» 2026-08-31

Monthly Release Round-up: August 2026

A combination of an extremely busy month and a release schedule light on compelling albums, we have yet another brief round-up.

Allt, Ataraxia

This feels like a bunch of guys who grew up on Meshuggah and nu metal formed a band. I'm very much down with this.

Listen: Bandcamp

Denzel Curry, ii

Denzel Curry and Kenny Beats are back with another collaboration. I'm so-so on this one; it's not outright bad but nothing really grabs my attention here. I've heard it best described as a tribute to MF Doom, and they're certainly not wrong, but I don't often listen to him. It's worth a look, and I'll say it's better than Strictly 4 The Scythe or at least comparable.

Listen: Bandcamp

The Red Clay Strays, Grateful

I've ended up listening to these guys a lot in the summer, and this new album immediately caught my attention. Country blues / rock with some really engaging vocals.

Listen: Spotify

Charles Wesley Godwin, Christian Name

Another one way outside my usual wheelhouse, a country / rock album with a very strong religious theme. I can't help it, good songs are good songs!

Listen: Spotify

Oh Hiroshima, And The Dead Tree Gives No Shelter

I really liked this post-rock album from a band I'd lost track of for a few years. I blame Bandcamp for sending me too many emails.

Listen: Bandcamp

Open Mike Eagle x Kenny Segal, Doomed!

This album didn't resonate much on the first listen, but it's begun to grow on me. Generally, I appreciate Kenny Segal's talent more than the tracks themselves, but this pairing really works for me.

Listen: Bandcamp

» 2026-08-23

Anthony Smith Arrested

It took me a little while to feel like commenting on the story of Anthony Smith's arrest. Yet another MMA fighter, albeit not as high-profile as a Conor McGregor — or even a Dustin Poirier — goes off the rails and catches a series of disturbing domestic violence charges. All 3 are felonies: first degree domestic violence, uttering terroristic threats and false imprisonment. The maximum sentences could theoretically land the ex-UFC middleweight gatekeeper in jail for decades.

Oddly enough, TMZ was one of the better sources of reporting on the story. The smoldering remnants of the MMA journalism scene gave the whole event very little notice.

I wouldn't say Smith was ever "one of my guys." He was a competent middleweight, which is not really a compliment; 185 pounds has never been a great division and it has languished since the heyday of Anderson Silva. His career peak was taking a subpar Jon Jones — who fought cautiously enough to think he didn't care about the fight, or didn't respect Smith whatsoever — to a decision that he ultimately lost. The rest of his UFC tenure was a mix of lackluster decisions and violent stoppage losses. I will never forget the time Glover Teixeira essentially knocked all his teeth out... (I would like to, though.)

Still, Smith found his way into the commentary and analyst booths on UFC broadcasts, and he did a decent job. Not all fighters are good behind the mic, often coming off as pedantic (Dominick Cruz) or unprepared and goofy (Daniel Cormier); not everyone can be a Bryan Stann. After spending 20 years watching the sport of MMA grind fighters into dust and leave them with nothing to fall back on, I always liked seeing someone broaden their prospects. Admittedly, some of that was coming from a position of self-interest: the less of a meatgrinder the sport appears to be, the more likely it will thrive and I can keep watching.

There's no way to blame what Smith did specifically on CTE, although there's a very good chance that his lengthy career in combat sports — including 12 losses by KO / TKO — could have contributed to this situation. Repeated brain trauma can absolutely change people, making them more violent and impulsive. It's also possible that Smith has always been a piece of shit who also happened to get hit in the head a lot. Nothing is ever cut and dry, and a lifetime of fighting doesn't excuse criminal acts.

It will be a while before the trial plays out. The big takeaway is: yet another point in favour of my decision to walk away from MMA as a fan — or even semi-casual follower. Even more disconcerting than the lack of discernible stars in the sport is the utter paucity of decent human beings. Gone are the days of the UFC pointing out that Chuck Liddell had a bachelor's degree in accounting, or that Rich Franklin was a high school teacher; these days, it feels like the fighter ranks are little more than domestic abusers, right-wing reactionaries, and varying mixes of both.

Killswitch Engage - Live

I'm late in posting this, but felt it bore mentioning that finally getting a chance to see Killswitch Engage live was well worth the wait. I was originally supposed to see them — along with August Burns Red back in March of 2020. Thanks to Covid-19, I never got a chance to see that show; the dates were re-scheduled a couple of times before the whole tour was ultimately scrapped.

I wasn't sure I would get a chance to see Killswitch live, as they typically would only have Montreal and / or Toronto dates on their tours. I really miss going to Montreal for shows, but the costs involved in seeing a show out of province are somewhat probibitive these days. (Toronto is also expensive and has the added downside of being Toronto.)

The show was at a new venue, a Hard Rock Hotel & Casino that I had been hearing ads for ("coming soon!") for several years on iHeartRadio podcasts. The sound was great, and the crowd was awesome. There were only 3 bands, and the show ran like clockwork.

Malevolence were the openers, a respectable modern hardcore band from the UK. I was completely unfamiliar with them, but they did a good job. I wasn't blown away, but they were a solid opener.

Machine Head were great, although they largely played songs from their newer albums. I was in the bizarre position of having followed the band since before The Burning Red even hit stores, and not knowing a half-dozen songs in the setlist — that a crowd, whose average age was well below mine, knew all the words to. It was nice to see Machine Head remaining relevant, and I still got to hear "Davidian" live.

The headliners stole the show, however. The band was in good form, though not perfect — which they even remarked on — but it didn't matter. Being in a crowd with a couple thousand other people who know all the words to every song is an experience I haven't had before. The setlist was absolute fire, and getting to hear "I Believe" and "The End of Heartache" live was even better than expected.

I've been a massive fan of Killswitch since I bought a copy of Alive Or Just Breathing — on little more than an endorsement from producer Andy Sneap — so this was a culmination of a decades-long fandom. This was easily one of the best shows I've ever seen.

» 2026-08-22

Where Did The Summer Go?

Between helping my parents with their flooded house and a close friend's wedding, this summer vanished in the blink of an eye. We're somehow already in the back-third of August and, while I could account for the time if I really sat down and wrote it out, it still feels like I'm owed at least a month somehow.

In spite of being busier than ever, my overall stress burden is a lot lighter. My new job has its inherent pressures, but I am no longer spinning my wheels in a role that was effectively a dead end. As exhausting as the last ~3 months have been, I feel like there has been a lot of positive change in my life — so it feels worth it.

I am looking forward to things slowing down a little, and getting back to more writing in the coming months.

» 2026-08-01

Sid Wilson Out Of Slipknot

I have not been a big Slipknot fan for a long time, but I still found it shocking that they seemingly fired one of their original members. I couldn't even begin to imagine the drama involved in a band with 9 members, but after nearly 30 years you just assume some guys are going to be there forever.

There aren't many details available, just some cryptic social media posts and a TMZ story indicating it was due to personal conflicts with the rest of the band. Who knows how much we'll ever find out, as Slipknot's history is littered with dismissals only ever discussed in the vaguest of terms.

The current configuration of Slipknot is very far removed from the group that made two extremely important albums in the metal canon. While I do like some of their newer work, a bunch of essentially hired guns aren't going to recapture the magic and mystery of the old days.

Now, Sid Wilson wasn't the most integral part of the group's sound, but I do think his scratching and sampling did contribute a lot to the atmosphere and overall vibe of some of their better songs. I don't think his absence will affect the quality of future material one way or the other, but it's not generally a good sign when founding members leave a band.

It's also a weird coincidence that this all went down in the same year Look Outside Your Window finally released, which is an album written and recorded by Shawn Crahan, Corey Taylor, Jim Root and Sid Wilson in 2008, during the All Hope Is Gone sessions. (If the title doesn't ring a bell, it's because it made precisely no impact despite years of rumours teasing its release.)

Given all the rumour mongering, it's tough to not make the cynical read that it's a band shedding longstanding members, to replace them with hired guns making significantly less money. There's always a chance there's something more dramatic at the root of all this but, to me, this feels like the inevitable outcome in the later stages of a band like Slipknot's existence.