After long spans of time between their releases—6 years between Xuvetyn and Glissceule, and then 7 years after that until Chorus—Lovesliescrushing had a bumper year in 2010. Not only was their long-awaited Girl.Echo.Suns.Veils retrospective released, but they also released the Avianium companion album as well as the CRWTH remix album. It brought the band, arguably one of the most experimental and abstract artists in the shoegazer realm, back into the genre’s limelight.

So what do they do after such a banner year? Why, release a “virtual” 7” that finds them going back to what they do best: creating another batch of shapeless, abstract, and ultra-ethereal compositions made up of nothing more than the ghostly remains of Scott Cortez’ guitar manipulations and Melissa Arpin-Duimstra’s voice. It’s a formula that has served them well over the last two decades, and while it might seem old hat for the duo, subsequent listens to EverythingIsChemical Virtual 7” No. 7 still reveal some fascinating soundscapes.

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On the one hand, you’ve got the films of Studio Ghibli, arguably some of the most beloved films in all of cinema. Gorgeous artwork and animation, compelling mythologies, and well-drawn (npi) characters aside, I’m convinced that one of the reasons for Studio Ghibli’s success is their soundtracks, many of them composed by Joe Hisaishi, whose exotic melodies and sweeping arrangements are the very definition of inimitable.

On the other hand, you have the Italian metal label Coroner Records, home to artists including Blood Stain Child, Destrage, Breach The Void, and Disarmonia Mundi.

On the surface, these two things have nothing in common, and any attempt to bring them together would be like combining matter and antimatter, i.e., mutual annihilation. And yet, the universe is a strange, strange place and sometimes, these combinations work out in ways that no one could have ever foreseen. Which brings us to Princess Ghibli, where Imaginary Flying Machines—a collaborative project featuring Disarmonia Mundi, Blood Stain Child, Destrage, Living Corpse, and Neroargento, as well as various vocalists—turns in death metal covers of some of the most beloved songs in the Studio Ghibli catalog.

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In a previous life, Josh T. Pearson once sang “We sing these songs because we have to/Not because we want to.” He was the frontman of Lift To Experience back then, and he was referring to the band’s divinely appointed role as prophets of the End Times.

Lift To Experience is long gone now, the casualty of demons, drugs, and death, but that sentiment is alive and well on Last Of The Country Gentlemen, Pearson’s solo debut. He’s no longer singing about the Apocalypse, though. Or rather, he’s singing about a different kind of apocalypse, something equally traumatic: the pain, regret, and turmoil of a failed relationship. Pearson’s songs pull no punches as he chronicles all of the ugly, nasty, and shitty things that bring about a relationship’s end, and the no man’s land afterwards. Betrayal, infidelity, guilt, hatred, doubt… Last Of The Country Gentlemen‘s seven songs are full of them.

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Seryn formed only two years ago or so, but they’ve already been making significant waves in their native Texas, garnering such accolades as “best folk artist” and “song of the year” from local newspapers. This Is Where We Are is the five-piece’s debut album, and it’s a solid debut, to say the least. More accurately, it’s the kind of album that you’d expect from seasoned veterans, not a group that’s only been around for a handful of years: it’s big, bold, and sweeping, full of anthemic songs that aim for the nosebleed section without ever losing their warmth, intimacy, and intricacy. It’s a delicate balancing act and one that Seryn pulls off with aplomb.

It’s temping to simply describe Seryn’s sound as “folk pop/rock”—think somewhere between Fleet Foxes, Shearwater, and Jonathan Inc.—thanks to the homespun beauty of their melodies, their menagerie of instruments (guitar, banjo, ukulele, violin, and accordion, to name a few), and the group’s stirring vocal harmonies. However, that doesn’t really give you any indication of just how much this album rocks, and rock it most certainly does, in a barn-storming, floor-stomping, heart-wrenching sort of way.

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