Survey Time! Plus New Tunes
Help me out! As a thank you, new tunes as an apology for wasting your time
Survey
Hello, friends! Readers! Enemies! Exes I'm cordial with! At long last, there's finally a perk to subscribing to this newsletter: I get to use you as data for The Black Market. Huzzah! Wait, I guess that benefits me more than you. Yep, perks that are not, in fact, perks. That's the Plague Rages guarantee, folks. It's like "To Serve Man" with slightly more brutal death metal songs everyone hates.
Anyway, a few years ago, I wrote about whether a heavy metal song could be the "song of the summer." My general conclusion was something along the lines of, "lol, not happening." Needless to say, it was a very scientific investigation based on rigorously tested data points like "everyone I've tried to date hated metal."
This month, I am revisiting the song of the summer concept. Instead of thinking about a metal song conquering pop culture, I'm testing the possibility of metal having its own song of the summer.
Obviously, we need a new name. Song of the summer? C'mon. We need to metalize it. Let's give it squeeze of DME, like STRAIN OF THE SEASONAL SINGED FLESH or CANTICLE OF THE CLIMATE CREMATORY CHRONOLOGY. A ludicrous black metal version like The Ensorcelled Hymn of the Infernal Reverse Winter might work, too. OK, we're getting off track.
What I'm trying to understand is why isn't metal song of the summer a thing? Obviously people listen to metal during the summer. I'd even go as far as saying that it's a BBQ staple among the bullet belt bedecked. So, what's keeping us from picking a ripper to rule them all every season? Is metal too much of an album-centric genre? Is the fandom too stratified? Is it because, as the great metal philosopher Doug Moore suggested, the Thin Lizzy Effect precludes new songs from getting played because Thin Lizzy simply exists?
Here's where you come in: Do you want to help me find answers to these burning questions? Of course ya do! Please complete the following form and share it with anyone else who might be interested.
https://forms.gle/17j4gvZv1q9AmjVk7
Thanks! Now, because I feel guilty sending out a newsletter light on content, let's get down to business with a few other elements to mollify my pervasive dread that I'm wasting your damn time. I like to say that I'll only email you once a month, and sometimes not even that frequently, so let's at least make this one worth the scroll. (To, uh, that end, the June and July refills are in the works and will be dropping in a couple weeks. Technically, this is the August email. Hopefully, I'll be back on track soon, I say, every newsletter.)
Show Report
For the first time in longer than I care to admit, I left my disgusting hovel constructed from stacks of New Standard Elite CDs to go see a show. The bill: Austin, Texas's Mean Mistreater and Los Angeles, California's Intranced ripping it up for a crowd of NWOTHM-hungry heshers. There was also an opening band that sounded like Dwarves doing The Dickies, but I immediately forgot its name because I had to divert resources away from the music journalist part of my brain to the lobe that specializes in insecurity because literally every concert attendee was taller than me. It was surreal. I half expected Rod Serling on stilts to comes out and dunk on me. I felt like a possum running between the legs of dinosaurs. It's a shame that I didn't need anything taken down from a high shelf. Apologies to the opening band. It was fun.
Anyway, as my bud Andrew said in between sets, seeing real-deal heavy metal in the flesh has a purifying and reinvigorating effect on the soul, and that remedy is exactly what Mean Mistreater administered. I'll admit that I felt some trepidation that the band might adhere too closely to the suspected Grand Funk Railroad origins of its name. But, nope, I was way wrong: The crew is a stone-cold heavy metal ripper. Its set was stuffed with ridiculously catchy, solo-rich trad suffused with just the right amount of midnight malevolence. Plus, the singer can absolutely wail like Leather Lungs Leone. Mean Mistreater has one song out in the world, "Bleeding the Night," but you'll be hearing more soon as the group is currently in the studio working on an album. My humble advice: Get in on the ground floor now because it's a Trad Belt contender.
Intranced closed the night with heavy metal heroics, winning over the crowd despite some unexpected obstacles tossed in like Waluigi armed with unlimited blue shells. The culprit? The sound mix that mixed out the vocals. Blergh. But good bands persevere, and Intranced won the day. That everyone was, ahem, still entranced by its set speaks to the band's skills, particularly James-Paul Luna's singing, Fili Bibiano's shredding, and the way the rhythm section, made up of drummer Ben Richardson and special guest bassist and Plague Rages hero Avinash Mittur, got everyone headbanging. The older material, including an unexpected cover of White Wizzard's "High Speed GTO," which was something of a mini-reunion for that Intranced antecedent, sounded great. But, man, the new material from Intranced's recent Rogue Warrior release sounded killer in a live setting. I hope those moodier and more epic songs are a preview of where this band is headed.
New Tunes
Alright, because I still feel like this newsletter needs more meat, let me do a brief rundown on some albums I'm excited about. Did I forget about a few promising selections? Probably. I'm trying to do this off the top of my dome. And, in the grand tradition of Plague Rages lists, I'll crank these blurbs out during an extended lunch break. Will any of them make sense? Doubt it. *Jon Lovitz's Master Thespian voice* Writing!
Afterbirth - In But Not Of (Willowtip Records)
From: New York, USA
Genre: death metal
Out: 10/20/2023
The Afterbirth career arc continues to delight me. It was once a gurgling slammer, albeit one steps ahead of the then-embryonic scene. It is now a sci-fi death metal spacefarer fueling its ship with a variety of influences. That is to say, In But Not Of does a lot. Hell, parts of "Devils with Dead Eyes" is as close as I've heard a cosmosh wormhole opener get to, like, Agent Steel. But, of course, Afterbirth doesn't Agent Steel it up for long. After its speed metal orbit, it burns some A+ Helmet riffs to hasten its reentry. But…it's all death metal. Pure death metal. That's modern Afterbirth, really: pure death metal that isn't always death metal, just like the old masters.
Alfa Obscura - Sisyfos Speil (Bjeima)
From: Oslo, Norway
Genre: black metal
Out: Now
One of a few albums I recently picked off of Rennie's newsletter, a worthwhile subscription that updates far more often than this one. Anyway, Alfa Obscura is from the same brain that brought you Yurei. That project's Virus/Ved Buens Ende riff-wiggling weirdness is also present here, but Sisyfos Speil, Alfa Obscura's first release in over a decade, is swathed in the sonics of cryptic crepuscular black metal.
Auriferous Flame - Ardor For Black Mastery (True Cult Records / Stellar Auditorium Productions)
From: Athens, Greece
Genre: black metal
Out: 10/6/2023
Ayloss has been in the zone lately, particularly with Auriferous Flame, something of a throwback to brutish, blasting black metal. When I recently wrote about the track "Thaumaturgical Irresolutions" for a recap of the excellent Forest Summoner compilation that raised funds for Ox Sam Camp, I said it "rages riffily by immolating everything with trems and blasts. It's a rush, that old-school black metal kind of malevolence. It also has an undeterred indefatigability, journeying until it has a scenic view of panoramic progressions worthy of purple-album-cover majesties." Now that I've heard the album, I'm standing by it.
Bergfried - Romantik II (Vita Detestabillis Records / Fiadh Productions)
From: Austria
Genre: heavy metal / hard rock
Out: 9/1/2023
The newest release from Anna de Savoy and Erech III. von Lothringen dropped right before I was about to hit submit. Forgive my brief in-the-moment reaction, then: Rocks! Wooo!
Blodet - Death Mother (Church Road Records)
From: Skellefteå, Sweden
Genre: post-rock / post-metal
Out: 9/29/2023
Whoa. The first single from Blodet's newest album, the title track "Death Mother," is stunning, combining prime ocean-misted Isis with the psychedelic rootsiness of Messa. The band describes its material as "balancing on the edge between Swans and Sonic Youth or the more noisy side of instrumental post punk and post rock." Not wrong. I can hear that: one of the bridges has a Jarobe-ness to it. But I want to make a specific appeal to long-suffering post-metal fans: In a year when post-metal seemed to be revitalized, this single suggests that Blodet may be the best of the lot.
Bludgeoned - "Misanthropic Epiphany" (self-released)
From: Shelton, Washington
Genre: brutal death metal
Out: Now
Bludgeoned is one of three Nikhil Talwalkar projects in this quickie roundup. The slam scion, the one who was promised, the BDM deity, is drumming on this gnarly blaster that is classic US goo, falling somewhere between the torturous buzz of Brodequin and the technical dismemberment of Disgorge.
Cel Damage - No Volume (Silent Pendulum Records / No Time Records)
From: Apple Valley, CA
Genre: mathcore
Out: Now
No Volume reminds me of an updated version of the kind of annoycore that gave my generation permanent hearing damage: Hewhocorrupts, Tower of Rome, The Great Redneck Hope, etc. There's a love-it-or-hate-it snottiness that might grate depending on how close you are to retirement, but it's hard to ignore the heaviosity of the riff that closes "It's Mathematically Impossible."
Claret Ash - Worldtorn: Anemoia (Hypnotic Dirge Records)
From: Canberra, Australia
Genre: black metal
Out: Now
I'm sharing the new Claret Ash EP, its second release from its Worldtorn concept, for a few reasons. First, the two songs are good, giving atmo black a heftiness and Cascadian immediacy that sets it apart from some of the more diaphanous entities in the scene. Second, you can buy all 129 Hypnotic Dirge Records releases for a ridiculously low $25 Canadian. Third, Machine Music just covered this record, and you should subscribe to that. Same goes for To the Teeth and The Devil's Mouth. Hell, check out all of my recommendations and enjoy newsletters that actually send you well-written stuff in a timely manner.
Colony Drop - Brace for Impact (Nameless Grave Records)
From: Seattle, WA
Genre: thrash / crossover
Out: 8/25/2023
Joseph Schafer, one of my mates during my Invisible Oranges days, fronts this thrasher. Is that why it's here? Hell no. Ask anyone: I am a merciless jerk of a critic. So, Colony Drop had to thrash twice as hard to merit inclusion, and it sure does. When I crank these 11 songs, they give me the same thrill as hearing Nuclear Assault for the first time.
Cruel Force - Dawn of the Axe (Shadow Kingdom Records)
From: Mannheim, Germany
Genre: thrash / speed metal / black metal
Out: Now
Hell yeah. How could we do a bonus newsletter with a metal song of the summer survey without including this burner? I'll be honest: I don't have anything profound to write about Dawn of the Axe. The primal appeal of Cruel Force's third full-length is hearing guitarist Slaughter playing thrash riffs as fast as possible. And those thrash gang shouts sound killer, too.
Dead and Dripping - Blackened Cerebral Rifts (Transcending Obscurity Records)
From: New Jersey, USA
Genre: death metal
Out: Now
"Basement-dwelling scuzziness" is the death metal version of Fenriz's "heavy metal feeling." Some bands have it, others don't. And while you can't explain the concept to someone without prattling on for hours about vague descriptors and bygone bands while beatboxing classic riffs, you can definitely sense it, and when it's present, it makes all the difference in the world. This is a long windup to say Dead and Dripping has it. On sole member Evan Daniele's third full-length, the squelchy, basement-dwelling riffs have sprouted a fuzzy, psychedelic mold. Very scuzzy. Travis Tate approved.
Dripped - Rituals of the Red Sun (Ungodly Ruins Productions)
From: Perth, Australia
Genre: brutal death metal
Out: Now
I appreciate Dripped's commitment to speed. Even when it slams and chugs, it's at a pace that would make many BDMers' arms fall off. Still, this ain't Origin. Tech? Nah, just something that will wreck your neck. Rituals of the Red Sun is nasty, vicious, and plain mean, like a red-assed Neanderthal with a wicked fastball.
Embodied Torment - Archaic Bloodshed (New Standard Elite)
From: Sacramento, CA
Genre: brutal death metal
Out: Now
Hooray, Embodied Torment is making goo again. For its first release in eight years, OG guitarist Joaquin Chavez tapped bassist Mark Chandler, drummer Alex Cohen, and vocalist Andy Smith to fill the ranks. The result is more avant-garde than the Brodequin beat-em-up of Liturgy of Ritual Execution. Archaic Bloodshed writhes with an alien weirdness atop rhythms that feel like they're shifting more than the earth under your feet during a landslide. I also need to let my sickos know that the best deal in brutal death metal is back. You can pick all 117 New Standard Elite releases right now for $11.70.
Eternal Rot - Moribound (Memento Mori / Godz of War Productions)
From: United Kingdom / Poland
Genre: death/doom
Out: Now
For years, I've thought Ramesses's 2003 promo was the perfect combination of doom and death metal, exuding a basement-dwelling scuzziness while delivering righteous THC-soaked grooves. In my opinion, no one has gotten close. Eternal Rot isn't all the way there, but it's close, and that's worth celebrating. Listen to that coda of "Summoned From Moribund Delusions:" the rancid-juices chugs, the throat-choked-with-maggots zombie growls, the strange-ass choir(???) of decapitated ghosts. Disgusting, like a bong that hasn't been cleaned in years.
Farscape - Purged and Forgotten (Dying Victims Productions)
From: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Genre: thrash
Out: 9/22/2023
This is my first brush with Farscape, a Brazilian band that shouldn't be confused with the horniest sci-fi show on TV that had a cast that was half muppet. Despite my obliviousness, Farscape has been around, helping to, in the words of its Dying Victims bio, "lead the charge for the neo-retro thrash resurgence in their homeland" since 1998. What's even better? This stuff is satisfyingly OOGHly, sounding like old Kreator crashing into old Dark Angel.
FUCKED - Smoldering Passage (self-released)
From: Myrtle Beach, SC
Genre: crust / grind
Out: Now
There's more going on here than you'd expect for a band named Fucked. The solo grinder fakes like it will be a Vermin Womb-esque blowtorch spitting hot flames of pure sonic bleakness. But then "Dreading Field" has a strangely groovy post-punk part. Huh.
Great Falls - Objects Without Pain (Neurot Recordings)
From: Seattle, Washington
Genre: metalcore / noise rock
Out: 9/15/2023
One of the best active metalcore bands in the biz follows up the 2018 gem A Sense of Rest with its debut on Neurot Recordings. Maybe it's the new label association, but the first two streaming songs from Objects Without Pain have a Neurosis vibe, particularly the eight-minute "Old Words Worn Thin" that opens with a colossal riff that would've fit on Through Silver in Blood. Am I excited for this album? That's underselling it. This is possibly my most-anticipated album for the rest of the year.
Hypomanic Daydream - Image (Fiadh Productions / Vita Detestabilis Records)
From: Chicago, Illinois
Genre: hyperdeath
Out: 8/25/2023
Let's go. "Image" had me the second my ears were flooded with those SNES synths. "This album is a melting pot of influences that is trying to challenge sonic norms and tropes within death metal," Manic Dream Girl writes in the liner notes. "Things like Voivod, Confessor, weird 90's death metal, 16-bit video game soundtracks, vocaloid music, and power pop are all baked into its highly mutated DNA." Plus, there's a Paramore cover? Can't wait.
Infibulated - Diabolical Euphoric Subjugation (New Standard Elite)
From: Ecuador
Genre: brutal death metal
Out: 9/20/2023
And here's another Nikhil Talwalkar band. "Unholy Enmity" is a bulldozer of brutal death batshittery, combining the squelchy squirreliness of Anal Stabwound with Ecchymosis's unstoppable forward momentum.
Inverecund - Engrossed in Horripilation (New Standard Elite)
From: Italy
Genre: brutal death metal
Out: Now
Horripilation is goosebumps. I guess one might find horripilation engrossing. Anyway, death metal! Inverecund is a new band from members of Burial and Unbirth that reminds me of a slamless Dying Fetus with the tempo dialed up a few notches. Rips, in other words.
Imperceptum - Chaos Pilgrimage (self-released)
From: Bremen, Germany
Genre: funeral doom
Out: Now
I dig how brutal Imperceptum can get. That's the key to funeral doom for me: Sure, do all your lachrymose leads and beguiling synth layers, but make sure that you can put my head into a vice with some riffs. In that respect, Chaos Pilgrimage is like Catacombs taking an astronomy course from early Esoteric. When Void starts gurgling with extra guttural growls, Imperceptum is my kind of sad.
Jävelin - Jävelin (self-released)
From: Helsinki, Finland
Genre: speed metal / black metal / punk
Out: Now
If you went into Jävelin's second release thinking it would be some Pyöveli-style ramshackle speed metal, I don't blame you. Instead, this trio with members named Jizzy Starlust, S.B. Thunderfucker, and Sonic Seducer is pretty competent. (*substitute teacher doing roll call* "Uh, Jizzy Starlust?") Sure, it resides in the gutter, and its heavy metal and punk fusion is plenty raw, but it's otherwise pretty together, reminding me of a more technically adept version of early Impaler.
KEN Mode - VOID (Artoffact Records)
From: Helsinki, Finland
Genre: noise rock / metalcore
Out: 9/22/2023
NULL and VOID, two ironic titles for a band that packs so much emotion into its music. Case in point, the Bandcamp notes for VOID, the "companion piece" to 2022's NULL, calls this album "more melancholy and disappointed." Yeah, same. Thanks for writing about my life. Still, this is KEN Mode, so songs like "The Shrike" bristle with a bracing fury. And, I gotta say, this is going to be an album that noise rock bassists and drummers talk about for a long time. Bassist Scott Hamilton and drummer Shane Matthewson go hard as hell across these eight songs, locking into some incredible rhythms that give VOID its depth and energy.
Kryatjurr of Desert Ahd - Underestimate Climate Systems and Suffer Incomprehensible Losses (Vigor Deconstruct)
From: Lightning Ridge, Australia
Genre: black metal
Out: Now
Kryatjurr of Desert Ahd's second album and sixth release overall is the kind of wind tunnel black metal I've come to expect, whipping up galeforce guitars and lightning-flashing screams. It's either a warning or a premonition about the environment's near future. That said, c'mon, an album about hurricanes is released, and then, lo and behold, there's a West Coast hurricane? I'm supposed to believe that kind of PR is a coincidence? Investigate???
Les Rallizes Denudes Cover Band - Les Rallizes Denudes Cover Band Live (self-released)
From: USA
Genre: psych
Out: Now
John Dwyer and friends make their intentions clear with the band name, covering songs from the cult Japanese psych band Les Rallizes Dénudés. Admittedly, this is pushing the definition of "new metal," but it's so goddamn loud that I can't imagine anyone mounting much of a complaint. If you like your psych to sound like a train crashing through your bedroom at 3am, here's a non-metal release for you.
MDMA - Organic (Reality Fade)
From: Bilbao, Spain
Genre: brutal death metal
Out: 8/25/2023
MDMA's first album, Chemical Obliteration, was so unhinged in its pursuit of redlined mayhem that it real-deal destroyed some speakers of mine, and I wasn't even playing it that loud. Organic sounds like someone in the studio was paying a little more attention to the knob-twiddling, but this is still bonkers BDM from the brains of Fixation on Suffering, Fragments of Paroxysm, and Virulency. Plus, they've added a real drummer: Roman Tyutin, one of the genre's premier jazzy blasters.
Meurtrieres - Ronde de nuit (Gates of Hell Records)
From: Lyon, France
Genre: heavy metal
Out: 8/25/2023
Early '80s-style, lead-dominant heavy metal about French medieval legends? Do you even need to know more? Meurtrières's self-titled 2020 EP should've gotten more attention, but it was one of the many February releases chewed up by COVID. I always wondered where this band would be if, you know, *waves hands at the state of the world*. So, with a new singer and castle full of riffs, I guess we're about to find out.
Moonlight Sorcery - Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle (Avantgarde Music)
From: Tampere, Finland
Genre: melodic black metal
Out: 9/29/2023
[Haha, I just saw that nothing is streaming from this album yet. Ah well.] Are you kidding me with these leads? Imagine if Children of Bodom made a purple-castle black metal album. That's Moonlight Sorcery, a Finnish trio finally cutting a full-length after two fun-as-hell EPs. Just listen to that sweetly shredding Lizzy Borden harmony on "The Secret of Streaming Blood." (The secret? Sick guitars, I guess.) This might be the most fun you have with a black metal album this year. Forget song of the summer, these are songs for the night. Awooooooo. Now, Moonlight Sorcery, go on tour with Inherits the Void.
Moray - The Natural World (Fiadh Productions)
From: Provo, UT
Genre: black metal
Out: Now
You can tell during "Nerves," The Natural World's three-minute instrumental opener, if you'll get down with Moray or not. Christian Degn (everything not drums) and Robin Stone (drums) delight in The Journey, winding through the black metal mountainside with wonderfully evocative riffs. It's sometimes stately, sometimes earthy, but constantly engaging, tickling the same part of your brain that's awed by jaw-dropping vistas.
Nganga - Phthisis (self-released)
From: Raleigh, NC
Genre: black metal
Out: 9/29/2023
I could've sworn I wrote about Nganga's debut demo, De muerte, last year. I checked the archives, and nope. My bad. My idiocy knows no bounds. Phthisis, the quartet's new EP, is a little more fleshed out than the preceding document, evolving from "miniature Weakling," as Jon Rosenthal put it, to meatier songs that often crest the four-minute mark. Hey, that's something for a band that previously lived in the twos. But here's the thing: Phthisis's wild, squiggly riffs feel even more frantic. Despite the runtime doubling, Nganga has maintained its intensity.
Nott - Hiraeth (Silent Pendulum Records)
From: Seattle, WA
Genre: death/doom
Out: Now
Well, hello, death/doom Disentomb. Another point of comparison for this sonically dense modern death duo is the kind of slo-mo deathcore that Rendered Helpless did a few years ago. Or, hell, let's complete the circle: Imagine Our Place of Worship is Silence convincing itself that it needs to crawl like Skepticism. The takeaway is that Hiraeth is often slow, crushing, and heavier than a pallet of funeral doom double albums.
Owlbear - Chaos to the Realm (Alone Records)
From: Boston, MA
Genre: heavy metal
Out: Now
People, we now have the proper soundtrack to Baldur's Gate 3. Owlbear's debut full-length rolls a natural 20 when it comes to heavy metal hooks, bursting through your speakers like the owlbear on its cover. "Fiend of Fire," with its hard-charging riffs and soaring chorus, has been stuck in my head since I heard it. But all of these 10 tracks are absolute mind-flayers, taking the initiative with anthemic trad and emphatic solos. And can we talk about Yannis "Rubus" Rubulias' album art for a second? RIP to whatever poor caster has to rip up their character sheet.
Putridity - Greedy Gory Gluttony (Willowtip Records)
From: Turin, Italy
Genre: brutal death metal
Out: Now
Hard to do better than that EP title. After nearly eight long-ass years, the Italian sickos that engage in gore euphoria are back chugging it up. Even though the roster turnover has accounted for four new members since Ignominious Atonement, the quintet still sounds like Putridity. Perhaps that's because lone OG Putrid Ciccio has such a characteristically grimy guitar style. Whatever the case, it rips. And I have to mention that drummer, dun, dun, dun, Nikhil Talwalkar goes all out on these songs, too.
Radiation Blackbody - Dead Seed Planted in Dead Earth (Nerve Altar)
From: Brooklyn, NY
Genre: prog / grind
Out: Now
Radiation Blackbody's newest album is like if a record label asked Nomeansno to make The Process of Weeding Out and only the Wright brothers showed up. This is profoundly satisfying nerd stuff for anyone who has logged time in a rhythm section. And, as you'd expected, this bass/drum duo is all about unceasing propulsion. But these two members who have been in Defeatist and Anodyne still find the time to pull off all kinds of tricky stuff, such as the all-over-the-drumkit fills of "Synaptic Palimpsest." Fast. Complex. Rules.
Reverence to Paroxysm - Lux Morte (Me Saco un Ojo Records / Dark Descent Records)
From: Mexico City, Mexico
Genre: death metal / doom
Out: 8/31/2023
Playing Lux Morte back-to-back with Eternal Rot's Moribound is the move. While the two slo-mo sickos excavate different six-foot-deep plots on the death metal spectrum, there's a similar gnarliness to what both have achieved. Reverence to Paroxysm is a little closer to something like Undergang, though, which makes it a better driving companion than Eternal Rot's melt-into-the-couch miasma.
Rorcal - Silence (Hummus Records)
From: Genève, Switzerland
Genre: sludge / black metal
Out: 9/29/2023
Embarrassing: I lost track of Rorcal after its third album, the imposing Világvége. I don't know why. My life is a mess. I follow a crab on Instagram now. I don't know what I'm doing. And you'd think I'd stick it out with Rorcal because I like loud things, and that album was all-caps LOUD. But life happens. In the constant deluge of new music, you can't keep up with everything. So I kept hitting snooze on this Swiss four-piece until the intriguing titled Silence, the band's sixth LP, plopped into my inbox. Silence, lol. I see what y'all did there. These 41 minutes are anything but silent. They heave violently with some of the most crushing sludge that'll make your head look like a melon after one too many rubber bands are placed around it. OK, Rorcal. I'll never forget you again.
Slomatics - Strontium Fields (Black Bow Records)
From: Belfast, UK
Genre: sludge / doom
Out: 9/8/2023
Even when Slomatics was a more straightforward sludge chugger, the band always had ambition. Take "The Technique" from its first album Flooding the Weir. You knew it was sludge at first impact, but Slomatics took the time to make it sound more dramatic. Nearly 20 years on, Slomatics is a bit of a different beast, launching its sludge into orbit and slapping on a coat of smeary prog. But that attention to detail is still there, making this material as rich and interesting as possible.
Undergang - De syv stadier af fordærv (Me Saco un Ojo Records / Dark Descent Records)
From: Copenhagen, Denmark
Genre: death metal
Out: 9/1/2023
Hey, new Undergang. Please free up a beer-drinking session with your fellow degenerates so you can play De syv stadier af fordærv while screaming "METAL OF DEATH" at each other.
Woe - Legacies of Frailty (Vendetta Records)
From: Queens, NY
Genre: black metal
Out: 9/29/2023
We've reached the part of the blurb marathon where I'm tired and need to get back to my job. Thus, I don't think I have much to say about this one beyond my initial gut reaction: This is a great black metal album. Always one of the more slept-on entities in USBM, I have a feeling that Legacies of Frailty will finally put Woe into the conversation.
गौतम बुद्ध - पुनर्जन्म भाग २ (Obscurant Visions / Flowing Downward)
From: Kushinagar, India
Genre: black metal
Out: Now
It's the melodicism of गौतम बुद्ध that does it for me. The melodicism makes the normal tinnitus-inducing tinny rawness of traditional lo-fi black metal sound sweeter. The previous album, पुनर्जन्म भाग १, had that same quality, but पुनर्जन्म भाग २ feels clearer and more expressive. I mean, check out that pedal steel-esque opening to the Sadness-esque "बदला चुकाने के लिए।."
夢遊病者 - Skopofoboexoskelett (Sentient Ruin Laboratories)
From: Parts Unknown
Genre: mind-borking
Out: Now
夢遊病者 has achieved something special on Skopofoboexoskelett: making a thoroughly avant-garde album unbelievably listenable. Part of that is because it is so well played, matching the skill level of a similarly varied and in-their-prime Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. But 夢遊病者 isn't that. Rather, while it's almost indescribable, I'm often reminded of the original run of post-punk or post-rock bands that turned their eclectic influences into unpredictable quiet/loud songs with a salient and undeniable emotionalism that burned the obscurities away. What was left were arresting documents with no barrier to entry. You could say, then, that 夢遊病者 has a better claim to "post-metal" than the bands currently pushed under that tag. But even that is selling Skopofoboexoskelett short, as if it's something to be listened to and cataloged. No, This is an album that needs to be experienced, to be felt.
Friends, How Many Of Us Have Them?
I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that the pals in Shield of Wings have diversified their outrageously entertaining covers portfolio with "The Final Battle" from the Elden Ring soundtrack. Just in time for Bingo Brawlers Season 2, the cover gives me flashbacks to finding out that every late-game boss is resistant to holy damage. But, you know, in a good way.
OK! Thanks for putting up with me. Back to your regular refill programming next time.
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