A FEW SONGS THAT MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE EXISTED THIS WEEK AND THAT I HAVE TO WRITE ABOUT EVEN THOUGH I SWORE I'M OFF TILL THE NEW YEAR
I really was happy staying dormant for one week or two or three after posting my year-end list, but I guess I'm even more obsessed than I thought. But more importantly, bands near and dear to my heart and super cool shit came out that deserves to be highlighted and not be swallowed up my list season. So, here it is. Keep safe.
If you're new to this metal blog of bones you can also check out the various interview projects I have going on as well as the weekly recommendation posts. And if you'd like to keep abreast of the latest, most pressing developments follow us wherever I may roam (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Spotify, Bluesky, etc), and listen to my, I guess, active? (no) podcast (YouTube, Spotify, Apple), and to check out our amazing compilation albums. You could also possibly 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. It's probably a bad idea, but to each their own. ON TO THE LIST.
Dola – "Nawet nie usłyszysz, kiedy to się stanie," from Tabernakulum (Avant-Garde Black Metal – Piranha Music). The few first seconds into Dola's exquisite new album and I'm like – "Wait, did they just decided to do the "heavy" thing full on? Interesting. I asked myself that because Dola's previous album and absolute masterpiece (and #39 on my best-of-decade-so-far list) was more like a dream of strange energy and the odd note of heavy, which really what made it stand out as much as it did. So just blasting riffs wasn't on my bingo card. But evidently Dola were just fucking with me. Well, kind of. Tabernakulum is, in fact, heavier at times than Czasy, but just as strange and dreamlike elsewhere as well, making up one of the best, most interesting albums of the year, which is also why it's now on my list. Belatedly, but there.
Argwaan – "Onstuimig," from Violable (Depressive/Atmospheric Black Metal – Independent). Another band that's on my decade-so-far-list (at #88 with the beautiful In a Surge of Anguish) is the wonderful Dutch project Argwaan. For my money the best band out there right now in the depressive-ish game. No one writes gut-wrenching dynamics like they do, and no one fucks up those dynamics with weirdo death metal riffs in the middle of fucking no where. This is what sadness sounds like, or should sound like. I think my own sadness sounds much less pretty. Also now on the AOTY list as well, naturally. How could you not, though placement is yet to be determined since this is brand new. Amazing though.
Antlers as Roots – "Cleansing Swell," from Ephemera (Atmospheric Black Metal – Wilt Shine). So, a bit of a story here. The story being that Antlers as Roots' Finite is the reason I now own hundreds of cassettes. That album was so incredible and the packaging was so pretty I just had to get it, and when I did it was basically the first tape I had bought since the early 1990s. Ever since then that album has held an extremely important place for me, also because it wasn't like I heard anything of/by them at all. A few years ago I wondered what was up with them, and in the proceessed unearthed a very cool and related death metal band (more on that here). All the while not realizing that mere months after I wrote that post in 2022 the band would release a second album that I completely missed. So, this is me making up for lost time and yet again presenting the beauty of Antlers as Roots to the world. Do not miss.
ZAÄAR – "An Unbearable Lightness of Being – III – Self Phagocytosis," from Ovules (Experimental Jazz/Drone – WV Sorcerer Productions). More favorite bands releasing later in the year when my braid is dead! This time we encounter with unbridled genius of the wizards of improvisation, the masters of chaos, and dear friends of the show (who generously participated in my third comp album), also related by family to YET ANOTHER best-of-decade band, the incomparable Neptunian Maximalism. What should you expect with the new ZAÄAR album? Well, if you expect anything you're doing it wrong.
Tempestarii – "Sorrowful Concrescence," from A Constellation of Dead Stars (Black Metal – Independent). Tempestarii's raging Chaos at Feast was my first taste of their blazing, heart-breaking black metal, and I wrote about it here and I was happy. I even mentioned the promo track they released ahead of this album, last year, I did that. I did all the right things, and yet they had yet to release a follow up to that wonderful album. Well, now that's fixed, finally. If you like your black metal like you like your blankets – heavy, suffocating, and filled with otherworldly grief, then this little gem will probably shoot WAY UP your already-written list for this year. Unreal energy and power of performance and dynamics, you name it.
Grinning God – "Ascend to Death," from Kálypsis (Goth Rock/Black Metal – Independent). Here comes me being stupid. I knew Grinning God, I liked Grinning God, and even own Grinning God music and yet was wholly ignorant of the Rope Sect connections until it was made very obvious with this release. I love Rope Sect, though I think they're mostly hit and miss (most recent one was very good), but if Rope Sect ever just stopped and became Grinning God I would be very happy as well. The perfect mix of tenderness and angst, just a beautiful release. Needs to go on the LIST and will.
Phrenelith – "Stagnated Blood," from Ashen Womb (Death Metal – Dark Descent Records). Legends? Yeah, the legends of the contemporary death metal scene are finally back with some new riffs with which to kill your family. Chimaera I liked OK, but Desolate Landscapes is without a doubt a classic of modern death metal, and boy is this new single giving good good vibes. This is the kind of knuckle-headed but brilliant death metal that's so hard to pull off – Starspawn would be one example – and this little gem hits that nail on its mixed metaphored head. Can't wait.
Feral Forms – "Sadistic Inner Hate," from Through Demonic Spell (Death/Black Metal – Everlasting Spew Records). This one I did manage to snag in time and get into the list, but it deserves some attention of its own. I loved the new Black Curse, don't get me wrong, I love the variety and the dynamics, but when I signed up to the Black Curse ride I was expecting something more like this. Chaotic, face contorting, pinging snare drums, of absolute sheer mayhem and violence. This is that good good shit.
Zeresh – "Goddess (Please Pretend)" (Folk/Doom – 999 Cuts). The goddess of everything that sounds like a swamp at dawn after you found out your parents died is back with a new single and, as one would hope, a lot more new music. Tamar Singer AKA Zeresh is a voice like no other, both in literal and figurative ways, an artist forging her own path out of the sticks of certain traditions – folk being one – and making a wholly new and original statement. This is more music and much less voice as is usual for her poet-and-written-word project, but it's pretty uncanny how haunting it still is, with some of the movements sounding weirdly like acoustic, and very sad, black metal. More, please.
Stygian Ruin – "A Violent Egress / Descension," from A Violent Egress (Black Metal/Ambient -Ixiol Productions). There were so many new albums I wanted to write about, but even my own obsession must be somehow curtailed and I could NOT not mention the beautiful new Stygian Ruin, which just might be my favorite from this shapeshifting, wonderful project (and thus also ON THE LIST). Black metal as imagined through an alien planet where black metal is the air and unnerving synths and a vaguely heavy metal vibe were the ground. They have yet to miss, but, again, this might be their best.
SHORT FACTS ABOUT THINGS
Fact #1: Godflesh released a beautiful dub-ification of A World Lit Only By Fire.
Fact #2: New band to watch alert: Stress Temple have a first single out. Black metal and grindcore have never been so happy.
Fact #3: For those seeking toxic post-metal/hardcore then there's a new Owl release.
Fact #4: Also another list update, I added Ava Rasti's unbelievable album The River to the drone/experimental category since it's quite simple the most beautiful thing on earth for me right now. Also added the Thunraz album that I have already written of, but that is really growing on me lately.
OH OH ALMOST FORGOT: New Abduction track!
