Last night, Chat Pile kicked off their tour in support of their new album, Who Loves the Sun, at First Avenue in Minneapolis. As you can see in my unimpressive photos, it was a barebones performance, with the band performing in front of a black curtain - no graphic backdrop, no fancy lighting, no other gimmicks. That says a lot about where Chat Pile are as a live band at this point - the music is all they need to keep an audience enraptured, and they know it. 

A look behind the curtain at New Music Friday: When I started this column, I would just start with a new release list on Friday mornings. Then, I started working ahead as much as possible, finding singles that were released mid-week to start working in. When I started getting early album reviews, that changed the game for me and allowed me to get my thoughts on an album down sometimes a couple weeks in advance. But I would still always pick a few new releases on Friday morning to add into the mix. Except this week - this week's column was written entirely in advance, because I've got obligations all day Friday that will preclude me from checking out anything on Friday. On the plus side, that means this column was ready to go first thing in the morning! On the double plus side, there were a lot of really great things that came my way in advance, and I'm happy to share them all with you now. 

[Editor's note: I can't leave well enough alone. I found some time Friday morning and added a couple additional album recommendations.]

Tomorrow, the second album from German black/death metal band Ch'ahom releases. 

Antrophic Rites of Sublimation is a fascinating album, combining black metal with sounds and themes of pre-Hispanic South America. There's a deep fiction to the album as well that explores otherworldly forces, cults, and self-destructive urges. I wanted to learn more about this album, so I reached out to the band via email. Members "A.G.A." and "S.P.S." responded, and the entire conversation is below, lightly edited for grammar. The complete album stream is also embedded below. 

It's been said that bad times lead to good art. Indeed, it has been fascinating and reassuring to hear how different artists have responded to the soul-crushing years we are living in. We are awash in music that is reflecting in our current darkness, and Emma Ruth Rundle does not shy away from the horrors of the world on her new album, These Killing Times. But, fortunately, nor does she shy away from hope. 

On a whim, I recently participated in an online focus group about modern country music. While listening to these song snippets, I was astonished to hear that all the songs sounded the same. Not similar, the same. The same glossy production, the same vocal styles, the same beats per minute and instrumentation. They all sounded terrible to my ears, but that’s beside the point – what I took away from the experience was the absolute lack of diversity in sound. 

Heavy music, on the other hand, is all about diversity of sound. This is my third review this week, and all three albums sound entirely different. A big part of what enables this diversity, I would argue, is heavy music’s embrace of “ugly” sounds. Other genres shy away from tension and discordance, forces that heavy musicians can wield to incredible results. Take, for example, the band Amplifiers and their new album, The Inevitability of Disillusionment. 

We live in a world where there is much to be angry about. I'm not even going to attempt to list out the major issues affecting our society today - I would certainly miss hundreds, if not thousands, of major topics that are deserving of white hot, boiling rage. Because of the nature of the music I cover, I find myself listening to a lot of albums that tackle the grand scale of injustice in the world. On the other hand, the new album by New York's Wellness presents a more focused distillation of rage. Whereas something like Chat Pile's new album takes on the collective failures of 21st Century life, Wellness are more laser-focused on more specific, yet no less substantive, societal issues, which they take on in a concentrated 16-minute explosion of righteous indignation. 

Many, many years ago, I was a professional video game critic. I was on staff at a video game magazine and I was paid, among other things, to play video games and share my opinions of them. An untold number of years later, I'm once again playing the critic role (although no one is paying me for my opinions at the moment!), and I am reminded of the differences of consuming media as a fan and as a critic. There is indeed a difference - critics are expected to have a wider breadth of knowledge about the art form they write about, and once you start shifting into critic mode, it's difficult to turn it off for recreational consumption. One of the duties of the critic, of course, is to spend time with art that might not be a perfect match to their individual tastes. Sometimes that means spending time with art that you genuinely dislike. Sometimes, that means discovering something you enjoy that you might not have otherwise. Such is the case with me and Vorara, the debut album by Chicago's Become Death. 

Today is a little bit lighter on the new release front, but I've noticed that tends to happen before a really big new release week. And guess what? Next Friday is a big one. There may not be a single massing album coming next week, but there are a few very significant ones, and a ton of smaller, interesting albums. It looks like I will have four or five album reviews for you next week. In the meantime, I've got a selection of solid albums and interesting singles for you below. 

Howdy folks. I've made a couple additions to the site in recent days to make it easier to find specific content, and I wanted to share those changes with you all as they're easy to miss.

In recent weeks, this site has more accurately been One Kind of Heavy. I've been doing a looooot of metal content and not much in the way of fitness content. If I have any long-time readers, you might recognize this as a pattern. But hey, metal is a much easier hobby to maintain than fitness. Today, however, you fitness fans are in for a treat! Well, maybe not a treat, but a legitimate piece of BKOH-original fitness advice, anyway. Warning: if you follow this particular tip, your family may disown you. You may find yourself ripped yet lonely. Still with me? Then head onwards for a very simple, very healthy, and very, very smelly breakfast recipe!