a fan of Helms Deep’s debut, Treacherous Ways, but shredder/singer Alex Sciortino makes all the right choices on Chasing the Dragon, enlisting a looser drummer (progster Hal Aponte) and a rhythm guitarist (Ray DeTone). The result more readily nestles into the USPM legacy.

Cave Sermon - "Arrows and Clay"

That was quick. A little over a year later, Charlie Park is back with an album that asks, What if Convulsing luxuriated in The Journey. (Brendan Sloan on the Bandcamp comments, “Alright, that settles it. We're doing a band.” Hope so.) As always, I imagine Fragile Wings will take tens of listens to fully digest, but the immediate impact feels great. There’s a spacey little adornment in “Hopeless Magic” that reminds me a bit of Cave In’s Jupiter, a perfect early summer album, one of those records you stick on during that first hot night when you have the windows open and a light breeze rustles the curtains.

Boldy James & V Don - "RSNS"

Hard to deny Boldy James rapping over noirish production. V Don’s best known track is probably A$AP Rocky’s “Ghetto Symphony,” demonstrating how long he’s been in the game. These beats, though, are more in the vein of Alchemist, the grimy, emitted-from-a-dark-alley type murk that Roc Marciano typically raps over. Over that bed, James lets some good lines fly: “On the rooftop with the gargoyles, hit the woo-wop with the Shar Pei/ Whippin' Tupac, say you want it hardboiled, mix the re-rock with the sauté.”

Genevieve Artadi with Norrbotten Big Band - "A Romantic Interlude Will Soon Come Your Way + Visionary"

Recorded live in 2019 and 2022, these tracks have been recast as big band tunes. While not quite on some Sam Rivers stuff, Genevieve Artadi keeps the strong bones, mostly those delicately difficult melodies, and revamps the rest. Even if you haven’t done much time with these songs, there’s a lot to dig into here, such as the great synth solo section in “I Know.” In a way, since this big band format is more “traditional,” this might be a better intro into Artadi’s chameleonic music.

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Softcult - "Drain"

If history repeats, perhaps it makes sense to have multiple timelines repeat in one entity. Softcult is one of those nu school rock bands weaving together the threads of alt rock, emo, and shoegaze into something that fits the now. I won’t go to bat for all of this compilation comprised of the last two EPs, the ballad stuff is a touch too cloying for one, but a song like “Drain” absolutely whips, and is like if The Anniversary were a Smashing Pumpkins descendant and released something on Polyvinyl.

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MIX OF THE WEEK

Fun house set on the typically solid Jackies Music. Kind of irritating that the rest of the world has radio stations like this while we’re stuck with Top 10s and classic rock traffic-on-the-10s that play the same three Bad Company songs.

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