NINE SONGS I LIKED THIS WEEK IN LIST FORM – JUN 23 – JUN 29

Will I die? Will this be the week? Who knows. I hope not. Had a decent week attending a local book fair-type deal and meeting people and buying a shit-ton of books. It was great. So, being that it was indeed great, there's all the more reason to believe this is going to be the week. 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. Vafurlogi – "Helgrindur," from Í vökulli áþján (Black Metal – NoEvDia / Oration Records). Historically speaking, one of the themes of these bedraggled blog of mine is a love/fear/fascination relationship with the Icelandic scene. I already knew (at least as per a cryptic Mystiskaos post from earlier this year) that we might be getting a new Wormlust, which would be wonderful. I did not expect, however, a new project from the searching/cutting mind behind such soul-altering projects as Svartidauði and Sinmara. And yet, here Vafurlogi rises, with that tell-tale mark of Icelandic greatness that is the mix of atmosphere, dissonance, and the soul staying blankly at its own undoing. Can't wait, expect AOTY list to get dented. FFO: Rebirth of Nefast, Wormlust.

2. Reaping Death – "Maggot Infested Coffin," form I don't know? (Death Metal – Epidemia Records). A bunch of higher profile death metal announcements/releases this week, but this is the type of DM that grabs me. More specifically the kind that sounds like it was vomited by someone and accidentally recoded on a transistor radio + some much appreciated astral ambient VIBEZ. Have never heard of these dudes, but looking forward to checking out more ahead of the new release. Come to think of it – maybe this is the entire EP? Might be. I don't know. Don't you just love death metal? FFO: Ascended Dead, Glacial Tomb.

3. Cult of Erinyes – "The Voyage," from Metempsychosis (Atmospheric Black Metal – Amor Fati Productions). The plus of getting promos ahead of album releases is that it gives you time to fall in love with an actual record as opposed to a bunch of songs (or hate it, btw). The downside is that sometimes you just stay in love with records and forget to actually write about them. The newest from CoE is basically a case of the latter. As much as I have been and will always be a fan of everything and anything Déhà's black beard is associated with, this somewhere at the top. I wrote (enthusiastically) about the previous CoE album here, and I actually think this might be better. Huge, atmospheric, all-consuming beauty. FFO: Blut aus Nord.

4. Amarok – "Ascension (XI)," from Resilience (Doom Metal – Vulture Print / Vendetta Records). Have had much less patience with doom as of late. Maybe because life is terrible as it is, and maybe because, as with all good things, it ain't easy to do doom well. But the new album from American sad-boy-metal-people Amarok manages to strike the perfect balance between slow-moving, glacial depression and big, almost huge moments of melody and emotion. The tracks are long – this one is a good case in point – and yet are never dull. Almost moving, almost crying. Like us all. FFO: Un, Chrch.

5. TDK / ТДК – "Beli Ruzhi" (Post Punk/Experimental – Independent). This Bulgarian prone-to-depression-and-anger-yet-somehow-uplifting gang of folk has already bleeped a big "bleep" in the ole  Machine Music radar. I wrote about their manic brilliance in both 2020 and 2023, and I was right both times. This time it's no album (yet, at least hopefully) but a stand-alone track that is still, in its stand-alone status, better than most albums. I've never quite heard them like this – so dirge-like, so on the edge of everything, but I am ready to pre-buy a whole discography of it. Think Ulver's Shadow of the Sun only sadder. FFO: TDK / ТДК.

6. Uboa – "Pattern Screamers," from Impossible Light (Experimental/Noise – The Flenser). Australia's own boundless well of depression and blinding violence is back to lure you into her world of beauty only to eat your face and punch your calf. The Origins of My Depression came out a whole while ago, and it seems no new flowers have grown in Uboa's bleak garden, but whatever it is that has grown – rotted roots, banged branches, and some sinister synths – has overtake the sky, the earth, and the moon. This may not be the perfect album on a way to a nice family brunch, but it might be if your family is dead. FFO: Death.

7. Concrete Winds – "Infernal Repeater," from Concrete Winds (Death Metal – Sepulchral Voice Records). Concrete Winds sit atop the intersection between the rampaging, loose war-ish metal of bands like Archgoat or Diocletian and the vast, pulpy abattoir floor that is grindcore and maybe even goregrind. Everything is, perhaps a better way to put it, fucking gross and yet so driven and pissed and riffy that it's almost ridiculous. It would, in fact, would have been rediculous had it not been so fucking sick. FFO: Stabbing people with your pointy musical instrument.

8. Spectral Wound – "Aristocratic Suicidal Black Metal," from Songs of Blood and Mire (Black Metal – Profound Lore Records). Canada's finest are back with their mid-paced, deceptively melodic catchy anarchy. Markedly more melodic this time around, I think, and that much more infatuated with traditional shall I dare say "rock"? The result, at least as far as the first single goes, is a celebration of everything metal going down a straight line, one somewhat bent by, again, their just incredible ear at writing songs that stick and at the same time subvert. FFO: Shotunes.

9. Clactonian – "Bone Ritual," from Dea Madre (War Metal – Independent). Mindless, nasty metal done absolutely perfect. All the riffs, all the guitar squeaks (is that the word?), all the unstoppable drums, and all the frog-eating-chewing-and-spitting vocals you'll ever need in life. The only problem with this demo, composed by some of the finest minds in the Italian/Finnish scenes is that it's about 90 minutes too short. FFO: Bone rituals.

FIVE MORE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

ONE: Brazilian super-minds Papangu are teasing something new. Pray.

TWO: Horseback's The Invisible Mountain, which just so happens to be one of the greatest albums of ever, is getting reissued by Utech Records + some bonus stuff (here).

THREE: Back when I visited Chicago the nice people at Meteor Records insisted I check out Contaminated. They were right. It's your turn now.

FOUR: I'm reading more than I have read in a very long time, this given the fact that my job is reading. But I'm reading for me now, not for my job, and am reminded how awesome it is to read. It's fucking the best.

FIVE: The Other Sun is a new Woverhand-ish project that is due to release via Invictus and is very much worth your time. Moody and great.

ONE LAST THING, PROMISE: Oh, and Blood Incantation announced a new album, and the font is glorious.