Sunday Video Love: Dark Saturday

Anyone that knows me will know that almost all of my focus (in music, in life) has been on BTS for the better part of a year. I haven't really paid much attention to anything else, to be honest, especially in the rock scene — a world that my life revolved around almost exclusively for over 20 years before BTS came along and stole my heart and soul. But Metric, a band that I've been following for over 15 years (and had the pleasure of meeting backstage a couple years ago), released an album in September that I didn't bother listening to until yesterday. And I have been seriously sleeping on this. Of course, Old World Underground got me into Metric and Live It Out solidified my love for them, but to me, their 2009 album, Fantasies, will always remain the pinnacle of their discography. Every single song on that album is a banger. The 2012 follow-up, Synthetica, was decent. Not Fantasies-level epic, but it had a few memorable songs. However, their 2015 release, Pagans in Vegas, is where they started to lose me. Maybe they just lacked the creativity and inspiration after so many years, but that record really fell flat both sonically and lyrically and I just couldn't connect with it at all. I almost skipped out on this album, too, but ultimately downloaded it out of curiosity and a strange sense of loyalty. And I am so glad that I gave Art of Doubt a chance, because Metric came back with a fucking vengeance. It still has the synth-rock, new wave edge that is unmistakably Metric, but it's darker and grittier than any of their previous work — it's almost like someone pressed a refresh button on the band and they're out in full force again. It doesn't surpass Fantasies, but damn, is it close.