Weekly Threats MEGA Post: Recommended New Releases For January - February 2018

You may have noticed a few changes for Idol Threat, the least of which is our new website address!  Idol Threat has a new site, a new look and a new logo!  You can see now that we've been very busy behind the scenes for the past few months working to put out www.idolthreatblog.com officially into the world!

Couple that with the fact that we were also busy finishing up our Top Albums of 2017 list and you get a hiatus for our Weekly Threats.  That means a mega post for our recommended albums for January and February 2018! (it may also include some stragglers from December as well.):

Planet Asia - The Golden Buddha
Planet Asia has been an oft-overlooked West Coast MC, which is a shame since he has one of the best flows to come out of the West side.  A widely prolific artist (he released a collaborative album with acclaimed producer Apollo Brown last year) he is a member of Gold Chain Military, Durag Dynasty and the cult favorite duo Cali Agents with legendary MC Rasco.  The Golden Buddha is his eighth solo album and as usual is a solid release.

Statik Selektah - 8: Instrumentals
Statik Selektah has been one of the most consistently dope hardcore Hip Hop producers to come out of late and has been waving the flag heavy for the 'old school' 90s East Coast Hip Hop style sound.  Just looking at the Boston beatmaker's list of artists he's done releases with shows the type of pedigree he fosters and fucks with: Termanology, Freeway, Bumpy Knuckles aka Freddie Foxx, Freddie Gibbs, Reks, Action Bronson, Crooked I and Reks!  Just try and name a harder list of MCs!  This release is the Instrumentals to the songs he released last month with his album "8."  That album featured 2 Chainz, Run The Jewels, The L.O.X., Wale, Royce da 5'9", Raekwon, Mtume, Westside Gunn, Conway, Sean Price and G-Eazy, all of which of course are absent on this version.

Corrosion Of Conformity - No Cross No Crown
Crossover/Sludge legends Corrosion of Conformity follows up 2014's album IX with No Cross No Crown.  This album features guitarist/vocalist Pepper Keenan's return to the band, and is their first album in 18 years to include both him and original drummer Reed Mullin.  As expected, this reunion brings a return to form for the band and a departure from their last two albums.  Fans of their classic album Deliverance will find quite a bit to like with their latest release.

Evidence - Weather or Not
Evidence.  West Coast MC.  Producer.  One third of Hip Hop group Dilated Peoples.  Originally outside of Dilated Ev put in most of his work as a beatmaker, but he's been steadily doing more features and releasing more solo albums.  His even-toned, no frills delivery packs a punch without any needed bombast and provides the perfect vehicle to get his point across succinctly and impactfully. Weather or Not is his third and final album in his Weathermen series and was released on Rhymesayers Entertainment (yes Slug is on here!)

GoGo Penguin - A Humdrum Star
UK Jazz trio GoGo Penguin releases their 4th album "A Humdrum Star" it's first for the legendary label Blue Note Records. The album takes it's name from a Carl Sagan quote, and the space theme seems to match their sound which incorporates elements of electronic and trip hop music with jazz.  The result has piano notes with plenty of space between them, and polyrhythmic drums and ethereal bass.  Ideas for the album was sketched in Ableton and Logic, and it's that forward-pressing combination of electric & acoustic that make them one of the bands The New York Times highlighted as the 12 best at SXSW 2017.

Wake - Misery Rites
Canadian fucking grindcore.  What's not to love?  The dual guitar attack from this Calgary quartet combines traditional grind with elements of death metal and sludge, giving only slight respites from the beautiful barrage of blastbeats.  This record explores themes depression, addiction, and isolation in the package of an amazing grindcore album.

Skyzoo - In Celebration Of Us
Skyzoo is the connection of the classic boom bap Hip Hop of the 90s to the modern day revivalists of the genre like Joey Bada$$ and J. Cole.  Some may lump him in with the latter, but either way the Brooklyn MC is a proud and talented flag-bearer of that era.  His pedigree can be seen in the roster of record labels he has worked with in the past from Jamla, to Duck Down to modern-day keepers of the underground Mello Music Group.  Skyzoo has chosen to release his latest album on his own label First Generation Rich, as he plays down the autobiographical aspects of his past albums in favor of one with more social commentary becoming a new version of the CNN of the streets.

The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir
Chicago post-metal band The Atlas Moth has evolved greatly since it's 2009 debut "A Glorified Piece of Blue-Sky" bringing in more stoner and psychedelic influences to their already progressive style.  With Coma Noir the band adopts a more straightforward metal approach to their songwriting, while still maintaining the heaviness and atmosphere of their past records.  Some may remember lead singer and guitarist Stavros Giannopoulos from his time with black metal supergroup Twilight, which also included Leviathan, Sanford Parker and Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth fame.

Black Milk - Fever
It's been four years since Detroit MC/Producer Black Milk has released a solo album.  This time around Black Milk has incorporated even more live instrumentation; recording session musicians, orchestrating their playing, sampling and chopping the results.  His bars retain the patented Detroit style of flow popularized by the late great J Dilla, which remnants can still be found in the DNA of Motor City uber-lyricists like Royce da 5'9".  Another solid release from this Detroit stalwart.

Jericho Jackson - eLZhi & Khrysis are Jericho Jackson
Speaking of Detroit Hip Hop, Royce's top competition for best non-Eminem lyricist eLZhi has released a collaborative album with Jamla Records producer Khrysis.  The duo has been christened Jericho Jackson (named after a character in the Action Jackson film) and the record eLZhi & Khrysis are Jericho Jackson was announced and released in February.  eL is a former member of legendary Detroit rap group Slum Village and has arguably one of the most melodic lyrical deliveries out, and Khrysis has been one of the main producers for NC rap collective The Justus League, so the combination of the two is one that should not be missed!

Insect Ark - Marrow Hymns
Self-described cinematic doom duo Insect Ark consists of Dana Schechter on bass, lap steel, & electronics and of Ashley Spungin on drums & synthesizers.  The instrumental group create visual drone and doom whose sounds are reminiscent of film soundtracks (Schechter's work composing music for film and being a video maker/animator for film/TV helps) and the lap steel inevitably brings some comparison to post metal band Red Sparowes and drone pioneers Earth.  Schechter has worked with Michael Gira’s Angels Of Light, Gnaw and Leviathan's first band Gifthorse and the music of those bands have definitely had an impact on Insect Ark's work.

Erdve - Vaitojimas
Lithuania is not home to many metal bands, especially those of the sludge metal variety that also takes inspiration from black metal and the metallic hardcore of the 90s.  So when a band like Erdve pops up its prudent to take note, which is exactly what record label Seasons of Mist did when they chose to release their album Vaitojimas (which means 'moaning' in Lithuanian, or according to the band specifically the "kind of moaning that you can hear often in mental institutions, mostly gibberish sounds made by patients.")  The label actually picked the band straight out of their demo pile and offered them a deal, that should tell you how good this record is!

Hooded Menace - Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed
Motherfucking Hooded Menace! The Finnish Death/Doom band has just released their fifth full length, this time on the ever popular Seasons of Mist label.  Elements of Paradise Lost worship and funeral doom are still present as the band pushes their cinematic gloom and doom riffage to crushing new heights.

JPEGMAFIA - Veteran
JPEGMAFIA's music is edgy and satirical.  Who else would put out rap albums named "Black Ben Carson" or name songs "Whole Foods," wrap himself with the Confederate Flag and talk about random people ranging from the hipster to the politically controversial like Lena Dunham, Bill Maher and Tomi Lahren?  From the beginning of the singing ODB Sample you know you're in for a whimsical ride as JPEG raps in various styles over glitchy, experimental lo-fi beats.

Meat Beat Manifesto - Impossible Star
Electronic music legends Meat Beat Manifesto return with their first full-length in 7 years!  Impossible Star is a culmination of all the styles and influences Jack Dangers has culled in MBM's three+ decades of existence!  Distorted drums, bass and glitchy, moody, skittery synths & samples scatter the album's 13 tracks and makes for a very varied and enjoyable listen.

Harm's Way - Posthuman
Posthuman is Chicago hardcore band Harm's Way's fifth studio album and their first for Metal Blade.  It follow's 2015's Deathwish released Rust and continues that album's trend of incorporating industrial music, groove metal and more atmosphere into their straight-edge hardcore.  Rust was a stylistic change from the powerviolence meets death metal albums from the past, and Posthuman further cements that direction in their musical evolution.