What with work being busy, and my trip for the final 242 shows last week, most writing plans for January got tossed out of the window or deferred.

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So before I know it, we’re back to /Tracks of the Month once again, and back to the usual first Tuesday of the month schedule.

A quick explanation for new readers (hi there!): my Tuesday Ten series has been running since March 2007, and each month features at least ten new songs you should hear – and in between those monthly posts, I feature songs on a variety of subjects, with some of the songs featured coming from suggestion threads on Facebook.

Feel free to get involved with these – the more the merrier, and the breadth of suggestions that I get continues to astound me. Otherwise, as usual, if you’ve got something you want me to hear, something I should be writing about, or even a gig I should be attending, e-mail me or drop me a line on Facebook (details below).

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/Track of the Month

/grabyourface
/All I Have Is Love, All I Do Is Destroy
/Sadgirl Mixtape

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I’m not going to lie: I was not expecting a dreampop album drenched in sadness and regret as the new album by grabyourface. Previous releases – and the live show we’ve seen at Infest and elsewhere – suggested a snarling fury that was aimed outward, and here that anger is aimed as much inward as it is out. Songs unfold with lyrics that suggest conversations and discussions about their mental state with their internal monologue, or bitter tirades against past abusers, who’ve left them in this state. Musically, there is a restraint that provides scant escape from the darkness of the lyrics and vocals, which are left standing alone, somewhat uncompromisingly, in the spotlight.

The release of All I Have Is Love, All I Do Is Destroy as an advance single makes sense in the wider context of the album. A gently gathering pulse of bass underpins twinkling synths that reflect the sultry summer heat that the song appears to have been written and set around. It is a song of misery, of self-loathing, but is quite beautiful in its own way. (Note: the other single, You Will Never Be Happy, has been added to the playlists).

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/Tunic
/The Sharpening of a Blade
/A Harmony of Loss Has Been Sung

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Tunic have never exactly been the band to start a party with their songs, but it would appear that their next album plumbs depths of despair some way beyond even their previous work. The album has been inspired by David Schellenberg and his wife’s anguish and heartbreak after a recent miscarriage, and the raw emotion on display in just the first couple of songs released makes for a bracing listen. There are howls of pain, anguish and fury, amid squalls of noise created by guitar, bass and drums. It is dry, full-on, and entirely uncompromising, and as difficult a listen as it appears to be, I cannot begin to imagine what they have been through.

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/Vacuous
/In His Blood
/In His Blood

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While Death Metal has a storied history going back forty years or more, it is important to look at the new breed of bands coming through too. London band Vacuous play in Ashford relatively soon, and going on the title track from their upcoming album, it may well be an essential show. In His Blood absolutely rips – with a density to the sound that really maximises the impact. It is nasty, violent and really fucking heavy, with an oppressive atmosphere that really impresses, too.

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/Imperial Triumphant
/Lexington Delirium (feat. Tomas Haake)
/Goldstar

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The masked NYC band Imperial Triumphant have been a fascinating diversion in extreme metal over recent years: their art-deco modernism meeting jazz and black metal, and quite frankly they sound utterly unique. One of the first tracks from their upcoming album underlines this: Meshuggah drummer Tomas Haake joins them to fashion a chaotic maelstrom of sound, that moves from gently picked guitar-led ambience to full-force blastbeats, by way of stuttering rhythms and chiming riffs. A truly fascinating band.

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/Nova Twins
/Monsters

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The thrilling duo Nova Twins are back, and seem to have expanded their sound with a live drummer for new single Monsters. By no means a straight up metal track – as before, the guitar work is assisted by a whole host of effects that broadens the sound immensely – it is also a song about fighting one’s own demons, being afraid of what your own mind might do to fight against personal progress. An anthemic return.

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/Die Warzau
/I Am A Camera

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Perhaps unexpected – nine years since the last single – was new material from Chicago industrial legends Die Warzau, but perhaps the political emergency that is swiftly emerging in the US has hastened it. A groovy, funky return that has a swagger to it, and reminds of the debt Die Warzau have to the Chicago dance music scenes as much as EBM from Europe. In addition, the political edge to this is all about being an observer and recorder of events as they happen, being one to report, recall and be part of the necessary fight.

Also out at the same time, thanks to my friends at Regen Magazine: an excellent compilation that pays tribute to the influence of Die Warzau on the generations of industrial and electronic bands stateside since.

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/General Dynamics
/Creepin’ In
/Where Animals Play

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The second album from the collaboration between QUAL and SARIN appears to pick up from where the last one left off. Leaning into techno and industrial nastiness, Creepin’ In comes in hard with buzzsaw synths, jackhammer beats and growled vocals that come straight from the evil end of 90s industrial metal. It is fierce, powerful and sounding quite unlike the parent projects, instead a passion project, perhaps, paying respect to their influences and also a clear unleashing of something that’s been caged up. I can’t wait to hear the rest of this album.

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/BRUIT ≤
/Ephemeral
/The Age Of Ephemerality

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This French post-rock collective made quite a splash with their outstanding debut album The Machine is burning and now everyone knows it could happen again, and the upcoming follow-up is heralded by the surprisingly short (by their standards) Ephemeral. It doesn’t waste the time, though, being a noisy crescendo of drums, cellos and many, many guitars. Their name means, simply, “noise”, but they are so much more elegant in their approach than that, and I can’t wait to hear what else is coming from them.

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/Bloodywood
/Tadka
/Nu Delhi

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Indian metal band Bloodywood have been bubbling away for a while now – with a reputation for incredible live shows that I’m yet to experience – but they continue to make friends with inventive videos and an intriguing crossover sound. New single Tadka delivers on all fronts. This glorious fusion track is about the joys of cooking and enjoying food – and the passing on of knowledge through generations. It kicks harder than a chili-fuelled curry, happily switches between English and Hindi, and all of a sudden I’m hungry.

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/Glare
/Guts
/Sunset Funeral

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I’m a sucker for noisy, dreamy shoegaze, and this young Texan band deliver the kind of sound I adore. Guts is a bruising wall of sound, with the soft vocals buried amid a mix dominated by FX-laden guitars, a droning bassline and surprisingly powerful drums. Like the best shoegaze, there is a sensual feel to the overall sound – one made more explicit in the video and two youngish lovers watch the excellent Ghost World, among other activities.