After taking a brief summer vacation from posting (due in large part to my participating in a few too many adult sports leagues), I’m back with a rejuvenated spirit, and maybe a few surprises up my sleeve for later this year. Before we get into any of that, though, let’s talk through what I missed the chance to tell you about, rapid-fire style. There’s a lot of great stuff to get to, as the albums that were on my radar have really started to deliver in big ways, streaming in June was on another level, and there were a couple of very non-divisive Marvel projects released. Let’s dig in to our Summer Headlines so far!
Coheed and Cambria Turn Back the Clocks
I said in a previous post that Coheed & Cambria’s new album Vaxis II: A Window of the Waking Mind had a legit chance to be the AOTY, and that take rang true when the album was released in June. It’s in poor taste to call an album from a band that bases nearly their entire discography around a sci-fi epic tale of their own making, but Vaxis II does feel like a big step up from what we’ve been used to from Coheed over the last half-decade. Of course, the classic Coheed sound is still there, but the band worked diligently to make sure this album felt fresh, and that they left no stone unturned in the creation of these songs. The results are impeccable, as Vaxis II adds several tracks to the ever-growing list of essential Coheed & Cambria jams.
Alexisonfire Raise the Bar for Themselves, Again
As I traced back the career of Alexisonfire in preparation for seeing them in concert this weekend, I ended up at the conclusion that this is a band that have always revealed to their audience that they have another level they can get to. The first inkling I got of this what a few years ago, when the band released “Familiar Drugs,” their first song in nearly a decade, and it immediately became one of my favorites in their extensive catalog. The band have toured sparingly, and even more rarely in the United States, since reuniting for a festival run in the mid-2010s, and the introduction of “Familiar Drugs” was perhaps the spark that turned into the band’s new album Otherness, released on the same day as Coheed’s Vaxis II. Teeming with swagger, energy, and passion, Otherness is simply one of the best and most complete records released this year. The three-headed monster of vocals provided from George Petit, Dallas Green, and Wade McNeil keeps the listener guessing throughout, and no two songs sound alike, making this one of the most unique and sprawling albums you’ll hear in emo in 2022.
Conjurer are Aiming for the Throne
There are a few Audiotree sessions that I’ve seen that have left an imprint on me long after I first watched them. Foxing performing there the day after singer Conor Murphy broke his nose is one that immediately comes to mind. Letlive. Tearing the performance area apart is another. But one of the most intense, impressive, and unmistakably great sessions in Audiotree’s extensive catalog comes from Conjurer. At the time, little was known of the metal band from across the pond, but mere minutes into the performance, you were given all you needed to know. Blistering riffs and drums, harsh screamed vocals, and a bassist that literally never stops banging his head set them apart immediately. I was on the bandwagon by the end of the first track. That same thing will be your fate if you give their sophomore album Pathos a listen. Released on July 1, it’s an immediate contender for the best metal album of the year, and it’ll be taking on challengers from any other genre come December, too. They’re certainly an acquired taste in the way bands like Power Trip or Gatecreeper can be at first, but throughout Pathos you’ll hear a Deafheaven-esque ability to weave in slower, somber moments before their crashing crescendos and breakdowns. This is a very talented band who are about to begin a very quick ascent to the top of the genre, so now would be a pretty good time to get on board. I’ll save you a seat.
The MCU’s Phase Four is Sloppy, but Not a Failure
It feels strange that a studio who had a movie become the third highest-grossing in the history of film would be labeled as being in a down year, but that’s the corner Marvel Studios has painted itself into. Thanks to back-to-back lukewarm receptions to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder, in addition to Moon Knight not performing as expected, and the MCU finds itself in the undesirable position of being accused of losing momentum. I think it’s still far too early for that, but the criticism is certainly warranted. The studio’s Disney+ series, outside of Loki, have all received some considerable criticism, while its tentpole movies for the summer look like they’re both going to be out-earned by Top Gun: Maverick, a sentence no one in their right mind expected to write in February of this year. Throw in the issues that many expressed with the first She-Hulk: Attorney at Law trailer, and this is likely the longest sustained stretch of uncertainty in the MCU since the stretch from Iron Man 3 into Thor: The Dark World. Still, the Ms. Marvel season that just wrapped was easily one of its best, and it appears Kevin Feige is preparing for another mic-drop presentation at Hall H in San Diego’s Comic Con this weekend. If that goes as well as Feige’s performance in 2019, and if Black Panther: Wakanda Forever can create a cultural moment the way its predecessor did, all will be looking up as the studio goes into 2023. I’m not panicking yet, but I’m not necessarily disagreeing with anyone who is, either.
The Boys is the #1 Contender to Challenge Stranger Things Given the lengthy wait for Season 4 of Stranger Things, there wasn’t a show that had more buzz going into this summer. For the most part, it delivered: a flurry of new characters and plot lines tied together by some great performances from the original cast and the show’s ultimate villain Vecna paying immediate dividends made the Netflix sensation’s fourth season a breeze to binge. However, over in the Prime Video library, there was another show whose third season was easily its best and most outrageous to date. The Boys has found a way to deliver in new and unexpected ways each time there’s been a new season, and the third is no different. Karl Urban continues to shine as Billy Butcher, while Antony Starr commands each scene he’s in with damn near a Heisenberg level of intensity. With the show’s newcomer Jensen Ackles proving he belongs, and the way Eric Kripke found a way to give so many members of this ensemble cast their own moments of growth and conflict is astounding. The Boys has easily been my favorite show of the summer, and it’s time we start including it on that prestigious list of the best TV shows running right now.
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