NINE SONGS I LIKED THIS WEEK IN LIST FORM – JUN 30 – JUL 6
The writing of another post like the twitching body when you fall asleep, out of my control. Keep safe.
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1. Aseethe – "Irrelevance," from The Cost (Post-Metal/Sludge – Thrill Jockey Records). I have been so accosted by releases that I almost missed the fact that Aseethe released a new album. Happily, or sadly, depending on whether good albums are good news to the person who is then made to write about them, the new release from these American monsters is pretty epic. Glacial atmospheres alternate with buildings horrifically yet somehow expectedly collapsing on yer head. Scary and beautiful. FFO: Cult of Luna, Thou.
2. 40 Watt Sun – "Closer to Life," from Little Weight (Folk/Indie – Cappio Records/Fisher's Folly). Patrick Walker's music is that rare thing that makes you want to be a better writer, better person, and better listener. That's just the way it's always been. But sometimes he outdoes even his own ridiculously high standard and creates something that, if the cosmos is just (it ain't) will inspire not just us who are fortunate enough to witness his work in real time, but generations to come. Such was the case with Watching from a Distance, such was the case with The Inside Room, and such is the case with his new album, Little Weight. Pure beauty, strewn with melancholy strands of strange optimism. FFO: Patrick Walker.
3. Noxis – "Torpid Consumption," from Violence Inherent in the System (Progressive Death Metal – Rotted Life Records). The (relative) brouhaha regarding this record was last week, and I did indeed check it out last week and did not like it. And thus, satiated in my own sense of self importance and aesthetic superiority, I lay in my, ah, lair, awaiting the next metal catch. Happily, however, I smacked myself upside the dead and forced my own self to reconsider my own (self) quick judgement and discovered that I was in fact wrong and this in fact rules. Which also means everyone else was right, which is just horrible news. Brutal, complex, bass-happy, and awesome. FFO: Replicant, Horrendous.
4. Aidan Baker & Dead Neanderthals – "Subterfuge," from Cast Down and Hunted (Experimental/Drone – Moving Furniture Records). People whose art I love (and who I pretend are actually my best buddies) making music together – isn't life grand! This time it's the GOAT of making nothing sound like a nightmare, Aidan Baker (Nadja, for one, and thus a AOTD alum) and the Dutch doom diviners Dead Neanderthals. And what do you get for your hard-earned money? Well, it's nothing made to sound like a nightmare, one that beats with that nasty, foreboding DN beat. So, kind of like my life right now. FFO: Nadja, Dead Neanderthals. Yes. Also, what a fucking cover by Steve Kenny. Check out his stuff here.
5. Vile Rites – "Shiftless Wanderings," from Senescence (Progressive Death Metal – Carbonized Records). I wrote about the brilliant debut EP from Vile Rites back in 2022 when I have COVID, and that was a blast. Not the COVID, the album. Now they're back with a proper full-length debut and by the sound of the first single I'm going to have to clear my schedule, if you know what I mean (I mean it sounds so good I'll probably listen to it a lot). Hyperactive, hyper-imaginative metal done for people with short attention spans. Like me! FFO: Horrendous, VoidCeremony.
6. 200 Stab Wounds – "Led to the Chamber / Liquified," from Manual Manic Procedures (Death Metal – Metal Blade Records). I love death metal, and yet am often left perplexed with death metal bands that seemingly make people very happy but leave me bored (a phenomenon not unlike my ambiguous relationship with the thing called "orthodox black metal). But sometimes bands do that "death metal" thing right, and I'm pretty sure the new 200 Stab Wounds is a case in point. Is it just that I am easily seduced by added synth atmospheres and flashy solos? Maybe. Is it for that reason I have chosen to highlight what is probably "just" an instrumental interlude? Perhaps. But there's an abundance of both, and this album is pretty damn good, so reach what conclusion you may. FFO: Cannibal Corpse, I guess?
7. Khaos – "לא מותר האדם (Chasing the Wind)," from Unescrolled (Black Metal – Masters of Kaos). A rare treat in that encountering a local band via the usual promo deluge is not something I'm used to, but very happy to see. A one-woman project dropping it's full-length debut later this year, and releasing two pretty great tracks ahead of the happy occasion. Raw, big, and at times beautifully slick black metal that sounds good and feels great. FFO: Old school 90s black metal.
8. Truck Violence – "Drunk to Death," from Violence (Noise Rock/Post-Hardcore – Mothland). If the Intercourse/Chat Pile vibe was fed into the kind of Life Without Building spoken-word vibe and then allowed to develop a severe case of alcoholism, the "drinking a fifth of whiskey in the shower while crying" brand of that ailment, then it might might sound like this monstrosity of an album. Bare-chested, vomit-encircled emotional undoing while untuned guitars wail in the background. Which, I think, should be everyone's and anyone's idea of heaven. FFO: Intercourse, Crippling Alcoholism.
9. Crypt Sermon – "The Stygian Rose," from The Stygian Rose (Heavy Metal/Epic Doom – Dark Descent Records). This is as good as you can make heavy/trad metal in the modern age. As simple as that. There have been only a handful of album in that general style that have really grabbed me, the last significant one was probably Wytch Hazel's Sojourn. And what have we here? Getting the atmosphere just right, getting the music just right, getting the over-the-top-ness just fucking right, and one of the better albums thus far this year in a style that I generally don't very much like. Amazing. FFO: Holding on to candlesticks in the rain.
FIVE MORE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
ONE: There's an actual release date for a new Man's Gin album, but I'll believe it when I see it (September 6).
TWO: There's a tradition of dropping hot, raw black metal on yer head in this section, so here's some of that good stuff from Mysteria.
THREE: I should probably do a whole blurb about this, but there's a new album from Orgone and it's some amazing proggy death metal.
FOUR: I don't know. Probably won't be doing the comp this year, also given I don't feel like begging for tracks in this time/age/place. Might regret it, who cares.
FIVE: The good people at Rye – AKA the best atmospheric black metal band – released a dark ambient type thing, which should sound great if you're looking to feel terrible.
ONE LAST THING, PROMISE: Solid and very pleasant atmospheric/epic black metal from Cailleach Bheur. Fiadh strikes again.
ONE LAST THING, PROMISE PROMISE PROMISE: In my never-ending wait for a new The Banner album, that might never come, I went ahead and followed a notification for a new release from Good Fight (the The Banner-led label) and was surprised to find a hot, weird, mathcore/post-hardcore release from a band by the name of Cryptodira, an album that is apparently just a live re-recording of their 2021 album but is far from "just" anything because it's fucking amazing.
