S H I E L D H O U S E

             This time of year is always exciting for music, many artists gearing up for summer. Specifically Hip-Hop artists and Pop artists, the annual unspoken race for "song of the summer" is a pointless one, but fun and welcome nonetheless. Last year we had the relentless barrage of DJ Khaled tracks, Havana, Slide, and Shape of You. These were all great songs, and still are, but these were all clearly released strategically in anticipation for most people's favourite season. So I anticipate much more music to look at over the next few months.      It is no secret that if I had to pick my desert island genre, it would be Metal. It is and always will be my favourite genre, but my palette has been softening over the last little while and a lot of these posts after this one will reflect that change. So here are the new tracks that caught my attention this month! Amorphis - The Bee (Advance Track from Queen of Time : May 18th on Nuclear Blast Records)    

Release Date: March 23rd Label: Osmose Productions Album Link      After 6 years, Australia's Mournful Congregation follow up their magnum opus  The Book of Kings  with another monumentally heavy slab of sarcophagial Funeral Doom Metal. Moving at the pace of a funeral procession, this album never ceases to be creative, dark, beautiful, and an incredible journey. Spanning an hour and twenty minutes, this album crosses every plane of the genre and is a great introductory piece to the band's style (if there are any first time listeners here).      The genre of Funeral Doom Metal is a very  diverse and ultimately a poor label for so many diverse bands and styles of music. Whereas many bands come off as evil, otherworldly, and dissonant, Nortt and Evoken being prime examples, Mournful Congregation implement melody, acoustics, choirs, and spoken word passages. They are a very different band who are given a great amount of respect within this very niche genre, I myself wait

         Every Month I will seek to do a track roundup, either for one off singles from artists I like, or advance tracks from upcoming albums I'm interested in. This type of post won't necessarily mean I loved all these tracks, just that they were noteworthy enough to include.      I'm still figuring all of this out and how I want to do things, but I know I want to keep at this. Doing makes me appreciate music so much more, and its just fun. So why not? Joey Bada$$ - Thugz Cry (Unattached Single on Pro Era)           One track releases are commonplace for Joey Bada$$, and he mostly reserves his truly standout tracks for albums, or lead singles. "Thugz Cry" is an anomaly in this pattern, it is an expertly produced and fluent song which samples themes from Prince's classic "When Doves Cry".      Joey has been dipping his toes in politics and conscious rap for a short time now, but at this point he seems to have found a good mix b