NINE SONGS I LIKED THIS WEEK IN LIST FORM SEP 10 – SEP 16
Heyo, hope you're good. A small step for man, a huge week for death metal. Keep safe and thank you for your readership and support.
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1. Dead and Dripping – "Infinitely Plummeting into Violet Portals of Delusion," from Blackened Cerebral Rifts (Brutal Death Metal – Transcending Obscurity Records). Listen, I saw the greatest minds of my generation fuckin' love this album, and I took a mental note. I kept saying to myself "Ron, listen to this," and I didn't. Life got in the way every time. Until I finally saw it again, this time on the GOAT of all metal columns, and I just had to see what the fuss was about. And the fuss was about it being a remarkable, creative, fierce, ruthlessly pinging, slab of winding, almost progressive brutal death metal. Which, naturally, is right up there with sunsets and ice-cold sparkling water. Love this to absolute bits. FFO: Afterbirth, VoidCeremony, Lunar Chamber.
2. Potion Mystique – "Invocation Invisible," from Demo (Lo-fi Black Metal – Grime Stone Records). A new bat of weirdness coming straight out of the hell of, well, weirdness that is Grime Stone Records). And as with several of their GSR brethren, this too feels half black metal half merry-go-round on crack that then had a baby with an ice cream truck in Hades. Sounds great, the ideas are very cool, and the execution, with everything that's going on at once, is pretty brilliant. Black metal to make you feel almost OK. FFO: Old Nick, Gudsforladt, Baazlvaat.
3. Left Cross – "The Blood of Mars," from Upon Desecrated Altars (Death Metal – Profound Lore Records). Left Cross' superb 2020 EP Prophecy of Conquest left a very strong, riffy impression on this mortal coil, so much so that it was on my list of fave shorter releases for that year. Well, now the wait for significant new material from these Virginia, ah, people is over…. Just to break things off here: The "Whoa, I waited for a new album from these death metal, ah, people" thing will be a running trend in this post. Apologies in advance. Anyhoo, they're back with their second full-length, the first single sounds awesome while also being way too short, and life is fine. FFO: Necrot, Witch Vomit, Ascended Dead.
4. Sëht – "Lëyl Efën" (Atmospheric Raw Black Metal – Goatowarex / Third House). I had first become aware…. Don't you just love it when music writers write about seeing a band's name on their snack-dusted computer screen as "becoming aware"? Like their consciousness hurled its delicate feelers into the world and uncovered a box of gold or something. So, anyhow: I had first become aware of the magic that is Sëht via their absolutely stunning split with Trhä a while back. So I was very curious to get some shit, and here is that shit, being new. A spellbinding, almost Yes-feeling 30 minute-track of spacey, far-off-into-the-cosmos raw black metal that feels like you're being blessed by an angel or some magical shit like that. So cool. FFO: Trhä, Revenant Marquis, (pre-Immortal) Lamp of Murmuur.
5. Cruciamentum – "Abhorrence Evangelium," from Obsidian Refractions (Death Metal – Profound Lore Records). Cruciamentum's Charnel Passages was a) released a whole lifetime ago, and b) was and remains one of the best death metal albums of the 2000s. As such, point a) and b) together made for a very frustrating wait for us Cruciamentum appreciators. But that wait is thankfully over, with a new album coming via Profound Lore in November. Which is nice, but I NEED IT NOW. FFO: RIFFS THAT COME BACK ONLY SLOWER. Fun fact: I was supposed to do a Charnel Passages AOTD interview, but it fell through a couple of times because of timing issues. Hopefully will get done sooner rather than later.
6. Tomb Mold – "Will of Whispers," from The Enduring Spirit (Death Metal – 20 Buck Spin). Speaking of long-awaited followups from death metal royalty #24655, we have all been finally blessed with a new Tomb Mold album, the successor to what might be my "most listened-to album that isn't The Eternal Resonance of the last four years." The Canadian masters have always been good at jamming all variety of freaky shit into one massive package, but it seems this time around they've actively tried to make those massive things something that has the meandering energy of outright prog. And, it should go without saying, an immediate AOTY candidate. Stop the "Tomb Mold is good now!" discourse, it's lame. Tomb Mold have always been the band the beat (when Vastum isn't releasing albums). FFO: Atheist, Blood Incantation, Triumvir Foul.
7. Blood Incantation – "Obliquity of the Ecliptic," Luminescent Bridge (Death Metal – Century Media). And once again…. OK. You get the point. Denver Colorado's finest (that isn't Black Curse) are back from, presumably, dipping themselves in Egyptian milk and breathing only incense fumes with a new two-track EP that a) looks like a shareware CD from 1995 and b) kind of sounds like it too! In a good way! Very easy to notice when compared with the abovemention luminaries of the craft (Tomb Mold, Cruciamentum) that Blood Incantation continue to do a lot of things great, but they consistently get one thing perfect: sound. They record on tape, for the most part, and the difference in the warmth and depth of their production is actually kind of mind boggling. So there's that. Add to that their continued fascination with created sweeping soundscapes that compliment their super-duper heaviness and this EP is yet another step in the "man, just let them do whatever the fuck they want to, they obviously don't care what people think about what they do" journey. Beautiful stuff. FFO: Being sucked into a black hole.
8. In One Place – "Broken from the Start," from "Nothing Makes Sense (Black Metal – Independent). In a post packed with known, menacing bands here's one from the obscure side. A project of which I had never heard from Albany that makes what feels like an almost Euro-like mash of 90s atmospheric black metal (Emperor), post-black of the Alcest vibe, and aggressive DSBM atmospheres and mid-tempo depression. Whatever the mix, it's of things that don't usually blend well for me and blend excellently here. Fantastic musicianship and great feel. I'll be following. FFO: Being sad in Berlin with half-risned-off corpsepaint but it's Albany.
9. Altarage – "Gift of Awakening," from Worst Case Scenario (Dissonant Death Metal – Doomentia Records). OK, back to the safety of "long-awaited," though in this case not that long. The Spanish demi-gods of QUOTE UNQUOTE DISSONANT GUITAR (hey Calder) released their previous and absolutely brilliant LP Succumb just two years ago, and even had a little somthin' somthin' in the form of some random releases in between. But I'm not complaining, especially when we get tracks like this that basically amount to a hardcore-dude pissed-off version of Ulcerate in a panic attack. Wonderful, every fucking note. FFO: Portal, Ulcerate, Hissing.
FIVE MORE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
ONE: Inferno, for whatever reason, decided to go ahead and release a video for "Stars Within and Stars Without Projected into the Matrix of Timeworld," a whole two years after the release of PARADEIGMA, my #6 album of 2021. So, that's nice and kind of weird.
TWO: Just as I jump into the Dead and Dripping pool they release a new split with Prophecy of Suffering.
THREE: New JK Flesh.
FOUR: A friend of mine spent some time in Finland (probably for a conference) and said she met people who read the blog. So, if you really exist, supposedly real people, I appreciate that!
FIVE: There's a new Behold the Arctopus album that was recorded with a whole bunch of limitations (no drums, no guitars, I think) and its sounds like a weird-ass nightmare.
ONE LAST THING, PROMISE: Apropos my recent interview with Damián Antón Ojeda (available to Patreon supporters as of now), there's a new and wonderful Sadness album out in the world right now.
