This month saw the release of macOS Sierra, the one with the name change. Along with that came some pretty hefty changes to iTunes Music. Some of these changes are cute, like curated playlists, but others, like the removal of most lists of new music, are not so nice. I’m still trying to work out the best way to discover new music, now that I can’t view lists of all new albums, but I’m sure I’ll think of something. Fortunately, it didn’t stop me finding plenty of great material for this month’s post, and as ever, the music below is in no particular order.

Monte Pittman - Inverted Grasp of Balance

First off, we have this album by none other than Madonna’s Guitarist, Monte Pittman. He’s clearly not just a pop guitarist because this album is a beast, not prog, but hard-hitting full on metal that’s pretty refreshing, and pretty good to run to as well.

Listen on:

Lotus Thief - Gramarye

This band defies description, so here’s what they say on Bandcamp:

Lotus Thief is a San Francisco band that merges post-black metal, space rock and ambient music, seamlessly blending the genres into a unique and greater musical whole.

This is amazing turned up really really loud, and despite the black metal influences there’s not much rough singing here. It’s chiefly clean and choral female angelic vocals, with just the odd little growl thrown in for good measure!

Listen on:

Alcest - Kodama

It’s fair to say that Alcest is a genre-defining post-metal band, and that their last album put some people off. Well, in this album they return to the more traditional blackgaze style of “Les Voyages de l’Âme”, which will please a lot of people. In the words of the top review on iTunes:

Relaxing, evocative… beautiful. This album will transport the listener away to a magical place where they can escape from all of the day’s distress.

That sums it up perfectly.

Listen on:

Doom duo: Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard - Y Proffwyd Dwyll

Mammoth Weed are clearly not bothered about non-welsh speakers pronouncing the name of their album, but don’t let that put you off because you’ll be hard pressed to find more awesome doom metal, and the angelic sounding vocals fit perfectly with the slow chugging guitar sound.

Listen on:

Temples - Holy Serpent

A last minute addition to September’s post, Holy Serpent is another doom record, but this time it’s a little more rocky, with an amazingly raw sound. Definitely worth a listen because this rocks.

Listen on:

Helen Money - Become Zero

Finally this month, we have something a bit different. Helen Money’s music puts me in mind of Godspeed, except that the tracks are all far shorter, and the build-ups are actually more intense. There’s a massive amount of emotion packed into each track, so when each track ends it’s almost a relief. Finally, there’s an excellent Guardian Article on how the album came to be.

Listen on:

And…

I like to keep these posts short an sweet, but there were solid new records from several new bands in September. In case you missed them, check out Opeth’s Sorceress, Insomnium’s Winter’s gate, and Antimatter’s sweet cover of Welcome to the Machine. Also, Transcendence by the Devin Townsend Project.

Also, feel free to use the comments to tell me about awesome new music I need to hear.