NINE SONGS I LIKED THIS WEEK IN LIST FORM MAY 21 – JUN 3
Hey all. Took last week off since I was in Sweden, and also because getting there was a fucking nightmare (thanks LOT Airlines!). Had a great time, though, and also put out this stream of the killer new Cenobite album, if you're into, ah, good death metal. Please excuse me momentarily relapse into humanity. Won't happen again (probably will). Keep safe.
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1. Bríi – "Ecos da Imaginação," from Último Ancestral Comum (House/Atmospheric Black Metal – Independent). It's a good thing I changed glasses this week because with this new sense of new-found clarity and a slight dizziness matches nicely with the seemingly endless emotional and musical clarity of one Caio Lemos. Yes, that was a terrible transition, but I'm dizzy. Continuing with the one-album-per-year run of the past few years, Lemos' electro-black-metal project is back and sounding quite a bit different. It had never occurred to me to try and compare any one of his projects (Kaatayra, Bríi, Vauruvan, etc) to any other band, since that's just silly. But this new iteration of Bríi to me continues down the path of absolute idiosyncratic brilliance along with a strong Trhä vibe, which I'm not sure I've heard before. The outcome is a surprisingly accessible, almost pop sensibility to some wild experimental metal. And, of course, it's awesome. FFO: Trhä, Kaatayra, Spider God.
2. Nevelat Habala – "Burn," from Battle Cry (Punk – Blown Out Media). An unrelenting, raw, powerful punk EP that came out from my own neck of the woods but which I somehow missed when it came out a couple of months ago. Basically the "train-losing-its-breaks" variety of basement-echo punk does to absolute perfection. This is how violence needs to sound like. FFO: Violence.
3. Grot – "Deadfall," from Beneath the Waves of Eternity (Raw Atmospheric Black Metal – Independent). I was very much enamored by the loose, raw vibe of Grot's 2021 EP (of which I had written here), and was thus very excited to learn the two-piece black metal menace released a debut full-length in April. I was not, however, ready for how much more melody they seemed to add to the mix. Not the easiest first listen, I'll be the first to admit, since I really did love that manic, loose energy, but it has grown on me significantly. Very pretty and very ugly. FFO: Thy Dying Light, Revenant Marquis, Spider God.
4. Frozen Soul – "Morbid Effigy," from Glacial Domination (Death Metal – Century Media Records). I don't know, maybe the Morbid Angel was already there in Frozen Soul's previous releases, but it sure is here on this new album. I've actually come to enjoy quite a bit of this album, and I think I like it even more than the debut, but this track is especially crushing in an almost old-school Morbid Angel-meets-Obituary way. Not to mention the rest of the apparent MA nods in the song title and album title. And having John Gallagher doesn't hurt much either. Love it. FFO: Obituary, Morbid Angel, Immolation.
5. Inherus – "Oh Brother," from Beholden (Doom/Post Metal – Hypnotic Dirge Records). If all these bodies, metaphorical or otherwise, piling up in the dank basement of this post then rest assured – angelic, etherial doom is here to save your souls. The music here is obviously wonderful, transitioning from doom to post-metal atmospheres and sometimes prog. So, grade-A shit. But I'm here for Bezaelith's voice, sorry. That's just the way it goes. Like a ray of moonlight in vocal form. What a gift. FFO: Forlesen, Empress, SubRosa.
6. Horrendous – "Ontological Mysterium," from Ontological Mysterium (Prog Death Metal – Season of Mist). Modern-day death metal legends Horrendous are back, with another skull undergoing some freaky shit on the cover and another riff assault perpetrating some freaky shit in your minds. The title track from their upcoming album sounds as crushing as it does emotional and beautiful and it makes me curse the day I will ever have to do some kind of list for this year in music because shit is truly getting out of hand at this point. FFO: Morbus Chron, Chapel of Disease, Hallux Valgus.
7. Sutekh Hexen & Funerary Call – "Fractal: Void, from P:R:I:S:M (Industrial Black Metal – Sentient Ruin Laboratories). The absolute noisy legends Sutekh Hexen are back with a new album, and it's been kind of a while. And yet, that agonizing anticipation is now filled with wonderfully monstrous sounds, this time alongside experimental project Funerary Call. And if you thought just getting a new SH album is good enough (correct), the added atmospherics and ambience that is the product of this great meeting of the minds makes it even better. Spectacularly evil spectacular music. FFO: Gnaw Their Tongues, Ash Pool, The Body.
8. Mizmor – "No Place To Arrive," from Prosaic (Doom/Black Metal – Profound Lore Records). Doomy and gloomy ALN is back with a new, proper Mizmor album. I liked Wit's Ends, that was nice. But a whole album of crushing, sludgy black/doom is really what I wanted out of life and I get all that and some more on this new track. So much if it, in fact, that you may be forgiven mistaking this as a new Sourvein or Come to Grief album. I'm all for the crushing shit, but relieved to hear a least some passages album better have some soaring, "rushing through the windswept plains like a helicopter of grief" black metal metal too! FFO: A bunch of band I have already mentioned.
9. Altari – "Vítisvilltur," from Kröflueldar (Avant-Garde Black Metal – Independent). This wondrous thing first floated its way to my consciousness via the wonderful Rennie Resimi substack (to which you should all subscribe), but I never listened to it because, well, life is hell. But then I did, and I found myself stumbling into the kind of weird, unhinged beautiful wonderland music that is the cause of all good in the world and also kinda-sorta serves as the spiritual offspring of something like Virus. So, yeah. A unique listen, and one of the best albums of this vein I've heard in a while. FFO: MAGIC.
FIVE MORE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
ONE: The Body is releasing their wonderful I Shall Die Here along with an unreleased album that's somehow related, or something.
TWO: Studio footage of Krallice recording music is like seeing magic + Lev's back tattoos.
THREE: New live Corpsessed album.
FOUR: Doing shit that only four people read is both the best and worst thing ever.
FIVE: New Ageless Summoning incoming.
ONE LAST THING, PROMISE: Old, limited, unreleased Sorcier des Glaces. Rejoice.
