NINE SONGS I LIKED THIS WEEK IN LIST FORM OCT 8 – OCT 14
Whatever it is I have to say about this past week, one of the most terrifying weeks I can remember in my often-terrifying life, is expressed in the write-up of the Furia track below. Keep safe, everyone and anyone.
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1. Friisk – "Mit Wolkendunkel überzogenm," from Hallig / Friisk split (Atmospheric Black Metal – Vendetta Records). I haven't allowed myself to listen to music that often this week, hence the brevity of this post. Very difficult to submit to the power of walls of white noise when you don't want to miss the air-raid siren. But this one really grabbed me by my petrified nuts and lifted me up like an inch or two (my nuts are the same size, I'm talking spiritually here). Friisk have long been a favorite in the Euro style of Atmospheric black metal, and these two tracks are among my favorites by them. Great stuff. FFO: Being transformed spiritually through yer nuts).
2. Wolvennest – "The Dark Path to the Light," from The Dark Path to the Light (Doom/Psych Black Metal – Ván Records). I was lazy with checking out the promo for this album, for whatever reason. I was even lazy about writing about the single. But, again, another rare instance of music soothing some of the shit that is reality in the past few days. Music that is pure atmosphere and yet somehow dynamic and moving and fascinating. However long this album is supposed to be it feels much, much shorter. Beautiful. FFO: Soothing shit.
3. Tempestarii – "Radian Asunder," from Cataclysm (Atmospheric Black Metal – Independent). Speaking of atmosphere, and of the world crumbling under the weight of its own sickness, here come American atmospheric project Tempestarii to make you feel much better about feeling much worse. The Boise, Idao band released a promo tape with a new track, seemingly from an upcoming and much-awaited full length. Bleak, expansive, and emotionally brutal music. FFO: Vanum, Yellow Eyes, Havukruunu.
4. Slow – "Implode," from Abîmes I (Funeral Doom – Aural Music). More bleak music, for a very bleak week, and one that promises to be much bleaker. The master and man-of-endless-projects Déhà has decided to (pun warning) revive his masterful funeral doom gem. Is it especially for me, my pain, my worries, and my anxieties? Objective reality would say "no," but I would say "fuck, yes." Like anything and everything else he touches, pure horrible gold. FFO: Atramentus, Esoteric, Drown.
5. Full of Hell and Nothing – "Spend the Grace," from When No Birds Sang (Noise Rock/Experimental – Closed Casket Activities). One several occasions I have been very vocal of my absolute unwavering support of whatever-the-fuck-it-is Full of Hell have been doing since their last full length. They're trying interesting shit, never resting on their laurels, and collaborating with the weirdest and absolutely best people. I have found, if I am allowed a digression, that the best, most creative artists burrow in instead of climbing. What I mean by that is that they're less interested in expanding as they are breaking down what they have already done, in what feels like a search for the basics of their music or the fundamentals of their expression via music. That's what Full of Hell is doing, to me. And this collaboration with the legends, the LEGENDS, Nothing is a powerful nudge in that direction. Absolutely stunning. FFO: Nothing, Kowloon Walled City, ISIS.
6. Furia – "Spanie polskie," from Huta Luna (Avant-Garde Black Metal – Pagan Records). The essential truth that I've found in my life is that all the things that are worth having, life-affirming and life-giving, at in-between things. If I may, I'll quote one of my favorite poets talking, to a degree, about exactly that:
You like it under the trees in autumn,
Because everything is half dead.
The wind moves like a cripple among the leaves
And repeats words without meaning.
In the same way, you were happy in spring,
With the half colors of quarter-things,
The slightly brighter sky, the melting clouds,
The single bird, the obscure moon— (Wallace Stevens, from "The Motive for Metaphor").
In a world where things and people are routinely crushed, seemingly at random, the middle things are very precious, very rare, and often unsustainable even for those who are sensitive or aware enough to hold them. In times of extremes, which are our times, or have become our times, the middle is almost impossible. People going about their day, people waking up on a Saturday morning and then slaughtered by terrorists, or people going about their day on a Sunday, only to get bombed into a pulp, is the day-to-day. It might happen in a more apparent, fiery way in war, but really – and this is something that Stevens knew very well – we're all getting crushed everyday, everywhere.
But why speak of this when writing a blurb for the new Furia? Because the new Furia is that middle we all live for. Making music, I would imagine, like all creative arts is a slightly rewarding and generally thankless activity. There's always going to be a major gap between how important what you think you're doing and how other people take it, or ignore it. But the fact that music like this exists is a life force for people like me. So, thank them if you see them around. FFO: Middle things and Wallace Stevens.
7. Ett Dödens Maskineri – ״Vapen och ammunition," from Kulturkriget (Hardcore – Suicide Records). Aside from the very apt song title, these nice people released one of my favorite hardcore albums in recent memory and a whole masterpiece in 2020 (on the list). Which made me very happy to see they were releasing new stuff, and even happier to hear how beautiful and heartfelt it is. Essential shit. FFO: Being angry.
8. Násvelgr – "M," from Draumrof (Industrial Death/Black Metal – Independent). Basically the musical equivalent of what Saturday morning-ish felt like. To me. obviously, for thousands of other people it was much worse, and continues to be much worse for thousands more. But if you're into metal because it sounds like something alive ending and becoming something death, crooked and unclear, then this album and this track in particular is it. FFO: Death, or something.
9. Worn Mantle – "I," from Hole (Experimental Black Metal – Independent). My thanks to the great Stefan Thanneur who posted this bleak thing. In many ways, this chaotic piece of nothingness is at the heart of what I love about music, and, incidentally, what I love about Stefan's music. It feels like music on the edge of even being music, while at the same time being what music is about. Makes me wish there was a new Wormlust album. Maybe related, maybe not. FFO: Chaos.
FIVE MORE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
ONE: I don't have time for that shit.
TWO: I don't have time for that shit.
THREE: I don't have time for that shit.
FOUR: Much love to everyone who reached out to see if everything was OK. Everything is definately not OK, but your concern means the world.
FIVE: I don't have time for that shit.
ONE LAST THING, PROMISE: I don't have time for that shit.
