Welcome to Seven in Seven, where we typically take a look at shows coming to the region over the next week. And while venue doors are slowly opening again, due to the current pandemic they aren’t quite there yet. That doesn’t mean the music stops, and new releases are coming out weekly from artists you know and love and some waiting to be discovered. Each week we’ll be looking at some of the best hitting shelves and streaming services, and a can’t-miss show in the region.
Whether your musical tastes are rock, jazz, heavy metal, R&B, singer-songwriter or indie, there’ll always be something to check out. Here’s what’s on the docket for the week of Jan. 21:
Show of the week
The Wombats — The Fillmore — Saturday
Fifteen years and three top five UK albums into their career, Brit indie rockers the Wombats are pulling in a bigger audience than ever before. The viral success of Oliver Nelson’s remix of their 2015 hit “Greek Tragedy” on TikTok has enraptured a whole new generation of fans, a feat they’ve managed to continually repeat since their 2007 debut, “A Guide To Love, Loss & Desperation.” Used in over 600,000 videos (some of which have over 100 million views), the remix has rocketed to over 30 million streams, propelling the original to 120 million streams and sending it Gold in the States, helping the band surpass a billion worldwide streams.
New releases
Edge of Forever — “Seminole”
Edge of Forever returns with album number five in “Seminole,” following two years after “Native Soul.” The last album saw a “rebirth” for the band with new members, while the new LP continues the band’s tradition of combining inspirational and positive lyrics with powerful riffs, anthemic vocals and skilled musicianship inspired by the heart and depth of Native American culture. The result is a band effort, a mirror of a group of preeminent musicians feeling as one, ready to conquer with their extraordinary musicianship and inspiring stories.
Sonata Arctica — “Acoustic Adventures — Volume One”
Finnish melodic metal icons Sonata Arctica release the first part of their two-piece “Acoustic Adventures” album this month, containing acoustic adaptions of 12 tracks from their discography. Recorded at Studio57, Finland, “Acoustic Adventures – Volume One” shows that it doesn’t always have to be a stretch when musicians known for their heaviness strip down songs to their roots. It’s also going to leave listeners looking forward to the forthcoming second volume of the set.
Goodnight Texas — “How Long Will It Take for Them To Die”
Conventional wisdom says the two frontmen of a band shouldn’t live on opposite sides of the United States, but that’s never seemed to deter Avi Vinocur and Patrick Dyer Wolf. Their project Goodnight, Texas is an undefinable storytelling folk-rock band whose strength lies in unexpected sweet spots. The band’s name is drawn from Pat and Avi’s onetime geographic midpoint, the real town of Goodnight, Texas, a tiny hamlet east of Amarillo directly betwween San Francisco, Calif. and Chapel Hill, N.C. The band also exists at the center of its songwriters’ contrasting styles at the crossroads of folk and blues and rock ‘n’ roll. Their latest offering, “How Long Will It Take for Them To Die,” is a perfect blend of those genres and everything else in between.
Great American Ghost — “Torture World”
Boston band Great American Ghost directs old-school hardcore wrath at hypocrisy, apathy and self-loathing delivered in a dark cloud of relentlessly bludgeoning riffs on their new EP. “Torture World.” The title track blends atmospheric melodies with unrelenting heaviness, maneuvering swiftly between classic death metal, crushing hardcore and double bass-fueled fury. “Womb” is as fast and severe as anything originating from the frozen forests of Scandinavia, swinging wildly back and forth between blackened death and slow, bludgeoning sludge, while “Death Forgives No One” concludes the proceedings, with a progressive bent, equal parts driving and haunting, with an almost esoteric quality beneath it all.
Gilmore Trail – “Impermanence”
“Impermanence” is an album ultimately about change, transition and uncertainty that finds a band dwelling on notions of legacy, family, history, philosophy and the natural world. Gilmore Trail deliver seven earthquaking instrumentals that make for a powerful and timely suite of songs rippling with echoes of everything from Pink Floyd to Mogwai and King Crimson to Oceansize. The long-awaited follow-up to 2015’s “The Floating World” arrives 10 years into the group’s career and retains all the touchstones that have defined their repertoire to date, while embracing the shifting sands of change for all the goodness they can bring. At its core, “Impermanence” is the sound of a unit entering an exhilarating new phase in their evolution and taking control of their destiny.
Bannister Effect — “A Life I Knew”
Seven years in the making, lyricist Joe Puleo and singer-songwriter Eli Wenger’s collaboration dubbed Bannister Effect comes to life with their debut LP, “A Life I Knew.” The melodic folk-rock-pop-punk album is a meditation on the quirks of life and one man’s response to the vicissitudes he faced, and is a union borne of a deep friendship between kindred spirits. The album is a mosaic of related songs that begin with a divorce and explore themes of love, death, self-acceptance and reemergence. Much like a novel, each song tells part of the narrator’s journey and ultimate rebirth — a true evolution of one soul, told in a manner that is relatable on many levels.
Soundcheck
• The Wombats: “Greek Tragedy”
• Edge of Forever: “Our Battle Rages On”
• Sonata Arctica: “The Rest of the Sun Belongs to Me”
• Goodnight Texas: “Jane, Come Down From Your Room”
• Great American Ghost: “Torture World”
• Gilmore Trail: “Nocturne”
• Bannister Effect: “Again”
Source: Berkshire mont
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