And, at least for me, that aspect doesn't really affect how I think about the album when I'm listening to it. The Palms of Sorrowed Kings does have some harp interludes that might put you in a medieval mindset, but the lyrics are mostly indiscernible, so without a lyric sheet you wouldn't really know whether these songs are about castles or not. It gets referred to as "castle metal," which is a phrase I'm not super familiar with but which seems to be more of a lyrical descriptor than a genre name based on sound. It's one of the most accessible metal albums I've heard all year - the vocals are primarily harshly screamed, but the guitars spend the entirety of the record dishing out bright, addictive melodies that should catch the ear of anyone who appreciates good melodic songwriting, metal or otherwise. True metalheads are probably already hip to this one (like Blood Incantation, it's a followup to an acclaimed album, and it's already on Decibel's 2019 list), but I also think this is one that the metal-curious shouldn't sleep on. Though the Blood Incantation is clearly the most talked-about metal album of the week, I'd like to direct any heavy music fans towards the new Obsequiae as well. I like it - I like how they branch out from death metal and incorporate very trippy psychedelia (like on the aforementioned "Inner Paths "), post-rock (like on the 18-minute album closer "Awakening from the Dream."), and prog - but it's a little outside of my personal wheelhouse and I couldn't write a review as great and as in-depth as Langdon Hickman did for our metal site Invisible Oranges, so read his HERE. Metal mag Decibel already named it the best album of the year (after naming their 2016 debut album Starspawn the third best album of 2016, and their other band Spectral Voice's 2017 debut album the sixth best album of 2017), its lead single "Inner Paths (to Outer Space)" was the only metal song to get Best New Track on Pitchfork this year, it's one of just a few metal albums to be granted Album of the Week by Stereogum this year, and if you read metal blogs or Metal Twitter or just talk to any in-the-know metalheads, you've probably been hearing a lot of good things about this album for a pretty long time. It is truly not everyday that we get this kind of posthumous album, and it's only more amazing that this one comes from a lifelong legend like Leonard Cohen, who never stopped writing impassioned music, all the way up until his death at age 82.Įven before its release today, Denver death metal band Blood Incantation's sophomore album Hidden History of the Human Race has been the most hyped metal album of 2019, both within and outside of metal circles. Like You Want It Darker, it finds Leonard at his most ominous and eerie, but it is clearly its own beast compared to that album, not leftovers from the Darker sessions. Thanks for the Dance sounds like something Leonard must have already envisioned as a complete, cohesive album, and he just needed Adam to get the right people to help put the finishing touches on it. Even with all those guest musicians, Leonard's voice and words lead the way on every song. Even though Leonard's team is referring to it as "not a commemorative collection of B sides and outtakes, but an unexpected harvest of new songs, exciting and vital, a continuation of the master’s final work," I had fears that a posthumous album with tons of guests would feel too far removed from a true Leonard Cohen album, but it turns out "a continuation of the master’s final work" is exactly the right description for this album. Adam enlisted in the help of Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry, The National’s Bryce Dessner, s t a r g a z e, Feist, Damien Rice, Beck, Daniel Lanois, Patrick Watson, Leonard’s former bandmate Javier Mas, and others to help him flesh it out, and the result is Thanks For The Dance. He had been working on another album before he passed, and he asked his son Adam Cohen (who produced You Want It Darker) to see it to completion after he passed away. But what we didn't know, is that it actually wasn't his last. When Leonard Cohen released his genuinely great 2016 album You Want It Darker, we thought it was an album he wrote knowing it'd be his last, as he passed away shortly after its release and he had said he's "ready to die" just before it came out.
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