It’s officially Spring. And where I’m living, it’s finally not snowing anymore. It just stopped, like, a week ago. So the grass is green, people are gradually wearing less clothing and more flip flops, and some are even taking to the internet less, in turn complaining less about how out of shape and depressed they are. Probably because we’re all spending less time on the internet and more time outside. That being said, I’m currently inside, typing this on the internet. So, cool.

Anyshits, here is the first of the five albums I’ve been enjoying the most this week. They are all new releases. You should listen to them. Also, you should read everything below. But if you can only choose one, just listen to the them. To give each one more focus, I’m posting them separately.

1. Coffin Problem: So Good Nothing

Jesus H. Christ, I love this album. I love it so, so much better than their prior debut, which I also enjoyed. This one, frankly, just sounds better. Each song is given the right amount of space and time to come to life, breathe, and then die a ghastly death that resurrects in your nightmares. Not kidding. They’ve well earned their moniker on this one.

The West Michigan-based Coffin Problem goes for the heavily layered, avant-metal vibes, with heavy doses of  spooky psychedelia that bands such as Wovenhand, A Place to Bury Strangers,  Swans, Slim Cessna’s Auto Club and a host of others have already done well.  If they keep making albums like So Good Nothing, I can easily see Coffin Problem joining their ranks, possibly even surpassing them. I don’t give three shits how much this pisses off Scott Walker’s fan club. Which, if it does exist officially, should be named “30 Century Fans.”  You’re welcome, losers.

On their debut, Coffin Problem made a solid album with a gravestone on it. But their latest release is way more scary. It sounds like the soundtrack of a movie where everyone dies in the worst ways possible. I swear that’s a compliment. There’s a bloody, broken nails scratching against rusty tin vibe on almost every song, and it works perfectly. So Good Nothing is long, horrifying, unsettling, and better than just about anything I’ve heard in 2018 so far. It already makes this year feel better than the putrid 2017 we all barely Trumped. And it does so not by hiding the ugliness and horror that the very worst of humanity tries to cover up with used band aids and heavy doses of dishonesty. Instead, So Good Nothing  shovels off all the bullshit, rips off the band-aids, picks off the scabs, and lets the blood flow through each of the eight songs on it. And though you have to listen to it in full to totally get what I’m saying, doing so exposes some surprising shimmers of light hiding inside of the nightmare Coffin Problem has created.

Standout Track: The eery “Old Souls” is the best song I’ve heard this year, and best exemplifies what I tried to say above, albeit much less pretentiously.

Check them out by clicking here.

They’ll be debuting their release tonight at The Pyramid Scheme in Grand Rapids, MI.