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elbracco · 4 years

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LiS2 Fanfiction recommendation list - updated

I updated the ff list I made a few months ago. As before, if anyone has any suggestions to add, I’m all ears. I divided the stories into three categories (Post-ending, AUs and Missing Moments) and all the ffs on this list are either completed or still actively updated.

POST-ENDING

Blood Brothers: To Puerto Lobos - And Beyond! by SerratedCucumber, in progress. It starts as the brothers break into Mexico and follows them as they try to build a life for themselves. I swear that I hear Gonzalo and Roman every time that Sean or Daniel say something: the dialogue is that good. 11,000 words for now.

Lone Wolf: The One You Feed by zeldanerdster, in progress. This work follows the "Lone Wolf" path immediately after events unfold at the border. Following that, it will chronicle Daniel's experiences for as far as they take him in an effort to reconcile the various open-ended resolutions of Life is Strange 2. Because LW didn’t break our hearts enough. 20,500 words for now. Lone Superwolf by Dreamprism, in progress. The ff begins with Sean’s death at the border and aims to show how Daniel got from the car to the “six years later” scene. The fanfic is written from the perspective of Daniel Diaz, similar to how Sean shares his internal thoughts with the player throughout Life is Strange 2. 17,000 words for now.

Parting Ways: After by koldtbold, one-shot. Sean gets to Mexico, Daniel doesn’t. Sean has a lot to do and think about. What I love about this story is that there’s much bitter and little sweet, but like in the game there’s an undercurrent of optimism, a feeling that tomorrow can still turn into a better day. 6,000 words. When There’s Nowhere Else to Run, by Autumnyte, in progress. It begins right after Daniel yeets himself from the car and follows Sean as he tries to build a life for himself in Puerto Lobos. I told Autumnyte that this story feels like a blanket: it’s warm and comfortable. No matter what issues Sean has to deal with, there is a pervasive undertone of "tomorrow will be better" that I think really captures the spirit of the game. He is done running, and he can now start to look to the future with hope. 31,000 words for now.

Redemption:

The Bravest Wolf in the World by RoodAwakening, 2 chapters left. Ask anyone for reading suggestions, and they’ll inevitably point you to this story, for a reason. Sean finds out he can use his sketches to time-travel, much like Max did with her photos, prevents Esteban’s death, and has to deal with the consequences as he tries to navigate the new life he made for himself. Wonderful characters, a realistic depiction of trauma, and golden dialogue. I love this Sean, I love the people in his life, I love his interactions with all the characters. 160,000 words (!) for now. A Howl in the Night by Bracco, one-shot. Sean is in prison, and Daniel is free: it’s everything that Sean had wanted when he surrendered. That means he can be happy… right? 28,500 words. Tomorrow's Horizon by AlariOdonell, in progress. A mysterious stranger recruits a post-bay Max Caulfield with the promise to bring Chloe back to life and to right a few wrongs along the way, like those suffered by two brothers. I am very partial to this story because it ticks every box in my list of narrative kinks: a well-written OC, an incoming threat, superpowers, misfits teaming up, IC characters, action and fuzzy feelings... 52,000 words for now, updated bi-weekly. Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want by DarkJaden825698, one-shot. After his sentence, Sean reconnects with some old friends and says some things he didn't get to say when he had the chance. This story is a warm, fuzzy thing where everything goes well for a change. I may also be very partial to the title: that song is tied to some of my fondest memories, so extra points to the author. 4,000 words. Spirit Realm: Road to Redemption by Sombraguerrero, completed. Sean has served his sentence, abbreviated by a lack of success on the authorities' part to attain burden of proof on the supposed major crimes. The public has run out of patience and has allowed Sean and Daniel to try and pick up the pieces, with as much help as they can get along what is once again a rough road. 21,000 words. Stay Strange by DarkJaden825698, completed. Dr. Bright is assigned to Sean Diaz as his therapist in prison, and walks him through his trauma while trying to find him a lawyer to challenge his sentence. Crossover fic between LiS2 and The Bright Sessions podcast - you don’t know anything about the podcast? Me neither, and it’s not an issue. 32,000 words.

AUs

And All These Empty Streets by Riona, one-shot. After the apocalypse, Sean and Daniel have a run-in with Joel and Ellie from TLOU. I think that this is the story that made me realize how I love Sean and Daniel so much that I’m willing to read the weirdest AUs and crossovers so long. It flows really well and it feels natural. 2,000 words.

Riona has written a lot of stories that start from an unexpected premise and draw a little vignette. They are all different from each other and I loved them all. Check out her AO3 profile! Can you give me a hint by Idnis, completed. Teenage Daniel/Chris. If you like “mutual pining” and “dumb idiots in love”, this story will make your day. It’s just... fluffy and sweet and innocent, a tiny bit of teenage drama that Daniel and Chris deserve after everything they’ve been through. 22,500 words. Closer to the Heart by darkjaden825698, in progress. After the shooting, Sean waits for the police to arrive. He’s cleared of all charges and sent to live to Beaver Creek, where he must come to terms with what happened and rebuild a life for himself. A teen drama where nothing bad happens to the boys and they get to live normal lives? Hit me with it. 4,000 words. Double exposure by Riona, completed. It draws inspiration from *Your Name*: Max and Sean begin swapping bodies at random. If the premise doesn’t turn you away, it’s a beautiful bittersweet story about two people trying to help each other while their own worlds are falling apart. 11,000 words. Faithless by HollowK, in progress. Six years after the failed heist, Sean wakes up from his coma and has a brother to find. Exactly: oof. 6,500 words for now. I Took Both Roads, series by owlmug. AU where Esteban isn’t shot. Sean/Finn (with some Sean/Cassidy in the first story). It’s a coming of age story, and I really loved how the author mirrored some situations that are found in the game by giving them a new twist. I won’t lie, these stories hurt, because they made me think about what could have been. The characters are spot on, and the interactions of the Diaz family are golden. Bonus points for having Sean behave like a teenage brat at times, because the boy deserved to have temper tantrums and getting into fights with Esteban over stupid stuff. There are also a lot of beautiful images across the series, a lot of lines that feel raw and powerful, and a lot of healing. At times it’s like having a heart-to-heart with the author. Sometimes I felt that the sex scenes were too long, and some of them I found unnecessary, but that’s just my personal taste. I really liked all the four stories, but the last one is my favourite for sure because it follows Esteban’s point of view and it’s *chef’s kiss*.

1. A Way to Reappear (https://archiveofourown.org/works/19096837), 18,000 words. Sean’s POV

2. A Piece of the Puzzle (https://archiveofourown.org/works/19386670), 26,000 words. Sean’s POV

3. A Little left Behind (https://archiveofourown.org/works/19852561), 24,000 words. Finn’s POV

4. (I’ve Been Going Through) a Change (https://archiveofourown.org/works/20562086), 28,000 words. Esteban’s POV.

If I Lay Here by owlmug, completed. Diverges from canon after episode 3. Sean and Finn try to track Daniel down. Sean/Finn, 46,500 words. I can repeat here most of what I wrote for the earlier series: wonderful characterization, beautiful imagery, touching themes, characters that find themselves along the way. Something that makes you go “Please, sir, can I have some more?” at the end of every chapter. i just don’t know how i’m doing (i’m so curious about you) by Larrymurphycansteponme, one-shot. Another High School AU, another wonderful coming of age story for Sean. I wish I could make it justice without repeating everything I said about owlmug’s series: spot-on characterization, a beautiful narrative about growing up and finding one’s way, wonderful imagery. It’s the story of what Sean deserved to have, and one of my favorite ever. 28,000 words.

MISSING MOMENTS

A Night With Misty Mice by That_one_internet_lover, completed. It follows Sean and Lyla’s concert night that is mentioned in his phone chat in ep.1. It’s the first fanfiction I read after my endgame heartbreak: it gave me all the happy Sean I wanted, and even a bit more. The dynamic between him and Lyla is exactly what I pictured from their interactions in the game, put into words by someone who knows what they’re doing. 10,000 words. Astray by Riona, one-shot. Daniel leaves Sean behind after the events of Wastelands. It’s probably more of an AU than a Missing Moment, since it was written before Faith came out and so it’s not entirely canon-compliant, but it’s still a very good window on Daniel’s state of mind after the heist. I’m eternally grateful to Riona for filling some of the gaps that the game left in the development of these wonderful characters. 1,500 words. Fire and Floods by Riona, one-shot. Sean and Daniel go on the run, and this fic covers the first day of their journey. A spot-on dissection of Sean’s feelings after the shooting. 1,500 words. life is strange 2 poems by Spotsuns, an ongoing collection of one-shots. These stories have all the oooffness of the game. The stories in here hurt. In the good way, but they hurt nonetheless. Beautiful character studies, and some heavy-duty, post-ending feel unpacking. 11,000 words. Never Stop Shining by CorazonDesnudo, in progress. During his stay in Away, Sean receives a letter from Finn with an offer to help him and Daniel cross the border. It’s a chance to come to terms with a lot of things he didn’t really process before. 11,000 words for now. Torchbearers by Riona. Ep.1’s Sean and Daniel run into Max and Chloe among the ruins of Arcadia Bay. I can definitely see this story being a moment of quiet in the game. 2,600 words. What Remains of the Diaz Family by That_one_internet_lover, completed. Lyla sneaks into the Diaz household after the brothers have disappeared. Heartbreaking oofness ensues as Lyla walks through their memories and faces her own pain. 6500 words.

#life is strange 2 #lis2 #life is strange 2 fanfiction #lis fanfiction #sean diaz #daniel diaz #i'm terrible with tags

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randomvarious · 4 years

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Capleton - “Raggy Road” Dancehall Rhythm: The Total Mix Song released in 1997. Mix released in 1999. Roots Reggae

Capleton has to be the most prolific musician in the history of Jamaican dancehall and ragga music. Since debuting 30 years ago, the man has amassed 26 albums and, according to Discogs, 836 singles & EPs. Yes, you read that right. Eight hundred thirty-six. That averages out to almost 28 singles & EPs per year, which means a little more than one single or EP every two weeks. And Capleton’s ouput has slowed down considerably over the past decade, too, so the number of singles & EPs in those middle years is actually much higher than 28 per year. I mean, what in the absolute fuck? How is any of that possible?

Anyway, there’s a bio from an archived copy of jamaicansmusic.com that sums up Capleton’s early history well:

Born Clifton George Bailey III on April 13, 1967, in the rural parish of St. Mary, Capleton earned his future stage name from friends who were so impressed with his sharp reasoning skills that they named him after the most famous lawyer in town. From a tender young age, he was a lover of the traveling sound systems, sneaking out at night to catch the vibes until dawn. But it wasn't until he turned 18 and moved to Kingston that he was able to realize his destiny.

It was Stewart Brown, owner of a Toronto-based sound called African Star, who gave the untested artist his first break, flying him to Canada for a stage show alongside giants like Ninjaman and Flourgon. The audience poured out their appreciation, and he never looked back. When Capleton first burst on the scene in the late 1980s, the dancehall was a very different place than it is today. Slackness and gun talk were the order of the day. This bright promising newcomer announced his arrival with a string of hit songs from "Bumbo Red" to "Number One on the Look Good Chart" and "Lotion Man." Everything he touched hit the sound-good charts, and the youthful artist with the nimble vocabulary and hardcore voice quickly established himself as one of dancehall‚s most reliable hitmakers.

Capleton would then break big in 1992 with the release of “Alms House.” As he continued to build his popularity, he would make a song in 1994 called “Tour,” which would then be remixed by Lil’ Jon (yes, that Lil’ Jon. It was one of his first credits.) and Paul Lewis. The remix would catch the ear of Russell Simmons at Def Jam. According to an interview in The Jamaica Star, Capleton recalled that Simmons owned a sample that was used for the “Tour” remix (Slick Rick’s “Children Story”). He doesn’t clarify whether or not the sample was ultimately cleared, but it’s possible that Simmons gave Capleton his blessing to use it.

Either way, the “Tour” remix clearly made a huge impression on Simmons, because he then signed Capleton to Def Jam, a label that had, up until that point (save for a couple Slayer albums in the 80s), been strictly hip hop and R&B. The intial mix of “Tour,” which was produced and co-composed by the man who had originally put Capleton on, Stuart Brown, would end up serving as the opening track on Capleton’s first Def Jam album, Prophecy, in 1995. While he was signed to Def Jam, Capleton would reach far beyond dancehall and ragga audiences and receive airplay on BET, MTV, and hip hop and R&B stations across the country. And as a result, some of his singles would hit the low end of the Billboard charts throughout the mid-to-late 90s, which was quite an accomplishment for any dancehall artist at that time not named Shaggy or Diana King.

Stuart Brown would produce and co-compose the majority of Capleton’s songs during his two-album tenure at Def Jam. Also. around that same time period, Capleton would undergo a spiritual transition to Rastafarianism, and with that spiritual change came some musical variety, which saw him creating roots reggae tunes like the fantastic “Raggy Road,” which would appear on his second Def Jam album, I-Testament, in 1997.

In a review of I-Testament, Leo Stanley describes Capleton’s voice as both “powerful and convincing,” and that description is more than applicable when it comes to a song like “Raggy Road.” While Stuart Brown liberally samples the beautiful and hypnotically hazy-horned roots classic, “Satta Massagana” by The Abyssinians, Capleton sings with a soulful zeal, lyrically using the “raggy” (rough, rocky) road as a metaphor for his own life. With some backup singers in tow, he delivers a super catchy chorus that says that despite the fact that his life’s been full of struggles and hardship, he’s always been able to persevere and overcome his adversity and has become a better person for it. Throughout the song, Capleton continually alters his voice, ranging from its calm, natural state, to the occasional passionate wail, to Shaggy-inspired, froggy whines. One might call him a little derivative then by imitating one of dancehall’s biggest stars, but no one can deny how heartfelt it all still manages to seem.

A great reggae tune from this celebrated dancehall and ragga musician’s time at Def Jam.

#roots reggae #reggae #reggae music #music #90s #90s music #90's #90's music #90s roots reggae #90's roots reggae #90s reggae #90's reggae

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happymetalgirl · 4 years

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September 2020

As quickly as I caught up, I fell behind, and I’ll explain it all later, but that’s why some of the review blurbs here are really short while others are much longer. I still tried to make the shorter ones as expressive and dense as possible, even though I personally don’t like that approach so much. Anyway, September 2020, still a hellhole.

Faidra - Six Voices Inside

Drawing very obvious influence from Burzum’s Filosofem for the ambient portion of its sound, Faidra’s atmospheric black metal debut manages to marry both the snow-hazy ambience of Norway’s second wave with today’s more full-bodied naturalistic ambient black metal in a ceremony rather respectably elegant for a debut.

7/10

Heathen - Empire of the Blind

One of the more anticipated thrash metal releases of the year, Heathen’s more intensely melodically focused and unbalanced approach only drags their lethargic Testament-sequel brand of melodic thrash down, as Empire of the Blind trades out the genre’s hallmark spitfire aggression for dull guitar leads and uninspired operatic vocal lines that leave only a desire for the former.

5/10

Oceans of Slumber - Oceans of Slumber

A demonstrably competent, but woefully soulless and bloated display of neo-classical prog metal chops, Oceans of Slumber’s self-titled fifth LP is one of many of the genre’s avatars for much of its impressive face-value and numb delivery.

5/10

Corey Taylor - CMFT

We all knew this day would come, the charismatic Slipknot and Stone Sour frontman has finally released a solo album. And you could tell from the rollout with the star-cameo-studded music video for the lead single, “CMFT Must Be Stopped”, that Corey was going to lean in on it. But honestly, for as much natural swagger Corey Taylor can wield and showcases on the track, his straightforward rock songwriting that has graced Stone Sour’s discography is astoundingly weak, and this song’s more exuberant egotistical indulgence amplifies it rather than remedying it. It’s definitely one of the worst singles I’ve heard all year, especially for a project so highly anticipated as this, and there’s really no excuse for it to be this bad. If the general goal of a solo project is to transcribe your creative DNA onto an album as authentically as possible, and if this is an honest portrait of Corey’s creative core, it really just affirms for the many people annoyed by his media omnipresence that his main talent is just being the great big mouth. It should be obvious, but I’m not saying this to disparage in any way his massive contributions to the legendary legacy of Slipknot or even the genuinely important role he’s taken up as metal’s de facto representative press secretary. It’s not unheard of, and probably more normal than the opposite, for group-embedded artists to struggle to get a strong solo venture going. Thankfully, the lead single is the lowest point this album stoops to, but with its generic 80’s hard rock and glam anthems, it frequently gets pretty damn close. And look, I can tell it’s an album that’s supposed to be more about having a good time than any of that other artist DNA shit I brought up earlier, but its only routes there are through cheap imitation of other artists’ styles, and this still wouldn’t be anywhere near my first well of songs to draw from if I were making the most drunken of tailgater playlists.

4/10

Skeletal Remains - The Entombment of Chaos

Relatively new on the wider death metal scene, the Californian four-piece show once again, on their fourth album, why there remains such an appetite for old-school death metal with effective beating sessions and shredding clinics like The Entombment of Chaos.

7/10

Messiah - Fracmont

Originally part of the movement of early intensifying that inched fast, heavy, growly metal closer and closer to, and eventually over, the line that would separate thrash from what would become the vast world of death metal before their lengthy disbandment, Switzerland’s Messiah are fortunate to return to a world still hungry for new and old flavors of death metal with the stylistically and compositionally vintage (if not rusty) but somewhat technologically updated death-thrash of Fracmont, but they will need to do more than just pick up where they left off and acclimate their approach to the modern era if they intend to stick it out in today’s harsher death metal ecosystem.

6/10

Stryper - Even the Devil Believes

The Christian glam metal outfit have really leaned into the power metal glory that their high-soaring brand was always kind of adjacent to over the past few albums, and to their benefit, and despite what their goofy striped outfit look back in the day would have led you to predict, the steadfast veteran Christian rockers have aged far better than most of their 80’s hair metal contemporaries. Nevertheless, the walking oxymorons’ cheesy, on-the-nose, and occasionally preachy lyricism remain a pesky turn-off to both the religion they espouse and the medium they evangelize through. Frontman Michael Sweet took a bit of a misdirected offense from another reviewer who pointed out exactly this about his band’s new album, taking some media time to play the insufferable persecuted god-fearing follower of Jesus that so many Christians so delusionally imagine they are as a majority religious group with more political power than any other. Now with Michael Sweet claiming that his band has it so rough because they’re openly Christian, I say it really comes down to how you present it, and he especially presents it kinda goofy. One of the songs I’ve been getting energized by a lot on my workout playlist is “Devil’s Den” by Impending Doom, an also openly Christian band. And apart from the nasty 8-string groove, the song’s central refrain “slaughter the demons that are clawing on my brother’s back, until my brothers fight back” about support through spiritual struggle against one’s vices is a thrilling lyric that frames that aspect of Christian spirituality in a much more relatable and sympathizable manner. I’m not expecting Stryper to go into gratuitous deathcore brutality to deliver their message, but they can’t be mad about receiving criticism when they haven’t evolved the 9th-grade-reading-level lyricism that was begrudgingly accepted in the 80’s. Sociopolitical stuff and frontman antics aside, Even the Devil Believes is an instrumentally solid, but exceptionally lyrically corny record full of Bible verse quotes and Sunday School rhymes. I’ll highlight the song “Do Unto Others” for beating the odds on this album with its invigorating sing-along power metal melody, but that song is perhaps the sole reason my feelings in this album are more neutral overall instead on negative, while the vast majority of this album is just begging to be instrumental or at least tuned out.

5/10

Mastodon - Medium Rarities

Mastodon really could have just saved the earth-quaking opening single for their next album or released it as a stand-alone single instead of with the other forty minutes of entirely unnecessary of instrumental versions and live cuts among the other worthwhile material to compile for an album like this.

Fallen Torches/10

Ihsahn - Pharos

The now prog-immersed enigmatic Emperor frontman put out a pretty solid EP earlier in the year, but I was still hoping that Ihsahn would come through with a more essential addition to his solo catalog, and even if it’s a small one, his second EP of 2020 is that addition. Pharos is a succinct, five-song display of proggy melodicism much more confident and infectious than the still-respectable Telemark, further bolstering Ihsahn’s prog credibility and proving to anyone skeptical that he was all esoteric experimental bark and no substantive bite that he indeed has the songwriting chops to thrive in the genre.

8/10

Uniform - Shame

The New York duo’s sardonic and noisy industrial metal neither progresses nor regresses on their fourth album, Michael Berdan’s nasty vocal delivery and the backing industrial instrumentation lose steam and effectiveness rather quickly and the numbing experience ends up being over before you know it for the wrong reasons. It has its moments, but they are brief and few in number.

6/10

Cloudkicker - Solitude

Through an eleventh album under the name of his occasionally djenty instrumental prog studio project, Ohio virtuoso Ben Sharp once again flexes his technical and compositional prowess in an entertaining rather than self-congratulatory manner.

7/10

Marilyn Manson - We Are Chaos

This was a bit of a weird one, and it definitely caught me off guard for a few reasons, mostly for how it flows and for my own not hearing the title track previously when it was released as a single. The iconic 90’s boogeyman of the religious right wing in America is on his eleventh album now and (I mentioned it when I reviewed his tenth album, Heaven Upside Down, in 2011) it seems like people are finally accepting that the Antichrist Superstar’s fire-stoking strategy of blasphemous industrial metal last century was something that served its purpose for a time that has now passed. With Manson now on the more mortally introspective side of 50, the more measured rock of the latter portion of his catalog is starting to outsize what so many see as his grotesque golden age, which has seen him dip occasionally into the sounds of his beloved trilogy, but mostly dabbling in glam and indie rock sounds to find a late-career footing to sustain him. And on this album’s collaboration with country outlaw Shooter Jennings, I think the aging provocateur has found a direction that could be promising. Now I say it that way because I don’t think they gave us more than a tantalizing taste of it on this album, but I would love for Manson to further pursue what he and Jennings pull off together at the beginning of We Are Chaos. It took me a little while to warm up to the hammed up spoken word intro and industrial rock body of the opening track, “Red, Black, and Blue”, but I do think it does kick the album off well, albeit deceptively. It’s easy to forget how well Manson can hold himself on a ballad, not just on his meditation on his own aging during “Running to the Edge of the World”, but also on several cuts in his famed trilogy like “Lamb of God”, “Man That You Fear”, and “Coma White”. But after the somewhat tame fire of the intro track, Manson jumps straight into three songs of completely unexpected indie rock balladry that capture his mission to soundtrack every listener’s individual apocalypse at this time. Going through a lot of changes in life myself, I had a bit of unexpected catharsis with these songs that I think I’m going to be unable to dissociate them from with future listening. Unfortunately, Manson doesn’t re-engage ballade mode until “Broken Needle” closes the album, with the middle portion of the album having some good moments of industrial rock swagger, like “Perfume” and “Infinite Darkness”, but also some songs like “Half-Way & One Step Forward” that are just too dry on energy to be worth the time. But overall, I think the brightness in this album’s best spots make it well worth more than just a cursory listen, and I just hope that this album is a turning point for Manson and a step toward finding his groove without the flagrant heresy that built his youth.

7/10

Derek Sherinian - The Phoenix

Meandering through a generic prog rock instrumental wasteland and picking up the occasional morsel from between the dried out cracks of desert floor, The Phoenix is barely even a hearty display of the prog metal skill and street cred we all know the talented keyboardist to have.

5/10

Napalm Death - Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism

British grindcore legends Napalm Death need no introduction at this point, and with plenty of excitement behind their most lengthily-awaited LP after 2015’s well-respected Apex Predator - Easy Meat (and the sizzling appetizer the Logic Ravaged by Brute Force EP gave us), the band’s fifteenth full-length onslaught of deadly grindcore, Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism is a satisfactory dose of the band’s usual black-pilled rage against political and societal ills at most, with a few odd, to say the least, stylistic choices to say the least that beg the question of why this took so long.

6/10

Finntroll - Vredesvävd

While its adherence to the band’s boundaries within the niche genre they occupy makes it unlikely to take its established Finnish masterminds to any new heights, Vredesvävd is a professional, yet still fun serving of Finntroll’s black-metal-flavored folk metal brimming with energy and optimism.

6/10

Proscription - Conduit

Another Finnish outfit making their mark on 2020, Proscription still have some important ground to cover in ironing out and more specifically differentiating their blackened death metal sound, but Conduit is hardly a timid debut, providing a solid foundation for the four-piece to build upon.

6/10

Carnation - Where Death Lies

Not the faintest hint of a dreaded sophomore slump can be heard on the Belgians’ unflinching, merciless follow-up to their sizzlingly nasty 2018 debut album, Chapel of Abhorrence. Where Death Lies is as unyielding of a continuation as it gets, and in the best way such a straightforward trajectory can be. Nothing but skin-shredding, means-tested death metal in its most fibrant Floridian Form from front to back, Carnation showcase their skills from groove to solo in another stellar all-around display of force that provides a perhaps necessary reminder to the fans and critics annoyed by its ubiquitousness of the raw power that can come from unadulterated death metal.

8/10

Fit for a King - The Path

Fit for a King deliver perhaps the most convincing pathos yet for their more brightly melodic brand of Architects-like metalcore on their sixth album, putting on an exquisite balancing act that could sway even the most stubbornly cross-armed observer who likes the breakdowns but hates the clean singing.

7/10

Kataklysm - Unconquered

Kataklysm’s 2018 album, Meditations has ironically stuck out to me in retrospect because it was the shortest full-length review I had ever done, simply because there was so little to say about the unmemorable melodeath on that record. The band have definitely bounced back with some potent fire in their belly on the metalcore-infused Unconquered. Boasting more infectious grooves and more crushing breakdowns with a notably greater sense of urgency behind them, it’s still a pretty unambiguous and unambitious record, but it makes a far more convincing case for itself.

7/10

The Ocean Collective - Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic / Cenozoic

After a largely forgettable preceding act from all the way back in 2018, The Ocean Collective Return much more revitalized and sufficiently warmed up for a much more engaging 51 minutes of progressive metal that checks both classical and modern boxes.

7/10

Fires in the Distance - Echoes from Deep November

The debut album from the Connecticut four-piece offers a rather compositionallly directionless and standard take on the death-doom it offers. Even while taking a melodic approach very similar to that of a Khemmis or a Spirit Adrift, the attempted soulful guitar leads come off as aimlessly noodly and unplanned as the structures enclosing them, whose dynamic shifts feel more like repeated defibrillation attempts for unlively songs.

5/10

Darkcluster - Spirit of the Void

The debut album from this Canadian one-man-band studio project makes its intent to fill the sci-fi extreme thrash void that Vektor might not get to return to in the wake of the revealing David DiSanto’s domestic violence toward his girlfriend, and while Darkcluster’s mastermind clearly has the technicality down, the atrocious vocals across the rather lengthy and largely compositionally aimless project greatly hold this album back.

4/10

Swine of Dissent - An Uprising

A safer and more measured, but more successful black-metal-flavored thrash debut record, Swine of Dissent still have some work to do on the compositional floor as well, but with not as many glaring flaws, they have enough to start with and move forward with this type of thrash metal.

5/10

Gazpacho - Fireworker

The artsy Norwegian outfit returns to the more sprawling prog rock that hooked me into their music on Night for their eleventh album, but Fireworker is far from the kind tepid, nostalgic return to normal that a late-stage revisiting of older styles often suggests of other acts. Elevating their already lofty sound and massive scope to new cinematic, choral, orchestral heights with astounding ease, the soulfulness contained within the band’s clinical execution of such a daunting series of tasks makes Fireworker their most accomplished and enrapturing work yet.

9/10

Sumac - May You Be Held

While far from fatal, after the enthrallingly eccentric and humblingly heavy sludge experimentation of 2018’s Love in Shadow, the slightly tempered creativity and muddied production of May You Be Held is a mildly disappointing fourth LP simply for how high its creators have set their own bar. Nevertheless, Sumac continue to impress with a noisy, explosive, yet hypnotic approach to post-metal that thrives in the band’s love to draw outside the lines and with a deluxe box of crayons.

8/10

Obsidian Kingdom - Meat Machine

Priding themselves on their eccentricity, Obsidian Kingdom come through with one of the most stylistically diverse, genuinely experimental, and entirely entertaining sludge albums of the year, if not recent memory. Taking the thunderous sludge of Mastodon and going at it with the mindset of a band like Sumac, the quirky Catalans pack operatic vocals and even Slipknot-sequel passages into the intricate compactor that is Meat Machine, and it’s a feat they can certainly take pride in.

8/10

Deftones - Ohms

Coming from a big fan of both Gore and Koi No Yokan, Deftones’ plunge deeper into the elegant shoegaze of this later stage of their career on Ohms was bungled far too much by a lapse in the critical compositional organization that has allowed their ventures into spacey alternative metal territory to succeed.

5/10

4 notes · View notes

ulyssessklein · 6 years

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How I got on official Spotify playlists as an unknown independent musician…

… using only smart marketing, Show.co, and zero money.

I am an independent songwriter from Halifax, NS and the front man of folk-pop band Braden Lam & The Driftwood People. I have been singing since I could talk and playing guitar since I could walk — but in the eyes of the world, I’m still a relatively “new” artist. Now twenty years old, I juggle being a full-time university student with being a full-time musician.

This past summer, I embarked on the biggest project of my life. Having only the four months of my summer break from school, I needed to record an album, form a marketing plan, and execute all of it within this small window of time. No label, no manager, no team, no budget. I was doing this myself.

For a relatively new independent artist, I ended up with some great results. Especially when you consider that I had no connections and no budget. Just an open mind, consistent effort, a solid plan, and the FREE marketing tools that CD Baby gives to all their clients.

Let’s dive into how I did it.

My #1 goal: Get on an official Spotify playlist.

Fortunately I had a summer job that allowed me to listen to music while I worked. So during the first two months of the summer, I plowed through every single episode of the CD Baby DIY Musician Podcast. Every day my desk would quickly fill up with scribbled sticky notes of what I’d learned.

After assessing my abilities, time restraints, and the little budget I had, some major goals for this project began to form. The top goal was to get a start on my streaming game, and that meant getting on an official Spotify playlist. The streaming world is exploding, and it makes perfect sense to focus my energy on these platforms that will (fingers crossed) be essential to my future music career.

[CD Baby’s DIY Musician Blog is also a great resource to explore the world of music promotion, but you already knew that; you’re here!]

Developing a game plan to get my music onto playlists.

The next question of course was how to go about that.

In case you’re unaware, Spotify’s editorial playlists are the ones curated by people who work for Spotify, the so called “gatekeepers” of Spotify success.

Songs are selected based on:

trends in the data (algorithmic discovery)

pitching

direct submissions

and, of course, editorial taste

For someone like me who had extremely low Spotify traction at the time, and no connection to Spotify editors, it all seemed like a mystery. But, through the DIY Musician Podcast, I realized I do have powerful online marketing tools such as Show.co that can be used to “hack the system” and juice the Spotify algorithm upon the release of my songs. That helps attract the attention of Spotify’s editors. I wanted to find a way to make the Spotify algorithm serve my music on a platter to the right editor.

But I still had to RELEASE the music!

After two months of recording the album in my bedroom studio, I was ready to develop a marketing plan. I decided to release the single “Dawson City” on August 10th and then push out the full 6-track EP “Driftwood People” on September 14th.

By the way, I recommend you always release music on a Friday. Also, when releasing a single first and then a followup single, EP, or album, I would release them within 28 days of each other (Spotify’s monthly listener turnover point) to make the biggest impact in a short amount of time.

Enter Show.co…

I decided to test out two different Show.co marketing plans for each release. Both campaigns lead to playlist successes on Spotify, and I’ll highlight them both below.

The Lead Single

My first goal was to increase my number of Spotify followers.

I had between August 5th and August 10th (the release date of the single) to do it. If I could get a bunch of people to follow me in those five days right before the release happened, it would look really good to the Spotify algorithm. I started out with 144 followers on Spotify before launching a “Social Unlock” Spotify-Follow campaign on Show.co. If you’re a CD Baby client, you can run this kind of campaign for FREE!

I also included the email-list signup option for people who were not Spotify users since my email list consisted of a measly 33 people. After choosing a suitable image that matched the branding of my album and worked well on both the mobile and desktop views of the Show.co campaign page, this is what I came up with:

The “Hook”

The most important component of your campaign is the content that you use as a hook for people to follow you. Think of it as the reward they get for following you on Spotify.

With the Social Unlock campaign, when someone performs the desired action on your campaign, they can unlock a link to anything on the internet…maybe a cool video, sneak peak of a song, unreleased demos, etc. This is where you can get really creative! Overall, your deliverable needs to be fresh content that creates intrigue. Every word in your campaign needs to incentivize a fan to press “Follow” and unlock that reward or experience.

For my campaign, I made a music video for the intro track of my new album and labeled it as the “Official Album Intro.”

My points of intrigue were:

keeping it unlisted on YouTube so it was exclusive to people who unlocked my campaign

conveying that it was an unreleased track

See the wording I used in my campaign above.

Here’s an example of the analytics you can get from your campaign once it’s running. Pay attention to these stats; if you are not getting a great response, change your message, picture, or promotion strategy. Remember, marketing is all about trying new things as you go along and seeing what you get the best response from! Don’t just stick it out if it’s not working. Keep trying new things!

To advertise my campaign, I simply posted natural content on all my social media platforms that would pique someone’s curiosity. I found success in posting screenshots from the secret video and putting intriguing questions in the caption, lyrics from the song, or cool behind-the-scenes info.

You could also use Facebook Ads Manager to run some social media ads on Facebook and Instagram to reach a greater number of people.

The full album launch.

The goal for my second campaign was to take advantage of the Pre-Save option available on Show.co.

Here I used a combination of a couple platforms to execute the campaign I wanted. I didn’t want my fans who are Apple Music users to feel left out again. So this time I hosted my primary landing page on SmartURL with a Spotify pre-save, Apple Music pre-add, and iTunes pre-order options:

To clarify, the Show.co pre-save only works on Spotify, so when someone clicked the Spotify Pre-Save button above, they would land on my Show.co page that looked like this:

[Note: Once the song is released, your Show.co “pre-save” campaign will automatically switch to an “add on Spotify” campaign, as you’ll see above.]

My hook this time was a different unlisted YouTube video of a live recording that didn’t make it on the album.

Again, it was unreleased content that naturally drove curiosity. In addition to promoting this on social media, I also ran a giveaway contest for anyone who pre-saved the album on Spotify to win a signed CD and band t-shirt. I knew that running two similar campaigns within less thnn a month of each other would be tough to get the same response, so the contest incentive gave the campaign that extra push.

The results

After running the single campaign, I had gained 54 new Spotify followers and 81 new additions to my email list.

On the day of my single release, I was featured on Spotify’s New Music Friday Canada playlist which has over 220K followers. I was literally shaking when I first saw my name on that list and I remember shouting “It worked” out loud in the middle of a restaurant where I was eating with friends.

The song was also added to Spotify’s Down Home Country playlist (I guess my folk song had some country vibes), and a week later was also added to the Fresh Finds: Six Strings playlist. So not only was my song noticed on its release day, but it continued to get attention and moved around playlists.

The album pre-save campaign a month later was unlocked 42 times and was also successful in getting the title track of my album onto Spotify’s Folk & Friends playlist which has over 107K followers.

Keep in mind, I also submitted my songs directly to Spotify for playlist consideration. This is especially important to do in the case of an album to identify the song you want featured.

So in summary, I used a combination of creative online tools and content to run a simple, effective, and low-cost marketing campaign that worked. Now it’s your turn to make your own unique campaign. I hope this helps you with your next release!

More Pro Tips (from a total amateur)

Want to make your pre-save/follow campaign even more professional and effective? Here are some quick tips to try and take it to the next level:

Purchase a custom domain (optional, but only $15/year). I used driftwoodpeople.com and adjusted the domain forwarding to land on my Show.co campaign since it looked better then the non-customizable Show.co URL.

Show.co has an option to make your campaign a Spotify pre-save AND follow campaign at once. Try that out; it’s like a 2-for-1 deal.

Don’t give away your secret. If you are using a video for the social unlock, as tempting as it may be, don’t use part of that video to attract people on social media. Keep it exclusive!

The post How I got on official Spotify playlists as an unknown independent musician… appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.

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