New Finds – LXXIII
It’s been five months since the previous post from this series, so it’s about time for another. And, while none of the included bands are new finds at all, it is the right time, or at least just about the last appropriate time, to include Against Myself in such a post, because I noticed that they announced back in March that they’re splitting up, but they have a last concert scheduled for August. And they even have a song released during the past year, Act II – Reflections, so I must list it as the first pick, even if there are some growls in there. And those growls are coming from their current vocalist, so I initially meant to go way back for the second pick, but I couldn’t do that when this vocalist just sounds so much better, at least when she doesn’t growl, and since I quickly found a song without growls, I’ll go with that one, The Tempest, for the second pick. So what I have to say is that they lacked a fair bit of strength in their earlier years, but they gained it with this vocalist, and they seemed to gain confidence, polish and complexity as well, the problem being that they also “gained” those growls.
The next band is Glasya and they actually have an album released within the last year, so my first pick, Hunt of the Haunted, is from it, while for the older song I’ll go with From Enemy to Hero. Their vocalist is really good, but they seem to regularly feature others alongside her, which is one thing that leads to plenty of variety between the songs, though not the only one. My problem with it is that some of those other vocalists add some growls, which also happens on Hunt of the Haunted, but on that one they’re brief and actually don’t bother me. And on From Enemy to Hero there are no growls and the pairing of voices works out really well.
On the other hand, I stretched things when it comes to Visionatica, because their most recent album was released over a year ago, though at least it was in 2025. But I’ll list the two picks the other way around, starting with their first song, She Wolf. From that album from 2025 I’ll go with Sympathy for the Devil, which seems all right, but something struck me as weird about the other songs that were officially posted, their vocalist seeming to have gotten worse and quite clearly wanting something different… Which is probably what led to her decision to leave the band. But they do continue, with a new vocalist, so let’s see what the future will bring.
