BEST OF THE REST

Other new releases out this month.

Alan Vega

Mutator SACRED BONES

The late Suicide frontman’s second posthumous set is no mere cutting-room-floor sweep, but a hitherto unreleased album from the ever-edgy electro pioneer’s prolific nineties peak. Dark, bleak, challenging, unique. 7/10

Lovebites

Glory Glory To The World JPU

The third EP from the preposterously technically adept Japanese metal quintet delivers all that’s expected: migraine-inducing visuals, dog-whistle guitars, dead-eyed deadpan vocals and possibly something about vampires… Babywho? 6/10

Procol Harum

Missing Persons (Alive Forever) EP CHERRY RED

Whether or not two songs equate to an EP, Missing Persons’ Keith Reid-worded, Gary Brooker-voiced, lockdown-completed title track sits grandly enough in the band’s classily dramatic canon. Its War Is

Not Healthy ‘flip side’ not so much. 6/10

Empyre

The Other Side

Having appeared unplugged before Alter Bridge, Shinedown et al, it’s no surprise to find the much-touted Brit rockers marking covid time with an acoustic album. An impressive show of accomplished class, but in an ideal world the stuff of stunning B-sides. 7/10

Gojira Fortitude ROADRUNNER

Ingenious French tech-metallers return with an album brimming with progression, power and commitment. Amazonia is an environmentally aware triumph laced with indigenous instrumentation and titanic dynamics. Positively huge. 8/10

Gruff Rhys

Seeking New Gods ROUGH TRADE

Seven albums into a creditable solo career, the ex-Super Furry Animals frontman and overlooked genius of a mid-90s Taffnaissance (sadly overshadowed by Britpop hype) returns in style, with broad volcanic concepts and huge pop-tastic tunes.7/10

Hippie Death Cult HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS

Circle Of Days

Coming across like a generously cowbelled Black Sabbath, Portland’s four-piece HDC blend warm, flowing riffery with engaging ingenuity on this convincing second set of brilliantly realised vintage metal classicism. 8/10

Various FRUITS DE MER

Head Rush

Triple LP (with bonus CD) set of 22 contemporary artists celebrating the influence of the Neu!/Can/Kraftwerk axis on their intrinsically motorik muse. Subtle hints of post-Moroder EDM reflect time’s passage, but kosmische purists will find much to love. 8/10

Dust Mice BANDCAMP

Earth III

Post-punk space-rock from the Pacific Northwest. Analog synths, mesmeric guitars and squalling sax recall Warrior-era Hawks and Inner City Unit. Patchy and unpolished with occasional flashes of brilliance. 7/10

Rob Zombie

The Lunar Injection Kool-Aid Eclipse Conspiracy

NUCLEAR BLAST

Familiar, formulaic ‘90s Wednesday 13 on a 70s Alice-Cooper budget’ gore-soaked, post-Manson, electro-literate spook-metal thrills. But in a good way. It’s fab unedifying stuff, but shouldn’t he be playing golf by now? 6/10

Peter Hammill

In Translation

Ten unlikely covers (from Jerome Kern to Gustav Mahler), recorded to ease the stately Van der Graaf Generator institution through lockdown, receive characteristically dramatic readings. It’s not exactly Rikki’s nadir, but neither is it exactly rock. 6/10