NINE SONGS I LIKED THIS WEEK IN LIST FORM – MAR 24 – MAR 30
I dreamed a jet fighter crashed into the rooftop on which my wife, my daughter, and I were standing, watching my son do some funny shit with his class down below. I woke up just as the thing was turning into a ball of flame. So, that's how I've been doing. Be sure to check out the Ontaard track that premiered here this week + an interview with the band. Because it's an amazing track, from an amazing split (with Throwing Bricks), and because they seem like decent people. Keep safe.
As always, check out my various interview projects and other cool shit. And if you'd like to keep abreast of the latest, most pressing developments follow us wherever I may roam (FALSE!) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Spotify and now also a tape-per-day series on TIK TOK!), and listen to my, I guess, active (?) podcast (YouTube, Spotify, Apple), and to check out our amazing compilation albums. You can support my unholy work here (Patreon), if you feel like it. Early access to our bigger projects, weekly exclusive recommendations and playlists, and that wonderful feeling that you're encouraging a life-consuming habit.
1. Extra Life – "I'm Normal," from The Sacred Vowel (Experimental – Vibe Abyss Music). I've written about Extra Life the most or the longest throughout the life of this blog, or whatever the fuck it is (Made Flesh was my AOTY for 2010, so there's that). Maybe because the Charlie Looker-led project was my first real encounter as an adult, at least that I can remember, with something so beautiful and disturbing that felt substantial and real, as opposed to childhood nostalgia. When Extra Life broke up or kind of broke up I was a bit sad, but it wasn't like Charlie wasn't doing other stuff. But the resurgence of the band with Secular Works Vol. 2 and now with The Sacred Vowel is just a reminder of how better (weirded, uglier, stranger) the world is when Extra Life exists. Easily one of the best releases of the year, so far or later. And as usual Charlie continues his obsession with the limits of normality and the insidious darkness and appeal of normality, with the desire to unify with what for many is the almost fascist appeal of the perfect, untroubled, and serious body and mind. It's been a constant concern with Extra Life, and continues to be so. In doing so, however, in trying to interrogate the root of normality and of its appeal (especially when compared to the what, I think, Looker rejects as what has become the parody of "un-normal") there grows a crooked flower of strange, unusual art that still, somehow, feels human and in pain. Whether you reject cocaine or not (see lyrics):
Apollo,
I turn down cocaine in your honor
Get that shit away from me
I don’t jerk off to horror anymore
Torso of my mind, dry of Bacchus’ slime
Who told you otherwise?
FFO: Charlie Looker (Psalm Zero, Seaven Tears, etc).
2. Ultio – "The Grey Inferno," from Cor (Black Metal – Brucia Records). The new EP from Italian black metal project Ultio is a lie. It's a lie because it's actually two releases by two bands only lumped one on top of the other. The first layer is what one may call "straight-forward black metal," whatever the fuck that means, along with some of the structures and tropes (vocals, guitar tone) one would expect from that brand of music. The other band, however, is an avant-garde, experimental black metal project along the lines of projects like Scarcity or SkyThala. I guess I'm saying the ego of this album, the story it tells itself to the world, is one involving leather arm bands with very spiky spikes. But its underworld is a world of sweeping melodies, dissonant melancholy, and absolute crazed creativity. Black metal to live your life to. FFO: Scarcity, Déhà.
3. Prisoner, "Pathogenesis," from Putrid/Obsolete (Industrial Death Metal – Persistent Vision). If you mosey down to the INFO section below you can read about the Fórn reissue. The reason I raise it here is because it was me being excited about said reissue (won't cop, shipping is fucking horrendous) that led me into the Persistent Vision website, where I saw the Fórn stuff but also this album by a band of which I had never heard called Prisoner. "Maybe I'll check it out," I said to myself, thinking that a label wise enough to reissue The Departure of Consciousness might have some taste. Not only was I right about that hunch, but what I discovered is an album of a magnitude with which I am, honestly, still coming to terms. It is expressive, atmospheric, immense, and reminds me of some of my absolute favorite albums of recent years, including Aeviteren's The Ailing Facade and this year's amazing Cave Sermon record. I guess the "industrial" label works here, since that's how the band describes itself and some of the soundscapes and all that shit, but it's way, way beyond that. It uses those tools, like all great albums, to say something important about itself. Something new, and fucking amazing. I want to say something like "modern classic." That's what I want to say. FFO: Godflesh, Aeviterne.
4. Demersal – "Androide Identiteter," from Demersal (Screamo – Independent). Easily one of the best screamo-ish releases so far this year. I first wrote about this Danish nut cases in 2021 when they released their wonderful (and wonderfully named) Death Routines and it seems that they're consistently amazing since I totally forgot about that and still fucking love this new release, so happy to all. Amazing shit. FFO: Portrayal of Guilt, Cult of Luna.
5. Karst – "A Curse of Wicked Stars," from Eclipsed Beneath Umbral Divine (Death Metal – Independent). Speaking of a band I've been following for quite some time, L.A. death-bringers are back after a semi-lengthy break. And what has always made Karst stand above the crown of OSDM – dynamic music, at times melodic that sounds like it was recorded in a moldy cave – is not only still there but actually better. The production is just good enough to let you feel more distinctly how dead everything is around you but without losing that distinctive, almost crushed-cosmic aspect of their sound. Do no sleep. FFO: Blood Incantation, Tomb Mold.
6. Hasturian Vigil – "Nine Bellowing Hounds," from Unveiling the Brac'thal (Black Metal – Invictus Productions). Again I will harp on about generally not being about orthodox black metal, unless it's amazing. This shit right here, while not straight-forward, is mostly orthodox, but, in fact, motherfucking amazing. Slap a good dose of super-aggressive black metal, add a wonderfully clear production, and a dash of heavy metal sensibility a-la Malokarpatan or Negative Plane and you have a dark horse for one of the most original and exhilarating black metal releases of the year. Bonus points for some pretty "Dave Mustaine 1986" solos. FFO: I already named them.
7. Endless Loss – ״Traversing the Mephitic Artery," from Traversing the Mephitic Artery (Death Metal – Nuclear Winter Records). Look, I get it. Not everyone wants to listen to a death metal album and feel like their being impaled by beautiful music while the muse of beauty and all that is pure pisses on your head. It's not for everyone. But, if you're a member of that very select, very strange club then this is one of those few must-listen death metal albums you'll encounter this year. Pulsating with sweaty might. That's it. It's pulsating with sweaty might. Also: Lo-key, Nuclear Winter does not miss. They never miss. FFO: Mylingar, Impetuous Ritual.
8. Nokturnal – "Dagger of Will," from Shades of Night (Death Metal – Pulverised Records). You know who else never misses? That's right, Pulverised Records. The label with one of the purest, most well-curated back catalogues ever (Exhumation, Speglas, Ripped to Shreds, and Vanhelgd, to name but a few) has just added to its legendary status with this fantastic release from Indonesian band Nokturnal. Suffice to say that if you're a fan of the 2010s catalogue of bands like Morbus Chron and Temple of Disease, this is where you need to live right now. Dreamy-yet-aggressive, proggy death metal that reaches for the stars and actually touches some. FFO: I named them!
9. Haunted Plasma – "Reverse Engineer," from I (Krautrock – Svart Records). I mentioned this shortly in the tail-end of last week's post (thanks to amazing, unstoppable Lev for this one), but it deserves more room and all of your attention. Basically, a bunch of living legends of the Finnish weirdo scene came together along with some very distinguished guests to make music for your to get high to and/or reflect the minuscule role you have in the universe. I wished I lived in this song. FFO: Circle, Pharaoh Overlord, Ulver.
FIVE MORE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
ONE: Six long years after their only release, Délirant (Negativa, Hässlig) have awakened from their dogmatic slumber and are set to release new material via Sentient Ruin.
TWO: Very pretty death-doom demo from Refugium. My Dying Bride-style.
THREE: For fans of emotive, experimental wonderment, the new EP from Charles East over at Brucia is pretty stunning.
FOUR: Really low, still, and still very confused, angry, afraid, and a lot of negative emotions. And then, out of the blue, some of my favorite all-time people and artists sent my advance copies of their incredible new albums and my life was, for a time, not bad.
FIVE: Mauriece de Jong released another masterpiece, ho hum. This time it's a new Pyriphlegethon release. But then he took it down from BC (SAD FACE). Which I guess means it's going to get a physical release elsewhere. Nevertheless, if you're a fan of COOL black metal, look for it.
ONE LAST THING, PROMISE: There's a new black metal project featuring Dan and Oleg of Artificial Brain. It's called Ortolan, and it sounds sick. First track here.
OH AND: As stated above, Fórn are reissuing their masterful Departure of Consciousness via Persistent Vision, here. A classic of 10s metal, and a favorite of mine, as well as the topic of this old-ass interview I did with the band back in the day.
LAST THING I SWEAR ON MY MOTHER: Just read this post from Mystiskaos. Just do it. Dear LORD.
