2019 Forgotten Albums Round-Up

Due to the incredible amount of albums that were released last year, there were a few that were guaranteed to slip under the radar. Add to the fact that December was such a mad month for reviews and awards, and we have found that we never had time to review some of the forgotten albums from 2019. 

With a few short weeks in between the year finishing and album releases beginning to pick up again (*breathes* very very soon indeed), we finally have a gap to showcase some albums we have been going back to from last year. Better late than never!

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Astrophobos

Malice of Antiquity 

(18th January)

Triumvirate Records

WORDS: Ross Donald

FFO: Immortal, 1349, Dissection

This album came out all the way back on January 18th 2019, and was one I had hoped would get the recognition I thought it deserved as an underground release. But sadly 2019 passed and I did not find this on any end of year lists, even if it did end up on my personal top 20. I only started writing music reviews back in January so I still felt unprepared for a review of this, but now I thought I’d rectify things with a quick review. 

For a bit of background, Astrophobos are a black metal band from Stockholm, Sweden. This is their second full length release following 2014’s Remnants of Forgotten Horrors. The band focuses less on the satanic side of black metal and focuses more on the Lovecraftian horror side of things, and it's safe to say that this pleases me immensely. And this may get me some heat with a few black metal purists, but... this was a much better album than the one Mayhem released this year. Yeah, I went there.

In fact, I’d even say that this is a perfect introduction to classic black metal for newbies as it does keep to that pure, ferocious original sound while deviating slightly at times with some more melodic and atmospheric moments to break things up a bit. Purists can enjoy it while the newbies take a crash course. 

There are quite a few highlights, including the opener ‘Fire of Catharsis’ which barely gives you a chance to breathe before the next track starts. ‘Abattoir for Flesh and Faith’ is probably the best track here as it keeps the crazy riffing going and features a melancholy closing section before it blasts back into some black metal goodness. The whole album keeps to a nice 40 minutes so it doesn’t outstay its welcome and there are no bad or filler tracks to be found. This is one that deserves the attention it seemingly never received.

Tracks to check out: 'Fire of Catharsis', 'Abattoir for Flesh and Faith', 'The Summoning Call'

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The Twilight Sad 

It Won/t Be Like This All The Time 

(18th January)

 Rock Action Records

WORDS: Joanne Gray

FFO: The Cure, Joy Division, Frightened Rabbit

The Twilight Sad haven’t had it easy over the last few years. After failing to garner much attention outside of their core fanbase, the band moved away from their long term record label last year before losing two band members. Most tragic was the loss of the band’s close friend Scott Hutchison (Frightened Rabbits) which affected the Kilsyth post-punk band immensely. There was talk that the band would pack everything in, but thankfully they pushed forward and focused their collective energy into their fifth album It Won/t Be Like This All The Time.

Retaining some of the gloomier sonic elements of 80s influences that have been present in their work to date, IWBLTATT is a melancholic album that sees layered synths and patient shoe-gazing guitar lines pulse lushly under vocalist James Graham’s distinctively emotive Scottish lull. As soon as the opening effect laden guitar lines are beautifully swept over by Disintegration era synths on ‘[10 Good Reasons for Modern Drugs]’, there is a level of grandeur that suggests a sense of scaling up for the band at play. Those colossal synths in ‘VTr’ and ‘Let/s Get Lost’ are total musical bliss.

Emboldened to make more dramatic strides in songwriting, there is an increased pop sensibility that ensures that it will stay there for the foreseeable future. Pretty much every vocal line becomes an utterly addictive earworm; all while the lyrics exude a Robert Smith-meets-Morrisey sense of gloom that becomes only more evident upon successive listens. Much like their influences, The Twilight Sad have utterly perfected the bittersweet blend of shirt-tugging melancholy and spirit raising musical catharsis. Even in the more reflective songs, there is always something which keeps you completely enthralled. 

Likewise, the shoegazing elements present in ‘Sunday Day13’, ‘Keep It All To Myself’, and ‘Girl Chewing Gum’ evoke a feeling of atmospheric angst that could compete with most post-rock bands out there. As the album ends with ‘Videograms’, a song which effectively wraps together the album’s more brooding and contemplative flavour with the communal singalong nature of the catchy chorus and this brings a sense of closure which sees out the album in perfect style. 

Yes, this is a glum record, but it is also filled with a sense of drive and hope which can only emerge when you have nothing to lose. It is also ponderous and introspective, while being filled to the brim with anthemic hooks that could get entire arenas of people singing along like it was the last thing they ever did. It has taken The Twilight Sad a decade, but they have finally made an album which could get them the attention they rightly deserve. 

Fans of 80s post-punk and gloomy gothic tinged melancholy and/or those who want a suitable soundtrack to the (typically Scottish) miserable weather outside- check this out immediately. You won’t regret it. 

Tracks to check out: '[10 Reasons for Modern Drugs]', 'Shooting Dennis Hopper Shooting', 'I/m Not Here [Missing Face]'

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Saor

Forgotten Paths 

(15th February)

Fortriu Productions

WORDS: Joanne Gray

FFO: Alcest, Winterfylleth, Sojourner

Desolate. Beautiful. Sorrowful. Untamed. These are all words that very much come to mind when I think about the Scottish highlands. These are also words which very much encapsulate Saor’s musical output. On this fourth release, Andy Marshall produces the most varied, soaring and well-put together collection of songs he has to date. And this is really saying something.

Adding to the band’s now distinctive blend of Scottish folk and atmospheric black metal (dubbed by the band appropriately as 'Caledonian Metal'), there is a level of polish within the production here that really shows off Saor’s most gorgeous elements. Heart-wrenchingly poignant violins, pipes and guitar leads soar majestically above triumphant black metal gallops and melancholic howls which have an even greater sense of scale than before.

Where most bands would keep up this sense of epicness for the entirety of an album though, Saor build upon the dynamics that they have always utilised so well. An increased use of piano and melodic vocals gives the band an ever-present sense of reflection. Singer/songwriter Sophie Rogers ('Bròn') and Alcest’s own Niege ('Forgotten Paths') provide beautiful interplay with Marshall’s barked vocal style and add to album’s profound beauty. I am super keen to see this developed even further within future releases.

In fact, the only real negative criticism I have towards this album- reflected in the fact that Forgotten Paths is twenty minutes shorter than previous Saor releases- is that I want more of it. The final track ‘Exile’ sees gentle waves accompany equally tranquil strings; seemingly acting as an instrumental interlude before an epic closing track. Sadly, this epic closing track never comes. I can’t help but feel that one more song here would make the album feel more complete as a body of work rather than an (albeit incredibly accomplished) EP.

Nevertheless, this is an utterly gorgeous release which sees the grandeur and ambition of this project continue to grow. I can’t wait to see what the future brings for Saor and I very much hope we don’t have long to wait for more material. Although Forgotten Paths will resonate mostly with fans of folk and atmospheric black metal, I would genuinely recommend this to anyone who enjoys emotive music. One of the best Scottish releases of last year, and one of the best metal releases to boot. Get on this.

Tracks to check out: ‘Forgotten Paths’, ‘Bròn’

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The Wildhearts

Renaissance Men 

(3rd May)

Graphite Records

WORDS: Joanne Gray

FFO: Gun, Backyard Babies, Therapy?

Blame it on my millennial/Gen Z straddling age. Or the fact that I’ve always had more interest in American alternative rock than Britrock. Or simply that they have been a cult band for most of their existence. But I’ve never really went in on Newcastle’s The Wildhearts…

You would think that listening to a 30-year old band’s first album in 10 years would be a bad move then? Well, you’d be very wrong, as Renaissance Men is an absolute belter of an album that fully deserves its lofty title. From the minute that the rollicking ‘Dislocated’ storms out of the gates, Ginger Wildheart and co. show that they are back in the game, and that this album couldn’t leave you if you wanted it to.

Placing the band’s irresistible knack for crafting stadium sized melodies on top of a musical sound that evokes AC/DC and Status Quo as much as it does Motorhead and Metallica, Renaissance Men sounds raging and euphoric all at the same time. With an energy and a fire that puts most younger bands to shame, Ginger is a force to be reckoned with, even amongst the tremendous rock n’ roll spirit that surrounds him.

Speaking of Ginger, the lyrics here very much solidify the juxtaposing vibe of this album as a whole. Themes like drug addiction, mental illness, online bullying and right-wing politics could absolutely sound like aged grumbling and a sonic dirge in the hands of other bands. But the output of Ginger’s anger here instead gives the whole album a defiant sort of optimism. Couplets like “You are not your diagnosis, you’re not that prescription in your hand” ('Diagnosis') and “You take the bad times and the drama and wear them like a badge of honour” ('Pilo Erection') are scattered all through this album and act as an utterly amazing form of musical catharsis.

There’s been very few albums that I overlooked last year that have stuck with me than this album. Seriously, if you haven’t listened to this one yet, and you ever feel down about the state of the world, please go and listen to this.

If The Wildhearts’ back catalogue is anywhere as great as Renaissance Men, then I’ve got a hell of a great time ahead of me. And hopefully so do you. I’ve got some catching up to do…

Tracks to check out: ‘Dislocated’, ‘Let ‘Em Go’, ‘Diagnosis’, ‘Little Flower’

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Tomb Mold

 Planetary Clairvoyance 

(19th July)

Buck Spin

WORDS: Ross Donald

FFO: Incantation, Autopsy, Gatecreeper

Planetary Clairvoyance is an album that I thought deserved more attention than it was getting in 2019, but by the time that the best of the year lists starting rolling around, I then realised that it was receiving the attention it deserved. So many metal outlets had this album down as one of the best of the year and for good reason. 

For anyone unfamiliar, Tomb Mold are a sludgy, old school death metal band from Toronto, Canada and this is their third full length studio album within the last three years, which is pretty damn insane. You’d think they’d have run out of ideas by now but it sounds like they’re just getting started. The best description I have of this album is that it’s dripping with grotesqueness. It’s one of those albums that sounds exactly how its own album artwork looks. If the ship from the first Alien movie could have a metal soundtrack, it would sound like this.

As far as the sound goes, it pretty much sticks to that sludgy death metal I mentioned earlier. Although the opening track shows that the band can be unpredictable when they want to be as an acoustic guitar moment comes out of nowhere that somehow doesn’t sound of place and will stick with you for a while. After the first two massive tracks, the band were smart enough to break it up a bit with a three minute instrumental track which has a dirty, cosmic feel to it before they hit us with more sludge for the rest of the album’s run-time. 

It’s definitely one of those albums that you appreciate more with each listen as you discover more each time around. Overall, this is a terrific album by a band who have mastered their sound and don’t need to change much about it next time around. Planetary Clairvoyance is an album that all death metal fans should enjoy.

Tracks to check out: 'Beg for Life', 'Planetary Clairvoyance', 'Heat Death'

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Press Club

Wasted Energy 

(16th August)

 Self-Release

WORDS: Gabriel Martinez

FFO: Gin Blossoms, Paramore, Cayetana

Australia has been churning out some of the best records from incredible artists in the past decade. One of the most exciting are Press Club who, having already released their LP Late Teens earlier this year, have brandished quality and feel good punk with their latest LP Wasted Energy.

A collection of tightly polished anthems, each deserving of their own spotlight for an encore, Wasted Energy is highly energetic, pun intended.

It is difficult for most bands to keep every track original and distinctive without losing it all in a noise of same-ness. But Press Club don't have this problem. Clocking in just shy of 40 minutes, the record maintains hints of the same electrify-them-with-anthems-fit-for-a-90s-movie formula being placed front and center. Somehow they keep from being stale and let each note and groove, however traditional, give life to themselves and blossom in your ears with popping colour.

Two albums in a year is hella impressive at the best of times. While my personal favourite of the two releases is Late Teens from earlier this year though, that in no way diminishes Wasted Energy's seductive rock n roll begging to be kept on repeat for a long time.

Tracks to check out:  'Separate Houses', 'Thinking About You', 'Chosen Ones'

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Exhumed
Horror
(4th October)

Relapse Records

WORDS: Ross Donald

FFO: Carcass, Aborted, Impaled

Exhumed are a renowned gore-focused deathgrind band from San Jose, California and this is their 8th studio album, and the follow up to 2017’s Death Revenge. 

As I may have mentioned in the past, I’m a pretty big fan of horror in general. While a band like Ice Nine Kills may offer enjoyment through their mixture of metalcore with classic scary movies, Exhumed is more akin to an old video nasty, and just feels like a sickening horror flick. It may be deathgrind but there’s also elements of what I’d call extreme thrash here. 

The full record has what seems like a hefty 15 tracks, but the runtime is only around 28 minutes as most tracks average at around 1-2 minutes. Pretty much every track here slams like a brick wall with the impact of a knife to the gut in the best way. I love the pacing as it goes by quick enough to not grow tired on the ears, while leaving you wanting to restart the album from the beginning for another round of brutality. 

Hilariously, there’s even a track that lasts all of six seconds which feels like an homage to the mighty Napalm Death. The entire record feels like the same bloody chainsaw that adorns its gorgeous cover art: fast, furious, and unstoppable. 

This is a band I’ll be looking into more with great enthusiasm. Keep the horror coming please.

Tracks to check out: 'The Red Death', 'Ripping Death', 'Naked, Screaming, and Covered in Blood'

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Puppy

iii 

(25th October)

Spinefarm Records

WORDS: Ray Mondo

FFO: Smashing Pumpkins, Helmet, Ghost

Halloween, Goth Christmas, Pagan rituals. Whatever spooky happening floats your boat, it all happens in October, so it was more than a nice surprise to add the release of a new Puppy EP to this list, after seeing some cryptic messages on the band’s social media pages. It was more than appropriate timing on the band's part, as the new material is just bursting with spooky vibes and gloomy riffs which is more than a pleasure to listen to on an especially dark night. Even as we get into the early months of 2020...

The band, known for their infectious Smashing Pumpkins-esque pop hooks and Helmet-like metal riffage, have been on a path of exploring new ideas and innovating some new tricks into their repertoire since the release of debut album, The Goat, and it is not hard to hear this development of sound continuing within the first few minutes of listening. 

The first track 'Powder Blue' sets more than a good impression for how this EP will sound, and there is no disappointment at all with further headbang-inducing earworms such as 'Agatha' and 'Serotonin'. Guitarist Jock Norton as always continues to shine through with the experimental-sounding instrumental mood-piece '_fig.1', and bassist Will Michael gets his moment in the spotlight on '_fig.2', both of which give the listener a chance to have a few minutes of reflection and contemplation between all the bangers. Powerhouse drummer Billy Price also continues to show off his skill behind the kit on songs such as 'Charms' and 'Star of the Sea'. It all makes you wonder how a 3-piece can sound this huge and heavy. Whatever sorcery the band must be conjuring, I definitely dig it.

Regardless of what Puppy have next up their sleeve, safe to say it will definitely be a further interesting step in the band's continued journey to the big time.

Tracks to check out: ‘Powder Blue’, ‘Agatha’, ‘Serotonin’

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Lindemann

F & M 

(22nd November)

WORDS: Joanne Gray

FFO: Rammstein, Pain

Back in 2015, Rammstein’s Till Lindemann and Pain’s Peter Tägtgren teamed up to release Skills in Pills, an all-English industrial/shock rock album that very much took Rammstein’s sonics and ramped up the outrageous humour. In between navigating their busy schedules, the pair took part in writing music for a typically dark version of Hansel and Gretel and six new songs were born. Taking this opportunity to craft new music for their project, the duo headed back to the studio.

Instead of attempting to distinguish the band’s output this time around using an Anglicised Till Lindemann, the return to German and expansion in musical sounds constructs a more ominous and threatening tone. Early tracks ‘Steh auf’ and ‘Allesfresser’ merge gothic guitar tones with grand symphonic strings and emotive baritone vocals. And the lyrical content in the former song which is about a child wanting to go outside with their mother, only to find her dead after an overdose is Rammstein at their most poignant.

Although the vast majority of this album ventures out further beyond this remit, there are a few songs here which very much fit within the conventional Rammstein song template. Both ‘Ich weib es nicht’ and ‘Gummi’ get the blood pumping with that recognisable industrial mechanical throb the band are so good at within their biggest songs. The latter song is also about having a rubber fetish, so yeah… On brand there.

Thankfully for those who want to hear something that is a bit different to Rammstein, the musical direction from Tägtgren seem to take Pain’s sound as the foundation. His brand of 80s inspired industrial techno is such a prominent part of this album but the most notable of which is the total EBM track ‘Platz Eins’ which would almost certainly appeal to most fans of contemporary darkwave.

There are also some notable moments of experimentation in this album which would probably not see the light of day in other projects. 'Knebel' starts off as a rather haunting goth-folk tune which unexpectedly launches into a raging stomper of a track accompanied with a NSFW music video. 'Frau & Mann' sounds like the more bluesy material of modern Manson with an added bit of danceable pep. 'Ach so gern' is an odd little waltzing track that sounds like a trip down Parisian streets. Perfectly suited to its theatrical setting, for sure.

Although the rather tedious piano ballads 'Schlaf ein' and 'Wer weib das schon' feel simply like objects of narration for said theatre performance and 'Mathematik' sees Till kind of rapping on top of a rather haunting sounding trap beat that sounds too odd to be successful, it is still good to see the duo try new things.

All in all though, this is a worthwhile album from last year to go back and revisit. With much of the world's attention understandably going to Till's main band last year, this one was sure to slip under the radar. Although this will not be an essential release for those other than Rammstein's most loyal of diehards, this is still a cool little side project that sees the duo continue to explore different musical territories and it certainly could be an interesting prospect for rock fans more generally. Give this one a shot.

Tracks to check out: 'Steh auf', 'Knebel', 'Platz Eins'

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Thanks to Ross, Ray and Gabriel for their contributions to this list of 2019's Forgotten Albums Round-Up and thanks to you for reading! Feel free to leave a comment below to tell us which albums you have went back to the most from last year or let us know over on the socials. As always, we're open to contributions/submissions so you can always get in touch as well. 

Cheers!