NINE SONGS I LIKED THIS WEEK IN LIST FORM – JAN 7-13
Hi. Shit week, but an OK life. Had the pleasure of releasing my AOTY interview with Fleshvessel, so that was nice. Which also marks two important events: 1) AOTY season is officially over, with the list, the Fleshvessel interview, and the Kostnatění interview. And 2) I no longer have backlogged interviews. Hope you're all doing well, and keep safe.
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1. Creatvre – "Condamné À Vivre," from Shenron (Progressive Metal – Independent). I have not been performing my due diligence and following up on the exploits of the French maximalist black metal project Creatvre AKA Raphaël Fournier. I reach that conclusion since it seems the aforementioned Mr. Fournier released two stunning EPs in the last couple of years, the last of which was released right as 2023 turned into, well, 2024. But a few seconds into this wonderfully weird and typically ambitious slap of musical fuckery and all is well with the world. Melodic black metal that sounds like someone reaching for the stars. FFO: Fleshvessel, Thy Catafalque.
2. Fortress of the Pearl – A Harmony of Opposites and Interconnectedness," from Agony and Ecstasy (Dungeon Synth/Black Metal – Independent). Ayloss of Spectral Lore fame is back with yet another installment of what he does probably better than anyone on earth, which is the perfect marriage of jangly melody and black metal bombast. The newest full-length from his ambient/metal project Fortress of the Pearl sounds like the kind of metal you would hear in a dystopian Medieval court of the future – creative, dark, playful, and despondent. Life would be a less shitty place if more people like Ayloss existed, that's just a fact. FFO: Obsequiae, Midnight Odyssey.
3. Manii – "Innerst I Mørket," from Innerst I Mørket (Black Metal – Terratur Possessions). Gave this one a listen thanks to a hot tip from the good people at Forlesen. But what happened, mind you, when I did give it "a listen" was that my mind was spilled like soup on the kitchen counter. From the people who gave you 90s Manes comes an album that, had it come to me earlier, might have dethroned Dødheimsgard from the throne of "holy God fucking damn how are the Norwegians still better at everything than anyone, especially in creating something that is both black metal as well a ride into the inner recesses of the mind" for 2023. Yes, it's that good. And, yes, it's a 37-minute, one-track album. Trust me, you'll replay it again and again like it was five minutes. FFO: Dødheimsgard, Vemod.
4. Stuporous – "Decorating the Willow Tree," from Asylums Lament (Doom Metal – Void Wanderer Productions). Depressive black metal that sounds like it was picked off a tree (sorry) growing in the garden of spacey, almost progressive Norwegian black metal. I guess if 2010s Dødheimsgard wanted to kill themselves it would sound something like this. Great bass sound, too. FFO: Suicide and all that.
5. Aseitas – "Libertine Captor," from Eden Trough (Death Metal – Independent). The first single off of a new Aseitas album sounds like a nightmare made flesh. Always-shifting, always terrifying music that sounds like six songs are played at the same time, all of them sourly fucked up, and yet all of them creating a nasty, gross and yet somehow nerdy harmony together. If 90s alt metal and mathcore were heaven, this is its hell. FFO: Fawn Limbs,
6. In One Place – "Unresolved," from Grey Fades To White (Atmospheric Black Metal – Independent). I wrote about IOP's Nothing Makes Sense a while back, and what happened since is that that album was made to be chapter 1 of a trilogy of sombre, melodic, and beautiful black metal. If Sadness was into European 90s doom kitsch then that would give you a general idea of where this lands sonically. Just a very pretty, very spacey mode of dark, sad music that makes you want to drive angry with the top down and blasting My Bloody Valentine. FFO: Sadness, Déhà.
7. Diabolic Oath – "Divinations of Wrath," from Divinations (Death/Black Metal – Sentient Ruin Laboratories). Well, it's out. And by that I mean the new Diabolic Oath/Aberration split, not whatever it is you had in mind. And, as expected, it's awesome. Both tracks more than deliver, and Aberration nail the "me, rotting in my basement" death metal vibe. But this Diabolic Oath side is effectively killing me. Part dark-as-fuck, part weird-as-fuck, and part just-fakin-violent, this track has everything I want in life aside from financial stability and the health of my loved ones. More. Please. More. Also, the breakdown at around 4:45 is currently my favorite musical moment of 2024 FFO: Siderean, Teitanblood.
8. Solbrud – "Tåge," from IIII (Atmospheric Black Metal – Vendetta Records). One does not utter "AOTY" in the first half of the first month of the year, but this is giving me those vibes. A year of music still awaits, and two TOP TOP albums already almost out (Vemod and Resin Tomb), but this is as perfect atmospheric black metal as you can ask for. Add that with the fact that the other "single" is a meandering stoner-ish track, and you have all the info you need. This slays, in the most beautiful of ways. FFO: Fen, Alcest.
9. MooM – "Your War," from Plague Infested Urban Dump of the Future (Grindcore – Independent). It shouldn't be on any one artist to express the "mood" of the time or some form of zeitgeist, especially when the times are as fucked as these. And yet Moom, returning after a long-ish break, manage to do just that. It's not angry enough, maybe, but it's angry plenty. FFO: Gel, Deterioration.
10. YES TEN I'M A FRAUD: Beryllium – "Aura Sealed in Torment," from Your Laughter is an Echo in my Head (Black Metal – Total Dissonance Worship). One does not expect quantum-leap raw/ambient black metal from Total Dissonance Worship, a label much more well known for, ah, well basically anything but that. But here we fucking are. And this debut from a new and "mysterious" "entity" Beryllium is so good it actually made me get over the fact that mystery in black metal is on my top 2 most annoying metal trends ever. Dynamic, moody, and absolutely ruthless. So good. FFO: Trhä, Locrian.
FIVE MORE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
ONE: Hoplites (Ὁπλίτης) released a new album that somehow sounds even more fucked up than usual.
TWO: Nope. There's a new Mgla album. JK, not really. But close enough, I guess, and given how I felt about their most recent release, probably better than that.
THREE: Pantheïst are releasing a new album and the first single is doomy perfection.
FOUR: This whole "are well all going to die and/or go up in a torrid flame at any given moment" thing is starting to wear mighty thin.
FIVE: New Dödsrit.
ONE LAST THING, PROMISE: I will write about this more next week I hope, but Neurot is basically releasing a band that sounds Neurosis. And I mean that in the best way.
